Participants gave permission to audio-tape discussions prior to each LCS. To make the intervention sequential, the main themes were identified from transcripts and field notes (maintained by the LCS counsellor), and then followed-up in subsequent sessions. This meant that the accuracy of the reduction process was subject to scrutiny by the participants, which helped to confirm their relevance to each individual. This not only confirmed their internal validity, but also added catalytic validity (where researchers and participants collaborate to empower the individuals as part of the research process Stiles, 1993).
To ensure that the delivery met the requirements of SFT, the researcher cheap tiffany bracelets a manipulation check after every LCS using a revised Counselling Interview Rating Form (CIRF) (Russell-Chapin and Sherman, 2000). With a maximum score of 35 (yes = 1, no = 0), skills used during a session were noted. Five key SFT themes were included: miracle question, scaling, highlighting strengths, develop solutions and focus on goals.
To provide a baseline for discussion in the first LCS, each participant pre-recorded conflict levels for one week. After their first LCS, participants were given a diary to record conflicts, achievements, thoughts or other issues arising between sessions. This small hand made booklet included two charts to assesTo prioritise and capitalise upon her unique understanding of each participant, the same researcher conducted both the LCSs and the initial cheap tiffany key rings of transcripts. Subsequently, each transcript was then subject to line-by-line thematic content analysis to reflect "What is going on here" (Wolcott, 1994). The two researchers collaborated to agree the main themes within LCS discussions. This process was more thorough and in-depth than was undertaken during the delivery phase. Notes written after each meeting helped to triangulate the data. The participant's verification of the transcripts helped to confirm data accuracy.
Six women volunteers completed the entire LCS process. All had reported high levels of work-home conflict in the previous stages of the study. Throughout individual contributions are presented using pseudonyms. Work roles reflected white-collar positions and four worked full-time. Two had no children but lived with a partner, three had children and one was a single parent. LCS-1 confirmed that conflicts were still dominated by work interfering with homeTable I shows responses to the miracle question. These contextualise individual contributions and highlight the range of miracles that the women felt would cheap tiffany cufflinks evidence of a reduction in work-home conflict.
Responses to the miracle question provided encouragement and helped women to develop a positive mind-set about change and the achievements they could envisage making. While Feona was experiencing short-term cheap tiffany earrings of her miracle (even though her work-home conflict was high; 21/30), for most women, in the first LCS, the "miracle" felt distant. It was focused variously on subjective experiences of confidence, enthusiasm, happiness, peacefulness, empowerment, tolerance, energy and healthiness. These outcomes were predominantly associated with improved psychological health and typically associated with home-based relationships. Within the LCS process, further "solutions" were generated. These included taking up photography, going out more, reducing alcohol consumption, addressing on-going health needs, taking more exercise, losing weight and standing up for personal needs with work colleagues and/or family members.
Even from the first session, some individuals knew they wanted to take their first steps, while others already had a clear picture of what those steps would be.I know I've got to achieve something even if ultimately I leave the company and find something else (Carrie).The coping mechanism for me is like when things are really building up and I can start to feel ill, I will book time off work (Dasie).A major outcome of the LCSs was to convert passive desires into cheap tiffany money clips action. Annie felt that physical activity was important, but that she was unable to co-ordinate any sessions into her day. Her miracle identified this need and by LCS-3 Annie was regularly walking and swimming. In contrast, Eadie's miracle had changed and softened by LCS-3:It won't be the miracle that I'd intended ... I've changed my view since those sessions of what is achievable ... I'm willing to take a hit on some things not very good in return for others being really good ... The new miracle - I'd feel really happy, I wouldn't expect quite as much I don't need quite as much to be happy ... (Eadie).
SFT offers a generic intervention style, with confirmed efficacy in a range of family and mental health settings (Beyebach et al., 1996; McKeel, 1996). Although no published research relates to work-home conflict, SFT is at least as effective as longer term approaches for many severe and chronic problems, including depression, troubled marital and child-parent relationships, low self-esteem and substance abuse (Gingerich and Eisengart, 1999). All these features have been associated with high work-home conflict, so underlining the potential of SFT.SFT is brief and works on the principle of "No more time than necessary". This matches the return to tiffany sale of most clients (Garfield, 1994; Koss and Shiang, 1994). SFT facilitates an individual's ability to develop solutions to reduce stressors in the present or future, rather than focusing on problems from the past (O'Connell, 1998). This involves recognizing and developing personal strengths and competencies, as people continue with their normal lives.
