Amy Johnson

We won’t see a dog practicing law any time soon, but that doesn’t mean we won’t see one in the courtroom. In fact, the practice is becoming more commonplace. Service dogs in the courtroom have been shown to be beneficial in breaking down the barriers of fear, distrust and anxiety, says one prosecutor, in order to get to the truth. Service dogs, offering unwavering emotional support and unconditional affection, can be useful in securing testimony from worried witnesses who might repudiate testifying against their known attacker.

To endure the ordeal of testifying, the calming presence of the service dog has been effective in nearly a dozen courtrooms around the country, especially with traumatized children. These specially trained canines meet with the witnesses or victims pre-trial so they can familiarize themselves with the children (or adults) and learn to recognize their emotional barometers. During the trial, their only job is to sit quietly in the witness stand with the person testifying. In most instances, they are barley seen or heard by anyone in the courthouse.

Courthouse Dogs, located in Washington, is an excellent resource that provides further information about courtroom dogs. The organization was founded after a prosecuting attorney began bringing her son’s service dog to work with her when her son was at school and she didn’t want the dog to be home alone. While she was bringing the dog to work, she was working on a case with twin 7-year old girls who had been sexually victimized by their father and were too terrified to testify. Without their testimony, their father would walk. The girls had spent time earlier with the service dog and were smitten with him. When the twins were on the stand, shaking and fearful, this prosecutor asked the judge to permit the dog to take the stand with the scared sisters. The judge allowed it and the dog laid quietly at their feet. Upon sensing tension in the girls, he would place his head on their laps. The dogs proved to be an item of comfort and security. The girls pet the dog as they were cross examined, and this provided them the ability to tell their stories, which resulted in two guilty verdicts on two counts of assault.

These legal beagles are typically trained by organizations that are members of Assistance Dogs International (ie Canine Companions for Independence). Their initial training emulates that of other service dogs (such as Leader Dogs for the Blind) like puppy raising, general training and then specific needs training. Characteristics for courtroom service dogs include:
* being quiet, unobtrusive and emotionally available for the witness
* being able to sit or lie down beside witness for an extended period of time
* not engaging in any behavior that would distract the witness or other people in the courtroom
* assisting the witness for as long as necessary

Those who oppose having dogs in the courtroom claim that it may taint the jury to where they would have more sympathy for the witness, thus not allowing for a fair trial. However, juries who were surveyed by Courthouse Dogs representatives did not find the dog’s presence to be inappropriate or opinion swaying. They understood, as do the courthouse canines, that some witnesses require additional emotional support during the trial. For more information, visit www.courthousedogs.com.

Amy Johnson is a counselor, lecturer, founder, and program director of the non-profit organization, Teacher’s Pet: Dogs and Kids Learning Together.

Pat Myers

A simple headline in the Sunday newspaper caught my eye this morning. The headline states: “Girls may learn math anxiety from teachers”. Having struggled with math anxiety for most of my life and having seen many other women with similar struggles, I decided to dig a bit deeper into this study. Out of my frustration in high school math class I can remember foolishly thinking “I’ll never use this in my real life!” This is a contemporary problem as many girls see math as irrelevant to everyday problem solving. This current research was funded by the National Science foundation and completed by researchers from the University of Chicago. The researchers assessed the level of math anxiety in first and second grade teachers and looked at the relationship of math achievement and gender stereotypes. Ah gender stereotypes!

Being in my mid-fifties now, I can remember my junior high Home Economics teacher telling my all-girl class that most of us wouldn’t need much math beyond calculating the size of a roast needed for our husband’s work dinner parties. We wouldn’t be scientists or NASA mathematicians. We might need to know how to budget our husband’s salary but that wouldn’t demand the higher level math courses. It was fine if we didn’t do well or didn’t like our math classes. We also knew that girls who were smart in math were not liked by boys. We were told by mothers, teachers, books and movies that it was more important for us to know other feminine topics such as cooking and how to apply make-up and to leave the math to the boys. Of course this was just as the rise of feminism was beginning to rattle these limiting ideas and roles.

