Counseling Commons^™

Factors Affecting The Joy Of Life In Old Age: A Scale Development Study, Yalçın Karagöz, Yusuf Karaşi̇n, Mustafa Filiz, Mehmet Ateş

Adultspan Journal

This study aims to introduce a measurement tool into the literature that can reveal the factors affecting the joy of life in older adulthood. Participants included 266 individuals aged 55 and over living in Izmir, Turkey. The process of developing the scale includes the following stages: problem identification, item pool creation, expert opinion, form shaping, pilot application, and finalizing the scale. The exploratory factor analysis revealed that the scale consists of 6 different dimensions, and the variance explained by these dimensions was found to be 65.184%. The acceptable values for the scale's fit indicators are as follows: χ²/df0.90, IFI > 0.90, …

"The Perfect Storm": Weathering Black Racial Trauma Across The Lifespan And The Impact Of Covid-19, Taryne M. Mingo, Kiauhna Haynes

Adultspan Journal

Descendants of Africans Enslaved in the United States (DAEUS), who lived in the South prior to 1965 and experienced decades of legalized discrimination, were found to have been disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Arline Geronimus (1992) coined the term “weathering” to acknowledge the accumulation of racial trauma stored within the body over extended periods of time. The purpose of this interpretive phenomenological study, aligned by the tenets of Critical Race Theory, explores how continuous racial trauma impacted DAEUS citizens’ well-being and trust in the COVID-19 vaccine. Three Group Experiential Themes emerged during this study, all connected with the experiences …

Retirement Grief: Insights For Counseling Praxis, Colette T. Dollarhide

Adultspan Journal

From a personal perspective, this article documents one counselor educator’s experience that might inform the work of counselors who are providing counseling services for those experiencing challenges during retirement.

Intersecting Inequities For Older Lgbtq+ Adults Of Color In The Advent Of Medicare Access: A Structural Vulnerability Framework, Christian D. Chan

Adultspan Journal

Although advances in Medicare legislation provide access for beneficiaries to professional counselors, older LGBTQ+ adults of Color face a litany of concerns that heighten stigma and inhibit their access to mental health services. The structural vulnerability framework identifies multiple domains that support the interface between Medicare coverage and access to care for older LGBTQ+ adults of Color. In this conceptual article, I outline (a) interdisciplinary scholarship that contextualizes the key issues facing older LGBTQ+ adults of Color; (b) the core tenets of the structural vulnerability framework; (c) implications for practice addressing structural vulnerability for older LGBTQ+ adults of Color with …

Using The Gerontological Imagination To Explore Suicide Among Older Adults: An Interdisciplinary Perspective For Professional Counselors, Mary Chase Mize, Afroze Shaikh

Adultspan Journal

Gerontology, the study of aging and older adulthood, is a vast field consisting of many intersecting disciplines, such as medicine, nutrition, public policy, psychology, social work, and professional counseling. As the older adult population rapidly increases, so too will the prevalence of mental health concerns among this population, including risk for suicide. Older adults presently comprise 16.5% of the U.S. population, yet account for 19.3% of all deaths by suicide (Drapeau & McIntosh, 2020). Professional counselors are newly eligible Medicare providers and can close gaps in healthcare access for older adults who rely on Medicare to receive mental health services, …

Providing End-Of-Life Counseling: A Narrative Inquiry, Carol Hecht, Sibyl West

Adultspan Journal

This qualitative study aimed to address the gap in the research related to end-of-life counseling by exploring the experiences of counselors working with clients at end of life. While counseling literature and education are lacking regarding end of life, many counselors will work alongside clients approaching death. The purpose of this study was twofold: (a) to better understand the nuanced experiences of counselors providing end-of-life counseling and (b) to explore the supports and preparations helpful for counselors to provide end-of-life counseling. A narrative approach, using the Listening Guide (Gilligan, 2015), was employed to analyze and present the stories of three …

