Claire Rabin

A Joint University—Field Agency: Toward the Integration of Classroom and Practicum

Abstract The authors describe an innovative program designed to create a joint university and local municipality agency in Israel. The agency was structured to be a teaching laboratory that would offer innovative services for social work clients and a unique field placement for students. Four major goals involved joint outcomes for both university and municipality. These included (a) demonstrating evaluation research as a means of accountability and as a tool for practice; (b) using generic social work methods for work with families; (c) reaching out to difficult and high-risk clients with innovative programs; and (d) using the laboratory as a training center for welfare workers, agency supervisors, and students from all levels of the social work programs. The authors describe and evaluate each of the goals, discussing the implications for teaching and for social work practice.

EGALITARIANISM AND MARITAL HAPPINESS: ISRAELI WIVES AND HUSBANDS ON A COLLISION COURSE?

Abstract This research investigates the different ways married men and women view the level of equality in their relationship and the connection between different indices of marital equality and marital satisfaction. Israeli married couples (n = 150) were questioned about their attitudes toward equality between the sexes, the degree of their role sharing and decision making, the overall sense of fairness in the relationship, and their marital happiness and tension. Most important was the finding that although equal role sharing and decision making were predictive of womens marital satisfaction, these also predicted mens marital tension. The implications of this studys findings for marital therapists are presented through case material.

Matching the Research Seminar to Meet Practice Needs: A Method for Integrating Research and Practice

Abstract A research seminar is presented as a model for matching research teaching to practice needs and maximizing the relevance of research for practitioners. Assuming the behavioral principle of “successive approximation,” skills are taught in a stepwise fashion that allows for gradually building competency in evaluating therapy research. In addition, experiential methods are used to allow for practice and cognitive/ emotional changes to occur. It is proposed that changes in attitudes toward research and about what constitutes research are important and valid goals of the research seminar.

Sepharadi Women in Israel

Abstract Israel is a “melting pot” society. The challenges of integrating a large number of immigrants from all over the world has not been without its price. The subsuming of cultural variety within the dominant cultural identity has been especially oppressive for people of color. The dominant cultural identity is white, European, and Western in orientation. Jews from North Africa, Yemen, India, Iraq or Iran have been marginalized by a subtle racism rarely discussed openly. Recently people of color have been “coming out of the closet” in Israel. Public figures, politicians and artists are uncovering how racism has played a part in their lives. Jewish Sephardic women have suffered the effects of both racism (due to their dark skin color) and sexism due to patriarchal elements still existing in the context of modern Israel. Coming from varied non-Western cultures (North African, Yemen, Iraq, Iran, and India) that are highly patriarchal and male-dominant, these women experience the impact of social change perhaps more than any other group. This paper will discuss issues related to feminine identity of Jewish Sephardic women of color in Israel. We will propose identity strategies that these women have used in order to create continuity of identity despite oppressive racism and sexism. Two brief vignettes demonstrate how different women use different identity strategies. Some women of color maintain their traditional ethnic and feminine identity expected of her as a woman, spouse and mother. Other women reject their ethnic and feminine identity and adopt Western roles through personal achievement and autonomy. For those in the helping professions, understanding how ethnic identity issues relates to emotional distress can be helpful. Two detailed case descriptions are presented which show the dilemmas of treating women from traditional ethnic groups. Western society developed the concept of “therapy,” often replacing the clergy, the clan elders and anyone representing moral codes, examples of behavior, the old lore and the traditional healers of traditional Jewish culture. As such, therapy poses a threat to women from traditional cultures within a Western oriented “modern” society. The importance of family to Sephardic women is discussed in light of the previous discussion related to identity and with regard to issues related to treatment.

Gender and intimacy in the treatment of couples in the 1990s

Abstract This article describes the problems of relating gender issues to marital treatment, the need to do so and a model for constructively introducing gender issues into treatment. The article attempts to show why gender is an issue that can not be ignored in treating couples in the 1990s. It reviews research which shows that women are less happy than men and feel marriage is unfair to them. Changing norms over a period of social change have left men and women alike ambivalent and confused about gender roles. These underlying ambivalences interact with normal marital dynamics to create a unique situation today. Currently marital distress is the norm for most couples. The therapist who is aware of the impact of social change on the couple needs a method for dealing with distress that takes this normative aspect into account. A model based on fairness, and not equality, is proposed as a way to bridge the gender gap in dealing with social change and to create a context for beginning to relate to gender is...

Caregiver burden and personal authority: Differentiation and connection in caring for an elderly parent

Abstract Personal authority in the family system (PAFS) is an intergenerational construct linking personal development and family interacton. Applied here to the notion of caregiver burden, PAFS was hypothesized to predict the degree of stress and strain experienced by adult sons and daughters giving care to their elderly disabled parents. Family variables related to the caregivers marriage were also assumed to play a role. Caregivers completed the Personal Authority in the Family System Questionnaire (PAFS-Q) and a measure of Caregiving Burden. Subscales of the PAFS-Q included intergenerational individuation, intergenerational intimacy, spousal individuation, spousal intimacy and intergenerational intimidation. Pearsons correlations showed that caregiving burden was significantly correlated to all intergenerational intimacy. Multiple regression analysis showed intergenerational individuation and intimidation to account for 21% of the variance in caregiver burden. Implications of these findings for theo...

Gender issues in the treatment of welfare couples: a feminist approach to marital therapy of the poor

This article presents a treatment model for work at home with couples in poor families on welfare that incorporates a feminist view targeting sex-role attitudes and behaviors as a central goal. A case study is presented to illustrate these principles. The work is based on both in-depth interviews with 13 Israeli couples on welfare and clinical impressions gained from the treatment of 30 Israeli couples on welfare. Poor couples are analyzed in terms of gender issues and the relationship of these issues to mental health, couple functioning, and couple interaction within the helping profession.

The use of psychoeducational groups to improve marital functioning in high risk Israeli couples : a stage model

A modular and sequentially-based psychoeducational groupwork method, including the rationale for this type of work with couples in Israel, is presented. Modules of this form of groupwork are illustrated using two examples of groupwork with couples experiencing chronic post-traumatic stress disorder and groupwork with couples in low-income multiproblem neighborhoods. Issues that arise in the training of professionals to do this kind of psychoeducational groupwork in Israel are discussed.