Counselor Education Commons^™

Alcohol Use In Women: Resources And Recommendations For Counselors, Samantha Haling

Educational Specialist, 2020-current

The research shows that alcohol use is rising rapidly among women, resulting in devastating consequences that have not been sufficiently explored in counselor education and training. This paper aims to address this by providing a review of the literature which shows that women are more vulnerable to many of the physical and mental health consequences of alcohol use than men, and that they have unique treatment needs and face gender-specific risk factors and barriers to treatment. The review examines the interaction between gender and alcohol use, summarizes the existing research on the physical and behavioral health consequences of alcohol use …

Non-Affirmation As A Moderator Between Social Support And Quality Of Life For Transgender Populations, Michael Evitts

Dissertations

This research builds upon scholarship exploring the quality of life of transgender populations. Knowledge on quality-of-life (QOL) for transgender populations has been limited due to the fact that most studies have focused on gender affirming medical procedures as interventions (Nobili et al., 2018). Other protective factors, such as social support, have been identified in the literature but have been defined in broad terms. The purpose of the study was to better understand additional factors that promote QOL and psychological well-being, specifically social support. It is unclear how non-affirmation of gender identity affects the protective effects of social support for QOL. …

The Results Of Child Sexual Abuse And How They Can Be Mitigated, Joy Buchman

Counselor Education Capstones

This review of literature sought to compile a list, albeit not exhaustive, of short and long-term effects of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) and several types of play therapy used to effectively mitigate these effects. CSA has a long reaching impact affecting a child’s well-being, a nation’s societal health in addition to having a massive financial impact worldwide. Some children who are sexually abused do not struggle with negative effects and others are impacted for a lifetime. Some effects of CSA are developmental, cognitive, physical and psychological. These effects can impact the way a child views themselves, adults and the world. …

The Intentionality Of Confronting Racism, Systemic Oppression, And Cyclical Trauma In Counselor Education: A Self Study, Kara Ieva, Michael D. Hannon, Linwood G. Vereen

Teaching and Supervision in Counseling

Utilizing self-study methodology, the researchers sought to understand their practices in developing school counselors and counselor educators who acknowledge and resist anti-Black racism and marginalization to prevent harm through complacency. Given counselor education’s existence as overwhelmingly white and Eurocentric, the authors investigate disrupting the heteronormative structures inherent in counseling and the academy with the prioritizing of race, systemic inequities, and cyclical trauma in their faculty roles (e.g., teaching, supervising, and service) in efforts to shift a profession slow to address society’s ever-changing mental health needs. The team of counselor educators from different states in the northeast use a thematic analysis …

School Counselors Involvement And Opportunities To Advocate Against Racialized Punitive Practices, Edwin Hernandez, Enrique Espinoza, Jewel Patterson

Teaching and Supervision in Counseling

Given the increase of violence against Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC), there is no doubt a need to tackle racialized violence in schools. This phenomenological study draws on semi-structured interviews with school counselors to explore their experiences and practices to disrupt the racialized disciplinary practices that disproportionally target Black, Indigenous, and Students of Color. We draw on theories of racialized organizations and organizational routines to better understand how school counselors make sense of their practices in racialized disciplinary practices that dehumanize and criminalized youth of color. Findings from this study revealed two themes: 1) school counselors’ perceived neutrality towards …

A Womanist Supervision Framework For Promoting Anti-Racist Therapy With Black Women, Camellia V. Green, Danielle E. Burton

Teaching and Supervision in Counseling

A counselor’s anti-racist disposition is particularly needed for Black woman clients due to unique treatment needs. Womanist values and pedagogy are used to develop a culturally-responsive supervision framework encompassing key themes of anti-racist supervisee development such as critical consciousness development, awareness of power dynamics, social justice activism and honoring the cultural self. Womanist pedagogy, previously used in K-12 schools, prioritizes the community orientation of maternal care to promote the survival of Black people in oppressive systems. A call to action for counselor educators is introduced for the promotion of an anti-racist supervisee disposition. Keywords: anti-racist, supervision, Womanist, critical consciousness