Mental Health Distress And Suicide Risk Among Older Adults Who Receive Nutrition Services Programming: Implications For Licensed Professional Counselors., Brittany R. Jones-Cobb, Jihee Hong, Mary Chase Breedlove Mize, Laura Shannonhouse

Adultspan Journal

Licensed professional counselors (LPCs) are now eligible to provide mental health counseling to older adults as Medicare providers. Many older adults receive home delivered (HDM) and congregate (CM) meal services through the Aging Services Network, though their mental health impact remains under examined. This study compared the mental health and suicide risk of older adults receiving HDM or CM services. Our cross-sectional study of 221 HDM and 150 CM recipients from 2018-2020 found significant group differences in psychological distress, t(366) = 3.28, p = .001, perceived burdensomeness; t(357.31) = 2.77, p = .006, and thwarted belongingness, t(357.96) …

Considerations Of Medicare Telehealth Services With Older Adults, Sonah Kho, Amanda Dediego

Adultspan Journal

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic set in motion a rapid expansion of mental health services offered via telehealth. With this rapid expansion came the need to examine how policy and practice should be shaped in a future where telehealth is considered common in counseling practice. For counselors to understand how to support older adult clients in using telehealth services, they must understand telehealth policy. Following the eligibility of licensed counselors to participate in Medicare, counselors need to stay abreast of regulatory changes regarding restrictions and regulations on use of telehealth for mental and behavioral health services, including video and …

Introduction To The Special Issue On Medicare Inclusion Of Counselors: Preparing The Counseling Workforce To Serve Older Adults, Matthew C. Fullen, Jordan Westcott

Adultspan Journal

Introduction to the special issue on Medicare Inclusion of Counselors: Preparing the Counseling Workforce to Serve Older Adults.

Special Issue Editors:

Matthew Fullen, Virginia Tech

Jordan Westcott, The University of Tennessee-Knoxville

A Qualitative Exploration Of Well-Being In Cancer Survivorship: Implications For Counselors, Hallie M. Sylvestro, Lindsey K. Umstead, Heather Delgado, Christopher Lawrence, Keith Mobley, Kelly L. Wester, Andrew Wood

Adultspan Journal

Adult cancer survivors represent an important–and growing–population that could benefit from counseling services. This study employed consensual qualitative research to examine the well-being experiences of eight cancer survivors. Findings suggest a broad range of changes to individual well-being following cancer diagnosis and treatment, and indicate counseling can provide an ideal setting for processing such changes. Recommendations for counseling practice and future research are provided.

Emotion Regulation Strategies And Perceived Emotional Intelligence: The Effect Of Age., Iwanna Sepiadou

Adultspan Journal

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between perceived emotional intelligence and the reported use of cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression. We also investigated the possible effects of age on the aforementioned variables. The total sample consisted of 379 people (158 men, 220 women, 1 unreported). Across participants, 273 were young (20-39 years old) and 106 were middle-aged (40-65 years old). We found statistically significant positive correlations between the dimensions of perceived emotional intelligence and the reported use of cognitive reappraisal and negative primarily correlations between the dimensions of perceived emotional intelligence and the reported use of …

Multicultural Gerotranscendence: A Theoretical Approach To Working With Older Adults, Whitney George, Danielle Schlittler

Adultspan Journal

With the growing number of the aging population, the call for counselors to understand the developmental processes of all clients is essential. The theories of gerotranscendence and multicultural counseling and therapy are central to the understanding of adult development in later life. The use of these two theories together provides a theoretical basis for counselors wishing to provide services to diverse older adults.

