Counseling Commons^™

Supervision Experiences Of School Counselors-In-Training: An Interpretive Phenomenological Study, Anita M. Pool

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Students pursuing a master’s degree in CACREP-accredited school counseling programs are required to complete supervised field experiences as a part of their course requirements. During their practicum and internships experiences, they receive university supervision by a faculty member or doctoral student supervisor, as well as site supervision at the placement site, typically from a school counselor. University supervisors may lack experience in school counseling and knowledge of the unique roles and supervision needs of school counselors. In addition, site supervisors may lack training or knowledge of clinical supervision. Furthermore, the multiple systems in which SCITs function may have differing goals …

Primer On Perspectives And Practices Of Trauma, Trevor P. Haase

Educational Specialist, 2009-2019

A large majority of the general population has endured at least one traumatic event in their lifetime and many will seek counseling services to process and resolve the impact from the traumatic experience. Counselors and mental health providers will likely encounter trauma survivors in a high frequency in the majority of therapeutic settings. Practicum and internship level counselors are often not prepared for navigating the complexities that arise working with trauma survivors. This paper outlines the various perspectives and practices of the works of Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, Narrative Therapy, and Trauma Focused-Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. These orientations were designed …

The Role Of Liberian Community Organizations In The Integration Of Liberian Immigrants: A Case Study Of Immigrants In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Solomon M. Muin

Capstone Collection

Immigrants that settled in a dominant new culture face challenges during the process of acculturation. Though minority culture is always at the disadvantaged end of acculturation in most cases, most research done on acculturation in the West mostly focused on the impact of immigrants on their societies, or on ways of strengthening integration in the host countries. As this continues, the dominant culture role and importance of the majority culture is what influence most narratives and not much is seeing from the minority culture. Most research on acculturation in the United States, for example, placed more emphasis on the Hispanic …

A Wilderness And Art Therapy Program For Children With Social Concerns, Ashlynn C. Wardle

Honors Projects

For my honors project, I created an alternative therapy program for children with special needs. Activities were designed to support children with varied needs such as children with autism, ADHD, or learning disabilities. The program utilizes the most successful factors from the fields of art therapy, wilderness therapy, special education, applied behavior analysis, and speech and language therapy the program to form age appropriate, educational, and fun art and wilderness opportunities.

Exploring The Professional Identity Development Of Counselors-In-Training Through Experiential Small Groups, Amanda Christine Dediego

Doctoral Dissertations

The concept of professional identity of counselors is a recent area of focus within the counseling profession. The Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs standards for counselor education programs of all specialties reflect the trend towards establishing a strong professional identity for counselors. One factor shown to be influential in professional identity development has been experiential learning opportunities, which allow counselors-in-training to develop an individual professional identity through application of educational content in real-world scenarios. The literature suggests experiential learning is a pivotal opportunity for professional identity development for entry-level counseling students. One opportunity for experiential learning, …

Turning Points: The Lived Experience Of Addiction Recovery, Kori Bloom

International Development, Community and Environment (IDCE)

In addiction research, while academics are designing treatment, due to stigma surrounding substance abuse, the voices of those experiencing addiction are simultaneously being silenced. This paper sought to give these voices a platform from which they could be heard and educate others about addiction recovery. Photovoice, which is a participatory research method, was used as vehicle to discuss this topic. Through this project, four main themes emerged. Activities, relationships, reflection and motivation, and environment are a significant part of recovery. Participants openly appreciated that their stories were important and that someone wanted to learn from them. Further research should be …

African American Men’S Health: Regulating Race-Related Stress Through Cognitive Flexibility, Brian P. Littleton

Dissertations

African American men have one the highest preventable mortality and morbidity rates in the United States (Rich, 2000; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2015). Moreover, there is substantial health disparity between African American men and White men in the United States (Smedley, Stith, & Nelson, 2003). It has been stated that pervasive racism and discrimination are the most significant contributors for the disparity. Studies have shown race-related stress, which is derived from experiencing racism, discrimination or having internalized feelings as the result of an individual’s racial status, has been associated with blood pressure, emotional distress, and physical health …

Counselor Preparation And Adolescent Youth: A Study Of Clinical Mental Health Counselors, Brian R. Russ

Dissertations

Prevalence data have raised concerns that child and adolescent mental health issues are at an epidemic level. For example, Knopf, Park, and Mulye (2008) suggested that 20-25% of all youth experience symptoms of distress. Researchers have also estimated that one in five adolescents in the United States have a diagnosable mental health disorder, and one in ten with a disorder that would be considered severe (Kessler, Berglund, Demler, et al., 2005; Knopf, Park, & Mulye, 2008). Yet, the training of clinical mental health counselors who work with adolescent populations has received limited attention in the counselor education literature. Although the …