Equipping School Counselors For Antiracist Healing Centered Groups: A Critical Examination Of Preparation, Connected Curricula, Professional Practice And Oversight, Kara P. Ieva, Jordon Beasley, Sam Steen

Teaching and Supervision in Counseling

This paper highlights the potential for school counselors to promote antiracist practices and racial healing engagement utilizing small group counseling to ultimately eliminate inequities in schools. However, counselor educator programs, founded on middle to upper class white ideals, worldviews, and narrowly focused theoretical frameworks, currently function in ways that fail to equip future school counselors with the group facilitation knowledge, skills, and dispositions necessary for equitable practice in schools across the nation using case illustrations and a broad current literature review, the authors conceptualize the rationale for more competencies beyond group course assignment, clinical requirements (e.g., CACREP standards, 2016), practice, …

Toward A Voice-Centered Relational Anti-Racist Listening Praxis In Counselor Education, Michelle R. Bertrand

Teaching and Supervision in Counseling

Abstract This article outlines key elements of an anti-racist listening praxis in counselor education. It demonstrates how racism in relationships of teaching and learning impacts racialized subjectivities, and the personal, cultural and ancestral worlds these subjectivities articulate, in a way that limits the capacity of racialized practitioners to be relational subjects and uses them instead to reinforce White/Western normativity. It describes a way of both listening to and challenging these impacts by re-centering the “I” of racialized speakers and the personal, cultural and traditional knowledges, identities and preferred ways of being to which they refer in their stories. Examples of …

Self-Care: An Ethical Imperative For Anti-Racist Counselor Training, Michelle Mitchell, Erin Binkley

Teaching and Supervision in Counseling

Attention has been given to multicultural counseling, social justice and advocacy work over the last several decades; with this in mind, it is essential Counselors educators work as anti-racist change agents to understand the role of self-care in advocacy and be armed with self-care strategies based upon racial identity standing. Working through the lens of racial identity development models, educators will learn ways to support students of the dominant culture in engaging in self-care without initiating oppressive behaviors, and conversely will learn strategies to assist Black, Indigenous, Persons of Color (BIPOC) in enacting self-care without assisting in their own oppression. …

The Case For A Core Anti-Racist Course For Counselors In Training, Ileana A. Gonzalez Ph.D., Raven K. Cokley Ph.D.

Teaching and Supervision in Counseling

Historically, counseling programs in the United States have been rooted in whiteness and white supremacy. Despite this historical context, counseling programs fail to teach students about the varied ways that anti-Blackness and systemic racism show up in society, classrooms, and clinical settings. Given the systemic murders of Black folks by the state, the health disparities highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the refusal of white voters to abandon white supremacist patriarchy in the 2020 presidential election, the counseling field must reconsider how it prepares trainees to embrace anti-racism in their personal and professional lives. The purpose of this article is …

Promoting Anti-Racism And Critical Consciousness Through A Critical Counseling Theories Course, Jyotsana Sharma, Carlos P. Hipolito-Delgado

Teaching and Supervision in Counseling

Racism is alive and well in the United States. To promote critical consciousness and anti-racism in counselors-in-training, the counseling theories course, typically a student’s introduction to the profession, requires revision. Thus, we propose a critical counseling theories course. In this course we argue critical theories (multicultural theory, social constructivism, feminist theory, and critical race theory) and neurocounseling theory should be centered; introducing theories that are relevant to our current sociopolitical reality and that promote the values of anti-racism in the counseling profession. In this article we describe the critical counseling theories course structure, instructional approach, and assignments. Data from student …

Antiracist School Counselor Preparation: Expanding On The Five Tenets Of The Transforming School Counseling Initiative, Erin Mason, Adrianne Robertson, Jan Gay, Nkenji Clarke, Cheryl Holcomb-Mccoy

Teaching and Supervision in Counseling

As a profession, school counseling must serve as an active force against systemic racism, and school counselor preparation must equip future professionals as antiracist agents of change. This article expands the original Transforming School Counseling Initiative (TSCI) tenets that sought to re-envision school counselor preparation in the late 1990s with language that explicitly supports antiracism. The authors offer a definition of antiracist school counseling and sample assignments and experiences that align with the revised tenets.

