Counseling Commons^™

Alcohol Abuse Rising Like Covid, Christine Chasek

Counseling Faculty Publications

Alcohol use is a common coping response to stress. Historically, it has increased during times of catastrophic events. The COVID-10 pandemic can be placed in both of those categories.

Generation Covid-19: Navigating Life's Transitions, Christine Chasek

Counseling Faculty Publications

Every generation has face significant events and hardships that shape the way they view the world.

Exploration Of A Resilience Intervention Among Women With Disabilities: An Examination Of Two Case Studies, Susan Stuntzner, Angela Macdonald, Jacquelyn A. Dalton

Counseling Faculty Publications

People who live with a disability are faced with the prospect of adjusting to the disability and its associated life experiences. Many people encounter negative and hurtful situations such as unemployment, lack of adequate resources, changes in relationships and social support, negative societal attitudes, bias, and discrimination, and so forth. Women with disabilities are subject to these same negative encounters, but they often experience several others based on their gender (i.e., higher rates of abuse, poverty, and financial independence). Given the likelihood that women may experience additional stressors with fewer supports in place, professionals must focus on the needs of …

Staying Serene In A World Of Uncertainty, Christine Chasek

Counseling Faculty Publications

American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr wrote a very powerful prayer in 1932; you may recognize it. "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, Courage to change the things I can, And the wisdom to know the difference."

The nation was in turmoil when it was written. The Great Depression had a hold on our country, people were out of work, the land turned to dust, and families were starving. Niebuhr was looking for a way to comfort people and give them a sense of direction in a dark time. The Serenity Prayer became that source of …

Why Witnesses Of Bullying Tell: Individual And Interpersonal Factors, Hyungyung Joo, Isak Kim, So Rin Kim, Jolynn V. Carney, Seriashia J. Chatters

Counseling Faculty Publications

The reactions of those who witness bullying are important because they can stop the bullying and prevent further harm. Factors associated with telling behavior were investigated with 477 elementary school students who witnessed bullying. Approximately seventy percent of the students talked to someone about bullying incidents, most often, teachers. Chi-square and logistic regression analyses demonstrated that gender, frequency of witnessing, cognitive empathy, and social skills were found to be associated with telling behavior of witnesses, whereas affective empathy and school connectedness were not significantly related. Findings from this research are important for future practice and studies on bystander intervention.

Marital Satisfaction During Retirement, Marissa A. Fye, Christine Chasek, Grace A. Mims, Jacob Sandman, Alex Hinrichsen

Counseling Faculty Publications

Marriage/commitment and retirement are two common experiences in an adult’s life. Marital satisfaction and retirement have been researched in multiple disciplines. The relationship between these two constructs has not been as widely researched. The purpose of this study was to determine whether retirement has an impact on marital satisfaction. Quantitative methods and analyses were used. The variables used accounted for 83% of the variance of satisfaction. Limitations and implications are provided to inform marriage and family pedagogy and practice.

How Communities Heal And Recover After Disaster Strikes, Christine Chasek

Counseling Faculty Publications

Last spring Nebraska residents experienced a historic weather event that continues to affect many communities. The historic bomb cyclone that occurred in March 2019 changed the land and communities in many ways. As we approach the anniversary of this historic event, it’s important to understand the recovery process and how communities heal.

Adverse Childhood Experiences And The Associations With Depression And Anxiety In Adolescents, Hye Yeon Lee, Isak Kim, Jeongwoon Jeong

Counseling Faculty Publications

Objectives

There has been increasing attention to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) among adolescents in the U.S because ACEs may result in severe mental health issues. Although associations between ACEs and mental health have been explored, research on how different types or combinations of ACEs render different impacts on adolescents is limited. Therefore, this study aims to (a) examine latent classes of ACEs among adolescents who have experienced at least one ACE and (b) investigate associations of each latent group of ACEs with mental health problems, depression and anxiety.