On the one hand we received liberal doses of the old stereotypes and on the other we were told we could have anything that men did. Women have put many cracks in the glass ceiling through the past several decades but this struggle with math doesn’t seem to be one of those yet. This current research does much to explain that math anxiety is the gift that keeps on giving generation after generation. This is not because girls and women are incapable but because we are passing on our own anxiety even as we teach the basic skills.

This study looked at 17 female teachers (90% of elementary school teachers are female). At the beginning of the school year the student’s math anxiety was unrelated to how the teacher felt about math. It was found that the more anxious the teacher was about math the lower the scores for the girls while boy’s scores were unaffected. In further testing, girls who accepted the idea that boys were naturally better at math continued to see declining math scores. This causes me to look at the reality that just as I passed on other characteristics to my daughter, I may have passed on my math anxiety to her as well.

As a teacher I have been open about my math anxiety hoping to inform my female students that they are not alone with that anxiety and that they can still be successful in spite of it. This study gives me pause that my sharing may have contributed more to increasing the problem not diminishing it. Role modeling appears to be a mixed blessing in this instance. One of the important conclusions from this study is the math anxiety can be decreased through increasing math requirements for elementary school teachers. I prefer to rephrase this conclusion to: the better the math training, the higher the female teacher’s math self-efficacy. Higher math self-efficacy in female math teachers leads to higher math scores and higher math self-efficacy for the girls. Self-efficacy in math (as in most areas of life!) has lasting benefits.

Perhaps a broader application for all of us who are in positions to influence the next generation of girls and young women is to take these conclusions very seriously and polish up our math skills and our attitudes about our math abilities. Instead of confessing to our math anxiety and accepting it, we need to work to overcome it. We want both girls and boys to achieve their full academic potential and we can achieve this by demonstrating how useful and empowering math knowledge can be.

Patricia Myers is a counselor, an associate professor of counselor education, and doctoral student.

Kevin Stoltz

When I speak of using Adlerian concepts in career counseling I tend to get very strange looks even from the Adlerian counselors. I just smile and yes, you heard me correctly! Adler did talk about work as one of the 3 life tasks and he recognized that work has a central social role for adults. Following this line of thinking some Adlerians developed concepts to assist individuals in career selection. McKelvie (1979) wrote about the practice of career and life planning from an Adlerian perspective. He discussed the role of assessing lifestyle and helping the client to make career decisions using elements from the lifestyle. Watkins (1984a) wrote an excellent article outlining the use of Adlerian concepts to create a theory of Adlerian counseling. This article outlined several principle corollaries that help organize the theory into a framework for understanding the use of Adlerian ideas in career development. A central tenant is how lifestyle interacts with career decision making and the social role of work.

More recently, Savickas (1998; 2002) developed the careerstyle interview. This interview sequence is used in career counseling and represents the integration of Super’s (1990) life-span, life-space theory, Holland’s (1992) matching theory, and Adler’s (1979) individual psychology. Specifically, one of the interview questions concerns the collection of 3 early recollections. Savickas explains that these memories help to develop a theme of challenges for the individual. These challenges play out in all the life roles discussed by Super, including work. Thus, by understanding our themes we are better able to navigate exploration and decision making in the work life task.

The theme is not determined by the counselor alone. Adlerians use a collaborative democratic process to arrive at an understanding of the themes. Once identified, one very important aspect of counseling is understanding that the theme is related to the striving for superiority. Often, misunderstood, striving for superiority is not competition with others; that would not be a socially interested striving. The striving centers on the individual trying to emerge from a feeling of inferiority to feeling competent and productive. A focus on contributing to the social system is inherent in this striving. However, the striving can be over utilized and under utilized. This is often the case in experiencing difficulties in social relationships. People tend to use strengths all the time in an unconscious process trying to realize an expected result. This is called the final fiction or the expected positive outcome. So helping people understand the striving is a key element in Adlerian career counseling, because we help the client understand her/his use of the striving to meet fictional goals.