A Thin Line Of Social Justice: Challenges And Changes In Navigating Relations Of Power In Graduate Schools Of Education, Heather Catherine Sands

Individual, Family, and Community Education ETDs

This dissertation brings together three qualitative research articles to interrogate a disjuncture between curriculum development in graduate schools of education and the relations of power it fosters in teacher education and counselor education. In applying biopower and intersectional analyses throughout each article, this dissertation contends that the recognition of power relations within these fields helps to highlight hegemonic patterns of teaching and counseling that occur in settings of classrooms and sessions. Three themes emerged within this dissertation: resistance, community, and subjectivity. Article One demonstrates a gap between teachers and school counselors with cyberbullying directed toward LGBTQ+ students. The Article leverages …

Book Review: What Every Mental Health Professional Needs To Know About Sex, 2nd Ed., By Stephanie Buehler, Laura R. Haddock

Journal of Counseling Sexology & Sexual Wellness: Research, Practice, and Education

The ability to understand and address sexuality issues is a critical skill set for all mental health professionals. This comprehensive review of the second edition of \textit{What Every Mental Health Professional Needs to Know About Sex} includes an overview of the contents with emphasis on the strengths and weaknesses of the text. Written by Stephanie Beuhler, a licensed psychologist and AASECT certified sex therapist and supervisor, the contents are educational, promote increased self-awareness for the reader, and facilitate insight into the lived experiences of clients while also providing practical and useful exercises and resources that are valuable regardless of a …

Sex Is Not A Four-Letter Word: Sexuality Counseling Training For School Counselors, Wynn N. Dupkoski, Viki Kelchner, Amber S. Haley

Journal of Counseling Sexology & Sexual Wellness: Research, Practice, and Education

Although sexuality counseling training is not a requirement for Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) accredited Counselor Education programs or for licensure in most states as a professional counselor, there is increasing dialogue taking place among professional counselors regarding the need for additional training in this area. The current article highlights techniques for incorporating and enhancing sexuality counseling training in Counselor Education programs based on the eight CACREP core competencies. After a review of the relevance of sexuality counseling within each area, with attention given to implications for school counselors.

Impact Of Aging Information On The Continuing Education Preferences Of Behavioral Health Clinicians, Nicholas Schmidt

Dissertations

The United States population is aging rapidly and the behavioral health workforce is ill-prepared to meet the concurrent rise in demand for services for older adults. Clinicians specializing in working with older adults make up a very small portion of providers and the majority of service provision falls on general practitioners. The discipline of counseling has emphasized multicultural competencies in training and practice but has not specified standards of competence for work with older adults; little is known about the interests and training preferences of Licensed Professional Counselors (LPCs). This study examined the impact of receiving foundational information about aging …

The Intentionality Of Confronting Racism, Systemic Oppression, And Cyclical Trauma In Counselor Education: A Self-Study, Kara Ieva, Michael D. Hannon, Linwood G. Vereen

Department of Counseling Scholarship and Creative Works

Using self-study methodology, the researchers sought to understand their practices in developing school counselors and counselor educators who acknowledge and resist anti-Black racism and marginalization to prevent harm through complacency. Given counselor education’s existence as overwhelmingly White and Eurocentric, the authors investigate disrupting the heteronormative structures inherent in counseling and the academy with the prioritizing of race, systemic inequities, and cyclical trauma in their faculty roles (e.g., teaching, supervising, and service) in efforts to shift a profession slow to address society’s ever-changing mental health needs. The team of counselor educators from different states in the northeast use a thematic analysis …

Effectiveness Of College Counseling Interventions In International Student Adjustment To United States Higher Education Systems: A Meta-Analysis, Joshua Ebby Abraham

