Call for papers - Special edition of Counselling Psychology Review focusing on Positive Psychology and Counselling Psychology

Counselling Psychology Review

1^st CALL FOR PAPERS: 2015: 1^st CALL FOR PAPERS: 2015

Special Edition focusing upon POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY and counselling psychology

We would like to dedicate a future edition of Counselling Psychology Review to the above theme. One of the British Psychological Society’s current themes involves a focus on ‘Health and Well-Being’. We encounter these concepts very frequently in our practice settings where they may have become associated with their polar opposites, e.g. ‘health’ if not defined as ‘the absence of illness’ is often a mere euphemism which stands for ‘illness’ (see people’s associations with the term ‘mental health’), and the notion of ‘well-being’ is often brought up when service users in fact appear to suffer from a poor quality of life. The special edition on positive psychology can therefore be seen as a response to the perceived need of making such terms meaningful and useful again.

One of the distinguishing features of counselling psychology internationally has been its emphasis on growth and well-being rather than disease and symptom reduction, on prevention and resilience rather than ‘cure’. However, despite having taken a holistic rather than a reductive and deficiency-based stance towards clients, counselling psychologists increasingly work in medicalised environments which require diagnostic categorisation of specific ‘pathologies’ that are seen to reside within the individual seeking help, thus occluding the developmental and creative potential, the strengths and resources that may be available to the client. Positive psychology as a recent movement within academic psychology, which has its roots in humanistic psychology and is concerned with human flourishing, has attempted to redress this imbalance by focusing its research efforts on neglected areas such as gratitude, forgiveness, empathy and compassion, to name just a few. While some have taken issue with the emphasis on the positive due to not wanting such a focus to become collusive with a tendency to close one’s eyes in the face of life’s inevitable losses and tragedies, it should be stressed that positive psychology does not seek to gloss over grim realities; for example, one particularly fruitful area of positive psychological investigation with direct relevance to clinical work has been that of post-traumatic growth.

With the discipline of counselling psychology increasingly seeking to connect and collaborate at an international level, we believe that positive psychological research and practice constitutes an area of overlap for an international discipline of counselling psychology despite its varied expressions in different parts of the world. We therefore invite submissions in the form of research papers, systematic reviews or theoretical papers from the UK and beyond.

The deadlines that we will aim to work to are as follows:

First draft to be submitted by: 30^th November 2014

Peer review completed by: 31st January 2015

Revisions completed by:  28^th February 2015

Sent to publishers: 1^st April 2015

Please also remember that Counselling Psychology Review is always looking for new papers in line with its inclusion criteria.  This includes original research papers, systematic reviews, case studies (within a research frame) and theoretical articles.  Do feel free to submit these at any time in the year.

All the best and we look forward to hearing from you

Edith Steffen & Terry Hanley

(please email: e.steffen@uel.ac.uk or edith.m.steffen@gmail.com)

Edith Steffen

Paper on schizophrenia in the Journal of Neuroscience - Davide Rivolta

Source-reconstruction of event-related fields reveals hyperfunction and hypofunction of cortical circuits in antipsychotic-naive, first-episode schizophrenia patients during Mooney face processing.

Rivolta D1, Castellanos NP, Stawowsky C, Helbling S, Wibral M, Grützner C, Koethe D, Birkner K, Kranaster L, Enning F, Singer W, Leweke FM, Uhlhaas PJ.

Schizophrenia is characterized by dysfunctions in neural circuits that can be investigated with electrophysiological methods, such as EEG and MEG. In the present human study, we examined event-related fields (ERFs), in a sample of medication-naive, first-episode schizophrenia (FE-ScZ) patients (n ? = 14) and healthy control participants (n ?= 17) during perception of Mooney faces to investigate the integrity of neuromagnetic responses and their experience-dependent modification. ERF responses were analyzed for M100, M170, and M250components at the sensor and source levels. In addition, we analyzed peak latency and adaptation effects due to stimulus repetition. FE-ScZ patients were characterized by significantly impaired sensory processing, as indicated by a reduced discrimination index (A?). At the sensor level, M100 and M170 responses in FE-ScZ were within the normal range, whereas the M250 response was impaired. However, source localization revealed widespread elevated activity for M100 and M170 in FE-ScZ and delayed peak latencies for the M100 and M250 responses. In addition, M170 source activity in FE-ScZ was not modulated by stimulus repetitions. The present findings suggest that neural circuits in FE-ScZ may be characterized by a disturbed balance between excitation and inhibition that could lead to a failure to gate

information flow and abnormal spreading of activity, which is compatible with dysfunctional glutamatergic neurotransmission.

The full paper can be accessed here: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24760850

Davide Rivolta

“Anomalistic Psychology: Exploring paranormal belief and experience" by Chris French and Anna Stone.

Published October 2013.

 

The science behind claims of alien encounters and visions of ghosts can be even more fascinating than the sensationalist headlines. What leads some people to believe in the paranormal? Why might someone think they have been abducted by aliens? And is there any room for superstition in the modern world of science?