The Influence Of Feedback On Implicit Bias In A Sample Of Primarily Caucasian Women Counselors-In-Training, Branson L. Boykins

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine whether bogus cultural feedback influenced the presence of implicit racial bias in the clinical judgment of counselors-in-training. Participants were 193 master’s-level counselors-in-training, in which the majority were Caucasian women (57%). Three hypotheses guided the study. The first hypothesis focused on the influence of priming positive and negative feedback about cultural attitudes on a clinical case, regardless of the race or clarity of the case. The second and third hypotheses both focused on racial bias by examining the interaction between type of feedback, race, and ambiguity of diagnosis on participants’ clinical impressions of …

Preparing Young Adults For A Career In Teaching: The Role Of A Guidance Counselor, Rene Pardo

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This senior capstone examines the role of guidance counselors and their influence on students who pursue a career in teaching. Through interviews with five guidance counselors from five local schools in the Monterey Bay area and surveys with both counselors and students, this capstone shed some light on the role a counselor has in guiding young adults who are interested in becoming teachers.

A Mother's Spiritual Journey With Her Disabled Son: An Autoethnography, Margaret C. Higgins Edd

Dissertations

Abstract

This autoethnographic research delves into a mother’s experiences with her disabled son over thirty-five years. Beginning with a thick description of the crib accident that resulted in physical and cognitive disabilities that profoundly change the course of both mother and son’s life, this research chronicles the search for meaning, community, and healing as they negotiate the realms of medicine, education, career, family, and spirituality. Models of disability that seek to explain various ways in which society often views disability are examined, but none resonate with the researcher’s intimate experiences nor satisfies her deepest needs for insight and healing. Making …

Psychiatric Clinicians’ Perspectives On Continuing Education (Ce) Programming In Rural Maine, Charles Michael Wakeling

All Theses And Dissertations

There are a variety of barriers that psychiatric clinicians face when attempting to attend continuing education programming. The purpose of this qualitative, phenomenological research study was to explore continuing education practices within the health care industry, specifically mental health care, with a focus on psychiatric clinicians’ perspectives on continuing education programming in rural Maine. For the purposes of this research study, mental health care was inclusive of behavioral health care and substance abuse treatment. This study defined the term “psychiatric clinician” to be inclusive of social workers, counselors, and therapists. The participant pool was comprised of 37 psychiatric clinicians employed …

Mu Chi Alpha Fall 2016 Newsletter, Mu Chi Alpha, Counseling Program

Counseling Student Scholarship

Messiah University’s Mu Chi Alpha CSI newsletter.

Highlights include: current staff, students, or alumni for each track. Also offering pertinent information that will benefit professional counselors, students, or CSI members.

More updates available on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/muchialpha/

A Collaborative Approach To Address Student Behavior And Academic Achievement Across Systems, Beverly Ngozi Okereke

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Academic achievement and in-classroom behaviors are two significant child outcomes that affect student success in school. According to Systems Theory, in order to truly understand the factors that affect these outcomes for children, one must look to the major systems that encapsulate the child (including their school and home environments). This project is a meta-analytic review that examined the effectiveness of measures representing each system in predicting child achievement and behavior: School-Wide Positive Behavior Supports (SWPBS) for the school as a system, level of parent involvement (high versus low) for the home system, and student motivation (intrinsic versus extrinsic) for …

Relational Engagement And Empowerment: Establishing A Foundation To Address Gender And Power, Sarah K. Samman

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Feminist informed therapists view relational distress as a complex reflection of the influences of larger disempowering discourses resulting in gendered power inequalities in heterosexual couple relationships. These disempowering discourses often manifest in males’ socialization to maintain autonomy compared to females’ socialization to orient toward the needs of others (Silverstein, Bass, Tuttle, Knudson-Martin, & Huenergardt, 2006). The general purpose of this study was to bridge the gap between feminist informed theory and practice using the Socio-Emotional Relationship Therapy (SERT; Knudson-Martin & Huenergardt, 2010) Model to relieve relational distress in heterosexual intimate partners often caused by these competing discourses toward a relational …

A Tele-Coaching Intervention To Support Families In The Npp+: An Experimental Mixed Method Design, Wendella Wray

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Poverty is the single greatest threat to a child’s well-being. Poverty has been shown to exacerbate child maltreatment (CM) and minimize nurturing parenting. CM is a leading cause of death among children under the age of five in the United States. Both poverty and CM are major public health concerns worldwide with important implications for the family. For over three decades great focus has been placed on developing evidence-based (EB) parenting and family interventions to promote the well-being of high-risk families. Using a conceptual framework guided by elements of the social cognitive theory, attachment theory and family systems theory, this …

