Counseling Psychology Commons^™

Qualitative Exploration Of Catholic Church Leaders’ Perspectives Regarding Counseling Parishioners With Anxiety, Amy Lynn Polster

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

There is little research addressing the mental health literacy of Roman Catholic clergy in their job as spiritual counselors for parishioners with anxiety. Devout individuals struggling with fear- or worry-driven anxiety often call on divine assistance for help as a frontline defense. Anxiety is a leading mental health problem, disturbing about 40 million U.S. adults aged 18 to 54 years. This study explored the mental health literacy perceptions of six Catholic clergy leaders and their awareness of fear- or worry-based anxiety, drawing upon the concept of the triune brain and using evolutionary threat assessment systems theory as a theoretical foundation. …

Counselor-In-Training Self-Efficacy When Working With Transgender And Gender Non-Conforming Clients, Thomas John Hegblom

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Researchers highlighted a significant void in existing literature surrounding the preparation of counselors working with the transgender and gender non-conforming (TGNC) population. The problem addressed is the limited understanding of self-efficacy counselors-in-training (CIT) possess while working with TGNC clients. The purpose of this quantitative study rooted in self-efficacy theory was to examine the relationship between three independent variables: (a) the cumulative time the participant spent as a CIT, (b) the amount of training the CIT received specific to transcompetent counseling practices, and (c) a CIT’s competency in delivering transcompetent counseling, and the dependent variable: a CIT’s self-efficacy in providing transcompetent …

Inside Out: Mask-Making And The Counseling Student Identity, Jil Hus

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

At the field experience level, current research is limited on reflective expressive arts exercises as a modality to facilitate professional identity development in counseling students, with no mention of the effectiveness of mask-making. The purpose of this art-based hermeneutic phenomenological study was to examine the perceptions of master’s students’ counselor identity at the field experience level using research questions to explore participants’ lived experiences as they engaged in a mask-making expressive arts activity aimed at the enhancement of their self-awareness, insight, and reflection into their professional identity development. A qualitative design was utilized, and 5 students participated in this study …

Masters-Level Counseling Students’ Awareness Of Council Of Accreditation Of Counseling And Related Educational Programs Accreditation, V. Paige Zeiger

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

As the counseling profession continues to evolve and change, there is a growing need for more professional counselors who are appropriately trained. Research indicated that a high percentage of prospective and current counseling graduate students lacked awareness of the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) accreditation prior to and following enrollment in a counseling graduate program; therefore, these students were not making fully informed decisions when selecting an appropriate graduate program that would prove beneficial to their professional goals. In this descriptive phenomenological inquiry, 7 master’s-level counseling students provided their lived experiences of searching for and …

A Phenomenological Study Of African American Youth Aging Out Of The Foster Care System, Wandra C. Blocker

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In the United States, approximately 30,000 youth “age out” of the foster care system and enter independent living each year. Statistics indicate poverty, homelessness, unmet needs, and mental illness occur at higher rates for these youth than their non-foster care peers, and little research has been conducted regarding their experience. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the lived experience of African American youth who have aged out of the foster care system and factors they attribute to their transitional outcomes. The attribution and emerging adulthood theories guided this study. Data were collected via interview from a sample …

The Obligation Of Law Enforcement Agencies To The Mental Health Of Their Officers, Michael Ballard

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The extent of law enforcement agencies’ responsibility to address their officers’ mental health needs is unclear, despite the availability of resources and suggested guidelines. This research applied the theory of planned behavior to police officers’ willingness to seek mental health assistance from their agencies, examining the responses of 104 law enforcement officers in Utah and Idaho from four agencies. The results of this quantitative study provide evidence that law enforcement agencies have a responsibility to the mental health of their officers. Officers in general recognized the value of mental health services for others; however, they were not likely to seek …

Relationship Between Wellness, Resilience, And Vicarious Trauma Among Clinical Mental Health Counselors Serving Interpersonal Violence Survivors, Elizabeth O'Neill Hunter

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Interpersonal violence (IPV) can result in the traumatization of primary survivors, as well as the mental health professionals who support them, which is referred to as vicarious trauma (VT). VT is an occupational hazard that if unaddressed can lead to significant personal and professional disruption. Clinical mental health counselors (CMHCs) who provide counseling services to IPV survivors are at increased risk of integrating the traumatic session content into their worldview. VT can lead to psychological distress including symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder and can threaten the quality and ethical nature of the counseling relationship. The purpose of this quantitative survey …

The Effect Of Acupuncture On The Stress Levels Of Patients With Posttraumatic Stress Disorder In Ghana, Derrick Tettey Dicker

