A growing body of research and clinical reports support the benefits of utilizing animal-assisted therapy (AAT) as a complementary, transdisciplinary treatment intervention in medical settings. However, fewer articles are found demonstrating AAT's use in palliative care settings. This article is a study of the effects of AAT in palliative care situations, presenting one anecdotal clinical vignette. In this way, the efficacy of this technique in decreasing patient pain, thereby increasing patient quality of life, and lowering staff stress levels may be illustrated.

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Humanistic psychology arose in reaction to the restrictive paradigms of behaviorism and orthodox psychoanalysis. However, humanisitic psychology has yet to provide a consistent philosophical and methodological framework for the development and evaluation of models, methods, research, theories and therapies. Additionally, there exists no commonly shared structure for the translation and communication of intuitive recognitions and clinical findings. General systems theory olTers acomprehensive methodology, rooted in the natural sciences, which may be applied to clarify and communicate many aspects of humanistic psychology. This paper demonstrates the common philosophical perspectives ofgeneral systems theory and humanistic psychology, describes general systems theory in terms of the challenges to humanistic psychology, and presents the concerns expressed by humanistic psychologists regarding the use of general systems theory. Selected areas are discussed in detail : the unity of mental and physical processes; the phenomenologically-based views of experience that encompass conscious. unconscious and transpersonal dimensions ; and the growth paradigms of personal change described by such concepts as eqmfinality, anamorphosis and differentiation. Also, the humanistic psychologist is urged to be wary of inappropriate methodologies that complicate, rather than clarify, the issues at hand, and directions for future research are outlined.

Previous studies have investigated the relationship between premorbid and postinjury copying styles of the spinal cord injured person. Although it is common to find reference to the family genogram in family therapy literature, a review of the literature dealing with spinal cord injury does not show that the genogram has been used. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how the family genogram technique may be used in the rehabilitation setting. Through the illustration of three family genograms, this paper will show how the genogram technique may be a useful adjunctive psychological technique to demonstrate how postinjury coping styles are linked to preinjury styles. Psychological interventions used with each family situation will be briefly discussed to illustrate how the team may work with the family coping styles to facilitate current coping in the rehabilitation process.