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    Secondary traumatic stress, burnout and the role of resilience in New Zealand counsellors : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Psychology at Massey University, New Zealand / Katrina Temitope
    (Massey University, 2014) Temitope, Katrina
    A survey was conducted with 129 counsellors who were members of various counselling organisations or associations in New Zealand. A quantitative methodology was utilised with questionnaires completed online. Participants were surveyed in relation to the constructs of secondary traumatic stress, burnout, compassion satisfaction, resilience, social support, degree of exposure to trauma and personal history of trauma. The majority of the participants reported age greater than 50 years (n=84), female gender (n=109) and identified as being of New Zealand European/ Pakeha descent (n=105). Statistical analyses were completed to establish the prevalence of secondary traumatic stress, burnout and compassion satisfaction, the relationship between exposure and risk of secondary traumatic stress, the relationship between personal trauma history and risk of secondary traumatic stress and the relationships between burnout, compassion satisfaction, resilience and social support levels with secondary traumatic stress. In addition, the moderating effect of compassion satisfaction was analysed. Results established a prevalence of 21.7% for high risk of secondary traumatic stress, 24.8% for high risk of burnout and 21.7% for high potential for compassion satisfaction in this sample. Results established statistically significant relationships between exposure and secondary traumatic stress, between burnout and secondary traumatic stress and between resilience and secondary traumatic stress. These results are discussed in relation to the secondary exposure to trauma of counsellors working with trauma clients. This research has important theoretical and practical implications for counsellors working with clients who have experienced trauma.
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    Talking about anger : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 1997) O'Connor, Catherine M.; O'Connor, Catherine M.
    This project takes place within poststructuralist challenges to psychology's dominant discourses of theory and research on anger. These dominant discourses of psychology produce anger as an entity which is categorised separately from other emotions, is located within individuals as essential and physiological, and which must be controlled by reason; discourses which reproduce mind/body and individual/social binaries. This study deconstructs anger talk in transcripts of interviews with twenty counselling students, eight experienced counsellors, and seven of the original group three years later. The texts are read, discourses producing anger and subjectivity are explicated, and the constitutive power of language is instanced in detailed analysis of textual fragments. In my reading of these texts, anger is a product and is productive of social relations, and I read the texts through three overlays: discourses of anger, the constitution of subjectivities, and specific language forms. I have braided three plaits of themes in anger talk: psychology discourses, moral evaluations, and social relations. Detailed analyses of fragments of the texts capture the constitution of subjectivities in the grammatical and syntactical textures of anger talk which enact the social interweave of claims and conflicts, protests and renegotiations of power relations. In the counsellor study and the follow-up of students, discourse production varies as subject positions are enabled among professional discourses. Finally, this study illustrates the general relevance of poststructural approaches as research methodologies for social psychology. Multiple discourses constitute subjectivities in social relations, and constitute the objects of psychology. The deconstruction of discourses weaves us as researchers into the fabric of discursive processes, not as observers, but as weavers and woven.
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    New Zealand counsellors talk about ritual abuse: A discourse analysis : A thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Psychology at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2009) Pack, Sylvia
    Research indicates that in the last five decades, claims of Satanic ritual abuse (RA), and the numbers of clients receiving counselling for RA, have increased in all Western countries. This has resulted in an increased corpus of related literature overseas, which includes studies in which facticity as well as aetiology, symptomology and treatment are debated. This present study focuses on a New Zealand context, and examines the talk of New Zealand counsellors in relation to their views regarding RA and the counselling of RA clients. Social constructionist and positivist epistemologies were evaluated in terms of their suitability for this research, and the discourse analytic method developed by Potter and Wetherell (1987) chosen as the means by which participants’ talk might be analysed in such a way as to allow the inclusion of multiple constructions and the emergence of the many discourses and conflicting ideas which occur in overseas literature. A broad selection of the literature was first critically analysed to give an understanding of the topic. Nine counsellors gave interviews, eight women and one man, all Pakeha, six of whom were ACC-registered (Accident Compensation Commission, 2009). The participants constructed RA as a physical reality, which was justified by the use of the credible client discourse. A traditional linguistic repertoire furnished a discourse of government backing, which was employed to warrant voice. A moral stake in counselling, named concern for the client, was shown to be present in all arguments. The participants constructed three truths relative to context: a legal truth, the counsellor’s truth, and the client’s truth. Recovered memories were given a dual construction which legitimised correct and incorrect recall. DSM-IV (American Psychiatric Association, 2000) labelling was debated in a discourse of ambivalence. Finally in a discourse of preparedness, the participants constructed the therapeutic skills needed to treat RA clients. The thesis concludes by highlighting the participants’ comments regarding the need for openness and awareness, and specialised literature and training for counsellors treating RA clients.