Anomalistic Psychology
* Provides a lively and thought-provoking introduction to the psychology underlying paranormal belief and experience
* Covers the latest psychological theories and experiments, and examines the science at the heart of the subject
* Uses a unique approach to apply different psychological perspectives – including clinical, developmental and cognitive approaches – to shed new light on the key debates

Whether you are a psychology student or simply curious about the paranormal, Anomalistic Psychology is the essential introduction to this contested and controversial field. Belief in the paranormal has been reported in every known society since the dawn of time – find out why.

 

For more information visit: http://www.palgrave.com/products/title.aspx?pid=271718

 

Anna Stone

Supporting the Well Being of Girls. An Evidence-based School Programme by Tina Rae and Elizabeth Piggott

This book by Tina Rae (UEL) and Elizabeth Piggott (The Springfield's Academy) is published in June 2014

Supporting the Well being of Girls will provide teachers, psychologists, youth workers and learning mentors with an evidence based approach to the vitally important task of supporting and maintaining the well being of girls. This tried and tested programme offers teachers in upper primary and secondary schools sixteen tailored, expert sessions which engage girls and young women in tackling and addressing some of their key concerns and issues.

Written by hugely experienced educational psychologists, the sessions utilise tools and strategies from a range of therapeutic interventions including cognitive behavioural therapy and positive psychology to provide a safe and nurturing environment in which to consider some sensitive issues and ultimately providing young women with the strength and self-awareness to maintain overall well-being.

Areas covered include:-

Body image and appearance; Bullying; Mental health, anxiety and depression; Relationships; Stereotypes; Self-harm; Stress; Healthy Living

Throughout, clear guidance is offered to teachers on running sessions including, welcome and ground rules, talk time and inviting students to share experiences, ice-breakers, activities and feedback.

For more information visit:
www.routledge.com/9781138015265

Supporting Successful Transition from Primary to Secondary School: A Programme for Teachers, by Tina Rae

This is the first of two books by Tina Rae. This one is published in May 2014.
 
The transition from primary to secondary school is extremely important in the lives of children and young people but it is also a time of significant stress for many.

This unique programme is designed to support children during this process, helping to build the confidence, skills and the resources that they will need in order to ensure a smooth and successful transition. This accessible text provides teachers, parents and professionals working with young people with a comprehensive range of resources to effectively support this process, and also:
 

• promotes the development of resilient children and young people who can cope effectively with the process of change

• encourage pupil participation and ensure that well-being is further fostered and maintained both for young people and staff within the learning context

• includes specific strategies, techniques and ideas regarding the transition process including systems and individualised approaches

• helps young people to visualise success, manage strong and complex emotions, cope with stress and anxiety, problem solve difficult situations, recognise their own signature strengths and build upon these through a series of activities and problem based learning opportunities.

The programme itself also makes use of solution-focused approaches, motivational interviewing techniques, cognitive behaviour therapy strategies and a range of ideas and techniques taken from positive psychology and resilience theory. The wealth of resources offered here make this programme unique and engaging, and will be particularly useful to those who support children with SEN and higher levels of vulnerability.

For more information visit:
www.routledge.com/9780415731652

Tina Rae

Masculinity, Meditation, and Mental Health by Tim Lomas

'Masculinity, Meditation, and Mental Health (http://www.palgrave.com/products/title.aspx?pid=675073).

It is said that men are ‘in crisis,’ blighted by the adverse effects of corrosive masculine norms ranging from emotional disconnection to aggression. Consequently, with men in considerable ‘trouble’ relative to their female counterparts – from higher levels of suicide, alcoholism and violence to poorer health and educational outcomes – the question of how to help men ‘change’ is a pressing one for society. This book offers one possible solution, as it shows how one group of men learned to overcome their masculine inheritance by taking up meditation. Here we follow their difficult but ultimately rewarding life journeys as they sought and found an elusive sense of wellbeing. The book interweaves these personal narratives with the very latest research and theory at the intersection of gender and mental health, together with practical recommendations for those working with men (and indeed for men themselves). The result is a powerful account of the potential for men to change and to lead lives that are more conducive to wellbeing.

Tim Lomas

Personal Consultancy, by Nash Popovic and Debra Jinks (Routledge 2013)

Making the case for an integrated approach to the practices of counselling, psychotherapy and coaching, Personal Consultancy provides a coherent and systematic framework for working with clients. Nash Popovic and Debra Jinks use their experience in the area of integrative practice to demonstrate how this wider approach can be a more comprehensive way of helping clients than coaching or counselling on its own. The authors explain how a range of techniques and approaches from various one-to-one practices can be brought together under the framework of Personal Consultancy, creating a method that is systematic, ethical and professional but not limited by any particular theoretical bias or preconceptions. With chapters by guest authors who discuss their perspectives on the approach and its application across various contexts, Personal Consultancy demonstrates that it is possible to combine the reparative work normally associated with counselling with the more proactive, goal-oriented approach of coaching. The result is a framework that allows clients to have their counselling and their coaching needs met within one relationship and that allows the practitioner more flexibility and freedom than when using a single approach.

Personal Consultancy is one of the core texts for the UEL based PostGraduate Certificate in Integrative Counselling and Coaching, the first programme of its kind in the world!

Nash Popovic