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Many parents feel overwhelmed by challenging child behaviours and multiple demands and seek assistance from parenting interventions. Behavioural parent training (BPT) has represented the gold standard treatment since the 1970s. However, half of parents disengage from BPT, with higher drop-out among socially-disadvantaged families. There is a need for evolution. The five studies within this thesis used a mixed methods approach to examine whether integrating mindfulness and imagery into existing BPT programs, via the 8-week Confident Carers Cooperative Kids (CCCK) group program, could meet a wider sociodemographic of family needs.

2020 The Australian Psychological Society Objective: Accreditation guidelines for professional psychology training have shifted from specifying educational inputs to emphasising attainment of core competency outputs. However, attention to both inputs and outputs are needed. Clinical practicum logs represent a neglected source of information to help guide training program development. The present article describes the development and preliminary data from a purpose-built electronic web-based log application for recording practicum activities. Method: Participants were 76 university clinical psychology trainees who had completed at least 1,000 hr of practicum. Trainees recorded the time engaged in various practicum activities into the electronic log application. Results: Trainees recorded practicum hours across 74 different placements. Most (43%) of the 72,494 entries were for activities supporting direct client work such as preparation and case notes. Direct client contact (37%) and supervision (20%) were next most frequent. On average, each trainee saw 78 clients for individual work and the average number of contacts was 3.69. The most frequent primary problems treated were anxiety disorders (28%) and depressive disorders (16%). Treatment of substance use disorders was rare (2%) as was work with older adults (2.6%), despite high needs in communities. Conclusions: This descriptive study provides an example of an electronic log application and preliminary data from the application. The need to link such data to competency assessments is highlighted, as this will provide stronger evidence-based decision making regarding minimum training standards. Further, by allowing real-time monitoring of student progress, such applications can inform decisions about individual trainee's practicum progress and needs.

2017 The Australian Psychological SocietyObjective: Clinical psychology trainees with problems of professional competence (PPC) continue to be a challenge for courses. Despite the rapid development of competency-based training models, the impact of this shift to the identification and management of professional competency problems is unclear. This project aims to describe how clinical psychology trainees with PPC are identified and managed within the Australian and New Zealand context. Method: An online survey was distributed through Australian and New Zealand universities offering clinical psychology training programmes. Questions addressed approaches to monitoring progress on placements, identification and management of trainees determined to be underperforming on placements, and the perceived usefulness of a range of strategies such as the use of standardised-rating tools. Results: Thirty one responses were received, representing 40 clinical psychology training courses in 22 institutions across Australia and New Zealand. In all cases, at least one trainee with a PPC had been detected in the previous 5 years, most commonly attributed to psychological, behavioural, and developmental issues. Respondents reported the use of a range of preventive and remedial strategies, including the use of psychometrically validated competency evaluation rating forms to assist in the grading of placements. Conclusion: Trainees with PPC occur on a fairly regular basis in clinical psychology training courses in Australian and New Zealand. While some processes involved in the identification and management of these students have been refined and systematised, some opportunities to facilitate early identification and remediation may yet need further enhancement.

The following conversation describes a narrative means of uncovering (or ‘deconstructing’) some of the invisible forces that undermine parents’ capacities in caring for their children in preferred ways. In the authors’ experience, parents can be hugely resourceful and provide a clear account of what they ‘should’ be doing, yet seem unable to act upon their own good advice — it is as though an external agent, named below as ‘Virus X’, prevents them from being the parents they would like to be. Through naming this external agent, identifying its influences and noticing parents’ acts of resistance in the face of these influences, antidotes to Virus X can be developed. This paper describes the development of such an approach within a child behaviour management group. In keeping with the playful approach encouraged by narrative therapy, the authors of this paper join forces to act as investigative journalists in exposing Virus X to the readers.