Method

Questionnaires on ACEs and depression/anxiety from the 2016 National Survey of …

Advocating For Adolescent Substance Use Recovery: An Alternative Model, Christine Chasek, Judith Nelson, Rochelle Cade, Kristen Page, Bryan Stare, George Stoupas

Counseling Faculty Publications

Adolescents at risk for substance use disorders face unique challenges in recovery when compared with adults. Counselors may seek to address developmental considerations with such clients, but often lack diagnostic and community resources necessary to provide holistic care. The Alternative Peer Group model shows promise in addressing adolescent recovery, however, more research is needed. We conclude from the limited research that has been conducted on APGs that there are positive aspects to consider in implementing this model including a positive peer group that offers support in recovery, 12-step meetings that are adapted specifically for adolescents, parent education and support, and …

Therapeutic Effects Of Building Resilience: An Observation Of Two Case Studies, Susan Stuntzner, Angela Macdonald, Michael Hartley

Counseling Faculty Publications

Resilience is an emerging area of research interest. Resilience has much relevance and applicability to persons with disabilities and to the situations lived and experienced by people with disabilities.1–3 However, few resilience interventions, specifically tailored to the needs of people with disabilities, have been developed and empirically studied. Stuntzner and Hartley3 began to change this trend with the development of a 10-module resilience intervention. Presented as a part of this article are two case studies of people who completed an initial resilience intervention pilot study conducted by Stuntzner and MacDonald.4 The case studies represent people living with varying disabilities and …

Cultivating Forgiveness, Resilience And Positive Change: A Resilience Intervention Pilot Study Among Persons With Disabilities, Susan Stuntzner, Angela Macdonald, Michael Hartley, Jain Sachin

Counseling Faculty Publications

Resilience is an area of emerging interest and applies to people living with a disability.1–3 However, research suggests that few, if any, resilience interventions have been developed and facilitated among people with disabilities.4–6 To address this void and assist people with disabilities in building resilience-based skills, Stuntzner and Hartley3 developed a 10-module resilience intervention (i.e., Stuntzner and Hartley’s Life Enhancement Intervention: Developing Resiliency Skills Following Disability). The following article is a pilot-study utilizing Stuntzner and Hartley’s3 10-module resilience intervention. The intervention was facilitated among a group (N=11) of individuals with varying disabilities. Stuntzner and Hartley’s3 resilience intervention (SHRI) was used …

The Construction And Analysis Of Dream Metaphors From The Standpoint Of Co-Creative Dream Theory, Gregory Scott Sparrow

Counseling Faculty Publications

Co-creative dream theory posits that the dream is co-determined through the reciprocal interplay between the witnessing dream ego and the emergent content. Consequently, the resulting dream can be seen as one of many contingent outcomes based on the dreamer’s range of response through the course of the dream, as well as the broad constraints of underlying domains that account for the nature and thrust of the emergent content. From this relational view of the dream, the visual imagery is not the content itself, but rather the “mutable interface” (Sparrow, 2013) between the dream ego and the emergent content. The purpose …

Application Of Forgiveness In Rehabilitation Psychology: A Positive Option For Change, Susan Stuntzner, Jacquelyn A. Dalton, Angela Macdonald

Counseling Faculty Publications

Throughout the past 25 years, forgiveness has been a part of psychology and studied within many populations. However, forgiveness has not been considered nor promoted as a helpful skill or approach when counseling persons with disabilities or in the rehabilitation counseling/psychology profession at large. In an effort to change this trend by educating the profession on the importance and relevance of forgiveness to the practice of rehabilitation psychology, readers are afforded the opportunity to learn about forgiveness, its application and relevance to persons with disabilities, and to further their understanding of how forgiveness can be conceptualized and explored. Provided in …

Forgiveness And Psychosocial Reactions To Disability: A Pilot Study To Examine Change In Persons With Spinal Cord Injury, Susan Stuntzner, Ruth Lynch, Robert Enright, Michael Hartley, Angela Macdonald

