Why Laughing Heals? A Review on the Use of Humor in Therapy

Humor is an important tool for expressing many emotions such as happiness, sadness, anger and surprise. In recent years, the use of humor has started to gain the quality of a therapy approach. The use of humor in therapy helps clients to express meaningless situations or inconsistencies in their lives in a humorous way by making them entertaining. At this point, it is very important for the counselor to be able to understand the purpose of the clients' arrival and their sense of humor depending on this purpose and to make interventions accordingly. Since the concepts of humor therapy and Laughter Therapy / Laughter Yoga are often used interchangeably in the literature, this study synthesizes both therapy approaches and tries to reveal their elements and importance. In this review, it is aimed to examine all aspects of the emergence of the use of humor in therapy, basic concepts, sub-dimensions of humor, counselor-client relationship using humor in therapy, humor therapy process, laughter therapy / laughter yoga process, laughter therapy / laughter yoga techniques, studies on the use of humor in therapy, why humor should or should not be used in therapy. In these respects, this study is expected to contribute to the literature and help fill the existing gaps. In addition, it is predicted that the widespread use of humor therapy and the use of humor therapy in different studies will benefit many clients and experts working in this field

Integration of Narrative Therapy with Expressive Art Practices

The purpose of this research is to provide information about what is narrative therapy and how expressive art practices can integrate into narrative therapy. Since the nature of narrative therapy’s structure is suitable for integration with art practices, this review study focuses on narrative therapy and narrative art practices. For this purpose, in this study, what the narrative therapy is, how it came up, where therapy can be used, theoretical foundations, human nature perspective, basic concepts, the role and characteristics of the therapist, therapeutic purposes, techniques and stages of the therapy are emphasized. Then, information was given about how expressive art practices can be integrated with narrative therapy. Finally, activities, case examples and practices are included

Interactive Robots: Therapy Robots

Robots are becoming increasingly common in many areas of human life as technology advances. Considering the usage areas, robots appear in a wide range, from entertainment to psychotherapy. In addition to its role in facilitating human life, its use in the health field has recently been quite remarkable. In this study, interactive robots are evaluated in general and their use in the mental health field is discussed on a large scale. Accordingly, the primary purpose of this study is to examine the need for the development of interactive and therapy robots, their areas of use, and studies on their effectiveness as well as therapy robots that are generally accepted in the relevant literature. The results of the examination show that interactive robots are classified into six groups: social, entertainment, educational, rehabilitation, sex, and therapy robots. In the related literature, Eliza, Woebot, Youper, Wysa, Simsensei Kiosk, Paro, NeCoRo, Kaspar, Bandit, and Pepper have generally been accepted as therapy robots. The results of the studies demonstrate the effectiveness and the usage of interactive therapy robots in therapy for different groups and needs, especially for disadvantaged individuals. On the other hand, it is considered that more research on the effectiveness of robots is needed. Considering the effects on mental health and quality of life, it is believed that the usage of robots in therapy is important and its widespread use will have a significant positive effect in the field

Mixed Method Research on Effective Psychological Counselor Characteristics and Empowerment Needs of Turkish School Counselors

The study aims to examine the characteristics and empowerment needs of effective psychological counselors with the opinions of school counselors. Explanatory sequential design which is one of the mixed methods was used in the study. In the quantitative part of the study, the data was collected from 194 females, 100 males, in total 294 school counselors with simple random sampling method; in the qualitative part from 9 school counselors through criterion sampling. As the quantitative data collection tools, Effective Counselor Characteristics Assessment Scale and Empowerment Scale; as qualitative data collection tool, semi-structured interview form were used. For data analysis, multiple regression analysis and content analysis were used. According to the results, self-awareness, good intentions, flexibility sub-scales of effective psychological counseling characteristics and therapy training variable from demographic form were determined as significant predictors (58.7%). In the qualitative part of the study, two main themes (Empowerment Needs and Psychological Counselor Characteristics) and four sub-categories for each theme (Non progressive to Develop, Differences in Job Description and Perception, Negative Personality Traits, Lack of Knowledge and Skill, Illusions in Psychological Counselor Perception, Non-professional Good Intentions, Low Self-awareness, Lack of Skill and Specialization) were determined. The obtained findings were discussed in the context of empowerment needs and supervision training of psychological counselors in Turkey, and suggestions were offered accordingly.</div

A mixed method study on dating violence attitudes and experiences in emerging adulthood.