A Legacy Of Feminism And Advocacy: An Interview With Dr. Lenore Walker, Brandi Diaz

Trauma Counseling and Resilience

Dr. Lenore Walker is a pioneer in feminism and trauma counseling. Her contribution to these fields is vast, including topics of gender violence, battered woman syndrome, child abuse and trauma, false confessions of battered women, sex and human trafficking, and psychology and the law. Her theories and conceptualizations have shaped how providers approach trauma-informed care and the assessment of trauma survivors. Moreover, her work has spanned a variety of functions such as a clinician, researcher, educator, advocate, leader, consultant, and mentor. For the purposes of this article, Dr. Walker engaged in an interview to discuss her career, contributions, legacy, and …

Infusing Trauma-Informed Care In Career Counseling: Promising Practices And A Proposed Framework, Lisa M. Cardello, Galaxina G. Wright

Trauma Counseling and Resilience

The impact of trauma on career development is well-documented and includes effects on career decision, stability, and unemployment. However, literature on trauma-informed interventions in the career counseling setting is scarce and a universal model for providing career counseling with a trauma-informed lens does not currently exist. Therefore, the authors discuss existing literature on trauma-informed care and application for career counseling. An integrated framework for trauma-informed career counseling, the HEART model, is proposed and includes five components: (a) instilling hope, (b) establishing safety, (c) recognizing and responding to chronic stress, (d) building resilience, and (e) the importance of engaging in ongoing …

Trauma Curriculum Integration In Counselor Education: A Delphi Study, Jaimee York, Adrienne Baggs, Laura Schmuldt, Nancy Sherman

Trauma Counseling and Resilience

Research has established the need for trauma education and training for safe and effective entry-level practice. However, studies have shown insufficient and inconsistent training in graduate counseling programs. Those studies reflected the opinions and experiences of practitioners and graduate students. To add to the extant literature, we used the Delphi method to gather information from counselor educators who have experience in trauma counseling and education. The Delphi technique is a group communication strategy designed to obtain expert consensus through a series of survey questionnaires, modified and adapted to reflect group opinion. We asked participants for their insight into the most …

College Student Stress And Resilience During Covid-19, Kevin A. Doyle, Karissa Peyer, Liz Hathaway, Hannah Turner, Dorinda Harriss

Trauma Counseling and Resilience

The COVID-19 pandemic had a drastic impact on the wellness of college students. In this study, researchers examined levels of stressful events, perceived stress, and resilience in a sample of 312 students at a Southeastern university. Students demonstrated a high volume of stressful events, lower levels of resilience, and high levels of perceived stress. The combination of stressful events and resilience explained a significant amount of the variance in perceived stress. Implications are included.

Pioneers, Pillars, And Paradigms: History Of The International Association For Resilience And Trauma Counseling, Carol M. Smith, Jane M. Webber

Trauma Counseling and Resilience

The International Association for Resilience and Trauma Counseling was formally recognized in March 2022 as the 19^th Division of the American Counseling Association. This article describes the history and evolution of this professional association through the lens of the founding president and the founding journal editor; both are cofounders of this group. The efforts and results of trauma counseling advocates and pioneers are described along with the appreciation of trauma-competent counseling within the broader discipline of mental health.

Strategies For Integrating Aging And Older Adulthood Into Counselor Training, Matthew C. Fullen, Jordan Westcott, Kailey Bradley, Natese R. Dockery, Jungeun Lee, Rumbidzai Mushunje, Afroze N. Shaikh

Adultspan Journal

Following recent changes to Medicare mental health law, counselors will have expanded opportunities to work with older adults. Historically, there has been a dearth of counselor training dedicated to counseling older adults, necessitating greater attention to understanding and applying best practices for preparing counselors to serve older adult clients. Looking to professions that have a longer history of serving older adults, specifically gerontology, social work, and geropsychology, we describe approaches to training counselors to work with older adults that may prove helpful for the counseling profession.