Counseling Faculty Publications

Spinal cord injuries (SCI) are among the most traumatic onset of disabilities to date. Due to the nature of spinal cord injury and how it affects the person’s life and psychosocial adjustment, there are a multitude of feelings, changes, persons, situations, and transgressions that need to be resolved and forgiven. In an effort to help persons with SCI do that, two interventions - Enright’s Forgiveness is a Choice intervention and Kennedy and Duff’s (2001) Coping Effectively with Spinal Cord Injury training – were facilitated on-line as part of a self-study treatment format among persons with spinal cord injury. The interventions …

Psychologists’ Self-Perception Of Readiness To Provide Tele-Health Interventions In Counseling Services, Olga Morozan, Christine Chasek

Counseling Faculty Publications

There is an increased interest in using Telehealth in counseling services. However, the counselors still hesitate to embrace the online delivery of psychotherapy, worrying about the difficulties in approaching the crisis intervention and the client’s cyber security issues. This article summarizes the results of a study conducted by a team of researchers from the Tiraspol University and the College of Education and the Department of Counseling at the University of Nebraska at Kearney outlining the attitudes, knowledge and skills of future and current counselors/mental health practitioners essential in providing Telehealth services

In Search Of Somatic Therapy By Setsuko Tsuchiya (Review), Susan Stuntzner

Counseling Faculty Publications

Somatic Therapy is a healing practice not widely understood or used. While it is an approach that has been incorporated in psychology and counseling approaches, allied helping professions (i.e. massage therapy, alternative healing methods), and sometimes in medicine particularly as an adjunctive approach, it is a therapy that is not universally defined or conceptualized. Somatic Therapy is not widely discussed within the rehabilitation profession as an approach to work with individuals with disabilities including people with severe conditions such as SCI, TBI, or other neurological conditions. In an effort to educate rehabilitation professionals about this approach, the following book was …

Book Review - The Latino American: Psychodynamic Perspectives On Culture And Mental Health Issues, Susan Stuntzner

Counseling Faculty Publications

Understanding and working with culturally diverse populations is an important component of counseling and allied helping professions. Many professionals receive some training as a part of their graduate programs on multiculturalism, but this is only the beginning and typically scratches the surface. From this point, professionals are expected to continue their awareness and learning about the needs and issues of the people they serve; for some this includes expanding their understanding of ethnically, linguistically, and culturally diverse individuals. Professionals wanting to better understand the experience, perspectives, and mental health concerns of Latino Americans may find this edited book informative and …

Integrating Wellness Within Group Counseling For Latinx Adolescents, Javier Cavazos Vela, James Ikonomopoulos, Christian Garcia, James F. Whittenberg, Stacey Lee Gonzalez

Counseling Faculty Publications

Latinx adolescents may begin middle school with lower levels of life satisfaction and hope. In the current study, we implemented a small-series (N = 4) single-case research design to evaluate the impact of a group counseling wellness experience to increase Latinx adolescents' life satisfaction and hope. Analysis of participants' scores on outcome measures yielded treatment effects indicating that the group counseling wellness experience may be effective for increasing hope and life satisfaction. Implications for school counselors are provided.

Relationship Between Theory Of Planned Behavior Factors And Optimistic Bias And Vegetable And Fruit Intake In College Students., Mi-Sook Seo, Isak Kim, Gyeong-Hyeon Seo

Counseling Faculty Publications

The purpose of this study is to verify the validity of the theory of planned behavior on the vegetable and fruit consumption behavior of college students and to explore the influence of the theory of planned behavior variables on the vegetable and fruit consumption behavior and the role of optimism bias in the relationship. The participants in this study were 249 college students (male: 107, female: 142), and their average age was 20.57 (SD = 2.14) years. In this study, we used a vegetable and fruit consumption frequency list based on Korean nutritional intake standards, the Fruit and Vegetable Module …

