Follow-Up of Doctoral Graduates in Counseling

The national population of persons who graduated from doctoral programs in counselor preparation during 1984–1985 was surveyed to discern their demographic, work history, current job status, productivity, and future employment plans. The 270 responses revealed a high level of preparation-related employment, with work being performed in very diverse settings. Today's graduates are older than those who graduated 15 years ago and are relatively experienced in counseling and human development services. Private practice has emerged as a significant employment setting and is projected to increase even more. Productivity in terms of contributions to the profession is substantial. Conclusions and implications are drawn for practitioners and counselor preparation institutions.     

A Conversation About the Intersection of Faith,Sexual Orientation,and Gender: Jewish,Christian, and Muslim Perspectives

Recent challenges to counselor education and the ACA Code of Ethics (American Counseling Association, 2005 ) provided impetus for this article, which is focused on how 3 major Western religions address counseling and counselor training with diverse clients. Jewish, Christian, and Muslim perspectives are highlighted as related to counseling and training issues across faith, sexual orientation, and gender issues.     

The ACA Code of Ethics: Articulating Counseling's Professional Covenant

The ACA Code of Ethics (American Counseling Association, 2005) is an articulation of the ever‐changing relationship between counseling professionals and society. It provides clear parameters of behaviors to meet the changing needs of the people counselors are called to serve. This article reviews the 2005 Code as both a statement of counselor identity and an ethical covenant with society.     

Spiritual and Religious Competencies: A National Survey of CACREP‐Accredited Programs

In this study of 94 Counsel for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP)‐accredited counselor education programs, 69% of respondents reported their programs addressed spiritual and religious issues; however, only 46% of CACREP liaisons perceived themselves as prepared or very prepared to integrate material related to spirituality and religion in counseling into their teaching and supervision activities. In addition, only 28% of respondents viewed their colleagues as similarly capable of addressing these issues as a component of counselor preparation. The authors discuss implications for training and practice.     

Five-factor model (Big Five) personality traits and universal-diverse orientation in counselor trainees

In this study the authors explored the relationship between five-factor model (FFM: Big Five) personality traits (J. M. Digman, 1990; R. R. McCrae & O. P. John, 1992; J. S. Wiggins & P. D. Trappnell, 1997) and universal-diverse orientation (UDO; M. L. Miville et al., 1999) in counselor trainees. FFM traits were measured using the NEO-Personality Inventory-Revised (P. T. Costa & R. R. McCrae, 1992). Statistically significant relationships were found between UDO and one of the Big Five personality traits (Openness to Experience) in counselor trainees. Further regression analysis suggested a relationship between UDO and a particular facet of Openness to Experience, Openness to Aesthetics. This finding suggests that counselor trainees who are open to the creative expressions of others may be comfortable working with a wide variety of clients. These results suggest that counselor training that encourages experiences of aesthetic diversity in addition to an exploration of values may promote trainees' ability to work with diverse clients.     

New Concepts in the 2014 ACA Code of Ethics

The 2014 revision of the ACA Code of Ethics (American Counseling Association [ACA], 2014 ) substantially raises the bar for the ethical practice of professional counselors. This article provides interviews with members of the ACA Ethics Revision Task Force that explore and clarify new imperatives in the areas of ethical decision making, professional values, managing and maintaining boundaries, technology (including social media), the nonimposition of counselor personal values, counselor education, legal issues, sliding scales, and fee splitting.     

White Counselor Self-Awareness: A Prerequisite for Developing Multicultural Competence

This review of the literature examines White counselor self-awareness as an important variable in developing multicultural competence. The self-dimension discussed in this article includes worldview, cultural values, and racial identity. It is suggested that counselor self-awareness is a prerequisite to developing multicultural competence and that an in-depth understanding of these factors may improve the delivery of mental health services to culturally diverse client populations.     

