Psychology

Inappropriate touch cases have sparked public outcry and made headlines, but a discussion on the importance and ethics of positive, caring, appropriate touch in the helping professions such as teaching, nursing and counselling is long overdue. Touch may well be one of the least understood or talked about subjects in the helping professions. A discussion on the importance and ethics of positive, caring, and appropriate touch in professions such as teaching, nursing and counselling is long overdue.

Touch in the Helping Professions delivers just that, weaving together scholarly evidence, research and clinical practice from a wide range of perspectives encompassing philosophy, theology, psychology, and anthropology to challenge assumptions about the role of touch in the helping professions. The contributors to the volume focus not only on the overarching roles of gender, age, culture and life experience, but go beyond to encompass canine-assisted therapy, touch deprivation, sacred objects, as well as key ethical considerations. The prevailing lack of dialogue, due to fear of contravening ethical boundaries, has stood in the way of an open and responsible discussion on the use of touch in therapy.

Touch in the Helping Professions is a welcome and much needed contribution to the field—a window onto a fundamental need.

Published in English.

There is a self-help industry built on the notion of becoming the person “we were meant to be,” but what is the self at the core of such striving?

The Evolved Self: Mapping an Understanding of Who We Are answers this fundamental question by drawing on philosophy, psychology, various cultural traditions, and original research. The resultant method of mapping the self may revolutionize psychotherapy. The self, which is core to such concepts as self-esteem and self-actualization, is mapped using elemental units of culture called memes. To understand this self, we draw on Western philosophy, major schools of psychology, and the cross-cultural experience of the self in both collectivist and individualist cultures. With this grounding a diverse sample of eleven selves representing three genders are mapped, analyzed, and grouped in the following clusters:

1) North American selves built through participation in sports;
2) Selves centred on notions of North American aboriginality;
3) Selves of individuals following a secular humanist paradigm; and
4) Selves from China and Russia.

Two methods of self-mapping are described. The results support a hypothesis that a healthy or functional self is composed of fundamental elements including constancy, volition, uniqueness, productivity, intimacy, and social interest. The application of this research and the method of self-mapping to counselling and psychotherapy are explored. A disciplinary paradigm is proposed uniting major schools of psychotherapy. This work will be of interest to philosophers, psychologists, social workers, sociologists and all who have wondered how they come to define themselves in the ways that they do.

There is a self-help industry built on the notion of becoming the person “we were meant to be,” but what is the self at the core of such striving?

The Evolved Self: Mapping an Understanding of Who We Are answers this fundamental question by drawing on philosophy, psychology, various cultural traditions, and original research. The resultant method of mapping the self may revolutionize psychotherapy. The self, which is core to such concepts as self-esteem and self-actualization, is mapped using elemental units of culture called memes. To understand this self, we draw on Western philosophy, major schools of psychology, and the cross-cultural experience of the self in both collectivist and individualist cultures. With this grounding a diverse sample of eleven selves representing three genders are mapped, analyzed, and grouped in the following clusters:

1) North American selves built through participation in sports;
2) Selves centred on notions of North American aboriginality;
3) Selves of individuals following a secular humanist paradigm; and
4) Selves from China and Russia.

Two methods of self-mapping are described. The results support a hypothesis that a healthy or functional self is composed of fundamental elements including constancy, volition, uniqueness, productivity, intimacy, and social interest. The application of this research and the method of self-mapping to counselling and psychotherapy are explored. A disciplinary paradigm is proposed uniting major schools of psychotherapy. This work will be of interest to philosophers, psychologists, social workers, sociologists and all who have wondered how they come to define themselves in the ways that they do.

Face à une augmentation marquée des symptômes d’anxiété et de dépression chez les étudiants, il devient impérieux de disposer d’outils concrets, validés à partir de données probantes, permettant une intervention efficace, ciblée et différenciée. Si la transition aux études postsecondaire se révèle une étape positive pour plusieurs, de plus en plus d’étudiants vivent des problèmes de santé mentale qui interfèrent avec leur réussite scolaire. Le programme de prévention Zenétudes: vivre sainement la transition au collège est destiné aux étudiants vivant la transition postsecondaire et vise à favoriser la persévérance scolaire, à prévenir l’anxiété et la dépression par l’enseignement d’habiletés de protection. Le programme comprend trois volets. Le premier, celui de la prévention universelle, qui est offert en classe par des enseignants, vise le développement des connaissances sur la santé mentale et la transition postsecondaire. Le deuxième, celui de la prévention ciblée sélective, est offert sous la forme de deux ateliers visant la gestion de l’anxiété et la prévention de la dépression à des sous-groupes d’étudiants auto-référés. Le troisième volet est celui de la prévention ciblée indiquée. Il comprend 10 rencontres en groupe de six à dix participants qui présentent des symptômes cliniques d'anxiété et ou de dépression et qui sont animées par deux professionnels en santé mentale. Le programme comprend 15 composantes.