Jon Amundson

The family law system requires change to improve family outcomes, and the operationalization of therapeutic jurisprudence may be part of the solution. In this paper, the authors propose The Confluent Family Law Model, which realigns mental health professionals with the court to utilize their expertise better, mitigate problems with child custody ev...

It has been 14 years since Tippins and Wittmann (2005) voiced concern for the overreaching role the expert may play in matters of family law. This article sets their levels of inference within the context of the culture of both law and social science. We examine how inferences are impacted by the relative emphasis child custody experts give to the...

While much has been made of the value of Buddhist mindfulness in clinical treatment, little attention has been given over to its parallels, if not antecedents in Hindu philosophy. Buddhist traditions in the vipassana, ch’an and zen tradition, and the practices associated, find their roots in Advaita philosophy and practice. This article looks at th...

That “there is no gathering of roses without risking the thorns” might be the simplest way to think of the paradox of relationship. Risk regulation as psychological mechanism minimizes rejection (thorns) and maximizes assurance (roses). In the article, the social psychology of risk regulation is set in the context of divorce and high-conflict paren...

Despite the growing interest on making clinical practice accountable, research on how specific components of professional competence are relevant in actual training/supervision practice is as yet unspecified. This study explores this dynamic aspect of professional supervision. Three supervisory dyads, composed by an experienced supervisor and a doc...

The self-wounds model of anxiety disorders based on the work of Wolfe (2005, 2006) is delineated here. The focal point of this model is the concept of wounded self or early unresolved emotional injuries. According to this view, anxiety disorders represent a chronic struggle with painful experiences. These emotional experiences are driven by two int...

While concern for the “wounds” of the patient are paramount in clinical practice, there is both historical and contemporary literature on wounding in the professional. In what follows, these perspectives are presented. Issues related to transference/counter-transference, the “wounded healer,” vicarious traumatization, nocebo potential in informed c...

We examine the ethics of licensed mental health professionals accepting the authority inherent in binding arbitration when acting as parenting coordinators (PCs). PCs execute their duties under the umbrella of their professional identity and standards of practice. Fundamental differences exist in how the law and the behavioral sciences conceive hum...

This article describes cognitive hypnotherapy (CH), an integrative treatment that provides an evidence-based framework for synthesizing clinical practice and research. CH combines hypnotherapy with cognitive-behavior therapy in the management of emotional disorders. This blended version of clinical practice meets criteria for an assimilative model...

Integration, assimilation, and the overreaching concept of eclecticism have become attractive modes of thinking about models of psychotherapy and treatment. In this paper the current models of psychotherapy integration are briefly reviewed and the best fit model for integrating hypnotherapy with cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) is described. Becau...

Hypnosis is attempting to come to grips with the EST (Empirically Supported Therapy) revolution in mental health practice. However, there are ways to account for outcome outside of simple empirical validation of treatment models. In this light, strategic eclecticism as a broader research-based consideration is used to illustrate empirical principle...

This paper briefly surveys the trend of and controversy surrounding empirical validation in psychotherapy. Empirical validation of hypnotherapy has paralleled the practice of validation in psychotherapy and the professionalization of clinical psychology, in general. This evolution in determining what counts as evidence for bona fide clinical practi...

There is an ongoing discussion regarding the role of psychologists in child custody relative to clinical vs. investigative roles. The issues revolve around how expansive or how limited a professional might be in addressing the concerns of families, adults and children in high conflict custody cases. In the article, the investigative or more maximal...

Empirically supported therapy (EST) has become a major focus and trend for mental health practice. When hypnosis is involved, this may mean satisfying a standard that is entirely too narrow in its emphasis. In this article "efficacy"-based research in clinical practice is contrasted with "effectiveness" -focused research, and they are discussed fro...

Narrative psychotherapy was developed to question traditional, essentialist, foundational epistemologies of clinical practice. However, the very practices it sought to take on may be sneaking in through the back door. Narrative however might escape historical tendencies of reification and dominance. In fact these tendencies are only a slight miscue...

The development of therapeutic models, and theoretical apparatus to justify such, is the perennial practice in psychotherapy. In what follows, an argument is made against this tradition in regards to narrative therapy. In place of specified practices presumed useful or “correct,” we advocate for the primacy of utility. Instead of “getting it right,...

Child custody evaluation poses particular challenges for the forensic psychologist. Perhaps nowhere else are clinical boundaries so blurred and issues at law so easily confused with psychological provenance. Psychologists regularly err on the side of over-involvement in custody cases. A "minimalist" approach is outlined which emphasizes not only et...

Grief is a complex, compelling, and profound life experience that is a normal and healthy response to the death of a significant other. Personal experiences of grief, when juxtaposed against the cultural and health care discourses that see grief as a process that eventually results in a resolution characterized by the absence of grieffeelings, can...

In place of aesthetic, essentialist, or foundational pursuits, family therapy might be better served by simply seeking to be helpful. Within such a perspective, ideas are valued/embraced for their functionality and utility. In the following essay, a critical discussion concerning this pragmatic emphasis is undertaken with illustrative clinical case...

The boundaries for the profession that ethical codes describe are contrasted with the appreciation of multiple perspectives and a-foundational positions of postmodernism. Instead of providing clear answers to all dilemmas that therapists might encounter, ethics are better understood as a commitment to struggle between competing desires and intentio...

The article describes a no-fee, single-session, walk-in counselling service in which client families gain immediate access to systemically trained therapists. This service seems to fit our “fast food” culture; it creates an opportunity for professionals to be accessible to high need families at moments in time that the families choose. This immedia...

Suggests that there is a danger that postmodernist clinical practice is being encroached on by modernist ideas and this is reflected in the application of these modernist ideas to clinical practice. The danger of these modernist ideas in therapeutic settings lies in their emphasis on correctness and certainty. However, therapy is best accomplished...

In our search for guiding principles out of which to conduct therapy, we encounter two temptations: temptations of power and certainty. When therapists do not adequately account for the position of our clients, we fall prey to the temptation of certainty. When we attempt to impose corrections from such certainty, we fall victim to the temptation of...

Borrowing much from family systems therapy, mediation might be better served through the more direct explication provided by “cybernetic explanation.” As a pragmatic, process-oriented way of appreciating change, cybernetic explanation is a different way of seeing the mediation process. This “seeing” provides a basis for alternative approaches and a...

Discusses negotiations in the opening phase of family therapy and potential problems that are encountered in defining the presenting problem. The importance of this phase of therapy is reviewed in terms of a potential "battle for definition" of the problem between therapist, family members, and referring agencies. The dangers of too quickly embraci...

In this paper, the phenomenon of therapist stuckness is addressed and related to the experience of hypnotic induction. A case example illustrates how efforts were made through the supervision process to counter-induce the therapist. Robotization (Schwartz, Liddle, and Breunlin, 1988) (i.e., supervisee responding to exact requests of the supervision...

As part of the current revival of interest in the experiential and integrative possibilities of the Adult ego state the work of Otto Rank is examined. Particular attention is paid to his concept of will as the directing dimension of the personality. Each ego state may be understood as organizing and integrating itself for an appropriate expression...

Cooperative education in the liberal arts has a history, is triving in the present, and can look to a promising future. However, in order to move beyond the traditional concepts and classical models, postsecondary liberal arts institutions not only will have to look to present models and experimental formats, but also will have to assess their own...