Paul R. Peluso

Latino Families: The Relevance of the Connection Among Acculturation, Family Dynamics, and Health for Family Counseling Research and Practice

Acculturation is a central experience for Latinos in the United States. In this article, the authors define acculturation and address its evolution from a unidimensional to a multidimensional construct. Also, the authors present central dynamics of the Latino culture and to Latino families before they address the manner in which acculturation relates to selected health indices. Last, the authors present the family as a mediator between acculturation and health for Latinos.

Closing the Achievement Gap of Latina/Latino Students: A School Counseling Response

This article addresses the achievement gap of Latina/Latino students and evaluates the impact of a Spanish culturally translated classroom program, delivered by bilingual/bicultural school counselors in five 45-min lessons and three booster lessons. Latina/o limited English proficient (LEP) students in Grades 4 and 5 from three schools were assigned to treatment (n = 62) and comparison (n = 94) groups. A quasi-experimental, nonequivalent control group design was used. Significant improvement in reading and math, as measured by standardized tests, were found for students who received the treatment as compared to those who did not. This resulted in a reading and math effect size (ES) of .37.

The Impact of Student Success Skills on Standardized Test Scores A Meta-Analysis

This meta-analysis investigates the practical significance of the Student Success Skills (SSS) program on student achievement. Each study involved the SSS intervention, math and reading scores, at least one treatment and comparison group, and a certified school counselor. The sample involved students (n = 1,279) in Grades 4, 5, 6, 8, and 9. Overall effect sizes for math (.41), reading (.17), and the SSS program (.29) were determined. New guidelines for interpreting the results are introduced.

A mathematical model of psychotherapy: an investigation using dynamic non-linear equations to model the therapeutic relationship.

Abstract Mathematical models, such as the one developed by Gottman et al. (1998, 2000, 2002) to understand the interaction between husbands and wives, can provide novel insights into the dynamics of the therapeutic relationship. A set of nonlinear equations were used to model the changing emotional state of a therapist and client. The results suggest: (1) The person that is most responsive to the other achieves the most positive state, (2) the emotional state of the client oscillates before reaching its final state, (3) therapy is least successful when the therapist starts from a negative state, and (4) there is an inverse relationship between models that change only the influence parameter and models that change only the inertia parameter, creating a series of four basic models to work with. These theoretical models require further, empirical investigation to test the derived parameters. If validated, or revised based on observations of therapist-client relationships in development, they could provide specific direction in creating successful therapeutic relationships for training clinicians and those already in practice.

Using Individual Psychology Concepts to Compare Family Systems Processes and Organizational Behavior

The authors provide a conceptual framework based on the principles of individual psychology and family systems theory for understanding important aspects of organizational behavior. The discussion includes individual and group behavior and addresses the similarities between the organization and the family as a system, leadership and parenting, employees and siblings in the family constellation, and corporate culture and family atmosphere. In addition, issues with regard to rules, regulations, and methods of child training, along with the similarities between problem employee and the identified patient in the family, are discussed. The authors attempt to integrate practical applications of this model in a variety of organizational settings.

Understanding Infidelity: Pitfalls and Lessons for Couples Counselors

Infidelity is a serious problem with serious consequences for couples and creates substantial obstacles for couples counselors. At the same time, it is the most often cited reason that couples come for counseling. The good news is that couples counselors can be effective in these areas, but not without understanding the emotional, mental, and physical complexity of infidelity. Unfortunately, many couples counselors do not feel adequately prepared to handle the subject of infidelity. There are several “pitfalls” into which counselors commonly fall. By understanding the relevant research on the effectiveness of couples counseling approaches and paying attention to a counselors own personal reactions, a practitioner can help couples navigate the difficult, painful emotions that stem from infidelity.

The Ethical Genogram: A Tool for Helping Therapists Understand their Ethical Decision-Making Styles

The purpose of this article is to address the underlying emotional factors that contribute to therapists’ difficulties in making decisions in accordance with ethical codes as well as introduce a mechanism for assessing the family-of-origin dynamics that shape therapists’ ethical decision-making processes. The ethical genogram can allow therapists to gain insights into the emotionally driven forces that can lead to difficulty making tough ethical decisions. Using the ethical genogram may help guide supervisees as they wrestle with ethical questions and develop their ethical decision-making skills. Suggestions for using the ethical genogram in training and supervision are included.

Expanding the Use of the Ethical Genogram: Incorporating the Ethical Principles to Help Clarify Counselors’ Ethical Decision-Making Styles

Although it was originally conceived to tap into the intuitive-level of the ethical decision-making process, as outlined by Kitchener, the ethical genogram developed by Peluso (2003) can also illuminate how counselors (particularly couples and family counselors) operate on the more conscious, critical-evaluative level. As a result, two exercises were developed for supervisors or trainers to use as an adjunct to the ethical genogram, to tap into the counselor’s priorities regarding the ethical principles of beneficence, nonmalfeasance, justice, autonomy, and fidelity. The first exercise lists the definitions of the values, and the second exercise uses brief clinical vignettes that exemplify a dilemma related to the ethical values. A case example is provided to further illustrate the uses of these exercises with the ethical genogram.

Evidence-Based Psychological Practices and Therapist Training At the Crossroads

Fundamentally, counseling and therapies of all species are intimate, humanistic encounters between sufferers and healers. A variety of societal impingements on practitioners (e.g., the need to contain burgeoning health care costs via “sustainable growth rates,” limitations on the number of treatment sessions authorized by managed care companies, increasing government regulations, ethical standards, hundreds of “schools” of psychotherapy espousing efficacy) and a growing body of supportive research have resulted in an increased attention to and demand for the use of evidence-based psychological practices that can potentially undermine the fundamental underpinnings of counseling and psychotherapy. This article proposes that care and caution need to be exercised in the rush to evidence-based psychological practices as a “solution” to the concerns noted. In turn, what is advocated in helping others to become effective and compassionate practitioners is a need for an organizing principle, that is, specifically teaching/learning to think in nonlinear ways in conjunction with already well-established empirically determined common factor principles of effective treatment.

Dynamical Analysis of Therapist-Client Interactions

Dynamic nonlinear mathematical equations allow investigators to deeply understand complex systems that are apt to change. They can be used to determine the stable steady states or points of homeostasis within the system (i.e., the relationship). These steady states function as an anchor that brings the system back to homeostasis if the system is perturbed or if it has been moved away from homeostasis by a force. Liebovitch and his associates (Liebovitch et al., 2008) modified Gottman’s dynamic nonlinear equations to study the dynamics of conflicts between two parties (which could be individuals or groups). They determined how the dynamics of such conflicts and their emergent properties depended on the actions of each person. Our modeling of the therapeutic relationship constitutes a concrete extension of these results to a different social interaction. In this chapter, we will outline an ongoing research project (described in some detail in the previous chapter) that employs mathematical modeling to discover what underlies a successful therapeutic relationship. We will then discuss, through the use of case studies, the issues related to the parameters generated, the graphical displays of the derived models, and the indices of model fit. Specifically, we present three therapy sessions from two separate case studies to illustrate the mathematical modeling, the difference in the model parameters, and a graphical representation of each.