Examples of Papers Presented at the Oxford Symposium

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A Procedural Model for Assessment and Treatment Within School-Based Family Counseling |
written by Michael J. Carter, Ph.D. and William P. Evans, Ph.D.
This paper provides a detailed description of a procedural model for assessment and treatment in School-Based Family Counseling first discussed in a paper by Evans and Carter (1997). This model involves identification of critical issues within the school and family systems that affect the academic, personal and social development of children. These issues are then addressed through prevention and postvention activities with school staff, parents and children. Prevention activities focus on addressing critical issues through large group meetings with teachers, staff, parents and students. Postvention activities typically focus on addressing individual students' developmental and behavioral issues by first attempting to maximize collaboration between the school and family systems that most influence a child's life. A structured interview format is presented that provides a procedure for assessing the involvement and viewpoints of teachers, parents, and students. This then leads to concrete interventions to be implemented within both the school and family systems. A critical component of this model is a decision-tree that helps prioritize interventions for school counselors or school psychologists to implement depending on the assessment of the degree of parental and teacher involvement. (351K)

An Integration of Psychodynamic, Cognitive-Behavioral and Systems Approaches to School-Based Family Counseling: A Clinical Case Study | written by Salome Dineros, Psy.D.
Working in a school-based setting presents several challenges that are distinct from working in an outpatient setting. School-based settings require greater role flexibility and pose challenges to maintaining the frame, boundaries and confidentiality of treatment. In a school-based setting several treatment approaches need to be considered and integrated in order to deliver appropriate and effective treatment services to students. This paper aims to analyze several emotional, cognitive and behavioral patterns manifested by a severe emotionally disturbed (SED) adolescent using an integrative approach of psychodynamic, cognitive-behavioral and family systems approaches. (206K)

Mapping Assets in School-Based Family Counseling | written by Irma Eloff, Ph.D.
This paper starts by comparing the asset-based approach to school-based family counseling and intervention with the needs-based approach. I argue that the asset-based approach offers a nascent opportunity for educational psychologists to approach their practice and school-based family counseling in a reflective, constructive way in the 21st century. The paper unpacks the constructs of the needs-based approach and the constructs of the asset-based approach, in order to illuminate the residual effects of the dominance of the needs-based approach during the previous century, and the constructive potential inherent to the asset-based approach. The paper then concludes by providing two short vignettes of case studies where the asset-based approach was used in school-based family counseling in South Africa.

Integrating Pastoral Care in Schools with the Enhancement of Family Resilience: A New Zealand Project for Migrant Families | written by Hans Everts, Ph.D.
Recent, rapid migration into New Zealand has made Auckland into a very multicultural city, posing a major challenge to schools to develop integrated pastoral care services which meet the needs of migrant families in their community. Such services should be conceptually sounds, evidence-based, and practically relevant. The current project aspires to address these aims in a modest way. This report provides a summary of our findings to date, and raises issues for consideration.