P. Schulte (2015). Paths To Recovery For Gay And Bisexual Drug Addicts: Healing Weary Hearts. Lanham, Md: Rowman & Littlefield. Isbn: 978-1-4422-4998-1, 178 Pp. (Review), Susan Stuntzner

Counseling Faculty Publications

Paul Schulte, the author of the book, Paths to Recovery for Gay and Bisexual Drug Addicts has extensive experience in working with gay and bisexual men. His work began in 2005 while a student at West Coast University‘s drug and alcohol counseling program. Since then, he has worked with several gay, bisexual, and straight men who are recovering from drug and alcohol addiction. His work has spanned 3 continents. Throughout, Paul Schulte, helps the reader understand the complexities, difficult and subhuman experiences often encountered by gay and bisexual men – all of which further complicate their self-image, decisions, and ability …

Development Of Perceived School Counselor Support Scale: Based On The Asca Mindsets And Behaviors, Mehmet A. Karaman, Cemal Karadas, Javier Cavazos Vela

Counseling Faculty Publications

This study presents a culturally and psychometrically sound instrument of perceived school counselor support among Turkish high school students. The study has been framed using American School Counseling Association’s Mindsets and Behaviors for Students Success Model to create a valuable instrument that measures students’ perceptions of their school counselors’ support in a different culture, society, and education system. The results of this study supported the theoretical based Perceived School Counselor Support Scale long and short forms providing initial and strong evidence based on internal structure and relations to other variables. Internal consistency estimates on subscales ranged from good to strong.

Exploring The Impact Of A Positive Psychology Intervention With Latina/O Adolescents, Javier Cavazos Vela, Christian Garcia, James F. Whittenberg, James Ikonomopoulos, Stacey Lee Gonzalez

Counseling Faculty Publications

Latina/o adolescents may begin middle school with lower levels of life satisfaction, hope, and self-compassion. In the current study, a small-series (N = 5) single-case research design was implemented to evaluate the impact of a positive psychology group counseling experience to increase Latina/o adolescents’ life satisfaction, hope, and self-compassion. Analysis of participants’ scores on outcome measures yielded treatment effects indicating that the positive psychology group counseling experience may be effective for increasing hope, life satisfaction, and self-compassion. Given that the positive psychology approach was a promising approach for improving Latina/o adolescents’ positive outcomes, implications for school counselors to integrate positive …

The Therapeutic Triad Of Disability, Susan Stuntzner, Jacquelyn Dalton, Angela Macdonald

Counseling Faculty Publications

For many counseling professionals, the exploration of forgiveness, selfcompassion or resilience can seem daunting, particularly when determining ways to apply these concepts to people with disabilities and their specific needs. When approaching this task, counselors may ask themselves several questions, including: Where do I start? Which concept is most important? Is one of them more relevant for this population? How can I best help people explore one or all of these concepts? Good questions indeed but not always easy ones to answer.

To help counselors understand each of these concepts, the three authors of this article developed a model called …

The Physical Environment For Play Therapy With Chinese Children, Yih-Jiun Shen, Sylvia Z. Ramirez, Peter L. Kranz, Xinhua Tao, Yuanhong Ji

Counseling Faculty Publications

The growing interest in addressing the mental health needs of Chinese children through play therapy calls for an understanding of the cultural roots and norms of Chinese families. To help professionals succeed in this traditionally Western treatment when providing cross-cultural play therapy, the authors make recommendations concerning the location and appearance of the play therapy facility, including its waiting room and playroom. They discuss the need for carefully introducing play therapy to Chinese parents and suggest Western and Chinese toys and play items that are therapeutically appropriate for Chinese children. The authors also propose an outdoor play area based on …

An Examination Of The Structure Of The Vocational Outcome Expectations Scale With Latina/O Students, Javier Cavazos Vela, Mehmet A. Karaman, Wayne D. Smith, Yvette Hinojosa

Counseling Faculty Publications

In the current study, we investigated the psychometric properties of a meaningful measure of career development among Latina/o students. A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to evaluate structural validity of the Vocational Outcome Expectations scale. The results supported a modest one-factor structure for the VOE scale. Internal consistency was good as measured by coefficient alpha. Findings provide support for the reliability and validity of the VOE with Latina/o students. A discussion regarding the usefulness of this measure of career development is provided.

