The purpose of this study was to explore the various animal assisted interventions mental health professionals incorporate in the therapeutic treatment process, as well as the various therapeutic purposes intended with each technique. Participants were recruited from animal assisted therapy related databases. Participants included professionals who practiced in the mental health field. Thirty one participants qualified for the study. A survey was developed based on information found reviewing literature related to animal assisted therapy. Nineteen animal assisted therapy techniques and ten therapeutic intentions were identified from a review of the literature. Participants were asked to rate on a Likert scale how often they incorporated each technique in their treatment process. Additionally, participants were asked to identify which therapeutic purposes they intended with each technique. Results indicated participants incorporated a variety of animal assisted techniques for various therapeutic intentions. Results indicated seven animal assisted techniques were incorporated by more than 50% of the participants. Building rapport in the therapeutic relationship was the most common therapeutic intention reported with a variety of animal assisted techniques.

The purpose of this study was to investigate student preferences for content, timing, and method of informed consent within counselor education programs. Participants included 115 students enrolled in counseling internship courses at six counseling programs accredited by the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP). Participants completed the Informed Consent Preferences Questionnaire (ICPQ), an instrument designed specifically for this study through systematic instrumentation development. Descriptive statistics highlighted participants' moderate to high ratings of perceived importance for an array of suggested content pieces for student informed consent. Participants varied among themselves and between items in relation to preferred timing of informed consent, and they consistently reported a desire for student informed consent to be facilitated through a combination of both oral and written methods. Results of exploratory factor analysis revealed a simple eight-factor structure within the ICPQ and suggested strong internal reliability. Correlations for participant scale scores for the eight factors revealed a variety of small to medium correlations. Results from t-test and one-way analysis of variances (ANOVA) indicated that participant preferences did not vary according to demographic variables. Finally, participants' qualitative responses revealed high levels of support for student informed consent. Findings of this study may aid …

This study examined the effectiveness of training low income Black American parents in child parent relationship therapy (CPRT). In response to the cultural values and challenges faced by low income Black American parents, the CPRT manual was adapted slightly for use with parents for this study. In this quasi-experimental design, 14 parents were assigned to the experimental group and 13 parents were assigned to the no treatment control group. Six hypotheses were analyzed. Different analyses were conducted based on the hypotheses. A two-factor repeated measures analysis of variance and analysis of covariance were conducted to determine if the CPRT treatment and the no treatment control group performed differently across time according to pretest and posttest results of the Child Behavior Checklist - Parent Version (CBCL) and the Parenting Stress Index (PSI). Additionally, partial η2 was calculated to determine practical significance. Five hypotheses were retained at the .025 level of significance. Findings indicated that parents who participated in the CPRT training reported a statistically significant decrease in parent-child relationship stress. Specifically, parents assigned to the experimental group demonstrated a statistically significant decrease in Child Domain (p < .001), Parent Domain (p < .001), and Total Stress (p < .001) of the …

This quasi-experimental study examined the effects of child-parent relationship therapy (CPRT) with low income first generation immigrant Hispanic parents. Forty-eight parents were randomly assigned by school site to the experimental group (n=24) and to the no treatment control group (n=24). A two factor (Time x Group) repeated measures analysis of variance was performed to examine the effects of group membership (experimental, control) and time (pretest, posttest) on each of the six hypotheses. Dependent variables for the Spanish version of the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) included Externalizing Problems, Internalizing Problems, and Total Problems. Dependent variables for the Spanish version of the Parenting Stress Index (PSI) included Child Domain, Parent Domain, and Total Stress. Results indicated that from pre-test to post-test, parents who participated in the CPRT treatment group reported a statistically significant improvement on their children's behaviors at the alpha .025 level (Internalizing Problems p< .001; Externalizing Problems p< .001; Total Problems p<.001) when compared to children whose parents did not participate in CPRT. Partial eta squared (ηp2) further indicated that the effects of CPRT treatment on the experimental group compared to the control group from pre-test to post-test was large (ηp2 = .56; ηp2 = .59; and ηp2 = .68, …