Systematic reviews (e.g. Gingerich and Eisengart, 1999) confirm that many problems associated with work-home conflict are resolved within three meetings. SFT is consistent with a prevailing theme in working life, where time is at a premium. This theme also affects health professionals who have only limited time to develop complex formal counselling skills. Further, most staff can develop SFT skills (Konradt et al., 2000), since they are generic, practical, easy to understand and deliver. They also apply to a wide range of situations and settings, including delivery by peer counsellors, or delivered remotely as in the Health Circles approach (Konradt et al., 2000).This study aimed to describe the process of implementing SFT in the workplace, producing "knowledge-for-practice" (McLeod, 2001, p. 16) that non-specialist counsellors might use. It explored the effectiveness of SFT from the participant perspective.
The United Bristol Health Trust Ethics Committee Ethical approved this intervention. This tiffany somerset sale part of a broader research project, involving a worksite audit (questionnaire) and focus groups with women in an international computer company in southwest England (Mackey-Jones and McKenna, 2002). Questionnaire data confirmed that the dominant construct was of work interfering with home, with key issues being tiredness after work and too much work. Focus groups identified that lack of time and social support, and overly demanding families and careers, plus a strong commitment to both domains contributed to conflict development.
Women who reported high levels of work-home conflict in the audit, and who participated in focus group discussions, were invited to participate in three sessions of SFT. We termed these sessions "Life Coaching Sessions" (LCSs).The intervention tiffany 1837 sale not delivered by a company employee. Therefore, at the outset, the LCS counsellor was a stranger to all participants. For convenience, participants arranged their LCS appointments over four weeks, each lasting up to one hour. The format of the LCSs was based on de Shazer and Berg (1997), with delivery aimed to empower women to generate solutions to cope with, or reduce, the harmful effects of their work-home conflict.The same researcher delivered the entire programme. Meetings were open discussions, based on simple questions or phrases to encourage participant thinking and reflection (Chase, 1995). Sessions were progressive, beginning with goal negotiation to identify personal strengths and then specifying the steps in achieving that goal. Counselling centred on prompting, rephrasing and focusing on developing solutions, rather than exploring the counsellor's suggestions.
The "miracle question" is the first of two central SFT techniques. cheap tiffany jewelry are asked to respond to this proposition:Suppose that one night, while you were asleep, there was a miracle and this problem was solved. How would you know? What would be different? What will you notice as different the next morning that will tell you there has been a miracle? What will your spouse/partner notice? (de Shazer, 1991, p. 113).A second SFT technique follows the miracle question. Participants rate an experience on a scale of 1 to 10 (e.g., "On a scale of 1-10, where 1 is no conflict and 10 is high conflict, how would you rate your current situation?"). Scaling helps to set goals, to measure progress and to establish priorities for action. Participants were also asked to rate the ability to implement solutions (AIS) on a scale of 1-10 (1 is not able to implement and 10 is strong implementation). This method can be used to assess individual motivation and confidence for changing and for enacting solutions (de Shazer and Berg, 1997).
The sequence of LCS-1 was: "What do you want to achieve?"; "How will that help you?"; "What have you tried so far that helps, even in a small way?"; miracle question, "Are any small parts of the miracle happening already?"; scaling "What are your conflict levels?" and "How confident are you to implement this solution?". The session ended with tasks set for the following week.For LCS-2 this was: assess previous week using the diary and chart; recent achievements and raised awareness; brief focus on resolving conflict; new strategies for change; return to miracle question; "Are any small parts of the miracle happening now?"; scaling and finally, cheap tiffany bangles set for the subsequent week. LCS-3 matched LCS-2 but concluded with evaluating the whole LCS process and asking for recommendations for implementation.
