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Results are mixed for relationship education (RE) interventions with low-income couples. For couples who experienced positive changes, it is not clear what aspects of program models contributed to change. Many low-income couples attend government-funded RE with limited access to social and community resources. Program models often provide related resources complimentary to RE skill-building. We examined the relationship between income, social support, and family functioning for low-income, ethnically diverse couples (N = 856) who attended RE, as well as the mediating effects of social support on family functioning outcomes. Analyses included three separate dyadic models that examined associations among constructs at baseline and immediately following the RE intervention. Results demonstrated relationships between participants' reported social support and family functioning such that (a) social support was associated with baseline family functioning for both men and women; (b) men's baseline social support was influenced by women's baseline family functioning; and (c) men's and women's social support change score had a positive influence on their own family functioning change score. However, social support was not a significant mediator of change in family functioning. Implications for RE practice and research are also discussed.

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Counsellors who work with children exhibiting externalised behaviours may struggle to maintain therapeutic presence. Challenging client behaviours may trigger countertransference, thus influencing counsellors' presence in session. In this study, we examined the experiences of beginning counsellors working with children who exhibit externalised behaviours in counselling sessions. We used thematic analysis and identified six emergent themes related to countertransference. K E Y W O R D S countertransference, externalised behaviours, children Carolina. She is a clinically licensed, trauma-focused therapist and supervisor with specializations in child sexual trauma treatment and parenting support interventions. Her research interests include trauma-focused clinical supervision, child trauma treatment, counselor wellness, and child abuse prevention.

Government‐supported relationship education has provided resources for inclusion of economically vulnerable and ethnically diverse participants; however, many grantees and programs struggled to retain couples in longitudinal studies, which has likely influenced study effects and threatened internal validity. In the present study, we assessed 1,056 couples’ baseline relationship satisfaction and intent‐to‐attend their next scheduled visit while participating in a randomized controlled trial of relationship education and evaluated the predictive ability of their responses to remain in the six‐month study. We conducted actor‐partner interdependence models for couples, using a probit cross‐lagged regression with a structural equation modeling framework, to test the dyadic influence of intent‐to‐attend on future couple attendance. We also examined the influence of higher or lower baseline relationship satisfaction between partners and group assignment (treatment or wait‐list control) on attendance. Intent‐to‐attend scores were associated with attendance for couples at the one‐month follow‐up, and early attendance was the biggest predictor of later attendance. Additionally, baseline intent‐to‐attend scores predicted later intent‐to‐attend scores for all follow‐up time points. However, we found no partner effects, and no effects for the influence of baseline relationship satisfaction or group assignment. We discuss practical suggestions for including intent‐to‐attend in future studies, relationship education programming, and general therapy practice.

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Counselor discomfort with sex can impede couple growth during the therapeutic process. As couples address multifaceted problems during therapy, counselors should be prepared to professionally discuss a couple’s sexuality during the therapeutic process. As such, the continued taboo surrounding the discussion of sex may illicit embarrassment or nondisclosure of the sexual difficulties by the individual or couple, or worse, be ignored completely by the counselor. Therefore, counselor self-efficacy of sexual topics requires continued analysis within the literature and clinical practice. Thus, the focus of this article is to bridge the gap between counselor sexual discomfort and building self-efficacy of sexual topics through the use of practical strategies (i.e., assessments and interventions) to use in treatment by (a) presenting an overview of literature on sexual perspectives of counselors that inhibit therapeutic discussion of sexuality in the counseling environment, (b) highlighting therapeutic lenses of sexuality that assist in understanding how sexual problems positively and/or negatively impact clients while promoting healthy communication between the counselor and client, (c) providing evidence for the use of sexually based assessments to assist counselors in the development of sexual conversations in treatment, and (d) presenting a brief overview of treatment methods for sexual problems. Implications for practice and research are discussed.

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