Counseling Commons^™

Embodied, Intentional, Relationship‑Based: Utilizing The Delphi Method To Define Dance/Movement Therapy Supervision, Mariah M. Lefeber

Faculty Publications - Graduate School of Counseling

In this study, clinical supervision within dance/movement therapy is considered in depth. The lack of and need for a consistent theory of supervision in dance/movement therapy is highlighted, including both supervision outcomes and common techniques and approaches used within the discipline. A Delphi method study is used to determine the consensus on the topic of dance/movement therapy supervision from a panel of experts. As a result of the study, the expert panel comes to a consensus of 71 statements regarding dance/movement therapy supervision. These statements are interpreted, dance/movement therapy supervision is defined, and connections are drawn to the value of …

Toward Wholeness: Discovering Intimacy With Jesus Through Holistic Healing, David H. Brown

Doctor of Ministry

NPO Statement: Christians longing for inner healing and wholeness along with growing intimacy with Jesus need a confident, competent pathway to follow.

Key Insights from Research: Intuitively true, but still surprising, the top factor for improving someone’s confidence in pursuing their healing and wholeness in a ministry setting is trust of the minister. This factor topped perceived competence of the minister, community support and biblical soundness as other confidence-building factors. Another key insight, this one brought about through my stakeholders, is the importance of telling one’s story, one’s testimony, to help gain trust and grow the confidence of a potential …

Strickland's "Is It Abuse? A Biblical Guide To Identifying Domestic Abuse And Helping Victims" (Book Review), Jaclyn Lee Parrott

The Christian Librarian

No abstract provided.

Movement Initiation: Beginning A Career In Dance/Movement Therapy, Mariah M. Lefeber

Faculty Publications - Graduate School of Counseling

No abstract provided.

Using The Post-Traumatic Growth Model To Explore Trauma Narratives In Group Work With African Refugee Youth, Hannah E. Acquaye, Carol M. John, Laurie A. Bloomquist, Nicole M. Milne

Faculty Publications - Graduate School of Counseling

African American youth and African refugee youth encounter systemic racism in similar yet different ways. Because of the inherent traumatic experiences encountered by refugee youth, the added discrimination during their acculturation processes elevates their trauma and stressor- related symptoms. This paper uses the Posttraumatic Growth Model to explore some steps in facilitating an 8-week group therapy for African refugee youth in the US school system. Culturally-sensitive recommendations are also provided.

Trauma And Identity: A Reciprocal Relationship?, Steven L. Berman, Marilyn J. Montgomery, Kaylin Ratner

Faculty Publications - Graduate School of Counseling

Trauma can alter the course of identity development and destabilize existing identity commitments. Trauma, whether past or current, can also impact the resources a person brings to identity work. However, identity can also be a lens through which trauma is perceived and interpreted, helping to determine whether a traumatic experience results in posttraumatic stress disorder or posttraumatic growth. Despite the apparent implications each construct has for the other, the scholarship at the intersection of trauma and identity remains sparse. This Special Issue explores how and when trauma and identity influence one another by considering their association across various adolescent populations, …

Conceptualizing Therapy As A Spiritual Discipline, Kristen M. White

Faculty Publications - Graduate School of Counseling

Psychological literature is in the beginning stages of reflecting the Church’s shift toward spiritual formation, incorporating theory and research regarding how spiritual disciplines might be relevant to the practice of therapy. This work may be expanded by viewing therapy itself as a spiritual discipline, particularly for the client. This article makes this connection by clearly defining spiritual disciplines and highlighting how therapy is or can be made congruent with them. It further discusses how therapy may be a very useful spiritual discipline within the Church today. Lastly, this article discusses the implications for viewing therapy as a spiritual discipline for …

Cultural Humility In Action: Reflective And Process-Oriented Supervision With Black Trainees, Naadira C. Upshaw, Douglas E. Lewis Jr., Amber L. Nelson

Faculty Publications - Graduate School of Counseling

The supervisory relationship is considered a core experience in the field of psychology. The primary goal of this experience is to support trainees’ development of strong clinical skills, as well as expertise, to ensure adequate treatment of patients and promote learning and professional growth. However, it has become evident that supervisors continue to struggle with adapting an integrated and contextual approach to diversity. This becomes problematic when working with trainees of Color who are often navigating multiple identities in professional spaces and are at risk for burnout and unintended harm from individuals in a supervisory role. Further, the expanding sociopolitical …