Tom and Christina did their best to live as normally as possible. "We would do the things that we loved more often," says Christina. "It could be an afternoon shopping with friends or going out for lunch and sitting on an outdoor terrace. The fun moments far outweighed the hospital time."Although a gallium scan showed the tumour had completely regressed, Christina felt uneasy about going back to her job as a credit analyst for the National Bank of Canada. She atlas jewelry sale on another scan. Sure enough, three months later, the tumour was back. This time it was four centimetres.Very high-dose chemotherapy was followed by a stem cell transplant. It meant being hospitalized during Easter - the biggest Greek holiday of the year. Since Christina couldn't be with her family, her family came to her - bearing plates of lamb and other traditional delicacies. "It was one of the best Easters I've ever had," says Christina.
After many blood transfusions and another scan, she learned that the tumour was completely gone. Feeling encouraged, Christina and Tom decided to take a trip to France and Greece that fall. It was a restorative month for both of them. They visited Paris and the French Riviera - St. Tropez, Monaco and Cannes - followed by a week on the island of Crete and two weeks in Athens with relatives from both families.A year later, in September 2002, another gallium scan showed the scar tissue around the tumour site diminishing "something that's very rare and very encouraging," says Tom. "It was a sign that not only was Christinas body cushion jewelry sale again, it was actually repairing the damage that had been done."That's when they decided to get married. The wedding took place on February 1, 2003, the anniversary of the couples first meeting six years earlier at a Greek dance. The big celebration was followed by a Caribbean cruise. "I never thought that we wouldn't get out of it," says Tom. "Even with all the bad news, I always had a positive outlook."
The personal care that they elsa peretti sale from the nursing staff at the Royal Victoria Hospital as well as from Christina's physician, Dr. Molly Warner, was "phenomenal," says the couple. And when Christina walked down the aisle at her own Greek wedding, Dr. Warner was thete to cheer her on.Conflict between work and home roles can result in reduced mental and physical health and poor health-related behaviours (Frone, 2003; Kivimäki et al., 2002). Conflict is also associated with low job and life satisfaction, burnout and alcohol misuse (Perrewé et al., 1999; Frone et al., 1996). These relationships are most consistent among women (Benavides et al., 2002), making workplace interventions focused on women increasingly necessary.Three main contemporary theoretical perspectives address the "problem" in work-home relationships (Sumer and Knight, 2001). The first addresses the "spillover" between the different domains, wherein what happens in one domain influences life in the other. Positive spillover from work to home is associated with better physical and mental health (Grzywacz and Marks, 2000). In "segmentation", individuals associate each domain with specific duties and actions. Rising conflict can make it difficult to segment work and home, provoking feelings of lack of control, frustration and poor physical and psychological health (Perrewé et al., 1999). Finally, individuals may "compensate" commitments frank gehry sale the two domains, which involves reducing or expanding contributions to one domain according to those of the other. Individually, these theories are unable to reflect the full concept and therefore need to be combined to understand the work-home interface (Frone, 2003).
Both internal and external influences determine individual approaches to reducing conflict. For example, personality "types" characterised by hardiness or assertiveness may attach differently to work or home (Rabin et al., 1999). Externally, levels of support and paloma picasso sale in either, or both, domains contribute to conflict (Kenny and Bhattacharjee, 2000; Fox and Dwyer, 1999). A recent Health and Safety Executive report (Daniels et al., 2002) showed that individuals variously sought changes in organisational processes and managerial support, and undertook personal avoidance behaviours to manage their risk of conflict.
Based on an understanding of "conflict" as an individualised experience, worksite programmes may employ specialist external counsellors who deliver one-to-one support. However, a more attractive approach may be to offer effective in-house programmes, delivered by existing staff, who may not be trained counsellors. However, while "theory of the problem" for work-home conflict is well developed, less is known about the "theory of the intervention" (MacDonald and Green, 2001, p. 244).
Introduction: Whether or not a woman starts using a new contraceptive method depends on many variables, which may not only be related to the woman, but also to her doctor. Investigating these determinants of use may help prcscribers in their daily practice.