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Around the world, the use of acupuncture is increasingly becoming a common alternative treatment for the symptoms often associated with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, the treatment of acupuncture appears to be lacking in Ghana because mental health professionals, patients, and the government representatives are largely unaware of its potential efficacy. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of acupuncture treatment on patients with PTSD in Ghana. The study was conducted through the lens of psycho-physiological trauma. A research question was formulated to investigate the association between the independent variable, acupuncture treatment, and the dependent variable, the …

Legacy Of Money: A Qualitative Analysis Of Attitudes Toward Treatment Of Intersex Individuals, Jane Truax Johnson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractNo significant research exists that addresses mental health providers' attitudes toward the treatment of intersex individuals. The purpose and primary goal of this qualitative study was to provide insight into mental health providers’ attitudes toward an understanding of treatment of intersex individuals, including possible changes in attitudes over the past 25 years. Using the theoretical foundations of social constructivism and gender variant phenomenon, the guiding research questions sampled mental health providers’ views of attitudinal shifts in treatment of the intersex population over 25 years, their changing views toward intersex over the course of their careers, and what mental disorders they …

Understanding The Role That The Internet And Social Media Plays In Suicide Survivor Bereavement, Catherine Merle Perusse

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Every year more than 47,000 individuals die by suicide in the United States, leaving behind numerous family and friends who become suicide survivors. While there are prodigious amounts of research on suicidal behavior, little research has focused on what the surviving family members, friends, and community members need after the loss. Many suicide survivors use social media to address their grief and pain in a very public manner. A constructionist social theory of grief and existential phenomenology provided the framework for this qualitative study to examine the use of the Internet and social media as a forum for those grieving …

The Use Of Vocational Services By Formerly Incarcerated Citizens Who Obtained Employment, Marianne Gonta

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Almost 2.3 million people are incarcerated in correctional facilities across the United States. More than 95% of this population will be released to return to society at some time. People returning from prison can be at a disadvantage as they compete for work. They might be challenged by known barriers to employment, like restrictions on work opportunities and powerful stigma, resulting in a social problem. While some correctional facilities provide vocational services, 75% or more of citizens returning to U.S. communities from prison cannot obtain sustainable wage employment. Yet, it appears there is little research illuminating the pathways used by …

Counselors’ Experience Implementing The Multicultural Orientation Framework With Interpersonal Trauma Clients, Dalad Srisuppak

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Counselors are integrating the Multicultural Orientation (MCO) framework and cultural humility practices to address limitations of cultural competency models for cross-cultural counseling. This hermeneutic phenomenological qualitative study explored the lived experiences of counselors using the MCO framework with clients with interpersonal trauma. The MCO conceptual framework guided the study. Seven licensed mental health counselors from community-based agencies in South Florida shared their experience through individual videoconference semi-structured interviews. Data were collected, transcribed, and analyzed using the hermeneutic circle to identify seven themes: (a) counselors’ identity as a guide, (b) counselors’ culture and background influence whether White or minority/multicultural, (c) being …

The Influences Of School Counselors' Professional Development On Their Comfort Levels Addressing Mental Health And Substance Use, Megan Lynne Hines

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

This study was an investigation of the comfort levels of school counselors to address PK-12 students’ mental health and substance use concerns. While incidents of bullying and school shootings rise it is unclear how school counselors’ professional development has influenced their level of comfort identifying and addressing PK-12 students’ mental health and substance use concerns. Accordingly, this quantitative descriptive survey examined school counselors’ recognition of mental health and substance use symptoms, frequency of encounter, and whether their developmental stages influenced their comfort levels in addressing students’ mental health and substance use concerns. Rønnestad and Skovholt’s counselor development model was the …

Lived Experiences Of Gay Men And Barriers To Reporting Intimate Partner Violence, Nicola A. Seahorn

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Gay men encounter barriers when reporting same-sex intimate partner violence (IPV) to officials. This phenomenon is vital to address, given that IPV impacts gay men more than others in the LGBTQ community, with gay men making 31.5% of the IPV reports among that population. The identified gap in the literature showed the lack of research regarding the lived experiences of barriers encountered by gay men in reporting IPV, which was the purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study. Merten’s strain theory served as a framework to answer the study’s two research questions on how barriers in reporting IPV affect gay men’s …

Rural Community Mental Health Agency’S Strategies To Involve Parents In Children’S Psychosocial Treatment, Kerry Ellen Morrell

