The Puzzling Metaphor: Teaching General Systems Theory to Marriage and Family Therapy Trainees

This article aims to connect the general systems theory (GST) principle of Holism and structural family therapy (SFT) to highlight commonalities between theories. This article will discuss primary concepts, family development, symptomology, process of change, and techniques of SFT in order to provide a basic overview of the theory. In an effort to provide a means for teaching marriage and family therapist trainees, an innovative strategy using metaphor will be introduced. The Puzzling Metaphor symbolizes the systems concept of holism in a visual representation coupled with SFT’s concepts and techniques to concurrently learn principles of both models.

Trainees’ Cultural Humility and Implicit Associations about Clients and Religious, Areligious, and Spiritual Identities: A Mixed-Method Investigation

Therapists’ cultural humility is associated with stronger client–therapist working relationships, though therapist trainees’ cultural humility toward clients of diverse religious, areligious, or spiritual (RAS) backgrounds is unknown. This is compounded by a lack of systemic training in RAS diversity within clinical and counseling psychology programs. The current, mixed-method pilot study ( N = 10) explored psychotherapy trainees’ self-reported and implicit attitudes (via Implicit Association Tasks) toward RAS diversity in clients, and then used a focus group to explore whether trainee responses to feedback about their implicit attitudes imbued themes of cultural humility that supervisors and educators could use as discussion points to heighten cultural humility and responsiveness in trainees. There was no association between trainees’ self-reported and implicit RAS attitudes; participant responses revealed cultural humility themes, including receptivity and openness to feedback (i.e., their levels of implicit attitudes toward RAS groups).

An Exploratory Study of Death Anxiety and Trainees' Choice of Theoretical Orientation

This study investigated the association between therapist-trainees' death anxiety and their preference for “objective” (i.e., quantitative and rational) over “subjective” (i.e., experiential and symbolic) theoretical orientations. In this correlational investigation, 303 clinical psychology and counseling trainees at a Midwestern school of professional psychology completed instruments assessing their fear of personal death and their endorsement of superordinate dimensions of psychotherapy orientations. As hypothesized, trainees who reported higher levels of death anxiety displayed a stronger preference for objective over subjective orientations, a relationship that was found in post-hoc analyses to be particularly salient for male trainees. These findings suggest that trainees' death anxiety, and their attempts to control it, could influence their choice of a theoretical orientation. Potential implications for training institutions are discussed.

An Exploratory Study of Death Anxiety and Trainees' Choice of Theoretical Orientation

This study investigated the association between therapist trainees' death anxiety and their preference for “objective” (i.e., quantitative and rational) over “subjective” (i.e., experiential and symbolic) theoretical orientations. In this correlational investigation, 303 clinical psychology and counseling trainees at a Midwestern school of professional psychology completed instruments assessing their fear of personal death and their endorsement of superordinate dimensions of psychotherapy orientations. As hypothesized, trainees who reported higher levels of death anxiety displayed a stronger preference for objective over subjective orientations, a relationship that was found in post hoc analyses to be particularly salient for male trainees. These findings suggest that trainees' death anxiety, and their attempts to control it, could influence their choice of a theoretical orientation. Potential implications for training institutions are discussed.