Italian School Psychology as Perceived by Italian School Psychologists

International research in school psychology has suggested that Italy is among the remaining nations that have not generated systematic inquiry to clarify the practice of psychology in its schools. Italian school psychology has long been presumed to be nonexistent due to historical factors hindering its development and lack of local research readily available to a wider readership. The purpose of this study was to contribute to the growing knowledge base of Italian school psychology by presenting the findings of the first systematic nationwide research initiative targeted to gain an understanding of the profession. Surveys were collected from 1,251 schools and 690 school psychologists as respondents to obtain their perceptions of the profession. Characteristics, interface between the school and psychologist, professional practice, evaluation of professional practice and professional perceptions are discussed. Findings from this research initiative suggest that school psychology in Italy has followed a distinct evolution which has developed thus far into refined forms of consultation that are strongly correlated with relational ties between school psychologists and their schools. Implications for the training needs of school psychologists, the changing trends of interventions and areas of subsequent research are discussed

How psychotherapists handle treatment errors - an ethical analysis

Dealing with errors in psychotherapy is challenging, both ethically and practically. There is almost no empirical research on this topic. We aimed (1) to explore psychotherapists' self-reported ways of dealing with an error made by themselves or by colleagues, and (2) to reconstruct their reasoning according to the two principle-based ethical approaches that are dominant in the ethics discourse of psychotherapy, Beauchamp & Childress (B&C) and Lindsay et al. (L).; We conducted 30 semi-structured interviews with 30 psychotherapists (physicians and non-physicians) and analysed the transcripts using qualitative content analysis. Answers were deductively categorized according to the two principle-based ethical approaches.; Most psychotherapists reported that they preferred to an disclose error to the patient. They justified this by spontaneous intuitions and common values in psychotherapy, rarely using explicit ethical reasoning. The answers were attributed to the following categories with descending frequency: 1. Respect for patient autonomy (B&C; L), 2. Non-maleficence (B&C) and Responsibility (L), 3. Integrity (L), 4. Competence (L) and Beneficence (B&C).; Psychotherapists need specific ethical and communication training to complement and articulate their moral intuitions as a support when disclosing their errors to the patients. Principle-based ethical approaches seem to be useful for clarifying the reasons for disclosure. Further research should help to identify the most effective and acceptable ways of error disclosure in psychotherapy