Linking Insight To Behaviour Change In A Life Coaching Intervention For Women, Tracy A. Robinson

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Solving a problem with insight provokes a change of mind and concomitantly, behaviour. This mixed method study examined moments of insight during life coaching to determine whether having moments of insight led to more meaningful and sustained behavior change. Moments of insight and non-insight were tracked over nine life-coaching sessions with a population of women (N=6) and their coaches (N=6). Validated measures of problem-solving ability, psychological well-being, and mindfulness were collected before and after the intervention, along with behaviour change goals, Wheel of Life® satisfaction, and a personal strength profile. At eight weeks post intervention, sustainability was assessed via an …

Exploring Masculinity For A Healthy Campus Culture, Jason M. Gant

Master's Projects and Capstones

1 in 5 female students is and will be sexually assaulted in college. This is a public health issue as defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Sexual violence (SV) is a significant problem in the United States. SV refers to sexual activity when consent is not obtained or not given freely. Anyone can experience SV, but most victims are female. The person responsible for the violence is typically male and usually someone the victim is familiar with. The person can be, but is not limited to, a friend, coworker, neighbor, family member and even classmate. Boys …

Symptoms, Contributing Factors, And Screening For Perinatal Mood And Anxiety Disorders In U.S. Latinas: A Literature Review, Jennifer N. S. Massie

Master's Projects and Capstones

This literature review was conducted to gather the published information on the topic of perinatal mood and anxiety disorders in the Latina population in the United States. Academic databases were searched for articles published between 2005 and 2016. 60 articles were considered, and a final sample of 36 articles and websites was included in this review.

Evidence suggests that Latina women in the perinatal period (pregnant and up to one year postpartum) in the United States of America tend to have a higher risk and incidence of perinatal mood and anxiety disorders than White women, and a higher risk and …

Burnout And Attrition Experiences Of New Professional Clinical Mental Health Counselors: An Application Of The Indivisible Self Model Of Wellness, Adam Forrest Stephens

Doctoral Dissertations

Professional burnout is a phenomenon common to professionals working within the helping fields (Figley, 2002). Though common, little exists in the way of formal theories to define and understand the phenomenon and how it may be understood in a progressive, developmental sense (Paris & Hoge, 2010). To date, burnout has primarily been understood and researched through the study of other constructs that fit within the global definition of burnout (Newell & MacNeil, 2010), as well as more constructivist approaches to the phenomenon, stating there are no predictive cycles or types of experiences that result in a perceived sense of professional …

“Invisible Citizens To Visible Subjects”: Multicultural Counseling Competence With The Arab American Population, Dareen Basma

Doctoral Dissertations

The Arab American experience entwines with politics, world affairs, race issues and more recently, in coping with refugee status. The counseling field has been increasing focus on multicultural competence, advocacy, and inclusion of marginalized populations, emphasizing it as a critical component in counselor training and education (Kiselica & Robinson, 2001). Multicultural counseling competence requires demonstrated competence in the areas of multicultural awareness, knowledge and skills when working with diverse populations (Sue et al., 1992). Despite the significant mental health implications identified among the Arab American population, there is limited empirical evidence regarding the multicultural training, education and practice of counselor …

Suicide Response Preparedness In Counseling Students: A Study Of Knowledge, Attitudes, And Simulated Behavior, Breanna Paige Banks

Doctoral Dissertations

Suicide, or “death caused by self-directed injurious behavior with (sic) intent to die as a result of the behavior,” is a major public health concern in the United States. Professional counselors are likely to encounter a suicidal client even before completing their educational training. Due to the frequency of counselor trainees’ encounters with suicidal clients, these students are likely to face this challenge as early as their first practicum experience. Due to the complexity of assessing and treating persons at risk for suicide, student counselors not explicitly trained in these practices are at risk for not identifying and adequately managing …

Internalized Heterosexism, Religious Coping, And Psychache In Lesbian, Gay, And Bisexual Young Adults, Jon Raymond Bourn

Doctoral Dissertations

Psychache, or unbearable psychological pain (Shneidman, 1993, 1999), has been found to be the most proximal predictor of suicidality. There is evidence that heterosexism (Crain-Gully, 2011), including internalized heterosexism (IH; Bourn & Miles, 2015), is related to psychache among lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals. The current study sought to further examine the relationship between IH and psychache, by identifying potential factors that moderate and mediate the relationship between IH and psychache. It was hypothesized that, in a sample of religiously-identified LGB young adults, (a) IH would be significantly, negatively correlated with positive religious coping (PRC) and significantly, positively correlated …