The Action Research On The Development Of The Sport-Based Character Education Program, Dong-Il Kim, Hye-Eun Lee, Isak Kim, Jihyeon Choi

Counseling Faculty Publications

In a situation where school violence among early adolescents is very serious, such as the recent mass assault of Busan middle school girls, the development of a character education program that takes into account the unique characteristics of adolescents due to confusion in their self-identity and values is highly requested. Accordingly, in this study, we developed a sports-based practical character education model to help early adolescents naturally acquire character elements. To this end, scientific procedures for program development and According to the action research method, two modules were developed, a classroom program using sports and an integrated program, taking school …

Resilience And Disability: Consideration And Integration Of Resilience Training In Undergraduate Rehabilitation Service Programs, Susan Stuntzner, Jacquelyn A. Dalton, Veronica Umeasiegbu, Angela Macdonald, Fidencio Mercado

Counseling Faculty Publications

Resilience is a topic of growing interest with significant momentum generated by the Positive Psychology Movement. While resilience has been discussed at the graduate level and beyond, few articles seem to openly discuss how it is addressed as a part of undergraduate rehabilitation service programs. Discussion and careful consideration is needed as many undergraduates work in direct services. This article is designed to help rehabilitation educators and professionals understand the application and value of resilience and resilience-based skills as a part of the undergraduate rehabilitation curriculum. Article content addresses resilience, benefits of resilience, resilience-based factors, and the applicability of resilience …

Evaluation Of The Short Grit Scale (Grit-S) With Latinx College Students, Javier Cavazos Vela, Yvette Hinojosa, Mehmet A. Karaman

Counseling Faculty Publications

In the current study, the psychometric properties of a measure of psychological grit among 344 Latinx college students was investigated. Researchers used confirmatory factor analysis to validate a previously identified two-factor model of the Short Grit Scale (Grit-S). Internal consistency was acceptable as measured by coefficient alpha. A two-factor model of Grit-S had a good model fit with the data. A discussion regarding the importance of these findings is provided and implications for counselors and researchers are offered.

Examining The Impact Of A Positive Psychology Intervention With Latina Survivors Of Intimate Partner Violence, Eunice Lerma, Autumn Wright, James Ikonomopoulos, Yvette Hinojosa, Javier Cavazos Vela

Counseling Faculty Publications

We implemented a small series (N = 3) single-case research design to assess the effectiveness of a nine-session positive psychology treatment program for Latina survivors of intimate partner violence. Analysis of participants’ scores on life satisfaction and depression scales using the percentage of non-overlapping data point’s procedure yielded treatment effects indicating that a positive psychology treatment program may be effective for improving life satisfaction for Latina survivors of intimate partner violence. Implications for counselors and researchers are provided.

Change Your Story Change Your Brain By Dr. Linda Miles (Review), Susan Stuntzner

Counseling Faculty Publications

Professionals interested in learning mindfulness and ways to practice it in their life or with the people they serve may find the book, “Change Your Story Change Your Brain” of value. Collectively, the book is composed of four sections pertaining to mindfulness: Mindfulness as a Survival Strategy, The Mindfulness Mentality, Mindfulness as the Road to Recovery, and Mindfulness as a Path of Self-Discovery. Within each section are three to four chapters. Each chapter covers a different concept related to mindfulness and is approached according to a specific format which includes an illustration of the NOW approach (i.e. Notice, Opportunities and …