Expanding our reach: marriage and family therapists in the public school system

As states change their legislation to include Marriage and Family Therapists (MFTs) as approved mental health providers in schools, it is important to understand the experiences of MFTs in this context to improve training and increase our effectiveness. MFTs with experience working in public schools (N = 21) discuss the advantages and rewards of working in schools, challenges they have experienced, how they have dealt with those challenges, and training they recommend for MFTs seeking to work in schools. Qualitative results have implications for practitioners, training, and supervision. The possibility of a specialization in School-Based Family Therapy is discussed

Towards the Development of Educational Core Competencies for Couple and Family Therapy Technology Practices

Rises in technology have created change in the family therapy field. The ethics code and regulatory boards now include areas on technology in family therapy practices. These additions require competency in the area of couple and family therapy technology practices. Previous researchers suggest there is a gap between these competencies needed and the training provided, as well as the research available. Thus, the purpose of this mixed-data survey study was to gain information regarding family therapists’ experiences and perceptions of education regarding online family therapy practices. To do this, we administered a survey to family therapists across the United States. Reported, are both quantitative, as well as qualitative findings. The majority of the sample reported that they did not learn about online technologies in clinical practice; however the majority of the participants would like to learn more about couple and family therapy technology practices. The most direct implication of the findings from our study is the need to offer specific education around couple and family therapy technology practices. Suggested core competency areas to cover include theory, research, and practice around technology

The Online Othering of Transgender People in Relation to 'Gender Neutral Toilets'

In this chapter we provide an exposition and critical analysis of some ways in which transgender people are ‘othered’ online and attempts to resist or challenge this. This is achieved through the discursive analysis of 1756 online comments made in response to ten YouTube videos concerning ‘gender neutral toilets’. Three themes were developed: ‘Gender neutral toilets as sites of sexual danger’; ‘Claiming victimhood: Gender neutral toilets as undermining the rights of cisgender people’; and ‘The delegitimisation and othering of transgender people’. The theme on delegitimisation and othering is elaborated in detail. It consists of subthemes concerning the invocation of nature and biology to construct transgender people as challenging the given order; the mobilisation of religious and moral values and norms; the delegitimisation of transgender people by constructing them as psychopathological; and the construction of transgenderism as a ‘modern trend’ created by media and social media. The discursive resources used in othering transgender people overlap with those that have long been used in the offline denigration of sexual minority groups. We conclude that sexual and gender non-conformity is responded to with a limited set of tropes that delegitimise and other non-conforming people in culturally recognisable ways. We note that the framing of effective resistance to anti-transgender, othering online talk is not straightforward but calls for creative, evidence-based, contextually-informed discursive labour