Objectification Theory (Fredrickson & Roberts, Psychology of Women Quarterly, 21:173-206, 1997) postulates that sexual objectification of women and girls in US culture contributes to women's mental health problems indirectly through women's internalization of objectifying experiences or self-objectification. The purpose of this study was to test the model proposed in Objectification Theory as it applies to depression in women. A path analysis revealed that self-objectification decreased with age and led to habitual body monitoring, which led to a reduced sense of flow, greater body shame, and greater appearance anxiety. Less flow, greater body shame, and greater appearance anxiety led to depression. No significant pathways were found for the theorized relationships between the self-objectification measures and internal awareness or between internal awareness and depression. In addition, we provide psychometric support for a newly created multiple-item Flow Scale to assess Csikszentmihalyi's (Flow: The psychology of optimal experience, Harper, New York, 1990) description of the common characteristics of peak motivational states and optimal experience.Feminist theorists have had a profound impact on the field of psychology, particularly with their infusion of the importance of gender, recognition that gender is socially constructed, and focus on the ways that contextual factors impact women's lives and the problems that they bring to therapy. Feminist models of women's psychological distress locate the problem centrally in the culture of patriarchy and encourage therapists to attend to sociocultural factors, such as traditional gender role socialization, objectification experiences, and violence against women, which contribute to women's distress and to the ways that female clients may have internalized negative and limiting sexist attitudes (Brown, 1994;Enns, 2004;Worell & Remer, 2003). Thus, feminist theorists have encouraged mental health therapists to examine the many ways that external and internalized sexism impact women's mental health.A recent development in feminist psychology has been the articulation of Objectification Theory by Fredrickson and Roberts (1997). This theory postulates that girls and women in US society are subjected to pervasive cultural practices (e.g., representations of women in the media, visual inspection of or "gazing" at the female body by some men, and sexual violence) that sexually objectify the female body and treat it as an object that exists for the pleasure of and use by others. The theory posits that sexual objectification of women is likely to contribute to women's mental health problems via two main routes. The first route is insidious and indirect and involves women's internalization of objectifying experiences or self-objectification. The second route is more extreme and direct and involves actual sexual victimization (e.g., rape, sexual assault, and sexual harassment). Fredrickson and Roberts (1997) asserted that as a result of objectification experiences, women inter...

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The authors review counseling in Switzerland and compare it with counseling in the United States. They evaluate the role of professional associations and programs and argue that the evolution of counseling is situated within the history and economic, social, and political systems of Switzerland. Findings suggest that Swiss counselors are ready to reach out, evolve, and learn from mental health professionals around the world and to adopt best practices so as to work with those in need.

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