Aim and Method:: To investigate the rate of acceptance of the contraceptive ring (NuvaKing) tiffany necklaces sale ofrered as their new contraceptive method to Basque women and to investigate the determinants of use or non-use. We offered the contraceptive ring to a total of 1241 Basque women who came to their usual centre - family planning centre, hospital or private practice - for contraceptive counselling or their annual check-up. The ring was presented conform normal practice. Demographic details were collected of both the investigator and the woman. Women were asked their actual form of contraception, and whether or not they wished to use the ring. Reasons for non-acceptance were registered. Descriptive analysis are presented.
Resulls: Data of 1241 women (mean age 26,9 years) were analysed. Most women used the condom a their actual form of contraception (49,7%), while 41,2% used the PiU. Tampon use, including both occasional and normal use was 88,4%, which is higher than that reported previously. The acceptance rate of the ring was substantially higher than anticipated; 56,9 % of the women accepted the ring as their new method. The reasons for non-acceptance were mainly related to the unfamiliarity of the anatomy of the vagina. The gender or the speciality of the prescriber (gynaecologist, midwife, educator or family tiffany money clips sale doctor) did not seem to influence the acceptance rate of the ring. Of the 4 determinants investigated, 3 seem to be interrelated, while 1 was not. Women using a Pill are more likely to accept using the ring (61,5%) than women using condoms (54,6%). Teenagers were less likely to accept the ring than women of 20 years and older, although this may be related to the current contraceptive method; over 70% of the teenagers uses condoms, and only 16,3 % the Pill. Women with a university degree are more likely to opt for the ring than women with a lower education, but they are also more likely to use the Pill. The use of tampons was related to the acceptance of the ring: 61% of the women using tampons chose to use the ring, while of the women not using tampons 25,5 % accepted the ling. Whether or not tampon use is a discriminator for ring use, or that it is related to the type of women who first start using a new method (innovators) cannot be tiffany pendants sale form these data.
Conclusion: Among Basque women the acceptance of monthly contraceptive ring is high, over 50%. Determinants of acceptance are tampon use and the current type of contraceptive, and interrelated with the latter age of the women and the degree of education. Non-acceptance is mainly related to the unfamiliarity of the anatomy of the vagina.Christina Kamvissis, 29, and her husband, Athanasios (Tom) Christeas, have a life reminiscent of the hit movie, My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Big close families, big zest for life, lots of good food. There's just one major difference: Almost four years ago, Christina was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. "I had a tiffany accessories sale degree, a boyfriend, a lifetime worth of expectations and a huge mass that had been growing inside me completely unnoticed," recalls Christina.
The mass was 10 centimetres - the size of a grapefruit - and about four months old. Christina's doctor at Montreal's Royal Victoria Hospital said it was a very aggressive tumour and that the sooner treatment started, the better. At that point, Tom, who had been dating Christina for about three years, asked her to marry him. "I made a decision after the diagnosis," he says. "I was committed to her, no matter what."Christina was shocked when she saw the ring and she accepted without knowing if she would make it to her own wedding. More than anything, Tom's love gave Christina a big incentive to fight the cancer. "We've helped each other," says Tom. "When I was having a bad day," says Christina, "he was the strong one."Next followed the rollercoaster ride of cancer treatment: surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy. Christina lost her hair and gained about 20 pounds; when she looked in the mirror, she scarcely recognized herself. At the Look Good Feel Better workshop she attended, talking to tiffany rings sale women with cancer helped Christina realize that she wasn't alone "and gave me hope for the future," she says. "Look Good Feel Better restores self-esteem, raises morale and for two wonderful hours, you forget why you're there."
If the narrative location of P's tabernacle account was inspired by Enuma Elish, and if the account itself was further influenced by Mesopotamian concepts of sacred space such as are expressed in the topographies and other texts, then this will signify something important about P's modus operandi. His agenda was not merely to imitate Enuma Elish; it was to imitate Mesopotamia in general. The limitations of space preclude me from offering additional evidence for this conclusion. At this point I will say simply that there is such evidence, which I plan to adduce in future discussions of the Priestly Writer.
