This study investigated the effectiveness of the addition of rent assistance to existing housing and support services in the Waterloo region of Ontario for people experiencing chronic homelessness. A nonequivalent comparison group design was used to compare the outcomes between (a) participants selected to receive rent assistance plus support services (n = 26) and (b) participants receiving support services only (n = 25). Participants were interviewed at baseline and 6 months later. Participants in the rent assistance condition showed significantly greater improvements over time relative to the comparison group in housing stability and quality of life. They also demonstrated significantly better perceived housing quality, and there were trends of greater improvement in community functioning, social support, and food security. The findings demonstrate that rent assistance is associated with superior program outcomes for people experiencing chronic homelessness and is a necessary component of supported housing models, such as Housing First.

The critical incident technique was used to examine how counselors' religion and spirituality help and hinder counselor empathy toward clients. Twelve counselors holding Christian beliefs identified 242 helping and 25 hindering incidents that formed 14 helping and 3 hindering categories. Categories reflected counselors relying on a natural connection to their spirituality, drawing from empathic roots in their religion or spiritual experience, and using commonalities shared with clients as a means of empathizing. Implications for research, counselor education, and counseling practice are discussed.T he aim of this study was to examine counselor empathy in depth as it relates to and is influenced by counselor spirituality. Empathy has been found to be the key component of the therapeutic alliance, outweighing techniques in its positive relationship to outcome (Goldfried, Greenberg, & Marmar, 1990). A meta-analysis by Bohart, Elliott, Greenberg, and Watson (2002) on empathy found its place under "effective elements" in Norcross's (2002) Psychotherapy Relationships That Work. These authors argued that "the time is ripe for the re-examination and rehabilitation of therapist empathy as a key change process in psychotherapy" (Bohart et al., 2002, p. 89).More generally, the quality of the connection between counselor and client has repeatedly been demonstrated as the most consistent element of successful counseling (e.g., Coale, 1998;Fiedler, 1950Fiedler, , 1951Mitchell, Bozarth, & Krauft, 1977;Patterson, 1984;Strupp, 1978; for reviews of the research, see Horvath & Bedi, 2002;Waddington, 2002). Bozarth (2002) conducted a comprehensive review of the research literature and found that the relationship variables most frequently related to therapeutic effectiveness were the core conditions identified by Rogers (1957), namely, empathy, genuineness, and unconditional positive regard. For the purpose of this study, empathy was defined as a quality that requires the laying aside of one's views and values to enter the other's world without prejudice or judgment (Rogers, 1975). The recipient of empathy feels that "someone values him [or her], cares, [and] accepts the person that he [or she] is" (Rogers, 1975, p. 7).

Portuguese immigrants to North America represent a large ethnic group with unique family therapy needs. The present study investigates acculturation and the family lives of Portuguese (Azorean) immigrants in Canada. Methods of analytic induction and constant comparison from grounded theory were used to examine transcripts of interviews with 21 Azorean immigrant women and 28 Azorean immigrant men. A model emerged wherein (a) immigration and acculturation act as stressors on the family unit, as described by the categories Process of Change and Family Relationships; (b) family members adopt generation- and gender-specific acculturative strategies, as illustrated by the categories Duas Culturas (Two Cultures) and Falando Portuges (Speaking Portuguese); and (c) as family members acculturate, discords arise and are resolved according to the cultural traits different members have adopted. The categories Discord Resolution and Preocupação (Preoccupations) illustrate this last dynamic. Implications for family therapy with immigrant families include an indication for community-level interventions, emphasis on confidentiality, awareness of acculturation stress and different acculturative strategies within the family, and aiding the family in the negotiation and integration of a new bicultural reality.

This article outlines a model for conducting psychotherapy with people of diverse cultural backgrounds. The theoretical foundation for the model is based on clinical and cultural psychology. Cultural psychology integrates psychology and anthropology in order to provide a complex understanding of both culture and the individual within his or her cultural context. The model proposed in this article is also based on our clinical experience and mixed-method research with the Portuguese community. The model demonstrates its value with ethnic minority clients by situating the clients within the context of their multi-layered social reality. The individual, familial, socio-cultural, and religio-moral domains are explored in two research projects, revealing the interrelation of these levels/contexts. The article is structured according to these domains. Study 1 is a quantitative study that validates the Agonias Questionnaire in Ontario. The results of this study are used to illustrate the individual domain of our proposed model. Study 2 is an ethnography conducted in the Azorean Islands, and the results of this study are integrated to illustrate the other three levels of the model, namely family, socio-cultural, and the religio-moral levels.

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