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The increased prevalence of children’s mental illness and the need for community-based treatment with enhanced outcomes is propelling the need to improve children’s mental health treatment to the forefront of children’s mental health policy reform. Including parental involvement in children’s mental health treatment increases the possibility of improved treatment outcomes. However, policy, social, attitudinal, and fiscal factors have affected the strategies used to overcome the barriers to facilitating parental involvement. The purpose of this in-depth qualitative case study was to understand the strategies that one mental health agency used to overcome the barriers to facilitating parental involvement in the psychosocial …

Counselor Preparedness When Working With Survivors Of Human Trafficking, Jenise Wilson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Human trafficking is a social epidemic that impacts people globally. Human trafficking survivors are often left with a variety of physical and mental health concerns that need to be addressed by counselors. Due to the complex nature of the trauma, counselors may be unprepared to work with survivors. Using a qualitative transcendental phenomenological approach, this study looked at counselors’ perceived preparedness to work with human trafficking survivors by asking what counselors’ experience had been when working with survivors, and what information they would need to know to feel better equipped to work with such survivors. Seven licensed counselors who worked …

Rural Counselors’ Use Of Technology To Address Professional Isolation, Jacqueline Dale Grantland

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractRural counselors experience high levels of stress and burnout because of increased job demands, a lack of professional resources, and professional isolation in rural community practice. Technology can be a useful tool for counselors to maintain connectivity and access resources not readily available. However, a gap in the literature exists on rural counselors’ experience with technology to remediate professional isolation. The purpose of this hermeneutic phenomenological framework with an interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA) was to explore licensed professional counselors’ experiences with using technology to address professional isolation in rural community practice. The inclusion criteria included the counselors having 2 years …

Service Members With Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Who Face Employment Challenges Postdeployment, Donna Scurlark Sargent

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractThe Iraq War was the longest war in the history of the United States, involving over 2 million service members. Service members who served in Iraq or Afghanistan experienced a high rate of mental health disorders including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and substance abuse as they returned from deployment. Research is lacking in regard to how Army reservists and National Guardsmen function at home, school, work, and in the community upon their return from service. The purpose of this qualitative hermeneutic phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of service members with PTSD who experienced challenges with work …

Double Jeopardy: African American Women And The Counselor Education And Supervision Dissertation, Beverly Lee Townsend

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Half of all doctoral students do not graduate, with attrition occurring because of the dissertation process. Outcomes for women and minorities are even worse. This study is an interpretive phenomenological analysis of the lived experiences of African American women working on their dissertation for a counselor education and supervision (CES) doctoral program. This study was guided by Flynn et al.’s emergent theory of the initiation, management, and completion of the dissertation, which highlights 6 themes important to successful completion of the dissertation in CES programs. Though the theory was originally applied to a largely White and Midwestern sample, this study …

Parental Perceptions Of Family Communication Within The Context Of Modern Technology, Litermin Joseph

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The increasing dependence or reliance on the usage of technology to connect with each other is influencing family communication today. Face-to-face family communication is becoming more and more devalued. Considering the value of family communication, parents should play the most important role of sustaining it to enhance family relationship. Using the family systems theory as a foundation, the purpose of this generic qualitative study was to understand parental experiences concerning family communication within the context of modern technology. This study used purposeful sampling and semi-structured interviews from 7 U.S. citizens, men and women aged 30-55, from St Lucie County, Florida. …

The Lived Experiences Of Online Therapists Maintaining Ethical Boundaries, Talia Singer

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The provision of counselling and psychotherapy using technology, also referred to as telecounselling or e-therapy, is a burgeoning area of mental health care that has garnered much enthusiasm. Many professional health organizations have developed ethical guidelines to specifically address this unique style of treatment. Skepticism remains in the area of applying standards into practice. Ethical guidelines are meant to be broad principles that can be applied to a range of unique practice experiences. The problems is that these principles have been developed over a century of practice-based experiences and designed to address situations that the clinician faces when their client …

A Multiple Case Study Of School Administrators On Use Of Disciplinary Measures, Michele L. Jones-Pace

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Disproportionately high rates of out-of-school suspension and expulsion of African American children represent an ongoing issue in the U.S. public school system. Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory was used as the theoretical framework for this multiple case study. The research question focused on the perceptions, perspectives, and experiences of a purposeful sample of 7 high school principals and what they believed were the reasons for persistently high rates of out-of-school suspension for African American students. The principals represented Title I and non-Title I schools located in urban, rural, and suburban regions of a southern state. Data from individual interviews and archival data …

Community-Based Counselors’ Experiences Counseling Female Adjudicated Youth: A Basic Qualitative Study, Ericka Pinckney

