VICA, a visual counseling agent for emotional distress

We present VICA, a Visual Counseling Agent designed to create an engaging multimedia face-to-face interaction. VICA is a human-friendly agent equipped with high-performance voice conversation designed to help psychologically stressed users, to offload their emotional burden. Such users specifically include non-computer-savvy elderly persons or clients. Our agent builds replies exploiting interlocutor\u2019s utterances expressing such as wishes, obstacles, emotions, etc. Statements asking for confirmation, details, emotional summary, or relations among such expressions are added to the utterances. We claim that VICA is suitable for positive counseling scenarios where multimedia specifically high-performance voice communication is instrumental for even the old or digital divided users to continue dialogue towards their self-awareness. To prove this claim, VICA\u2019s effect is evaluated with respect to a previous text-based counseling agent CRECA and ELIZA including its successors. An experiment involving 14 subjects shows VICA effects as follows: (i) the dialogue continuation (CPS: Conversation-turns Per Session) of VICA for the older half (age > 40) substantially improved 53% to CRECA and 71% to ELIZA. (ii) VICA\u2019s capability to foster peace of mind and other positive feelings was assessed with a very high score of 5 or 6 mostly, out of 7 stages of the Likert scale, again by the older. Compared on average, such capability of VICA for the older is 5.14 while CRECA (all subjects are young students, age < 25) is 4.50, ELIZA is 3.50, and the best of ELIZA\u2019s successors for the older (> 25) is 4.41

CE 622 Syllabus: Family Systems Counseling

This course introduces students to the theory, assessment techniques, and intervention strategies used in the practice of family systems counseling. The focus of the course will be on building a theoretical base for understanding and applying family systems counseling strategies and techniques. Didactic and experiential learning will provide students with the opportunity to apply and integrate knowledge and skills

CE 633 Syllabus: Ethical Practice and Social Change

This course introduces students to the legal, professional and ethical issues that affect the practice of counseling and psychotherapy and the methods and ethical basis for counselors to be agents of social change. Students will become familiar with law and ethical codes related to the counseling profession. A model for ethical decision-making will be presented. Also, students will be presented with models for social change in their function as leaders, change agents, collaborators, and risk takers. Providing outreach and advocacy services in the school and community settings, students will expand their role as counselors to include the social contexts of culture, the dynamics of power at work in any system, and the political processes essential for change

The Essential Elements of Adolescent-Friendly Care in School-Based Health Centers: A Mixed Methods Study of the Perspectives of Nurse Practitioners and Adolescents

The Essential Elements of Adolescent-Friendly Care in School-Based Health Centers: A Mixed Methods Study of the Perspectives of Nurse Practitioners and Adolescents Alison Moriarty Daley Ph.D. University of Connecticut, 2016 The majority of the morbidity and mortality among adolescents results from preventable causes including risk-taking behaviors and injuries. Preventive care for this population therefore includes anticipatory guidance and screening aimed at reducing these risks. However, the rates of engagement in preventive care decline steadily throughout adolescence. School-based health centers (SBHCs) have been identified as an adolescent-friendly community resource for preventive care. The purpose of this study was to identify the essential elements of adolescent-friendly care in SBHCs from the perspectives of nurse practitioners (NPs) providing care to adolescents in SBHCs and adolescents, as the consumers of these services. Complex adaptive systems (CAS) provided the philosophical and theoretical foundation for this study. An explanatory sequential mixed methods study was conducted. The first phase consisted of a Delphi technique with an expert panel of NPs (N = 21) to identify the essential elements of adolescent-friendly care in SBHCs. In the second phase, a focus group study with adolescents was conducted (N = 30) to explain the Delphi results. Data from two phases were mixed in the final phase of the study. This study generated expert opinion regarding the essential elements of adolescent-friendly health care in SBHCs. After four Delphi rounds, consensus was reached on 98-items (49%; consensus level of .75). The results clustered into 6 essential elements: Confidentiality/ Privacy (n = 8; 42%), Accessibility, (n = 15; 46.9%), SBHC Environment (n = 4; 23.5%), Clinicians/Staff (n = 51; 58%), SBHC Clinical Services (n = 12; 37.5%) and Relationship Between the School and SBHC (n = 8; 66.7%). The adolescent focus groups provided data about what they liked about the SBHC, how the care differed from their other experiences, and explained the essential elements identified in the Delphi. Two overarching themes: Comfortable and Trusted Relationship emerged. The final phase mixed the data from the two phases. A conceptual model of adolescent-friendly care in SBHCs as a CAS is presented. This study identified six essential elements and two overarching themes essential to the delivery of adolescent-friendly care in SBHCs. These findings contribute to a greater understanding of what adolescents, as consumers of health care services in SBHCs, need to engage in preventive care during adolescence

