Books and websites

Over the years I've enjoyed the Writers and Readers ".. for Beginners" documentary comic books. They're sometimes hard to locate, since there have been publisher changes, reissues and other trans-Atlantic, not to mention sometimes language translation issues. These past few weeks I've dipped into Adler for Beginners and Gestalt for Beginners to supplement reading from my counseling textbook.

From my own bookshelves I've taken Charles Hampden- Turner's "Maps of the Mind: Charts and concepts of the mind and its labyrinths. I don't completely understand all the diagrams and summaries, but it's a good reference, even if needs updating.

Good review website: Prentice Hall Companion Website: Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theories and Inventions. This website supplements the textbook by Capuzzi and Gross -- lists of key concepts, key people and short online quizzes.
http://wps.prenhall.com/chet_capuzzi_counseling_3/

The Social Work Podcasts have good summaries of counseling theories
http://www.socialworkpodcast.com/socialworkpodcast.xml

Two books I'm reading from my list of books to read:
Once was lost by Sara Zarr
Composing a Further Life by Catherine Bateson

The more things change...

"The more things change, the more they remain the same." Albert Ellis' REBT seems very much like reframing. Cognitive therapy takes lot from client-centered therapy. The way that the class and Nystul's textbook is structured shows how different modes draw on what came before.

Three Approaches to Psychotherapy

I watched the Gloria ‘Three Approaches to Psychotherapy’, films for the first time and wonder how I would have reacted if I'd seen the films when I was studying psychology at Sydney University. The films demonstrate the different approaches of client-centered, gestalt and rational-emotive therapies as practiced by their 'originators -- Carl Rogers, Fritz Perls and Albert Ellis. I was certainly aware of these approaches. I wrote a paper on Prescott Lecky's theory of self-consistency and how it related to Carl Rogers' self theory,. Gestalt therapy was in vogue, though I thought it rather scary, and Albert Ellis' RET seemed a good way to justify any behavior; after all Ellis wrote Sex without guilt. The obvious question is "Was Gloria influenced by the therapy that went before?" Certainly, all three therapists stepped in and demonstrated their mode of therapy from the start. Different issues were brought up, but Gloria's divorce, dating issues and relationship with her daughter came through. I wonder about the order of the interviews. Would Gloria have continued if Perls or Ellis had been first?

Can you learn to be empathetic?

Can you learn to be empathetic or is empathy a quality that you either have or don't have? Empathy isn't a word that most people use every day; it was a new word for me, as I remember, when I trained for telephone counseling. My opinion is that empathy can be learned, but not taught. Indeed, trying to teach empathy can be counterproductive. Perhaps an environment can be set up where empathy is likely to be fostered (lots of group activities, discussion ), but nobody is going to become empathetic if it's something that is forced on them at the wrong time. Empathy is something that is realized by asking yourself "how is this person like me?" or "how is this person's situation similar to a situation I've experienced?" and not jumping to conclusions.
But this sounds a little like the Stanislavski acting method. Interesting thought: Are actors trained in the Stanislavski method more empathetic?

Thus far along the path

I'll turn my paper in on Monday. At the moment it's mostly finished and laid out according to APA 6. I'm at home and Dr. Djonz is now reading my paper --which may be a mistake. There's always going to be room for improvement."It's not a research paper " the voice within me says. Okay, let's call it a baseline for further improvement. This week during a slow time at the reference desk I spoke with Frank who's studying online with Walden University working on a PhD. It's his second year and he's just spent a week working on a paper on qualitative methods. He agreed that thinking about the project of a PhD is overwhelming, but manageable when taken as a series of small steps. He felt he was struggling at first, but he can see now how far he's progressed. Sometimes taking the big picture can be daunting, so take it step by step (puzzle piece by puzzle piece?

Does personality change? Me and the Myers -Briggs

A few months ago Essie my supervisor had everyone in the department take a short online Myers-Briggs inventory and report the results back to her. Like a number of others in the department, I turned out to be an ISFJ (Introvert Sensing Feeling Judging). Essie remarked that everyone in the department was an introvert (except Able who, like Essie is an extrovert). It surprised me that I shared the same type ISFJ with two of my colleagues whom I think of as different types from myself. I've taken the Myers-Briggs a number of times and I usually end up INFJ (substitute Sensing for Intuitive) , though sometimes I've been an INTJ (substitute Thinking for Feeling) -- even once an INFP! (Substitute Perceiving for Judging). So what made the change from INFJ to ISFJ? , or rather from intuitive to sensing? Does this reflect the shift in library priorities from intuitive reference work to sensing programming ?
Years ago when I first took the Myers Briggs it was explained to me that, in a relationship over time, you develop qualities that compensate for your partners' deficits -- or qualities that make it easier to work with the person. Maybe that's right. Essie says she's taken the test at home and she's come out a different type from work. Another explanation for my variance is that I may have fairly even scores, which, for one reason or another tip one way depending on time and circumstance.
Is personality fixed and determined in childhood, or does one change? I believe to the extent of introversion-extroversion one stays the same throughout life, but it can vary in degree. Environment and life situation affect the other axes over time.There are things that one can do to change some aspects of personality, like become more comfortable with groups of people or learn to be more analytical, which could help also.
I expect that next time I take the Myers--Briggs I'll again turn out INFJ -- but won't be surprised if I vary one way or the other around the F/T or T/J axes. I seriously doubt that I'll end up as an extrovert!