Psychotherapy in the school

Counseling and psychotherapy are two terms for the same function; there is no essential difference in the nature of the relationship, the process, the methods and techniques, the purposes or goals, or the results. Vocational counseling is not a different kind or level of counseling, requiring less background or preparation. If anything, preparation for vocational counseling requires more time than does preparation for therapeutic or personal counseling—the former includes the latter. Therefore, if counseling has a place in our schools, it cannot be limited to vocational counseling.

It appears that there is a need or place for counseling and counselors in our schools, and that recognition and acceptance of this need is growing. The school has the opportunity, and the responsibility, for providing counseling, broadly conceived, to its students.

The staff member who has been designated as a school counselor appears to be the logical person to provide counseling services. While it is true that in the past the school counselor has not in fact been a counselor, nor adequately prepared to function as a counselor, counseling is presently accepted as the major function of the school counselor, and his preparation is becoming essentially preparation for performing the counseling function. While there are some who resist this trend, it appears to be well established.     

Infusing Professional Ethics Into Counselor Education Programs: A Multicultural/Social Justice Perspective

Multiculturalism and social justice counseling issues influence counselors' ethical thinking and behavior. Counselor educators are responsible for facilitating students' understanding of the relevance of multicultural/social justice counseling issues and ethical standards for professional practices. Added insights in these areas aid students to work within a culturally diverse society. This article focuses on the importance of addressing these complex issues by outlining strategies to infuse ethics into counselor education programs from a multicultural/social justice counseling perspective.     

Counselor Confidence and Accuracy of Prognoses of Success or Failure

This study assessed the accuracy of predictions of freshman and overall college scholastic performance made by groups of high school counselors, college advisors, and counseling psychologists from a university counseling center in relation to the confidence of these judges that their prognoses were accurate. Predictions were made from three sets of case information. The results revealed that: (1) the degree of confidence counselors indicated in their freshman and overall college “pass” predictions was appropriately related to accuracy; (2) counselor confidence in freshman “fail” predictions was not related to accuracy although the “fail” judgments tended to be more accurate than the “pass” prognoses; (3) counselor confidence in their overall “fail” predictions was not significantly related to accuracy and, unlike the results for the freshman judgments, the overall “fail” predictions were not more accurate than the “pass” predictions; (4) the amount of case data available was not related to counselor predictive accuracy.     

Sexual Health Counselor Preferences of African American and European American Women: A Brief Report

African American women (n = 42) and European American women (n = 46) were queried regarding their comfort level discussing various sexual health topics with hypothetical counselors who were varied by race (African American vs. European American) or counseling value (culturally sensitive vs. knowledgeable). Contrary to hypotheses, European American participants were more comfortable with the knowledgeable African American counselor and the culturally sensitive European American counselor, while African American women showed no preference. Implications are discussed for improving sexual health counseling services for African American and European American women with consideration of client sexual attitude and race of counselor in order to reduce disparities in sexual health.     

Ethical considerations and training recommendations for philosophical counseling

Philosophical counseling is a diverse and burgeoning type of mental health service delivery. Despite competing approaches to theory and practice, the field has largely strayed from an ethical critique of its methodology and counselor training requirements. This article outlines several ethical considerations and training recommendations that are proposed to bolster the quality and effectiveness of philosophical practice. As philosophical counseling gains increasing recognition in North America, recently established national organizations in philosophical practice may profit from revisiting their interim codes for professional conduct. Proposed training suggestions for counselor preparation my further assist institutions and board-regulated agencies in establishing competent and acceptable standards of client care.     

Counseling blacks

As a subcultural group in our society, blacks have developed unique environmental perceptions, values, and attitudes which intrude in the counseling relationship, making it difficult for the counselor to establish and maintain a positive rapport with Negro clients. This article examines attitudinal ingredients posited by Carl Rogers for their relevance to this problem, and it suggests in-service training to help counselors and other professionals relate more effectively with inner-city blacks.     