Trauma-Informed School Practices In Response To The Impact Of Social-Cultural Trauma (Chapter In How Shall We Then Care? A Christian Educator's Guide To Caring For Self, Learners, Colleagues, And Community), Anna A. Berardi Phd., Brenda Morton

Faculty Publications - Graduate School of Counseling

Excerpt: "In this chapter we present a model for addressing the academic and behavioral challenges of students impacted by unmitigated stress and trauma. Typically, trauma-informed school literature addresses trauma resulting from abusive, or neglectful behaviors that occur in the home (Bailey, 2015; Craig, 2016; Massachusetts Advocates for Children, 2005; Souers & Hall, 2016). Here, the type of trauma we are addressing is threats to the physical and emotional health of students due to social and cultural factors. Perhaps most detrimental and deadly is trauma resulting from war, economic collapse, civil unrest, and social-political attitudes, laws, and customs that exclude, marginalize, …

Trauma-Informed School Practices: Building Expertise To Transform Schools, Anna A. Berardi Phd., Brenda Morton, Edd.

Open Textbooks

This textbook represents the combined insight and experience of Morton, a k12 educator, and Berardi, a psychotherapist, both of whom are also university educators with extensive work experience serving districts and their teachers seeking to incorporate trauma-informed principles into their school culture and classroom. The authors identify that the field of education is now ready to deepen its level of response to the paradigm shift created by advances in neuroscience and traumatology. Hence, the primary focus is on identifying and applying trauma-informed educator competencies needed to transform districts, schools, educators, classrooms, and the field of education itself, while also including …

The Impact Of The School Counselor Supervision Model On The Self-Efficacy Of School Counselor Site Supervisors, Carleton H. Brown, Arturo Olivárez Jr., Lorraine Dekruyf

Faculty Publications - Graduate School of Counseling

Supervision is a critical element in the professional identity development of school counselors; however, available school counseling-specific supervision training is lacking. The authors describe a 4-hour supervision workshop based on the School Counselor Supervision Model (SCSM; Luke & Bernard, 2006) attended by 31 school counselors from three southern U.S. school districts. Employing a pre-experimental pretest-posttest research design using the Site Supervisor Self-Efficacy Survey-revised (DeKruyf, 2011), the authors found a significant positive relationship (t (30) = 9.31, p & .001; Cohen's d = 1.67) between supervision training and supervisor self-efficacy. These findings bolstered the efficacy of the SCSM. The authors discuss …

Dyer And Dyers' "Love At First Fight" (Book Review), Gary Averill

The Christian Librarian

No abstract provided.

Dearmond, D., & Dearmond. R.'S "Don’T Go To Bed Angry: Stay Up And Fight" (Book Review), Carrie Consalvi

The Christian Librarian

DeArmond, D., & DeArmond. R. (2016). Don’t go to bed angry: Stay up and fight. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press. 179 pp. $14.99. ISBN 9781426790935

Lambert's "A Theology Of Biblical Counseling: The Doctrinal Foundations Of Counseling Ministry" (Book Review), Laura E. Walton

The Christian Librarian

A review of Lambert, H. (2016). A theology of biblical counseling: The doctrinal foundations of counseling ministry. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan. 344 pp. $24.99. ISBN 9780310518167

Bridging The Gap: Pop Media As A Narrative Tool For Working With Millennials, Kristina M. Kays, David Kays, Adrian Egger

Faculty Publications - Psychology Department

This seminar explores the use of popular media as a means to explore emotions issues resulting from trauma and abuse. The movie Inside Out will be explored as a practical and live example for use in integrating narrative therapy interventions with challenging clients resistant to exploring emotional concerns in therapy.

Spirituality In Supervision, Laurie A. Bloomquist

Faculty Publications - Graduate School of Counseling

Spirituality and religion are emerging in the literature as important areas of counselor competency. Not enough is known about the personal experiences of clinical supervisors with this topic. The purpose of this dissertation was to explore the relationship between the personal spiritual and religious practices of counselor supervisors and their professional quality of life and ability to demonstrate the spiritual competencies described by the Association for Spiritual, Ethical, and Religious Values in Counseling (ASERVIC). A demographic questionnaire about spiritual and religious practices was created and two existing assessment tools were used to complete a cross sectional survey design to explore …

Counselor Formation And Gatekeeping Best Practices, Beronica M. Salazar, Ana Lilia Villafuerte Montiel Phd., Anna A. Berardi Phd.

