Student Counseling and Personnel Services Commons^™

A Narrative Conceptualization Of The Imposter Phenomenon: Implications For Supervisors Of Beginning Counselors, Joel A. Lane

Counselor Education Faculty Publications and Presentations

The Imposter Phenomenon, characterized as a sentiment that one is incompetent despite overwhelming contradictory evidence, is perhaps the most significant challenge that counseling students face as they begin their practicum experiences. Individuals experiencing this phenomenon are unable to internalize evidence of their competence. They believe that their successes can be attributed to luck, and feel that fraudulence is the primary reason for their having progressed to the point of the practicum experience. An inability to see one’s counseling abilities as competent can negatively impact his or her work in multiple ways. Supervisors of these counseling students are in a unique …