Racism and White Counselor Training: Influence of White Racial Identity Theory and Research

White counselors currently and in the future are projected to constitute the majority of counseling practitioners. In a racist and culturally diverse society, White counseling students need to learn to effectively counsel racially diverse clients. In this article, the inclusion of awareness, knowledge, and skills around racism and racial identity development is discussed as critical to counselor training programs with White counseling students. Intentional and strategic efforts to assist White counseling students recognize their personal racial identity and privileges of racism are presented as tools to assist the counseling profession to reduce the perpetuation of racist attitudes and racism.     

Effects of International Student Counselors' Broaching Statements About Cultural and Language Differences on Participants' Perceptions of the Counselors

Undergraduates (N = 135) evaluated 1 of 4 simulated 1st counseling sessions. Two international counselors (Canadian and Korean) alternated between making or not making broaching statements about their language and cultural differences. Significant main effects for counselor nationality and interaction effects between counselor nationality and broaching were found. Participants perceived the Canadian counselor more positively and the Korean counselor less positively in the broaching condition. Participants' cognitive flexibility was a significant covariate of their perceptions. Un grupo de estudiantes universitarios (N = 135) evaluó 1 de 4 sesiones iniciales de consejería simuladas. Dos consejeros internacionales (canadiense y coreano) alternaron entre hacer comentarios o no para abordar las diferencias entre sus idiomas y culturas. Se encontraron efectos principales significativos en relación a la nacionalidad del consejero y una interacción entre la nacionalidad y el abordamiento. Los participantes percibieron al consejero canadiense de forma más positiva y al consejero coreano de forma menos positiva en la situación de abordamiento. La flexibilidad cognitiva de los participantes fue una covariable significativa en su percepción.     

Examining Correlates of Civic Engagement Among Immigrant Adolescents in the United States

Using a diverse urban sample of immigrant adolescents in the United States (N = 345) followed from 10^th grade (M_age = 15.69) to 12^th grade, this study examined the extent to which ecological assets (i.e., community connections and social network resources) predicted civic commitments (i.e., community engagement, social responsibility) as potentially mediated by fair society beliefs. The authors also examined whether ethnicity and generation status moderated these associations. As hypothesized, fair society beliefs were higher and predicted greater civic commitments only among Asian youth. Ecological assets were associated with greater civic commitments for all participants; these links were primarily direct for Latino immigrants and indirect (via fair society beliefs) for Asian youth. First-generation immigrants had more ecological assets and were more civically committed, however social network resources predicted fair society beliefs and community engagement only for second-generation youth. These differences indicate that immigrant youth are best understood as a heterogeneous group and suggest the need for further investigation of cultural variations in civic developmental processes.     

Cross-Cultural Counseling: An Existential Approach

Counselors continue to express concern about problems inherent in cross-cultural counseling. Despite the large literature on the subject, counseling members of ethnic groups different from that of the counselor remains problematic. Three concepts— Umwelt (the physical environment), Mitwelt (the interpersonal world), and Eigenwelt (one's inner world)—offer significant philosophical assistance to counselors wishing to overcome cultural encapsulation because, although surface cultural differences exist, humans are fundamentally more alike than they are different. The counselor needs to accept this reality to be effective in counseling culturally different clients, whether they are American minorities or foreign visitors.     

Exploring the Use of Mindful Andragogy to Create Inclusive Classrooms

ABSTRACT

Researchers have indicated that mindful teaching approaches support students and educators throughout the learning process. The purpose of this hermeneutic phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of counselor educators with a daily mindfulness practice in the classroom with culturally diverse students. Relational cultural theory (RCT) concepts of relational connections and disconnections were used to explore the participants’ lived experiences of implementing a mindful teaching approach. Purposeful sampling yielded 10 participants who participated in semi-structured interviews. The data was analyzed to identify essential themes using an inductive approach. Findings may be useful for counselor educators who seek a greater capacity for awareness, acceptance, empathy, self-care, creativity, and presence when working with diverse students in the classroom.