Faculty Publications - Graduate School of Counseling

Counselor educators and supervisors contribute to students’ development while determining fitness for the profession. How we intervene can either help students work through internal conflicts that prevent them from embracing professional skills and dispositions or undermine that process. Facilitators will interactively engage participants in the application of a developmental framework that maximizes students’ dissonance in service to their counselor identity development process.

Empowering Marginalized Youth: A Self-Transformative Intervention For Promoting Positive Youth Development, Kyle E Eichas, Alan Meca, Marilyn J. Montgomery, William M. Kurtines

Faculty Publications - Graduate School of Counseling

This article reports the results of a positive youth development (PYD) intervention for adolescents in alternative high schools (209 African American and Hispanic American adolescents, aged 14–18; 118 females and 91 males). The intervention was guided by a self-transformative model of PYD (Eichas, Meca, Montgomery, & Kurtines, 2014). This model proposes that the actions youth take to define themselves function as active ingredients in positive development over the life course. Consistent with the self-transformative model, results provided support for direct or mediated intervention effects on the self-transformative processes of self-construction and self-discovery, life goal development, identity synthesis, and internalizing problems. …

Maximizing Academic Success For Foster Care Students: A Trauma-Informed Approach, Anna A. Berardi Phd., Brenda M. Morton

Faculty Publications - College of Education

Children in foster care have experienced significant trauma due to the loss of primary attachment figures and the circumstances associated with that loss. Children who have suffered trauma generally present with cognitive, social, physical, and emotional vulnerabilities. These vulnerabilities are often expressed in the P–12 academic setting through difficulties with behavioral and emotional self-regulation, academic functioning, and physical ailments and illness related to chronic stress-induced compromised immune systems. This results in academic failure for half of all children in care. Training in how to respond to children who have suffered trauma is essential to ensure that children are comfortable and …

Not Even Cold In Her Grave: How Postbereavement Remarried Couples Perceive Family Acceptance, Michelle Engblom-Deglmann

Faculty Publications - Graduate School of Counseling

Following the interviews of 24 participants concerning the death of their spouse and subsequent remarriage, a pattern of unsolicited responses concerning perceived acceptance of family emerged. Through grounded theory qualitative analysis, a continuum of acceptance was developed ranging from welcoming acceptance to active disapproval. Themes that influenced the perceived level of acceptance were (a) the length of time between death and courtship; (b) the length of the courtship itself; and (c) the level of family involvement in the courtship. Findings support and enhance current literature on remarital adjustment, suggesting it is critical to not only include children, but also the …

Counselor Educators Lean-In To Walk The Talk: A Team Approach To Strengthening Faculty Multicultural Sensitivity, Lorraine Dekruyf, Steve Bearden, Anna A. Berardi Phd., Chris Cleaver, Keith Dempsey, Michelle Englbom-Deglmann, Jennifer Lichtenberg, Rand Michael, Beronica M. Salazar, Richard Shaw, Robert Simpson, Daniel Sweeney

Faculty Publications - Graduate School of Counseling

This session offers an innovative approach for engaging faculty in the development and deepening of their own multicultural sensitivity, for improving pedagogy, and in turn promoting second-order change within students as they engage with multicultural competencies. Broader systemic issues are also addressed given the university's contextual setting as a faith-based, primarily Caucasian institution.

Integrating Narrative Family Therapy In An Outdoor Behavioral Healthcare Program: A Case Study, Steven M. Demille, Marilyn J. Montgomery

Faculty Publications - Graduate School of Counseling

Adolescent mental health is a significant societal concern in the United States. Diagnosable mental health disorders have been reported at rates of 10–20 % among children and adolescents and this does not include adolescents experiencing personal and interpersonal distress not meeting diagnostic criteria. Adolescents who do not respond to traditional mental health services are often placed in residential treatment centers or other out-of-home treatment programs. Outdoor Behavioral Healthcare (OBH) is growing as a viable treatment option for adolescents who struggle with emotional, behavioral or substance related problems; however, questions have been raised about how to integrate the family into an …

Narrative Identity Development For Novice Psychotherapists In Clinical Training, Dana Michelle Satterlee

Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)

Abstract Narrative identity is “the internalized, evolving story of the self that each person crafts to provide his or her life with a sense of purpose and unity” (Adler, 2012, p. 367). This identity is distinct from the broad dispositional traits and the characteristic adaptations for contextualized behaviors. It provides the self with a sense of purpose, meaning, and unity across time and situations (McAdams & Olson, 2010). Researchers have developed ways of measuring innovative moments (IMs), or shifts in narrative identity that occur in psychotherapy. Researchers have also explored narrative identity processing as it seems to occur across the …

Erikson’S Young Adulthood And Emerging Adulthood Today, Marilyn J. Montgomery, Jeffrey J. Arnett

Faculty Publications - Graduate School of Counseling

No abstract provided.

