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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons

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Counselor Education

Journal of Counselor Preparation and Supervision

Cognitive complexity

Publication Year

Articles 1 - 4 of 4

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Counseling Students’ Cognitive Complexity In A Group Dynamics Course: A Thematic Analysis, John Davison, Joel F. Diambra, Marianne Woodside, William Daniel Shirley, Rebecca Gaylor Dec 2022

Counseling Students’ Cognitive Complexity In A Group Dynamics Course: A Thematic Analysis, John Davison, Joel F. Diambra, Marianne Woodside, William Daniel Shirley, Rebecca Gaylor

Journal of Counselor Preparation and Supervision

Counselor education researchers maintain that cognitive complexity is an important ability for counselors-in-training (CIT) and professional counselors providing individual and group counseling (Duys & Hedstom, 2000; Granello, 2010; Welfare & Borders, 2010 Wilkinson, 2011). Cognitive complexity, simply defined as it relates to counseling, represents how CIT or professional counselors assemble multiple facets of a client’s situation for use in counseling (Granello, 2010). Research has linked the ability to construct a more or less complete picture from a client’s present circumstances to counseling effectiveness (Welfare & Borders, 2010). According to Bernard and Goodyear (2019) and Granello and Underfer-Babalis (2004), cognitive complexity …


Teaching Case Conceptualization Skills To Clinical Mental Health Students To Enhance Clinical Competency And Cognitive Complexity, Jennifer L. Cline, Debbie C. Sturm, A. Renee Staton Aug 2022

Teaching Case Conceptualization Skills To Clinical Mental Health Students To Enhance Clinical Competency And Cognitive Complexity, Jennifer L. Cline, Debbie C. Sturm, A. Renee Staton

Journal of Counselor Preparation and Supervision

A primary purpose of counselor education is the development of competency in diagnosis, case conceptualization, treatment formulation, and intervention. This paper describes a series of experiential case-based workshops designed to directly target and enhance students’ understanding of these specific clinical mental health counseling competencies in order to promote student involvement in constructivist learning, develop students’ cognitive complexity, and elucidate the thinking of an experienced clinician. This paper provides an overview of the workshop design and implementation, discussion of workshop efficacy with examples, and suggestions for curricular implementation.


Aligning Cognitive Complexity Models: Bridging Development Across Educational And Supervisory Contexts, J. Scott Branson, Ashley N. Branson Aug 2020

Aligning Cognitive Complexity Models: Bridging Development Across Educational And Supervisory Contexts, J. Scott Branson, Ashley N. Branson

Journal of Counselor Preparation and Supervision

Cognitive complexity is a requisite skill for mental health professionals, as they routinely face complex, ambiguous tasks such as working within an evidence based practice framework in ways that bridge clients’ subjective experiences with relevant psychotherapeutic outcome research. Multiple models for conceptualizing and promoting cognitive complexity development in educational and supervisory settings have been articulated, and the similarities across these models is striking. The purpose of this article is to: 1) introduce readers to King and Kitchener’s (1994) Reflective Judgement model of educational development and 2) demonstrate the striking alignment between the Reflective Judgement model and prominent developmental models of …


Cognitive Complexity In Counseling And Counselor Education: A Systematic And Critical Review, Jaime H. Castillo Oct 2018

Cognitive Complexity In Counseling And Counselor Education: A Systematic And Critical Review, Jaime H. Castillo

Journal of Counselor Preparation and Supervision

Cognitive complexity has found a small yet established niche in the counseling and counselor education literature over the last 40 years. This body of research has highlighted how individuals with high cognitive complexity have greater consistency in empathy, show more varied responses to clients, demonstrate greater toleration of ambiguity, and show higher frequencies of unbiased clinical judgements towards clients. This article provides a systematic and critical review of the cognitive complexity literature and discusses future implications of cultivating cognitive complexity in emerging and professional counselors and supervisors.