Recognizing oneself in the encounter with others: Meaningful moments in systemic therapy for social anxiety disorder in the eyes of patients and their therapists after the end of therapy

There is evidence that systemic therapy is effective, but there is little evidence about meaningful moments in systemic therapy in general, and none at all in systemic therapy for social anxiety disorders. Meaningful moments are one of the relevant research objects in change process research, as they contribute to a better understanding of therapeutic change. Objective The objective of this study is to characterize and describe meaningful moments in the context of systemic psychotherapy, from the point of view of patients and their therapists, after the end of therapy. The therapy studied is a manualized, monitored systemic therapy for social anxiety disorder. Method Semi-structured follow-up interviews were conducted separately with five patients and their therapists (N = 10). Methodological triangulation was used: Grounded theory was used to code the transcripts as described by Charmaz. Then the passages of the selected code “meaningful moment” were evaluated using thematic comparison, in line with Meuser & Nagel. Findings Three categories involving meaningful moments were identified: (1) meeting other patients in group therapy session, (2) therapeutic resource orientation and (3) recognizing oneself in a diagnosis or pattern of behaviour. These categories emerged as contexts related to the occurrence of meaningful moments from a subjective perspective. Discussion Meaningful moments seem to be consistently related to the therapist input and to specific interventions or settings, both from the perspective of the patients and the therapists. Two tandems each described a coincident moment. One central aspect of all 14 moments is that the patients and therapists described patients being able to acquire another outlook on themselves.

“If Someone Would Have Showed Me”: Identifying Pivotal Points in Pathways to Crime and Incarceration Through Prisoner Self-Narratives

Criminologists and correctional administrators are continuously interested in understanding criminal career trajectories, including desistance, particularly to further develop correctional programming. One program that seeks to promote successful reentry by triggering desistance for youth and adults is the IF Project, founded in 2008 in Washington State. A central component of the IF Project program requires participants to write narratives that ask them to reflect on their journey to crime and to think about what they would have needed to break away from their criminal career trajectory. This research reports on a content analysis of 171 of these writings by adult prisoners in Washington State. Results from the content analysis reveal distinct and overlapping themes for both men and women that highlight the identity change process. Research and policy implications are discussed.

Department chairs as change agents

Change process research often discusses barriers that impede organizational change (e.g., Banta, 1997; Cavacuiti and Locke, 2013; Mutchler, 1990; Stewart et al., 2012); however, no empirical research has addressed how behaviors established in leadership models counteract these barriers. This study explored these two interconnected constructs of leadership and change in stories of secondary school department chair change attempts, and identified specific leadership behaviors described within their stories that aided the conversion of change barriers into conditions that enhanced the change process. Leadership behavior identification within department chair stories of change was guided by Blake and Mouton’s (1962) leadership theory, which has been further delineated by Yukl et al. (2002), and identification of change process barriers was guided by Ely’s (1990a) eight conditions for change. From the combined descriptions of six successful and four unsuccessful narratives of department chair-led change emerged essential conditions for change and commonly occurring change barriers. Specific leadership behaviors capable of overcoming these change barriers were also identified. Unexpectedly, this investigation also unearthed a change barrier seemingly unrelated to previously identified conditions of change: the contentious resistor. The contentious resistor was described as the most detrimental barrier to department chairs’ leadership of the change process.

Research Methods and Experimental Design Influence on Surface Soil Properties in Steppe Area of Northern China Wind Power Field

There is a close relationship between the disturbance of wind power generation on the circulation of the atmosphere and the underlying surface soil properties change process. Research mentality and the technical route of the wind power impact on surface soil properties were discussed in detail. With the wind rods with different construction time as the center, outward in a separated by 20m as the radius to make concentric circular sample ,differences could be obtained between eight neighboring direction and the same direction in different years and different distance on soil properties. Methods,field investigation, sampling and laboratory analysis of samples of combining,were applied. Data were analyzed using ORIGIN and SPSS software. Practice has proved that this set of research methods and experimental design is feasible.

Investigação em psicoterapia: Contexto, questões e controvérsias Possíveis contributos da perspectiva fenomenológico existencial

Realiza-se uma síntese dos dados mais recentes da investigação em psicoterapia incluindo do quadro existencial. São abordadas algumas controvérsias presentes na comunidade psicoterapêutica que conduz a um hiato entre terapeutas e investigadores. Sugere-se a importância do paradigma “change process research” para o desenvolvimento de investigação que permita melhor informar sobre os processos que promovem a mudança terapêutica e informar os diferentes agentes envolvidos: pacientes, terapeutas, supervisores, responsáveis de serviços de saúde mental. Salienta-se a necessidade e incrementar maior número de programas de investigação psicoterapêutica em Portugal.