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Licensed professional counselors (LPCs) have encountered difficulties engaging at-risk youth in meaningful treatment. Youth who faced great stress such as abuse, neglect, truancy, family problems, homelessness, and traumatic events have presented with challenging behaviors. Literature suggested adjudicated youth engaged in relational and physical aggression; these behaviors increased the risk for out-of-home placement. Research on community based LPCs’ professional experiences in working with adjudicated female youth is scarce. The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to explore community-based counselors' experiences treating female adjudicated youth. Professional counselors' techniques and strategies were explored. The relational-cultural theory provided the conceptual lens through which …

Mental Health Care Practitioners, Self-Care, And Men Who Are Postincarcerated, Aduke Mccoy

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Mental health practitioners often suffer physical exhaustion, burnout, and increased stress from providing care to postincarcerated men with elevated mental illness. When working in these high environments, helping professionals, may neglect self-care when caring for clients under stressful conditions. Neglected self-care can have adverse implications for both the patient and the mental health professional. The research question aligned with the purpose of this study was to understand what grounded theory that explains how mental health practitioners manage self-care while providing services to postincarcerated men with elevated mental illness. Self-care theory was used as a conceptual framework for this qualitative grounded …

Examining Burnout In Community Mental Health Clinicians From A Job Demands-Resource Perspective, Michelle Hill

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Mental health clinicians employed in a public mental health setting are at an increased risk of experiencing burnout, which contributes to undesirable consequences. Examining burnout using the job demands-resources (JDR) theory allows for the examination of job demands and job resources as both separate independent variables or interactively, which provides for a model with the ability to better predict organizational outcomes. The purpose of this quantitative cross-sectional, predictive survey study was to use the JDR perspective to examine the extent of the relationship, if any, between job demands, job resources, job satisfaction, and burnout of mental health clinicians working in …

Treatment Interventions For Tobacco Cessation At An Inpatient Mental Health Facility, Stephanie Marie Stansell

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable death and disease in the United States. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 36.5% of adults with any mental illness use tobacco compared to 25.3% of adults without a mental illness; however, there are limited data to determine the best approaches for tobacco cessation among the mentally ill. The purpose of this quantitative, quasi-experimental study was to investigate the differences among 1-on-1 counseling versus group counseling in tobacco cessation rates among psychiatric patients aged 18 years old and older who were identified as a tobacco user upon admission to …

A Multiple Case Study Of School Administrators On Use Of Disciplinary Measures, Michele L. Jones-Pace

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Disproportionately high rates of out-of-school suspension and expulsion of African American children represent an ongoing issue in the U.S. public school system. Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory was used as the theoretical framework for this multiple case study. The research question focused on the perceptions, perspectives, and experiences of a purposeful sample of 7 high school principals and what they believed were the reasons for persistently high rates of out-of-school suspension for African American students. The principals represented Title I and non-Title I schools located in urban, rural, and suburban regions of a southern state. Data from individual interviews and archival data …

The Relationship Between Intimate Partner Violence And Youth Violence: A Systematic Literature Review, Donna M. Butler

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Youth are responsible for a great number of violent acts committed in the United States. Experiencing or witnessing some type of violence at home during childhood increases the possibility of engaging in violent behaviors as a youth. At present, no systematic literature reviews examined the impact of intimate partner violence (IPV) on the development of youth violence. IPV includes various types of abuse that one member of a couple commits against the other member. The purpose of this systematic literature review was to examine the literature and analyze the relationship between IPV and youth violence. Bandura’s social learning theory and …

Mental Health Needs In Schools As Predictors Of Burnout In School Counselors, Sondra Junek

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Researchers have found an increasing number of students with mental health issues, and

school counselors are often the first resource available to students. School counselors are

faced with many job duties including supporting students’ academic, career, and

emotional needs. Maintaining these duties of school counseling can increase stress and

lead to burnout. The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine mental health

needs, mental health knowledge, and mental health skills as predictors of each of the

three subscales of burnout (emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal

accomplishment) among early, middle, and late career school counselors. Lazarus and

Folkman’s transactional theory …

Does Counselor Type Affect A Manualized Treatment?, Cynthia C. Kay

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

This quantitative study was to determine whether there are differences in client treatment outcomes based upon the type of counselor who conducted an empirically supported treatment called Seeking Safety for persons diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder and substance use disorder. Many studies show that counselors’ personal attributes impact treatment; however, this study added to the literature by focusing on a standardized treatment for the co-occurrence disorder of substance use and posttraumatic stress disorder. Archival data from an outpatient treatment facility was used. Clients were provided integrated services, which included psychological and substance use treatment. The participants/clients were men and women …