Meaning in life in psychotherapy: The perspective of experienced psychotherapists

Objective Our goal was to explore the meaning experienced psychotherapists derive from providing psychotherapy, their beliefs about the role of meaning in life (MIL) in psychotherapy, how they worked with MIL with a client who explicitly presented concerns about MIL, and how they worked with a different client for whom MIL was a secondary and more implicit concern. Method Thirteen experienced psychotherapists were interviewed and data were analyzed using consensual qualitative research. Results Therapists derived self-oriented meaning (e.g., feeling gratified, fulfilled, connected) and other-oriented meaning (helping others, making the world a better place) from providing psychotherapy. They believed that MIL is fundamental and underlies all human concerns, including those brought to therapy. In contrast to the clients who had implicit MIL concerns, clients who explicitly presented MIL concerns were reported to have more interpersonal problems and physical problems, but about the same amount of psychological distress and loss/grief. Therapists used insight-oriented interventions, support, action-oriented interventions, and exploratory interventions to work with MIL with both types of clients, but used more exploratory interventions with implicit than explicit MIL clients. Conclusions MIL is a salient topic for experienced, existentially oriented psychotherapists; they work with MIL extensively with some clients in psychotherapy. We recommend that therapists receive training to work with MIL in therapy, and that they pay attention to MIL concerns when they conduct psychotherapy. We also recommend additional research on MIL in psychotherapy

Advanced Power Technology Development Activities for Small Satellite Applications

NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC) has a long history related to the development of advanced power technology for space applications. This expertise covers the breadth of energy generation (photovoltaics, thermal energy conversion, etc.), energy storage (batteries, fuel cell technology, etc.), power management and distribution, and power systems architecture and analysis. Such advanced technology is now being developed for small satellite and cubesat applications and could have a significant impact on the longevity and capabilities of these missions. A presentation during the Pre-Conference Workshop will focus on various advanced power technologies being developed and demonstrated by NASA, and their possible application within the small satellite community

Morphological and chemical influences on alumina-supported palladium catalysts active for the gas phase hydrogenation of crotonaldehyde

A series of five alumina-supported palladium catalysts have previously been prepared and characterised by a combination of CO chemisorption and infrared spectroscopy. The reactive attributes of these catalysts are examined using the hydrogenation of crotonaldehyde as a test reaction, using a modified infrared gas cell as a batch reactor. Periodic scanning of the infrared spectrum of the gaseous phase present over the Pd/Al2O3 catalysts was used to construct reaction profiles. Four of the catalysts were able to facilitate a 2-stage hydrogenation process (crotonaldehyde → butanal → butanol), whilst one catalyst was totally selective for the first stage hydrogenation process (crotonaldehyde → butanal). Rate coefficients for the first and second stage hydrogenation processes are normalised to the number of surface palladium atoms for the particular catalyst. Correlation of these kinetic parameters as a function of mean particle size indicates the first stage process to be structure insensitive, whilst the second stage hydrogenation is structure sensitive. Chlorine residues associated with the preparative process of one of the catalysts is seen to selectively poison the second stage hydrogenation process for that catalyst. Structure/activity relationships are considered to explain the observed trends