Download C-AHEAD is very pleased to announce this year`s winner of the

C-AHEAD announces winner and top ranked Make a Different Grant applicants
Submitted by Jeff L. Cochran and Cathy Malchiodi
The Counseling Association for Humanistic Education and Development is very
pleased to announce this year’s winner and runner up applicant in our Make A Difference
Grant Competition. The Make a Difference Grant supports research with a humanistic
philosophy by up-and-coming counselor educators that will make a positive difference in
the lives of others. The members of our review committee enjoyed seeing the breadth and
depth of the humanistic, difference-making research that is being pursued among
graduate student in the counseling field.
This year’s grant recipient is Kara Carnes-Holt. Kara’s project is: The Efficacy of
Child Parent Relationship Therapy with Adopted Children and Their Parents: Effects on
Child Behavior, Parent-Child Relationship Stress, and Parental Empathy. Child Parent
Relationship Therapy (CPRT) is a model developed by Garry Landreth within the filial
therapy approach introduced by Bernard and Louise Guerney to help parents employ
qualities of child-centered play therapy (CCPT) as therapeutic agents to their children in
weekly play therapy sessions.
As Kara wrote describing her project, “Individuals are created to be in
relationship” and “the parent-child relationship is the initial and essential medium for
creating safety and love.” And as Kara points out, adoptive parents face additional
challenges in the development of their son or daughter, making clear the need to establish
relationships that create feelings of security, trust, and permanency. Existing research
suggests that CPRT, which helps parents master the relational qualities that Carl Rogers
introduced as the “necessary and sufficient conditions,” can help with the challenges
adoptive families face. Kara’s work should help to shed light on the power of CPRT to
for parent-child relationships in need.
The runner up in the 2009-2010 competition is Kelly Emelianchik. Kelly’s project
is Initial Development and Validation of the Teen Screen for Dating Violence. Through
her project she hopes to make a significant positive impact on the cycle of dating
violence among teen girls and boys. The instrument she is developing is intended to help
teens explore their past and present experiences, as well as well as other risk factors that
are connected to a high likelihood that violence may take place in future dating
relationships.
We wish the very best to these innovative, up-and-coming researchers and to all
who have applied to C-AHEAD’s Made a Difference Grant. We wish we could assist in
funding all the excellent applicants.