MULTICULTURAL ASPECTS OF SUPERVISION: CONSIDERATIONS FOR SOUTH AFRICAN SUPERVISORS IN THE HELPING PROFESSIONS

MULTICULTURAL ASPECTS OF SUPERVISION IN POST-APARTHEID SOUTHAFRICAClinical supervision in psychology and social work is challenged with addressing the variouscultural, social and political factors that affect therapeutic and supervisory relationships. In thecontext of present-day South Africa with its emphasis on recruiting supervisees into the helpingprofessions from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds, questions of race, ethnicity and culture inclinical supervision have become of considerable importance. This paper examines the literaturepertinent to supervision and presents a theoretical framework for conceptualising themulticultural development of supervisors and supervisees with a specific emphasis on the SouthAfrican context. It highlights some of the potential problems that might arise in supervisoryrelationships in which the supervisor and supervisee are racially disparate and outlinesrecommendations for clinicians to consider in their practice. Most of the research on inter-racialclinical supervision has been conducted in the United States and other countries wheremulticulturalism is part of the national landscape. This article uses this international literature andapplies it to the present post-apartheid conte

Moving Beyond CACREP Standards: Training Counselors to Work Competently with LGBT Clients

This article suggests specific training standards are needed to challenge the silence around lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) issues in Counselor Education and to disrupt heterosexist practices in counseling training. The manner in which the CACREP Standards addresses the LGBT population is called into question, as the 2009 and the second draft of the 2016 standards continue to be vague concerning this population. The challenge of utilizing the historically exclusive and presently inclusive term “multicultural” in counseling when considering the LGBT population is examined. Recommendations for Counselor Education programs to go beyond the minimal CACREP Standards for preparing students to provide culturally competent services for the LGBT population are offered

Group Leadership of Experienced Middle School Counselors

ABSTRACT GROUP LEADERSHIP OF EXPERIENCED MIDDLE SCHOOL COUNSLEORS by Robert E. Rice Middle school students experience biological, cognitive, and social changes as they struggle with identity formation, self-concept, self-esteem, and academic success. Psycho-educational groups are an effective and efficient method for confronting social/emotional or academic problems that prohibit middle school students from performing well in schools. An essential component in the successful counseling of middle school groups is the skill and experience of the group leader. Research on school-based groups has focused on all areas with the exception of group leadership. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to explore how experienced middle school group leaders approach and conduct psycho-educational groups. This qualitative study uses a grounded theory methodology to investigate the practices, experiences, and perceptions of fourteen middle school counselors. The theory that emerged is grounded in the data from the participants and represents how they were able to conduct small groups in schools despite barriers many other school counselors experienced. Through educational leadership, relationship building, and an understanding of the systems at work in schools, these participants were able to establish a group program in their schools. The participants in this study also reveal the experiences they used to develop their skills as group leaders. The results of this study may have important implications to middle school counselors, researchers, and counselor educators in understanding the group and educational leadership skills needed to conduct effective groups in a middle school setting

Context, content and reflexivity: Aspects of psychotherapeutic understanding

Three aspects of psychotherapeutic understanding are highlighted and examined. The context of a person\u27s lived experience is discussed from an interpretive/hermeneutic perspective. The content of a person\u27s lived experience is addressed from the perspective of narrative identity. The importance of therapist reflexivity is viewed in terms of its importance in striving for clarity about the epistemic, and contextual positionality of the clinician in comparison with and in relation to the lived experience of the client. Each of these aspects of psychotherapeutic understanding: contextual, content-based, and reflexive serve to enhance the clinician\u27s efforts and abilities to meet the therapeutic goals of the client

CE 601 Syllabus: Foundations of Counseling

This course introduces students to the profession of counseling. Through scholarly research and writing, students will examine the role and function of counselors in a variety of settings. Current trends and issues in counseling also will be addressed. Throughout the course, major emphasis will be placed on the learning and practice of basic helping skills in a supervised setting