Counseling Young Adults Regarding Spiritual Wellness: The Need And The Practice, Ellise Nolan, Fawn Gordon, Kailey Bradley

Adultspan Journal

The authors explore literature discussing an increasing level of anxiety and depression in young adults connected to struggles with meaning and purpose. The authors present the challenges of young adulthood as a developmental stage, highlighting the role that spiritual/religious exploration can occupy in counseling. Exploring the barriers counselors report to integrating spirituality into counseling, the authors propose counselors utilize the Ways Paradigm framework to support young adults with their spiritual wellness, giving examples of ways of understanding, ways of being and ways of intervening for working with clients with diverse religious/spiritual beliefs. The authors conclude with a case study and …

Exploring The Relationships And Differences Of Cultural Identity Salience, Life Satisfaction, And Cultural Demographics Among Emerging Adults, Matthew L. Nice

Adultspan Journal

Quantitative research methods were used to evaluate the salience of emerging adults’ (N = 444) cultural identities of race/ethnicity, gender, sexuality, spirituality, and socioeconomic status on perceived life satisfaction and cultural demographics using the Multicultural and Social Justice Counseling Competencies (MSJCC; Ratts et al., 2016) as a guiding framework. Findings from a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) indicated significant differences between specific cultural demographics and their cultural identity salience. Racial/ethnic and spiritual identify salience were found to be significantly related to emerging adults’ life satisfaction. A regression model considering race/ethnicity and spirituality identity saliences was significant when controlling for …

First Generation College Student Transitions: Informing Counseling Practices For Emerging Adults, Cassandra A. Storlie, Jessi Budyka, Anna A. Ellenson, Alexandra Malkani, Deanna Revels

Adultspan Journal

Using Schlossberg’s Transition Theory (STT), we used a directive content analysis to explore the high school to college career transitions of 24 emerging adults who were first generation college students (FGCS) with undeclared majors. 153 phrases aligned with STT highlighting unanticipated situations, psychological resources, and emerging adult development. Implications for professional counselors working with FGCS are provided.

The Unequal Distribution Of Social Risk For Black Men Across The Life-Span. A Novel Framework., Waleed Y. Sami

Adultspan Journal

This conceptual overview offers a comprehensive overview of systemic pathways that negatively impact the mental health of Black Men throughout their lives. Our argument highlights the importance for counselors and mental health professionals to utilize a thorough social risk assessment that considers these pathways in order to effectively address the mental health needs of Black Men while fostering positive working relationships. This overview strongly advocates for the use of context and structural determinants when evaluating mental health symptoms. Without an appropriate understanding of social risk and determinants, counselors may inadvertently perpetuate disparities by decontextualizing symptomology, and reproducing racist discourse.

Connecting With Clients In Later Life: The Use Of Telebehavioral Health To Address Older Adults’ Mental Health Needs, Jordan B. Westcott, Nicolette Castagna, Megan K. Baker, Jaclyn Musci, Nick Gowen, Benjamin Wiley, Benjamin Comire, Anne Patterson, Matthew C. Fullen

Adultspan Journal

Telebehavioral health offers a unique opportunity to expand access to mental health services for older clients by addressing systemic barriers that often render mental health care inaccessible in later life. Although health interventions facilitated by technology, including telebehavioral health approaches, proliferated at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, little guidance exists for counselors seeking to provide such services to clients in later life. In this manuscript, we describe challenges accessing mental health services, how telebehavioral health services can address these barriers, and practical consideration for delivering telebehavioral health approaches for counselors who work with older clients.

Power Of A Feminist Identity On Sense Of Self And Purpose, Kerry Diekmann

Adultspan Journal

This study centered on feminist-identified women and the meaning they made from their feminist identity. Using an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis design, eight women were interviewed to understand their lived experience and the influence their social or political identity had on how they experienced and made sense of their world. The overarching finding was that all participants exuded a strong sense of self, which seemed to provide resilience and empower participants to navigate sexism and other injustice. Themes that support this finding include exhibiting confidence and self-advocacy, confronting sexism, and describing a connection between feminist identity and career or activism. Implications …

Integrating Feminist Approaches In Counseling Work With Adult Women, Kristen M. Toole