Counseling & Human Services Theses & Dissertations

International students in U.S. higher education institutions face many emotional, social, and institutional challenges as they navigate their academic and acculturative journeys. College counseling centers serve as valuable support resources, but low utilization rates and high early termination rates among the international student population presents a major concern for the college counseling field. To begin the development of an empirically supported, responsive approach to structuring counseling work with international students, this study utilized a metaanalysis to review the literature on counseling intervention effectiveness. The following questions guided this research: What adjustment outcomes are produced by college counseling interventions across modes …

Incivility Of Coworker Behaviors And Minority Firefighters’ Belongingness In The Workplace, Alyssa Reiter

Counseling & Human Services Theses & Dissertations

Research with firefighters continues to indicate that this population is particularly vulnerable to development of mental health conditions as a result of their professional roles (International Association of Firefighters [IAFF], 2019; Stanley et al., 2017; Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration [SAMHSA], 2018) and minority firefighters may be at heightened risk as a result of their experiences within the fire service. An answer to this concern may lie in the exploration of belonging and uncivil behaviors, as research has demonstrated that belonging in the workplace serves to reduce mental health symptoms and enhance an individual’s ability to cope with …

The Effects Of Holistic Grief Counseling Training On Master’S Level Counseling Students’ Grief And Loss Counseling Competency, Kathryn Paige Linich

Theses and Dissertations

Grief is a universal event, yet many counselors are not prepared to used evidence-based practices when recognizing and working with grieving clients. Researchers have explored ways to improve grief counseling education, but none of these recommendations have been put into practice. The aim of this dissertation study, which consists of two full studies, was to develop a holistic grief counseling training for master’s level counseling students that incorporates recommendations for curricular inclusion from the research. The training was designed to be incorporated into one full class period in any master’s level counseling course. The first study is a pilot study …

What Are We Missing?: A Comparison Of Experiences Of Race-Based Trauma By Black Americans And Black Jamaicans, Bianca R. Augustine

Counseling & Human Services Theses & Dissertations

Current literature explains that events resulting from instances of white supremacy and racism are traumatizing for Black individuals (Phillips, 2020). Prior literature illuminates the impact of racism and resulting race-based trauma on Black individuals but is lacking regarding the lived experiences of race-based trauma in Black individuals in the U.S. and Black individuals from Jamaica. The goal of this study was to fill a gap in current literature by providing counselors and counselor educators with information regarding the experiences of Black clients to better inform multicultural, trauma-informed counseling practices and counselor education pedagogy. This study explored the experiences of race-based …

Meaning Making In Grief Counseling, Lindsey Stuhr

Counselor Education Capstones

Loss is experienced in every life. How individuals work through loss is a very personal experience for each individual. To date, many experts in the field of grief counseling are continuing to try and understand the most adequate way to help individuals to work through grief while moving forward in life. This review of the concept of meaning making in grief counseling intends to answer the following questions: 1). How do we define meaning making as it relates to grief2)? What are the key components that experts in the field have learned about grieving and the concept of meaning making? …

Effective Online Synchronous Group Counselor Training: Challenges, Strengths, And Solutions, Cristen C. Wathen, Megan Speciale, Szu-Yu Chen, Donna Sheperis

Journal of Technology in Counselor Education and Supervision

Abstract

This paper on Online Synchronous Group Counselor Training was presented at the first annual Counselor Education Distance Learning Conference on February 19, 2021. In the Counseling field, skills-based courses like Group Counseling are often taught in residential settings regardless of whether the training program is online or brick and mortar. Describing a model for teaching Group Counseling in an online virtual synchronous format, this article shares strategies, challenges, and opportunities for group instructors in counselor training programs during the Covid 19 pandemic and beyond.

