This study was designed to examine the effects of Experiential Focusing-oriented dream interpretation. The process was twofold. The first part of this study involved a preliminary step of developing an instrument, the Dream Interpretation Effects Questionnaire (DIEQ). The DIEQ assessed specific effects of Experiential Focusing-oriented dream interpretation, e.g., a sense of easing, fresh air, or movement, increased positive energy or self-understanding, development of a new step, enhanced valuation of dreams, or enhanced understanding of the meaning of the dream. Fifty-two adult volunteers participated in the first part of this study. All participants completed Part One of the DIEQ after reporting a dream and freely associating its meaning to another participant. The results were computed to establish the reliability of the DIEQ. The researcher then used the DIEQ along with a structured interview in a pretest-posttest control group design to examine the effects of Experiential Focusing-oriented dream interpretation. Twenty adult volunteers experienced in Experiential Focusing participated in the second part of this study. They were randomly assigned to an experimental group and a waiting-list control group. The experimental participants completed the DIEQ before (pretest) and after (posttest) a 45-minute Experiential Focusing-oriented dream interpretation intervention. By contrast, the control participants completed the …

This study was designed to determine the effectiveness of filial therapy as a method of intervention for non-offending parents and their children who have experienced sexual abuse. Filial therapy is a didactic/dynamic approach used by play therapists to train parents to be therapeutic agents with their children. Parents are taught basic child-centered play therapy skills and the utilization of these skills in weekly play sessions with their children. Parents learn to create a special environment which enhances and strengthens the parent-child relationship, thus assisting in personal growth and change for both the parent and child. The purpose of this study was to determine if filial therapy is effective in: (a) increasing the acceptance of non-offending parents of their sexually abused children; (b) reducing the stress level of non-offending parents; (c) improving empathic behaviors of non-offending parents toward their sexually abused child; (d) decreasing the anxiety of sexually abused children; (e) enhancing the self-concept of sexually abused children; (f) decreasing behavior problems of sexually abused children as reported by their non-offending parents; and (g) enhancing the emotional adjustment of sexually abused children.

Meditation includes a variety of techniques that share a common conscious effort to focus attention in a non-analytic way. In terms of its goals, meditation is a state of completely focused attention devoid of external thoughts--a state of heightened choice-less awareness. This study was designed to: (1) Identify and critically review professional literature on the effectiveness of meditation; (2) Provide an overall measure of effectiveness through the statistical meta-analysis technique; (3) Provide a classification of findings through the voting method; and (4) summarize and integrate highlights and major findings for the purpose of generating implications for future research and practice in counseling and psychotherapy.