I have argued in this article that the Priestly Writer was an avid student of ancient texts and that his anthology of Israelite tradition was shaped to follow Mesopotamian patterns. Biblical scholars will be little surprised by any of the particular parallels that I Tiffany Key Ring noted between P and Mesopotamian literature. It is rather my overall claim-that mimicking foreign tradition was a strategic part of P's agenda-that is somewhat novel. P's methodology in this project is not hard to see. His imitations were not mere inventions but involved the reshaping of older Israelite traditions (perhaps much older in some cases) so that these traditions mirrored their Mesopotamian counterparts more closely. Especially interesting in this mimetic dance is the fact that, in almost every case, other Near Eastern cultures imitated the same texts as P.60 Equally instructive is that the Mesopotamian traditions P imitated were sometimes imitations of, or responses to, still older Mesopotamian traditions.61 Thus, it would seem that the Priestly Writer, whether he knew it or not, stood within an old and venerable Mesopotamian tradition that practiced literary mimesis.
The reason for P's mimesis can only be inferred, there being no explicit motivation provided in the biblical text itself. But I have suggested already that we can reasonably deduce that this was a case of elite emulation in which P sought to bestow upon Israel, and upon Israel's religion, that air of antiquity and authority that was attached to all things Mesopotamian. At this point we cannot go much beyond this level of analysis unless we Tiffany Money Clip identify the narrower contextual milieu in which the Priestly Writer lived and worked. Who was P's audience? And where did they live?
Mesopotamian texts and languages were known in Egypt, Hatti, and the Levant long before Israel appeared on the scene;62 there are even instances in which these foreign cultures adopted the genres and motifs of Mesopotamian literature, particularly its omen traditions but also, in the case of Hatti, its epic traditions.63 So Mesopotamia enjoyed an elite reputation and identity, worthy of emulation, for a very long time. I Tiffany Necklace that early Israel, taking shape in the highlands of Late Bronze/Iron I Palestine, did not have much access to Mesopotamian literature. But certainly by the eighth and seventh centuries, as Assyrian imperialism extended its reach into Palestine, this situation changed dramatically, if it had not already done so. It is precisely from this period that we find the influence of Assyrian ideology on the prophecies of Isaiah and in the book of Deuteronomy (cf. the Assyrian vassal treaties).64 All of this is to say that, generally speaking, the emulation of Mesopotamian literature by Judean scribes fits nicely into Israel's preexilic era. At the same time, Judean contact with Mesopotamia was much greater during the exilic and postexilic eras, for the obvious reason that Judeans exiled to Mesopotamia continued to copy and produce Hebrew literature in that new context while trying, with some success, to maintain communication with those back in Palestine.65 It was from this point forward that Mesopotamian influence on Hebrew literature began in earnest. I have in mind the influence of the Akkadian language on Ezekiel,66 of Mesopotamian royal inscriptions and Akkadian on Deutero-Isaiah,67 of Mesopotamian theodicies on Job,68 of Gilgamesh on Qohelet,69 and of Mesopotamian language and tradition on the language and religion of Judaism and the Talmud.70 Many other examples could be cited from the Bible, but the point is clear enough: Mesopotamian influence was possible throughout much of Israel's history, but it was Tiffany Pendant prominent during and after the exile.
On the basis of this observation, we might at first suppose that any texts of disputed provenance that exhibit Mesopotamian influence-such as P-probably date to the exilic or the postexilic era. But this argument does not follow at all. Simply because the Mesopotamian presence loomed larger at certain stages in Israelite history does not in the slightest make it probable that a given text was written during those periods. The Priestly Writer could have lived in any period in which Mesopotamian influence was adequate to spawn his mimesis. So the question of P's provenance cannot be addressed superficially but rather must be Tiffany Ring by a careful consideration of the evidence. And this lands us at once in the still ongoing debate about whether P should be dated to the exilic or especially the postexilic period, as most scholars presume, or whether it dates to the preexilic period, as is argued by a minority of very competent and influential scholars.