Keywords: Group Counseling, Synchronous, Distance Learning

Effects Of Clinical Skills Training: Technology And Pedagogy For The Quality Virtual Classroom, Szu-Yu Chen, Kelly Coker, Cristen Wathen, Donna Sheperis

Journal of Technology in Counselor Education and Supervision

There is a dearth of research on the effects of online delivery of clinical skills training. This pilot study examined the effects and experiences of 27 master’s students receiving 8-week remote basic counseling skills courses. Results suggested that by the end of online training, all participants met the course criteria of skills development. There is a statistically significant increase in students’ beliefs about their own capabilities to effectively facilitate counseling techniques and counseling-related activities. Four themes emerged in participants’ perception of online skills training, including concerns, challenges, technology tools, and overall learning experience. Limitations and recommendations for implications and future …

Counselor Education Online Curriculum Design: Social Justice Considerations, Lisa Mckenna, Amie A. Manis

Journal of Technology in Counselor Education and Supervision

Drawing from a combined 25 years of experience as faculty, curriculum designers, and leaders in online CACREP-accredited counselor education programs, the presenters share best practices in curriculum design and assessment for online counselor education programs. The frameworks that guide the presenters' approach are the competency-based education model and the backward-design model for curriculum. The importance of a systematic assessment process to support data-driven modifications is discussed and illustrated in a brief example. The curriculum design models are applied in a hypothetical course aimed at promoting and assessing student competency development as social justice advocates.

Fostering Connection And Authenticity In Online Counselor Education Through Relational Pedagogy, Laura Bruneau, Blaine Reilly

Journal of Technology in Counselor Education and Supervision

In this conference summary brief, the authors examine the need for connected teaching in higher education’s rapidly evolving digital age. Counselor educators will benefit from utilizing Relational Cultural Theory (RCT) as a foundation for online education. While highlighting aspects from Harriet Schwartz’s (2019) book on connected teaching, the authors explore some tools to increase relational clarity, such as the mindful pause and making small moments bigger. This article is based on a presentation at the Counselor Education Distance Learning Conference hosted by Palo Alto University in February 2021.

The Past, Present And Future Of Online Counselor Education, Kelly Coker, William Snow, Scott Hinkle

Journal of Technology in Counselor Education and Supervision

COVID-19 accelerated the adoption of distance learning in 2020 throughout the world. Online education is now central to counselor education and the trend will likely continue post COVID-19 as well. The history of distance education technology in counselor education is first explored and then the advantages and challenges of this learning model are discussed along with the ethical, legal and regulatory implications. Finally, the future of counselor education is explored along with emerging technologies that may again disrupt our teaching and learning models.

Telehealth Best Practice: A Call For Standards Of Care, Donna S. Sheperis, Arielle Smith

Journal of Technology in Counselor Education and Supervision

Teletherapy is an approach to working with clients that mental health providers have used in some form for years. However, the onset of COVID forced the provision of therapy into teletherapy almost exclusively for a period of time. Currently, mental health providers conducting therapy virtually are not required to be trained in telehealth and are operating without consistent uniform standards of practice. This manuscript pulls from the current literature and guidelines across counseling, psychology, psychiatry, family therapy, and social work to provide a Proposed Standards of Practice for Telehealth. Such standards benefit mental health counselor by grounding practice in common …

The Virtual Bug: Online Live Supervision Of Telemental Health Counseling, Raul Machuca, Ashley Kurns

Journal of Technology in Counselor Education and Supervision

In this article, the authors present a model for the provision of Online Live Supervision of Telemental Health Counseling (OLSTHC). The model includes its development context, logistical considerations, technology and communication needs, administrative requirements, as well as clinical recommendations. In addition, the authors address ethical, multicultural, as well as future research considerations in the implementation of OLSTHC. The authors developed this model as a response to the training disruptions brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic and it represents a feasible alternative for the implementation of a virtual counseling training clinic.

Keywords: live supervision, online supervision, telemental health counseling.

Launching A University Tele-Mental Health Counseling Training Clinic: A Case Study, Wendell Callahan, Erika Cameron, Carrie Tremble

Journal of Technology in Counselor Education and Supervision

With this article the authors hope to establish a precedent of publishing case studies in technology related implementation in counselor education and supervision with a focus on factors that drive as well as hinder such implementation. This case study described the design, proposal and implementation of a telemental health training clinic at the University of San Diego in San Diego, CA. Additionally, the authors highlight lessons learned and recommendations for other counselor educators seeking to implement similar training clinics at their universities.