Mindfulness, Christian Devotion Meditation, Surrender, And Worry, Thomas Frederick, Kristen M. White

Faculty Publications - Graduate School of Counseling

This article will present an approach for accommodating the benefits of mindfulness into therapy with Christians struggling with worry. Given the psychological benefits of mindfulness and its connection to spirituality, it is not surprising that both therapists and Christian clients are attempting to incorporate it into counselling. Centering prayer, which is a form of Christian Devotion Meditation, provides an accommodative approach to managing worry for Christian clients. The results of this study indicate that surrender, a key component of centering prayer, provides an empirical link for incorporating the benefits of mindfulness for Christians.

Identity And Positive Youth Development: Advances In Developmental Intervention Science, Kyle E Eichas, Alan Meca, Marilyn J. Montgomery, William Kurtines

Faculty Publications - Graduate School of Counseling

This chapter provides an overview of advances in developmental intervention science that have contributed to an emerging literature on identity-focused positive youth development interventions. Rooted in the tradition of applied developmental science, developmental intervention science aims to advance the evolution of sustainable developmental intervention strategies targeting positive developmental outcomes. These developmental intervention strategies are intended to complement the wide array of well-established treatment and prevention intervention strategies targeting risky and problem behaviors. Within this framework, positive identity interventions seek to create empowering intervention contexts that promote the development of an increasingly integrated—and therefore an increasingly complex, coherent, and cohesive—self-constructed self-structure. …

Effects Of Mindfulness Training On First Year Doctoral Students’ Therapeutic Relationships, Joel Simons

Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)

The quality of the relationship established between client and clinician during psychotherapy has been found to be a robust, common, and curative factor regardless of clinician theoretical orientation. The positive impact of therapeutic relationships remains distinct from technique and accounts for the greatest amount of therapeutic change that is within clinicians’ control. The growth of effective mindfulness-based treatments has led some to postulate that mindfulness may improve clinicians’ ability to establish positive therapeutic relationships. If that is true, then mindfulness practice may be particularly relevant to early clinical training when students are learning basic relational skills. This study examined the …

Spiritual/Religious Issues In Therapy At A Community Mental Health Clinic, Courtney Elizabeth Mcconnell

Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)

Abstract The purpose of this dissertation is to explore the growing area of spirituality and religion in counseling. The American public values religion; and the American Psychological Association (APA) acknowledges religion/spirituality as a vital area of diversity. With APA calling for specialized training in religious diversity, it is important to consider what religious/spiritual issues arise in a community counseling setting. This study was designed to determine whether clients or therapists raise religious issues, and whether clients who self-identify as religiously affiliated spend more time discussing religious/spiritual topics in session. In addition, researchers hoped to learn about what religious content was …

Best Practices In Clinical Supervision: Evolution Of A Counseling Specialty, L. Dianne Borders, Harriet L. Glosoff, Laura A. Welfare, Danica G. Hays, Lorraine Dekruyf, Delini M. Fernando, Betsy Page

Faculty Publications - Graduate School of Counseling

A number of developments have marked the evolution of clinical supervision as a separate specialty since publication of the Standards for Counseling Supervisors in 1990, including accreditation and counselor licensure standards, supervisor credentials, and research on supervision practice and supervisor training, nationally and internationally. Such developments culminated in the development of a statement of Supervision Best Practices Guidelines. The Guidelines are described, followed by suggestions for their implementation and further evolution through research.

Mindfully Educating Our Future: The Mesg Curriculum For Training Emergent Counselors, Lynn Bohecker, Cristen Wathen, Pamela Wells, Beronica M. Salazar, Linwood G. Vereen

Faculty Publications - Graduate School of Counseling

The 2009 Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs standards (II.G.6.e) and the Association for Specialists in Group Work both promote and support counselors in training (CITs) having direct experience as group members. Counselor educators must develop experiential group curricula, which intentionally facilitate CIT growth and development, while meeting ethical and accreditation standards. The Mindfulness Experiential Small Group (MESG) Curriculum was developed to assist in meeting and exceeding these standards. The skills obtained through the MESG can provide CITs with ways to manage academic and emotional challenges while facilitating counselor development in a group context.