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We report the results of the first national survey of psychologists in private practice regarding their participation in peer consultation groups. The sample (71 % return) was drawn from 800 randomly selected psychologists listed in the National Register of Health Service Providers in Psychology. We found that 23% of the sample currently belonged to peer consultation groups, and 24% had belonged in the past. Of those not currently in groups, 61% expressed the desire to belong if one were available. There were virtually no significant demographic differences between current members and nonmembers. We examined the following group characteristics: formation, length of existence, size, membership, leadership, theoretical orientation, range of experience, time and place, content, and group process. Groups tended to be small, informal, and leaderless; however, we found great variation among groups on all dimensions. Findings also showed a high degree of satisfaction with membership.The unprecedented and dramatic increase in numbers of psychologists in private practice, noted by Tryon (1983b), has heightened the importance of research focusing on the special needs of these practitioners. Many authors have pointed out the concerns, needs, and stresses that exist for helping professionals in all settings (

Without consistent contact with an organization or peers, the psychologist in private practice has no access to sources of support or help. This article presents peer consultation groups as an important means for meeting the needs of private practitioners, specifically to improve therapeutic effectiveness, provide practical help, and counter isolation and burnout. It examines those aspects of trainee supervision that apply to peer consultation and reviews the Limited treatment of peer consultation or supervision in the literature. Using the authors' own group as a model, it describes in detail the goals, composition, content, and process of a peer consultation group. Finally, obstacles to participation, other alternatives, and the advantages of peer consultation groups are discussed.

Science anxiety, or the fear of learning science, affects large numbers of people, preventing them from mastering the technical information necessary for many rewarding and lucrative careers. Women and disadvantaged minorities are especially hard-hit by this anxiety.Science anxiety is a phenomenon that has only recently been understood. The fear of science that many people experience as students and carry with them into adulthood produces a host of negative consequences. Avoidance of science, even the most basic information, precludes many from seeking a range of interesting and well-paying careers. Science-related professions and society as a whole suffer when talent is wasted. Furthermore, a scientifically uneducated citizenry cannot make technically based political decisions on such issues as nuclear energy and atmospheric pollution because it lacks the rudimentary tools to grasp the various arguments.Women and disadvantaged minorities are particularly hampered by science anxiety. Lacing many role models and facing covert (and overt) messages about their abilities to grasp science, they shy from anything technical in numbers far greater than their proportion in the population. Science anxiety, like its sister, math anxiety, acts as a career filter against most women and minorities.

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