This process can help individuals chose a career, function in a career, and address problems in a career. It is a useful approach for the career adaptability paradigm that is being explored in much of the career literature. I realize that this is a quick and rough sketch. Perhaps a case will help to illustrate some of this approach.

Stay tuned for Part II!!!

Kevin Stoltz is counselor and an assistant professor at the University of Mississippi. He specializes in career counseling and Adlerian Psychology and has a strong interest (no pun intended) in early recollections related to work life.

One of our top legislative priorities has been establishing Medicare coverage of state-licensed professional counselors. Although we’ve come close to achieving this goal before, we’ve never been as close to success as we are now, following House passage of health insurance reform legislation including Medicare coverage of counselors and of marriage and family therapist. We were glad that House members recognized that Medicare beneficiaries need better access to outpatient mental health care, and that licensed professional counselors and MFTs are qualified to provide psychotherapy.

Consequently, it surprised us when, as soon as the House legislation was unveiled, it was vociferously attacked for, among other things, “government intervention in marriage.” Why? Because it included our provision. Following a slew of disinformation—anyone remember “death panels”?—spread by those who prefer the status quo, angry attendees started showing up at town hall meetings with signs saying things like “Keep government out of my Medicare!”. While attacks like these—including on our provision—were disappointing, both the House and Senate ultimately passed comprehensive bills, one with our Medicare provision (the House bill) and one without (the Senate’s).

ACA has long supported establishing universal access to health insurance coverage, and the bills approved by the House and the Senate would cover an estimated 96% of legal residents. Both bills include several provisions to reduce the growth in health care spending, and despite what you may have heard, both bills retain our current reliance on private health insurance coverage.

Many people, including counselors, dislike the health care legislation, and I’ve heard from a few of them. Those opposing the health care legislation in general can still help by contacting their Representative and Senators to talk to them about Medicare coverage of counselors. However, there are four things that I encourage people to keep in mind.

1) The status quo is not an option. Some analysts have complained that the health reform legislation would bankrupt the country. On the contrary, the current system is bankrupting the country; the health care reform bills would actually reduce the federal deficit.
2) None of the politicians attacking the health care legislation has yet put forward a real, comprehensive proposal which would ensure that all Americans—or even 96%—are insured.
3) Health care policy is like a balloon. You can’t make a few changes in our health care system in one place and leave it at that; it’s all connected, so a comprehensive approach isn’t just a virtue, it’s a necessity.
4) Medicare coverage of counselors, if and when it happens, will be part of much broader health and/or Medicare legislation. We’ll never have the luxury of supporting just our own little provision.

The bottom line is that we need change, and that change is scary (especially when those with a financial stake in the current system fan the flames!). That doesn’t mean we can’t—or shouldn’t—change.

ACA encourages counselors to contact their members of Congress to ask them to get the job done, and enact comprehensive health reform legislation as soon as possible. In the meantime, I encourage readers to email me with specific questions or concerns regarding the legislation.

Lastly, this slide compares per capita health care spending in the U.S. versus other developed countries. It’s pretty sobering http://facts.kff.org/chartbooks_pdf.cfm?ch=359.

Scott Barstow can be reached at sbarstow@counseling.org.

Marianela Medrano-Marra

“We must all face the fact that we are very precariously suspended in life: we have a very slender foothold on the planet.” – Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan

As I sit down and prepare to write this entry, a hawk circles outside against the blue sky. I marvel as it moves slowly, precisely, graciously cruising calmly in the waves of the wind. Unlike us, who stand precariously suspended amid chaos, change, and paradox, the hawk hovers and rides the wind. I get the message. I know that my entry today has something to do with standing still amid chaos, with transforming sorrow into hope and possibility.

