Exploring the impact, value and limitations of reflective practice groups for clergy in a Church in Wales diocese

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Mental Health, Religion and Culture on 3rd September 2020, available online: https://doi.org/10.1080/13674676.2020.1789571This research explores the impact, value and limitations of reflective practice groups for Clergy in a Church in Wales diocese. The aims were to explore what participants of reflective practice groups experience as the impact, value and limitations of their groups, and to better understand any implications for delivery of reflective practice groups for Clergy. Two focus groups comprising of the participants from two reflective practice groups from a diocese in the Church in Wales were interviewed, and the data analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Two superordinate themes emerged along with ten subordinate themes. The key findings are that the participants of both groups clearly found them to be a valuable experience and self-defined the impact on their ministries as: creating more reflective clergy; developing greater wisdom; building and gaining affirmed strategies that they could take back into relationships within their parishes; enabling a different perspective to be gained on management expectations; development of self-preservation strategies for coping with those expectations; improvement in practice and relationships within their work; improving their priestly skills; managing boundaries more appropriately; approaching meetings more positively; managing situations in more helpful ways; and discerning what God may be saying in certain situations

Assessing the perceived value of Reflexive Groups for supporting Clergy in the Church of England

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Mental Health, Religion and Culture on 18-7-16, available online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13674676.2016.1197194Little research has been conducted to assess the effectiveness of reflexive groups in supporting clergy. For this research, eight Church of England Bishops’ Advisors for Pastoral Care and Counselling were interviewed to ascertain the value of reflexive groups. These data were analysed using a thematic analysis. Two superordinate themes emerged: Contextual issues and Benefits, along with 20 subordinate themes. An online survey, consisting of questions that came from the Bishops’ Advisors data, was then sent to reflexive group participants (n=64), to see if their experiences matched those benefits identified by the Bishops’ Advisors. The data from 37 participants was statistically analysed. The data from both sets of participants reveal that reflexive groups are psychologically beneficial to clergy. The research concludes that the implementation of reflexive groups as a way of developing self-awareness and enculturating attitudes towards resilience and self-care is important to foster psychologically and spiritually healthy practice

‘Out on the edge of my comfort’: Trainee counsellor/psychotherapists’ experiences of spirituality in therapy: a qualitative exploration

The integration of spirituality into counselling and psychotherapy poses complex challenges. Personal spirituality, professional competency and ethical considerations may impact on trainees’ experiences of integrating spirituality into therapy. This study adopted an inductive, qualitative approach to explore trainee counsellor/psychotherapists’ experiences and perceptions of integrating spirituality into therapy. Six trainee counsellors and psychotherapists were recruited using purposive sampling from a professional counsellor and psychotherapist training institution in the UK. In-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted, audio recorded and transcribed verbatim. Thematic analysis of the interviews revealed two overarching themes: spirituality provides support but needs a warning; and spirituality is relevant but undervalued. These themes encompass a wide range of trainee concerns associated with integrating spirituality into therapy. Participants reported that they felt unprepared to work therapeutically with clients’ spiritual beliefs. However, the value of spirituality in providing support to both the trainee and their clients was highlighted by several participants. Some participants described integrating clients’ spirituality as having a positive impact on the therapeutic relationship, but often felt threatening to the trainee. This research has implications that are important as consideration for counselling and psychotherapy training and developing enhanced consideration of client spirituality and the interpersonal environment in which therapy is delivered

Investigation of social cognitive career theory for minority recruitment in school psychology

School psychology trainers have historically struggled to adequately increase the number of professionals from diverse backgrounds. An increase in diverse providers is important in meeting the needs of a burgeoning racial/ethnic minority student population. Previous research suggests that minority undergraduate psychology students have less knowledge and exposure to school psychology than for counseling and clinical psychology, and that students with greater exposure or knowledge of school psychology reported significantly greater choice intentions for school psychology. The purpose of this study is to test the applicability of the Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT; Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994) in explaining minority undergraduate psychology students\u27 choice intentions for school psychology. This study is an analysis of existing data and is based on a national sample of 283 minority undergraduate psychology students. All instruments used in this study were found to have internal consistency ranging from .83 to .91. Students\u27 learning experiences, self-efficacy, outcome expectations, and choice intentions for school psychology were evaluated by way of a mediator analysis. Results from a path analysis suggest that outcome expectations mediated the relationship between exposure and choice intentions for school psychology. Implications for minority recruitment practices are discussed

The Utility of the MCMI-III in Parental Competency Assessments

Child welfare agencies and legal authorities have frequently turned to psychologists to conduct parental competency assessments (PCA) to inform decisions aimed to advocate the best interests of children and protect them from maltreatment. The Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory–Third Edition (MCMI-III) is an empirically supported measure that is commonly used in the context of these examinations. This study compared the MCMI-III performance of an American-based PCA sample with previously published studies in the civil parenting literature and further explored differences across gender groups. Results revealed subclinical elevations in the “normal quartet” that were generally consistent with child custody litigants (CCE) and non-American PCA examinees in previous studies. The PCA sample produced higher rates of psychiatric pathology as compared to the CCE sample and the clinical population more generally. American and non-American PCA examinees endorsed similar rates of pathology, though American PCA examinees produced significantly higher scores on Antisocial and Drug Dependence scales. Results are suggestive of demographic differences that may account for inconsistent findings across studies

Monocytic cell differentiation from band-stage neutrophils under inflammatory conditions via MKK6 activation

Contains fulltext : 139173.pdf (publisher's version ) (Closed access)During inflammation, neutrophils are rapidly mobilized from the bone marrow storage pool into peripheral blood (PB) to enter lesional sites, where most rapidly undergo apoptosis. Monocytes constitute a second wave of inflammatory immigrates, giving rise to long-lived macrophages and dendritic cell subsets. According to descriptive immunophenotypic and cell culture studies, neutrophils may directly "transdifferentiate" into monocytes/macrophages. We provide mechanistic data in human and murine models supporting the existence of this cellular pathway. First, the inflammatory signal-induced MKK6-p38MAPK cascade activates a monocyte differentiation program in human granulocyte colony-stimulating factor-dependent neutrophils. Second, adoptively transferred neutrophils isolated from G-CSF-pretreated mice rapidly acquired monocyte characteristics in response to inflammatory signals in vivo. Consistently, inflammatory signals led to the recruitment of osteoclast progenitor cell potential from ex vivo-isolated G-CSF-mobilized human blood neutrophils. Monocytic cell differentiation potential was retained in left-shifted band-stage neutrophils but lost in neutrophils from steady-state PB. MKK6-p38MAPK signaling in HL60 model cells led to diminishment of the transcription factor C/EBPalpha, which enabled the induction of a monocytic cell differentiation program. Gene profiling confirmed lineage conversion from band-stage neutrophils to monocytic cells. Therefore, inflammatory signals relayed by the MKK6-p38MAPK cascade induce monocytic cell differentiation from band-stage neutrophils