The aim of this study is to investigate to what extent the attitudes towards dating violence in emerging adulthood differ according to gender, perceived parental violence type, and dating violence experiences, conform with the sense-making of emerging adults towards dating violence encounters. Convergent parallel pattern which is one of the mixed method patterns was used in the study. In the quantitative section of the study, 564 emerging adults (298 female-266 male) were reached by convenience sampling method. In the qualitative section of the study, however, there were four female and two male participants who were reached by purposive sampling method. Additionally, in the study, Attitude Towards Dating Violence Scales, Personal Information Forms and Semi-Structured Interview Forms were used. While t-test and one-way analysis of variance ANOVA were used for independent variables in the quantitative section of the research, content analysis was utilized in the qualitative section. According to the results of the study, physical and psychological dating violence attitude scores of males and females who perpetrated violence showed significant differences according to gender. On the other hand, according to the history of dating violence, the attitude scores towards the physical dating violence perpetrated by females differed significantly. According to the perceived parental violence, it was observed that the difference between the mean scores in the attitude scores towards the physical dating violence perpetrated by males was higher in those without a history of parental violence. Self-reflection, views of dating violence/sense-making and reactions to dating violence themes of qualitative section findings were also found to be consistent with quantitative findings. &nbsp;</p

Ruh Sağlığı Alanında Genetik ve Çevre: İkiz Araştırmaları

Bu çalışmanın amacı, psikiyatri ve psikoloji alanları için önemli bir bilgi kaynağı olan ikiz araştırmalarının betimlenmesidir. İkiz araştırmaları, çevre ve kalıtım arasındaki sınırları belirlemeye odaklanmaktadır. Özellikle bu konuda yürütülen güncel araştırmalarda genetik ve çevresel faktörlerin önemine yapılan vurgu dikkate değerdir ve bu derleme çalışmasının da ana vurgularından birini oluşturmaktadır. Araştırmacılar için, ikiz araştırmalarının planlanmasında ve tasarlanmasında öne çıkan temel bileşenler, “çalışma deseni olarak ikiz araştırmalarının tercih edilme nedeni”, “ikiz araştırmalarında kullanılan temel varsayımlar”, “ikiz araştırmalarının sınırlılıkları” ve “yöntem olarak tercih edilen güncel ikiz desenleri”dir. Bu sebeple öncelikle bu temel bileşenlerden bahsedilecektir. Alanyazında öncü sayılan araştırmacılar tarafından tanımlanan ve ikiz araştırmalarında sıklıkla kullanılan on dört ikiz araştırması deseni ve bu araştırma desenlerinin kullanıldığı araştırma bulgularına da yer verilmiştir. Bu araştırmaların bazılarının alanda sıklıkla tercih edildiği, bazılarının ise örneklem zorluğu nedeniyle sınırlı sayıda yürütüldüğü görülmektedir. Ancak tüm araştırma desenlerinde, genetik ve çevrenin karşılıklı etkileşimlerine vurgu yapan araştırmaların, araştırmacılar için güncelliğini ve önemini koruduğu görülmektedir. Son olarak, ikiz araştırmalarının sınırlılıkları hakkında prospektif araştırmalara yönelik önerilerde bulunulmuştur.The purpose of the current study is to portray the twin research characteristics as a valuable information source to the fields of psychiatry and psychology. Twin research focuses on determining the boundaries between environment and heredity. The emphasis on the importance of genetic and environmental factors in current twin researches is remarkable and constitutes one of the main highlights of this review. For researchers, twin studies involve mainly prominent components in the planning and designing of twin research. These components are ‘the reasons for twin research preference, ‘basic underlying assumptions,’ ‘limitations,’ and ‘current approaches to be preferred’ in twin research. For this reason, these main components will be discussed. Fourteen twin research designs are defined, which were prescribed by the proponents of twin research, and the findings are also indicated. It is seen that some of these researches are frequently preferred in the field, but some of them are carried out in a limited number due to sampling difficulties. However, when all research designs are examined concerning the literature review, it can be concluded that specifying the interactions of genetics and environment in twin research still maintains its importance researchers about the limitations of twin research