I rarely write about a topic while under the influence of strong emotions around it, for fear of losing objectivity, but it is necessary for me to overcome how saddened I am by the tragedy that has embraced the Haitian nation, and to write about our roles as counselors in responding to catastrophic events. Most importantly, I want to retake the focus of last week’s posting and continue talking about spirituality and counseling. The tragedy of Haiti, the poorest country in the Western hemisphere, brings me to reflect on the level of preparedness counselors need to have when tragedy strikes. When faced with issues of great enormity, we ought to pause and question how well prepared we are. How can we promote balance in a time of absolute chaos? How do we reposition our feet so to stand still on the earth as the hawk hovers above it?

As I navigate my way through a tragedy that feels almost insurmountable, I realize that if I can hold on to compassionate understanding, if I can grasp the concept of acceptance, I will attain the gracefulness of the hawk as the opposing forces of nature tear Haiti apart. The indigenous people of the island of Hispaniola (today Haiti and the Dominican Republic) believed in multiple gods and goddesses before they were Christianized. One of the divinities of their cosmology is Guabancex, a goddess of great wrath. She is the goddess of destruction and renewal, goddess of the hurricane and other natural phenomenon that bring about destruction. If this is all her doing, then there is hope, as it indicates a major shift for the island, because Guabancex only destroys to create new life. Her doings illuminate the idea of rising from sorrow to embrace the possibilities that change brings.

While acceptance cannot, will not, bring back to life those who perished in the tragedy, it can bring solace to those left extremely vulnerable. Part of how we can help clients and ourselves in the phase of destruction is by coming to terms with what is. Acceptance is about grasping, coming to terms with the depth and width of what has happened and the willingness to examine what is left for us to do. The people of Haiti are giving us a lesson impossible to ignore. As I get in touch with those who have been immediately impacted by the physical manifestation of the earthquake, I invariable hear the voice of resilience, rising like the Phoenix from the ashes. The notion that, when faced with tragedy, we have the choice to stand proud and tall, to not succumb to the sorrow, is life-altering.

Technology is doing away with the “out of sight, out of mind” mentality, as it brings feedback loops to which we have no choice but to respond. Turning the TV off is no longer an option because the images are present wherever we go. I could not help but notice that every place I have gone since the earthquake shook Haiti, the images of destruction are broadcast widely. At first I took it as a frantic “media hunger” for sensationalism. Then I reflected. The images on TV are holding all of us responsible for what is happening. The moment we become conscious of the magnitude of this tragedy, we are automatically bound to take action. The media is inviting a type of “cosmic consciousness,” the kind of consciousness that makes us one with everything. Cosmic consciousness allows us to see ourselves in the eyes of the other, therefore making both “self” and “other” disappear into unity—a pillar in spiritual counseling.

Haiti is going by what St. John of the Cross called the dark night of the soul. I want to believe that the disruptive forces of nature are just at work in building a better Haiti. I want to experience this tragedy as part of a radical change that will transform our consciousness. The gruesome images on TV are humanizing what happened in Haiti; these images are holding us responsible and inviting us to act. This is no different than what we do in counseling, especially counseling that is spiritually minded. We create sympathetic resonance between what is difficult to see and hear and the person who is directly impacted by it so he or she can make the necessary changes. When individuals align their perspective with their actions, we start to see progress.

Becoming conscious of the depth of a tragedy induces empathy. There is something in the tragedy of the “other” that resembles ours and propels us to respond. This does not change the fact that we are “precariously suspended in life,” but like the hawk we will have learned to glide gracefully.

Marianela Medrano-Marra is a counselor and Dominican writer living and practicing in Naugatuck, CT. She writes poetry, essays, and creative non-fiction; with publications including essays and four books of poetry.

