The COVID‐19 pandemic brings to light many areas the field of counselling and psychotherapy may need to address in future research. We outline several issues stemming from or exacerbated by the pandemic and offer suggestions for future research to address the mental health needs of those impacted. Our suggestions focus on five domains: (a) the health and well‐being of helping professionals, (b) the infodemic, (c) discrimination and minority stress, (d) spiritual and existential dynamics in mental health and (e) couple and family stress and resilience. We aim to provide a multi‐systemic perspective of mental health and well‐being in the time of COVID‐19, as well as encourage current and future studies to incorporate these suggestions to advance the health and well‐being of our communities through evidence‐based treatment approaches.
Emerging adulthood seems to be a period of not only heightened risk for mental health symptoms, but also growth toward greater well‐being. Mental health disorders are highest among adults ages 18 to 29 years, yet emerging adults are unlikely to access treatment. However, emerging adults can also experience gains in life satisfaction and interpersonal functioning, and mental health treatment for emerging adults tends to reduce symptoms. This dialectic of risk and growth has prompted a call for a specialty clinical practice focused on emerging adults and highlights a need for treatment effectiveness research that examines symptoms and well‐being. We examined the influence of risk variables on change in a sample of emerging adult clients (N = 187; mean age = 25.82 years; 62.0% female; 75.9% White). Results provide evidence of improvement, conditioned by risk variables. Implications included integrating distinct interventions to reduce symptoms and promote well‐being and addressing intra‐ and interpersonal processes associated with positive development.
The virtue of humility and the construct of differentiation have shown protective influences against narcissism among religious leaders. Our cross-sectional study tested a moderated mediation model of these protective influences on a hypothesized negative narcissismwell-being association, and negative spiritual grandiosity-well-being association. Our sample consisted of clergy candidates (N = 75; M age = 35 years; 70% male; 90% White) receiving psychological assessment services as a part of their vocational training. Our results largely supported the proposed moderated mediation model, with evidence of protective influences for humility and differentiation. The results showed that greater humility lessened the negative influence of narcissism on well-being via differentiation and that greater humility conditioned the direct association such that greater spiritual grandiosity predicted greater well-being. Implications of the findings center on the importance of assessing character strengths and intra-and interpersonal affect regulation capacity, or differentiation, among clergy candidates, and we highlight the need for continued research on client humility.
A widely cited but poorly supported idea in the couples therapy field is that the average couple waits six years before starting therapy for serious relationship problems. This figure is often accompanied by the notion that many couples come “too late” and have poor prospects for recovery. This is the first large‐sample study on the delay between the onset of serious marital problems and entry into couples therapy (N = 270) and individual therapy (N = 101) for relationship problems. We found an average interval of 2.68 years from onset of problems and entering couples therapy, with the great majority of couples entering therapy within two years. Findings were similar for seeking individual therapy for relationship problems. The main clinical implication is that therapists have little reason to be pessimistic about the majority of couples waiting so long before starting therapy that their problems are not resolvable.
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