In his recent edition of these texts, A. R. George has suggested that it is not terribly difficult to surmise the purpose of the topographies.53 They were composed by Mesopotamian scholars to extol the religious and theological importance of Babylon's holy shrines and cities. In particular, the scribes wished to demonstrate that the religious heritage of Babylon surpassed that of older cities like Nippur. So it was in some measure a context of religious competition that prompted them to Tiffany Earring their detailed explanations of sacred space.
It is often commented that the Priestly tabernacle texts in Exodus are similarly painstaking in their detail.54 To be sure, these texts were influenced by descriptions of Solomon's temple in 1 Kings, and hence their peculiarities should not be attributed entirely to Mesopotamian influence. However, there are some significant differences between the Hebrew accounts of the tabernacle and temple. Not only is P's tabernacle account more detailed, but its function and purpose are different. Whereas the description of Solomon's temple accentuated the magnitude of the king's accomplishments, the Priestly Writer's purpose was more profound: to demonstrate jewelry on sale primordial nature of Jewish tradition by showing that God's dwelling place-the tabernacle-was constructed according to ancient blueprints from God.55 This is why the Priestly description of the tabernacle (Exodus 35-40), which is similar to Solomon's temple account in other respects, was preceded by God's prescriptions for the tabernacle's construction (Exodus 25-31).56 Prescriptions for the holy shrine do not appear in the narrative of temple construction in 1 Kings. It follows that the detail of the tabernacle account in Exodus and its emphasis on a divine blueprint find their closest parallels in the Mesopotamian rather than Israelite literary traditions.
To retrace our steps for a moment, it seems to me very likely Tiffany Bracelet the narrative location of P's tabernacle account, standing as it does after Yahweh's victory at Yam Suph, reflects the influence of Mesopotamia-especially from Enuma Elish. But was P's detailed presentation of the tabernacle's construction, with its emphasis on sacred "blueprints," inspired also by Mesopotamian tradition? My affirmative answer to this question cannot be so certain as in the cases of P's creation, rites of the Day of Atonement, and the narrative of the exodus. The notion that sacred space might have primordial origins, and that its design might be revealed by the gods, is too common in religion for us to isolate it to Mesopotamia and, through this, to the Priestly Writer.57 Nonetheless, it seems to me that the similarities between the Babylonian and Priestly prescriptions for holy things are more than fortuitous. Their common interest in the significance of prescription/execution patterns when defining and shaping sacred space is striking in a way that distinguishes them from earlier Israelite literature. Moreover, if we grant for the moment that P dates to or after the exilic era, as most scholars suppose, then my Tiffany bangle receives additional confirmation from other Hebrew authors. When the postexilic Chronicler re-narrated Solomon's construction of the temple in 1 Chronicles 28, among the many things that he added to his Deuteronomistic Vorlage was the claim that David recorded the pattern for Solomon's temple by "writing from the hand of the Lord ... all the work to be done according to the plan." Similarly, in Ezekiel's temple vision we find that God provided elaborate temple plans to the prophet through a vision.58 Also in Ezra, the author was careful to relate that cultic restoration was undertaken according to the prescriptions "written in the Book of Moses" (Ezra 3:2; 6:18). So it is not only in P but in exilic and postexilic Judaism generally that we find an emphasis on divinely given plans for sacred space.
The argument for Mesopotamian influence on P's tabernacle account is in part circumstantial and contextual and in Tiffany CuffLink derived from both general and detailed comparative evidence. An additional piece of evidence would be the potential motive of P's work. If the Priestly Writer has shaped his tabernacle account to follow the contours of Mesopotamian ritual prescriptions and theological texts, why did he do so? One clue is provided by the Babylonian topographies themselves. As George has pointed out, an important motive for their composition was undoubtedly to enhance Babylon's identity in comparison with the older, classical identities of cities like Nippur. To my mind this was also the motive at work in P, who wished to provide Judaism's sacred site with the same primordial origins that prominent Mesopotamian temples claimed for their own cults. In doing so, the Priestly Writer enhanced his community's identity by presenting Jewish culture as comparable to the classical culture of Mesopotamia-as Babylon trumped Nippur, so P trumped Babylon.59