Amy Johnson

As therapists, we are taught that who we are is based on the collection of our experiences. Aristotle said something like: as for the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them. This is often forgotten in todays society where we tell children how to consider others feelings and we tell our clients how to forgive, but really, these constructs are only truly understood when they are experienced. Using experiential learning assists in helping clients make meaning from their experiences. Id like to share a story about a 15 year old girl who is in a court-referred residential placement and a scrappy, black lab mix with whom she worked in a program at her facility.

For nearly three weeks, the edgy teen and her unfocused, anxious dog just did not connect. Throughout those three weeks, there was an ample amount of whining from both ends of the leash. The teen was frustrated and feeling rejected because the little lab mix (Cutie) she was trying to train would not pay attention to her. Cutie was stressed and anxious because she had not come from a place where humans were kind and would pull frantically to escape her leashed confinement.

The ebullient teen persevered. She monitored her own frustration level, kept her voice friendly and soothing, became a human Pez dispenser providing hot dog bits and ensured that Cutie understood what was expected of her through boundary setting and consistency. Finally, Cutie began to seek attention from the teen and respond to the commands that were given. SUCCESS! As giddy girls often do, she bounced around the room, waving her arms and singing her own praises.

At one point, I asked her what this accomplishment meant to her. She responded with something so profound and unexpected to me. She said, “At first I didnt want to work with Cutie, she didnt like me and I didnt like her. But then, I just kept trying and trying and finally, she trusted me. It made me think that maybe if I keep trying with my mom, that eventually I can regain her trust.”

What a powerful and relevant lesson. Using dog training as a therapeutic intervention, the teen was not only in a safe and, more often than not, fun environment, she was open and willing to explore her internal self. Using experiential learning added experiences to her history on which to build and grow and ultimately, use some of her newly developed strategies to work on the relationship with her mother.

Amy Johnson is a counselor, lecturer, founder, and program director of the non-profit organization, Teacher’s Pet: Dogs and Kids Learning Together.

Julie North

I have been counseling for ten years and I have learned a thing or two in those ten years. I have learned to meet families, children and couples where they are. I have learned you can’t rush progress and probably the biggest gem is people only change when they are ready. I work with families who are in crisis constantly. A majority of my cases revolve around abuse and neglect issues. These families are dealing with long, long standing issues that likely date back to their parents and grandparents. Issues such as poverty, physical, sexual and emotional abuse, lack of transportation, substance abuse issues, incest and the list goes on.

So what irritates me about this? Surprisingly not the client (s) but the workers involved in these cases. I get tired of being a service put in the home when no one knows what else to do with that client. Don’t get me wrong there are always issues but when you are only granted so much time there are only so many issues you can deal with and if the problem at the time is transportation who wants to talk about being sexually abused years ago. Chances are that client has managed (albeit poorly) to move around that wound in their life and move on. Now clients don’t always understand that some of what happens to them can be related to some unresolved issues from their past but they forge ahead.

Sometimes workers who utilize my services say to me “it’s too bad you didn’t fix that family” or “Why didn’t you fix them?” ninety-nine percent of the time they are kidding but I think there’s truth in humor . These statements frustrate me on a bad day. Most of these workers have degrees in Social Work, Counseling or other related fields but what I see them struggling with the most is attempting to wear both hats at once. They try to use their counseling skills while they remove children and that never works. Because clients see them as the enemy and who wants advice or reassurance from someone who is taking your children?

So how do I handle these negative-nellies? Usually I make a joke, agree with them, disassociate, or just walk away. I have faith in my abilities as a counselor so I know I am doing what is right for the client and myself. Because I have to live with myself and if I felt I was merely working toward getting a client to confess to something or looking to put a band-aid on the situation so a case can be closed then I need to find a new profession. Counseling is a tough enough profession without being blamed for everyone else shortfalls.

Julie North is an in home family counselor in a rural county in South-Central Michigan. She has a private practice and is currently being trained in TF-CBT and complex trauma therapies.