Ups and downs

I'm on a cycle that I need to break. When I'm at class on Monday, I feel that's where I should be and find the topics interesting, though basic (which is what an introductory class should be). This high continues for a few days. Towards the end of the week I feel that things are not working out -- especially with the research project, that I should be working at a higher level, that I won't make it -- of course I try to work harder, but inevitably harder is not smarter. To give myself credit, I've been able to accomplish things slowly, though not at the rate and level I expected. I now have a draft of a paper and in the next few days I'll be working on the introduction, discussion and abstract.
What's going on? I've asked myself this question again and again. Is there some childhood event that has kept me stuck at this stage? I don't feel this way about crochet -- but then crochet has never been the way I might earn my living or help people (other than providing nice gifts.)
Associated with this is a wish for recognition -- in times like this that I need to know that I have friends even if only "in the cloud" (online) -- and so I ask for prayer, and wonder if this shows that my faith is small..
Who or what am I serving by continuing this behavior? Let me be open to finding out. Trudi, one of my friends said that this might be a gift to myself.

Research proposal: Starting over?

What was I doing? Last week I spent almost 18 hours reading and summarizing research relating to my assignment, or so I thought. Now, after re-reading the sample paper, I realize that taking notes online, paraphrasing sections and stringing them together do not a research paper make. I have a deficit in this area -- well I knew it wasn't going to be easy, but somehow I thought I was (bouyed by prayer and good wishes) going to work through this dispassionately and get a sensible paper out. Now I realize that this paper won't get many marks, but I need to persevere nonetheless if I'm going to get any credit for this. Two weeks and I need to submit the paper in APA 6 format. Yes, it's a learning exercise but I'm a slow learner and I don't like admitting it.Panic again. Okay, step by step, but I'm behind in writing a research paper. Yes, this is to be expected after not taking classes for almost threescore years.

Meanwhile I'm fascinated by these assumptions of Adlerian Therapy (Sadhu & Aspy 1997) p. 80

1. Counseling involves teaching clients better ways to meet the challenge of life tasks.
2. Past experiences influence people, but do not mold them.
3. Clients have the capacity to influence and create events.
4. The critical issue for clients is what they make of their endowments.
5. Clients create a unique lifestyle that helps them explain their patterns of behavior.

There's enough in the above to get me sidetracked.

Today's work?

I spent most of today reading articles and making notes. Though I may have a high level of cognition (a word I use after hours of reading psychology and sociology articles) , I feel I have a low literacy level of putting my thoughts on paper (on computer screen?) and writing them down coherently. I feel I should have been at this stage two or three weeks ago, rather than now. This may be expected -- it's been many years since I was last at university. I'm learning there's a lot more to learn, that I have far to go, not that I didn't know that. But this is where I am now.

Reading Steele's book Whistling Vivaldi I was most impressed with his experiments on stereotype threat and anxiety at Stanford. Reframing a potential stressful interracial interaction as a learning situation lessened stereotype threat. Or, participants became less anxious when an exercise on race relations was presented as an opportunity for learning rather than as a examination. So see this assignment as a learning exercise. Whether or not I pass or decide to go on to further study I will have learned skills that I can apply to my volunteer counseling and library work as well as to living generally.

During a break from assignment preparation, I read the chapter in Nystul's book on Classical Theories. I've read works and articles about Freud and Jung, but wasn't familiar with Adler. ; from Nystul's description Adler's work has influenced a number of counseling theories -- STEP, strengths, positive psychology to name a few. I'm interested in reading more about his theories. Note to myself : After the paper is finished, look for an introductory book on Adlerian psychology.

Counseling as an art and science:notes on the class so far

Counseling as an art and a science is the textbook's theme; each chapter begins with a short discussion of how this applies to the chapter's subject and Dr. Beach reviews this at the beginning of each class. I haven't paid this subject much attention, but I now realize that it's important to think not either or, but both and.
Last night's chapter review led to a realization that Nystul is building his ideas consistently, introducing new ideas necessary for the understanding of the next chapter in the previous chapter. I've purposely tried not to skip ahead in the book, except for looking for references to topics that might be helpful for my research paper.
I'm still anxious about this project, though I'm taking things little by little -- last night I discussed my topic and thoughts so far with Dr. Beach and the class and felt that so far I was on the right track -- though I might be a bit behind and there's still a ways to go. The challenge now is to make good use of my time. I have a problem statement and a purpose statement, I've found references, I've drafted an intervention. My next steps are to craft a literature review from points in articles that look promising. I've crafted over 100 short book reviews for Library Journal, so I'll try approaching each section as a short review writing exercise . I remember how nervous and anxious I was during training for telephone counseling many years ago, and how worried I was in advance of leading book reviews the first few times. If I could manage the anxiety then, I should be able to get to a point eventually where writing papers won't be as stressful. There's always room for improvement. This is a learning exercise. Ahead are days of writing. Go to it!