Episode 9: Psychologist as Collaborative Coach

In this episode, John interviews Lori Gephart, a psychologist from the Greater Pittsburgh area on her work as a collaborative coach.  Collaborative coaching is yet another area of practice for specially trained psychologists. Lori talks about her role as a collaborative coach in the divorce process. Skills related to collaborative coaching include helping clients identify shared interests and engage in interest-based resolution.  The collaborative coach also assists with improving communication, facilitating teamwork, providing information on marital transition, and referring for psychotherapy when needed. Lori also outlines information about training, networking, and becoming more involved in the collaborative coaching arena.

At the end of the podcast, the listener will be able to:

1. Define the role of a Collaborative Coach.
2. Identify the role of the Child Specialist.
3. Explain the additional training needed to be a collaborative coach

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Resources

Lori Gephart's Homepage                           Follow Lori on Twitter @NHPAwellness

International Academy of Collaborative Professionals

What Clients Say About Their Experience in the Collaborative Divorce Process
Linda Wray

The Role of the Mental Health Professional In the Collaborative Process 
Nancy Fishman

The Divorce Experience: A Study of Divorce at Midlife and Beyond
AARP

An Empirical Analysis of Collaborative Practice
John Lande

What Happens Before? A Field Experiment Exploring How Pay and Representation Differentially Shape Bias on the Pathway into Organizations

By Katherine Milkman, Modupe Akinola, and Dolly Chugh
Originally posted April 23, 2014

Abstract:    

Little is known about how bias against women and minorities varies within and between organizations or how it manifests before individuals formally apply to organizations. We address this knowledge gap through an audit study in academia of over 6,500 professors at top U.S. universities drawn from 89 disciplines and 259 institutions. We hypothesized that discrimination would appear at the informal “pathway” preceding entry to academia and would vary by discipline and university as a function of faculty representation and pay. In our experiment, professors were contacted by fictional prospective students seeking to discuss research opportunities prior to applying to a doctoral program. Names of students were randomly assigned to signal gender and race (Caucasian, Black, Hispanic, Indian, Chinese), but messages were otherwise identical. We found that faculty ignored requests from women and minorities at a higher rate than requests from White males, particularly in higher-paying disciplines and private institutions. Counterintuitively, the representation of women and minorities and bias were uncorrelated, suggesting that greater representation cannot be assumed to reduce bias. This research highlights the importance of studying what happens before formal entry points into organizations and reveals that discrimination is not evenly distributed within and between organizations.

The entire research paper is here.

5 ways thinking philosophically helps you choose more wisely

By Russell Downham
Russelldownham.com
Originally published November 14, 2014

Life is confusing. What does it all mean? So begins philosophy.

When you think philosophically, you question your assumptions about yourself, other people, and the world, to clarify your perspective and deepen your understanding of what matters to you. You can pursue these questions as far as your curiosity desires, but when you think philosophically about your choices, you naturally have a practical end in view: you want to make the wisest choice you can.

‘Philosophy’ literally means ‘the love of wisdom’, but even if its heart is in the right place, can thinking philosophically really help you to make wiser choices? Aside from the intrinsic value, and pleasure of making philosophical sense of your choices, can it also make practical sense to do so?

Thinking philosophically does make practical sense, when it engages with life as you experience it – questioning, but never ignoring, your pre-philosophical commitments, taking seriously everything that matters to you, including the things you think shouldn’t. When you are honest and determined not to be holier-than-thyself, thinking philosophically about your life enables you to create more meaningful connections between who you are and what you do, leading to choices that truly reflect your own personal values.

The entire article is here.

Cognitive science and threats to free will

By Joshua Shepherd
Practical Ethics
Originally published on May 6, 2014

It is often asserted that emerging cognitive science – especially work in psychology (e.g., that associated with work on automaticity, along with work on the power of situations to drive behavior) and cognitive neuroscience (e.g., that associated with unconscious influences on decision-making) – threatens free will in some way or other. What is not always clear is how this work threatens free will. As a result, it is a matter of some controversy whether this work actually threatens free will, as opposed to simply appearing to threaten free will. And it is a matter of some controversy how big the purported threat might be. Could work in cognitive science convince us that there is no free will? Or simply that we have less free will? And if it is the latter, how much less, and how important is this for our practices of holding one another morally responsible for our behavior?

The entire article is here.

Architect Of Health Law Says Reform Is 'Never Finished'

The University of New Orleans
Originally published May 7, 2014

Two polls released this week reveal challenges ahead for the Affordable Care Act.

Gallup found the nation’s uninsured rate dropped to 13.4 percent last month, the lowest monthly uninsured rate since the company began tracking it in 2008. But that means 32 million people remain without coverage.

And a Pew Research Center poll shows that 55 percent of Americans disapprove of the 2010 health care reform law, which mandates that everyone have health insurance and that it be made available to even those with pre-existing medical conditions.

The entire story is here.

Second VA doctor blows whistle on patient-care failures

By Dennis Wagner
The Republic
Originally published May 2, 2014

Here is an excerpt:

Both physicians, as well as other VA employees who asked not to be named for fear of retribution, said the Phoenix VA leadership disdains internal criticism and retaliates against those who speak out. In interviews and a written statement, Mitchell told The Republic she can no longer remain silent.

"I am violating the VA 'gag' order for ethical reasons," she wrote. "I am cognizant of the consequences. As a VA employee I have seen what happens to employees who speak up for patient safety and welfare within the system. The devastation of professional careers is usually the end result, and likely is the only transparent process that actually exists within the Phoenix VA Medical Center today."

The entire story is here.

Responding to Suicidal Risk

This is chapter 17 of the book Ethics in Psychotherapy and Counseling: A Practical Guide, 4th Edition by Kenneth S. Pope, Ph.D., ABPP & Melba J.T. Vasquez, Ph.D., ABPP, published by John Wiley.

Few responsibilities are so heavy and intimidating as responding to suicidal risk. The need for careful assessment is great. Suicide remains among the top dozen causes of death in the United States, as high as number two for some groups. Homicide rates seize popular attention, but far more people kill themselves than kill others.  Authorities in the field are almost unanimous in their view that the reported figures vastly understate the actual incidence because of problems in reporting procedures.

The book chapter is here, published by Ken Pope on his site.

Ethical Systems: Insight # 4 on Darwin and Ethics

By Joshua Elle
Ethicalsystems.org Blog
Originally published May 5, 2014

#EthSys Insights is a video series where we have experts answer questions about ethical systems design. For our fourth installment, we had the pleasure of asking our Cheating & Honesty contributor, Robert Frank, to clear up contemporary misconceptions about the Darwinian view on cheating and honesty in business (the video is 148 seconds long).





Ethical Systems blog post can be found here.

Fresh Misconduct Charges Hit Dutch Social Psychology

By Frank van Kolfschooten
Science
Originally published May 6, 2014

Scientists here are still searching their souls about two previous scandals--involving Diederik Stapel of Tilburg University in 2011 and Dirk Smeesters of Erasmus University in Rotterdam a year later.

Now they have learned that a national research integrity panel has found evidence of data manipulation in the work of Jens Forster, a social psychologist at the University of Amsterdam (UvA).

The university has already announced that it will request the retraction of one of Forster's articles.

The case is drawing widespread international attention as well, in part because Forster, who's German and came to Amsterdam in 2007, enjoys a sterling reputation.

"He is among the most creative and influential social psychologists of his generation," says Jeffrey Sherman of the University of California, Davis.

The entire article is here, behind a paywall.