Adultspan Journal

The scope of ‘women’s issues’ in counseling is an ever-evolving landscape. Recent events such as the reversal of Roe v. Wade and the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on women serve as powerful reminders of the necessity of this focus while underscoring a deep-rooted history of oppressive patriarchal structures. Therefore, counselors must remain informed of the unique considerations surrounding adult women in counseling and acquire proficiency in versatile techniques to meet this population’s nuanced needs. This article examines the complexity of contemporary womanhood and explores the fundamentals of Feminist Counseling Theory (FCT), a holistic, multiculturally conscious, social justice theory in counseling. …

Recognizing Ableism And Practicing Disability Humility: Conceptualizing Disability Across The Lifespan, Katherine M. Atkins, Tamekia Bell, Tilottama Roy-White, Maria Page

Adultspan Journal

Disability culture is often misunderstood by counselors who lack extensive training in working with individuals with disabilities (IWDs) (Stuntzner & Hartley, 2014). This quantitative study used the Counseling Clients with Disability Survey (CCDS) to explore the beliefs and perceived knowledge of counselors-in-training (CITs), counselors, and counselor educators regarding preparation to counsel IWDs, which is particularly important as disability status can change across the lifespan, and given that the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) Standards Review Committee provided a guide to the draft standards incorporating the infusion of disability concepts. Results indicate that counselors were competent …

Utilization Of The Social Determinants Of Mental Health Framework With Older Adults For Assessment, Case Conceptualization, And Treatment Planning, Janelle L. Jones, Julia Lancaster, Lauren Robins, Wendy K. Killam, Matthew L. Nice, Bisola Duyile

Adultspan Journal

This conceptual paper will aid counselors and mental health professionals in obtaining insight to utilizing a Social Determinants of Mental Health Framework with older adult clients. Further, the article incorporates the Multicultural and Social Justice Counseling Competencies to further contextualize the therapeutic alliance. The authors utilize the Social Determinants of Mental Health Framework to frame counseling assessment, case conceptualization, and treatment planning to improve the mental health outcomes of older adults. The article utilizes a specific case example to assess, conceptualize, and plan treatment for an older adult client contextualized in their environment.

The Role Of Fear And Stigma In Perpetuating Racial Health Orientation Disparities In Emerging Adults, Melissa Zeligman, Andrew Wood, Dania Fakhro, Margaret Foulk

Adultspan Journal

This study examined relationships between cancer fear, race, anticipated stigma of chronic illness, and health orientation in emerging adults (N = 152). Hierarchical regressions and moderation analyses were used to evaluate the predictive nature of these variables on health orientation, as well as to determine the moderating role of race between cancer fear, anticipated stigma of chronic illness, and health orientation. Family history of chronic illness and cancer fear were both found to predict health orientation scores significantly. In addition, although people of color reported greater levels of anticipated stigma of chronic illness, race did not moderate the relationship …

Complicated Grief: Counseling Considerations And Techniques, Loretta Bradley, Nicole Noble, Kumudu Witanapatirana

Adultspan Journal

This article presents a case study about a fictional client’s experience of complicated grief. This article differentiates between complicated grief and normal (adaptive) grief. It also distinguishes between bereavement, grief, and mourning. The counseling process is described using developmental theory and narrative reconstruction to illustrate how to implement creative techniques.

From Darkness To Light: An Exploration Of Self-Discovery And Healing Through Collaborative Recovery Expressive Writing, Leighann Justice Davidson

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

This participatory action research project was developed to explore the participants’ experiences during a collaborative recovery expressive writing (CREW) workshop while in long-term treatment from substance use disorders (SUDs). This workshop featured the primary components of the James W. Pennebaker model, but adapted the technique to create a safe environment for the participants to share their writings. This qualitative study conducted at Recovery Point West Virginia began by exploring how ten women sharing their emotions within a supportive environment used collaborative writing to continue their recovery journey through self-discovery and healing. Following the CREW workshop, the project continued with focus …