Experiences Of Anti-Bisexual Prejudice In A Bisexual Adult Sample And The Impact On Mental And Physical Health, James Edward Arnett

Doctoral Dissertations

This cross-sectional study examined the relationships between minority stress (e.g. anti-bisexual experiences and internalized biphobia), trauma and depressive symptoms, and self-reported physical health for a sample of online-recruited, bisexual adults. Using a minority stress framework that included physical health and conceptualizing experiences of discrimination/prejudice as a type of trauma, a model was hypothesized in which experiences of anti-bisexual discrimination would uniquely relate to trauma-related symptoms (as would exposure to other, general traumatic events) and indirectly impact physical health through these trauma symptoms. Also, it was predicted that anti-bisexual experiences would directly relate to internalized biphobia, with internalized biphobia, then, associating …

Workforce Innovation And Opportunity Act Implementation: Ethical Considerations For Counseling Practice, Christine Anderson

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

The Vocational Rehabilitation program exists to assist individuals with disabilities to attain, secure and benefit from employment. The purpose of the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 (WIA), which included the Rehabilitation Act Amendments of 1998, is to empower individuals with disabilities to maximize employment. The Act was reauthorized as the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act of 2014. The Act includes significant changes to rehabilitation service delivery including a stronger emphasis on services to youth and outreach to minority populations. Despite the changes, the Act is vague and does not include methods for implementation. Although the specifics for implementation of WIOA …

Campus Climate For Lgbtq Students, Rick Brown

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

As institutions of higher education have become increasingly cognizant of the need to ensure a welcoming campus climate for all members of their student populations, they have begun to undertake campus climate studies to assess student experiences and perceptions. While the majority of studies have been quantitative in nature, in-depth qualitative studies have been conducted in recent years. These studies have started to provide institutions with opportunities to really hear and understand the experiences of their students. The purpose of this study was to hear and understand the reported experiences of LGBTQ college students with campus climate at a mid-sized …

Personality Factors, Self-Care, And Perceived Stress Levels On Counselor Education And Counseling Psychology Doctoral Students, Jennifer L. Bauer

Dissertations

Doctoral students in Counseling Psychology and Counselor Education training programs are commonly thought to experience high levels of stress due to the nature of graduate school (Badali & Habra, 2003). Many (Blount & Mullen, 2015; Meyers, 2015; Moorhead, Gill, Minton, & Myers, 2012; Sawyer, 2013) argue that self-care is an important and necessary topic to discuss and integrate into graduate training. This study quantitatively explores aspects of personality, self-care, and perceived stress levels of graduate students in American Psychological Association (APA) accredited Counseling Psychology doctoral programs and Counselor Education doctoral programs accredited by the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and …

Exploring Interpersonal Variables Within The Supervisory Relationship: The Role Of Supervisory Alliance, Supervisory Style, And Supervisee Attachment, Kathryn Wierda

Dissertations

In the current study, I examined the role of the supervisory working alliance, supervisory style, and supervisee attachment within the supervisory relationship. A sample of 79 supervisees from a large Midwestern University in the United States, as well as 26 supervisors from a large Midwestern University and from the surrounding community, participated in this study. Interested participants were asked to complete an online survey, which included instruments measuring the supervisory working alliance, supervisory style, and supervisee attachment. Correlation analyses and multiple linear regressions were used to examine the relationship between and among supervisee attachment, supervisory style, and the supervisory working …

Dimensions Of The Doctoral Dissertation Advising Relationship In Counselor Education: Mentoring Expectations, Satisfaction, And Time-To-Degree, Lasonda Wells

Dissertations

High attrition rates among doctoral students are of great concern. Based on national statistics in the United States, at least 50% of students who start a doctoral program do not complete their degree (Council of Graduate Schools, 2008; Lovitts, 2000). Although factors leading to attrition can vary given the individual student and the discipline, the faculty-student relationship is the most commonly noted problematic factor across disciplines (Fedynich & Bain, 2011; Lovitts, 2001). However, the research on doctoral advisor-advisee relationships remains sparse, particularly in counselor education (Protivnak & Foss, 2009).

The purpose of this study was to explore the demographic profile …

Assessing Change In Attachment Security Of Adolescents At Residential Therapeutic Programs, Laura Santa Thum

Dissertations

Adolescents with significant, persistent behavioral and mental health problems are increasingly being treated in private residential treatment programs (RTPs). Recent research at such programs shows that adolescents’ symptoms improve over the course of treatment and that such positive results persist up to a year post discharge. This study attempts to address what is occurring below the symptom level by exploring if attachment security increases as symptoms improve over the course of treatment in private RTPs. The level of attachment security was assessed along the dimensions of attachment avoidance and anxiety as a general construct and according to specific relationships (with …