Steve Bryson

I have in the past blogged a bit about eating disorders. Now I would like to climb on a soap box because I have had yet another mishandled client with an eating disorder. I don’t know if others would refer to me as an expert in the field of eating disorder treatment, but I do feel pretty conversant on the subject, and try to keep up with research (lets hear it for Pubmed). I am also aware that there sems to be some disagreement about the correct ways to treat these conditions. Few of us would disagree that the all too common E.R. intervention is unhelpful: “What is your problem? Are you so vain, so in love with your reflection that you would purposely do this to your family?” (actual quote from an E.R. physician).

There are some people doing great research and publishing very helpful articles and books on outcome-based comparative studies. Craig Johnson, Chris Fairburn, Jim Mitchell etc are making valuable contributions in the areas of cognitive behavioral and dialectical behavioral therapy with eating disorders. Similarly, scientific refeeding regimens are now statndardized and most treatment centers apply this knowledge. But there are two notable omissions that I think show the very provincial stick in the mud culture of too many in academia as well as on the ground. First, there is ample proof that the genesis of eating disorders is from distinct genetic markers, or as Craig Johnson says: genetics is the gun, society is the trigger. And yet I still see centers advertising as an “addiction and eating disorders treatment center” (Fairburn has debunked that). When questioned they say to me they all have individualized treatment plans, but how would one surmise the treatment would proceed if it was advertised as a such, or as a childhood trauma and eating disorders treatment center? Second, other centers advertise in such ways as to imply that their focus is anxiety, personality disorders, ODD, spirituality etc. Now, co-morbidity statistics with depression and anxiety spectum disorders are well published, but the percentages vary so wildly as to leave uncertainty.

As I said in that previous blog, the professional community is notoriously slow in accepting new knowledge, as shown in the infamous “limeys”: British sailors who knew that eating limes prevented scurvy 60 years before the medical establishment accepted that. So preconcieved notions, prejudice and demagoguery seem to be hurting the advance of treatment.

Now for the two pieces of credible research that are being ignored. First, the eating disorders treatment program at the prestigious Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden has for two decades produced a 96% recovery rate with eating disorders following the premise that these disorders are neuroendocrine in nature. Their treatment is a 6 month regimen of supported refeeding with little else but housing and socio-educational classes. The vast majority of comorbid symptoms disappear as the regular eating patterns and renourishment progresses. They use a unique technological tool they coin a Mandometer which is essentially a Blackberry that works as a neurofeedback device to advise and support healthy eating (see their web site). They have published some compelling research, have a huge ‘n’, and the best success rate anywhere. Yet I only get disdain when I talk to experts in the U.S. Their complaints are that the Mandometer is patented and must be purchased to be utilized. While some would condemn being so prorietary, it seems little different from the pharmaceutical companies, and these same detractors seldom refuse to use newer, proven psychotropic medications just because the drug company is making a mint off of it.

The second oversight involves the now well accepted data that eating disorders are genetic in nature. From an evolutionary psychology perspective, it is questioned why such disorders would be existant, seeing the high morbidity and mortality rates. One researcher/theorist who has tackled this with a rigorous eye for validity has postulated that this is an artifact from primitive days when periods of feast and famine were common occurrances. In those cultures, starvation was a common cause of mortality. When most people are starving, they have little energy, and just give up and die. But studies of aboriginal cultures have shown a curious thing: a subset, of mostly young women, get more energetic, more driven and in oral traditions led the tribe to food. This has been termed “adapted to flee famine”. This is not the place to review all the detatils of how this was derived, but I can tell you that when this theory is told to a new patient with an eating disorder, their shame and denial diminish and compliance soars. So this narrative could offer an important window of opportunity to help those in need who are essentially hormonally impaired. And yet it is little known though relatively well published. Those of you interested can Google Dr. Shan Guisinger or “Adapted To Flee Famine Hypothesis”.

Are we being lazy; are we being provincial? Or am I missing something?

Steve Bryson is a counselor in private practice in Whitefish, Montana and a registered nurse. He works with adolescents and adults, couples and families and has a special interest in eating disorders.