This fall, , professor at the 糖心少女 College of Education, traveled to Italy to begin the first phase of his work as a Fulbright Global Scholar, studying group counseling in Western and Eastern cultures. Collaborating with colleagues in both Taiwan and Italy, Kivlighan will study how attitudes toward group counseling vary across the globe and whether group therapy models can be translated across different cultures. The team will also examine how group composition and cohesion influence group therapy鈥檚 effectiveness and what characteristics make for stronger, more efficient results. During the seven-month project, Kivlighan will divide his time across Italy, Taiwan and the United States.
Post-pandemic, Kivlighan said that the world has made great progress in terms of discussing mental health. 鈥淭here was a huge expansion of teletherapy or video therapy that鈥檚 continued since COVID, but it鈥檚 very isolating,鈥 said Kivlighan. 鈥淗aving people besides you, that鈥檚 an amazing attribute of [group] counseling.鈥
A misconception many people in the West hold is that group therapy is a second-rate therapy. However, Kivlighan鈥檚 research shows that group counseling offers many benefits, including combating growing clinician shortages and promoting community engagement and cohesion. Despite these advantages, Kivlighan acknowledges that the practice of group therapy inherently contradicts the independent, self-reliant ideology prominent in Western cultures and that some Westerners are skeptical about discussing personal experiences in group settings.
鈥淚n the West, there are a lot of concerns around not wanting anyone else to know your business,鈥 Kivlighan explained.鈥淵ou don鈥檛 let people see you are struggling鈥搚ou have to keep up a good front.鈥
This project marks Kivlighan鈥檚 second Fulbright award. It builds on his past work with longtime collaborators Gianluca Lo Coco, professor of clinical psychology at the University of Palermo in Palmero, Italy, and Li-fei Wang, distinguished professor and vice chairperson of the Department of Educational Psychology and Counseling at National Taiwan Normal University. The three researchers have published over 20 journal articles on group counseling and social cohesion. Wang and Lo Coco lead group therapy research in their respective countries, and Kivlighan works as a linchpin to connect their research by analyzing and comparing the data from both countries.
鈥淚t [shows] the importance of collaborations,鈥 Kivlighan reflected. 鈥淚 could have never done nearly the amount of research that I鈥檝e done in my career if I hadn鈥檛 had strong collaborators.鈥
Following his one-month stay in Italy, Kivlighan will return to the United States for two months. He will then fly to Taiwan, where he will spend two months analyzing the group composition in samples from both countries and examining whether cultural similarities and differences between Taiwan and Italy influence the effectiveness of the treatment.
鈥淸A] great advantage of trying to do the groups in Taiwan is that it鈥檚 more culturally congruent in many ways,鈥 explained Kivlighan, noting that the overall culture in Taiwan is more collectivist and less individualistic, which leads people to 鈥渟ee the advantage of having others to help them and to rely on.鈥
As he works to integrate ideas from different cultural perspectives, Kivlighan faces challenges in analyzing the results from two very different sample groups. Aside from the language barrier between the two countries, there are demographic differences that introduce possible challenges. Taiwan鈥檚 sample consists of youth that all come from similar backgrounds, whereas the population in Italy鈥檚 sample is very diverse, representing a variety of ages, racial and ethnic backgrounds, and mental health conditions. Kivlighan鈥檚 research attempts to control for these differences while also searching for any significant correlations between the two studies.
As he works to analyze different cultural perspectives, Kivlighan hopes that the research done in both countries will help advance the field of counseling and ultimately assist in minimizing misconceptions about group therapy.
Photo: A research team studying group counseling in Palermo, Italy, with 糖心少女Professor Dennis Kivlighan (center, in white).
