Job Link: An Employment Counseling Program for Immigrants

A group employment counseling program for counseling immigrants is described. Evaluation results from the project are also presented.     

Evaluating Genetic Counseling: Client Expectations,Psychological Adjustment and Satisfaction with Service

Periodic evaluations of genetic counseling services are useful for determining the effectiveness of counseling in meetings its psycho-educational aims, as well as identifying where improvements to the service may be made. This study aimed to evaluate the genetic counseling services provided by Genetic Services of Western Australia (GSWA) to determine the impact of counseling on client expectations, satisfaction with the service, and psychological adjustment, defined as wellbeing and perceived personal control (PPC). A total of 122 clients participated in a self-administered survey conducted pre- and post-counseling. Client expectations of the service as a means of providing information were met, and opportunities for counselors to meet client’s expectations of psychological support were identified. Furthermore, counseling was found to maintain and enhance psychological wellbeing of clients. The role of counseling in facilitating the development of PPC was a key contributor to a high sense of satisfaction in clients.     

Group Employment Counseling Training in Canada

This article outlines the views of the author regarding group training of employment counselors in Canada. The current group training program for employment counselors and the accompanying packages are discussed.     

Dyadic Adjustment Processes in Divorce Counseling

This article reviews nine stage models of divorce adjustment, all but one of which define adjustment to divorce in terms of the individual experience. As an alternative to these models, the authors describe the Dyadic Divorce Adjustment Processes Model, which depicts the divorce process as a journey traveled by two persons, experiencing parallel, but not necessarily simultaneous progression, and which presents the transition from married to divorced as both a linear and dynamic phenomenon. In addition, the authors introduce the concept of experiential levels or states in the adjustment process, accounting for the dynamic aspect of divorce. Four different levels and concomitant therapeutic issues for each level are presented and described in relation to divorce adjustment counseling.     

Mandated Clients in Career or Employment Counseling

The article describes some of the challenges facing employment counselors who are working with mandated clients. Suggestions are provided for use with mandated clients in individual and group employment counseling sessions.     

The Client Action Plan Within Employment Counseling

The action plan development model introduced in this article describes the process recommended to assist clients who receive employment counseling through Canada Employment Centres or other agencies funded by the Human Resources Development Department. This specific decision-making process is established in the context of employment counseling assessment interviews illustrating how potential objectives are explored, prioritized, and translated into concrete and feasible activities that form a client's action plan.     

Policies Essential to Improved Effectiveness in Employment Counseling

The number of college graduates is expected to glut the job market during the next several years. The causes of this surplus are both internal and external to educational systems. Secondary schools, colleges, and universities are uncertain about their goals and objectives, particularly in relation to effective investment in human resources to improve productivity as contrasted with a preoccupation with immediate consumer satisfaction. The externals—occupational data and forecasting—are unreliable for several reasons. Counselors should seek educational system reform while increasing their efforts to attain more effective methods and tools for career counseling and job placement. Apathy in the face of growing budgetary constraints will encourage adverse reaction toward counseling activities.     

Employment of Gerontological Counseling Graduates: A Follow-Up Study

Twenty-five counselor education departments offering specializations in gerontological counseling were asked to survey their graduates who had completed course work or a specialization in aging. Implications are presented concerning employment opportunities for counseling graduates wanting to work with older people.     

The Alpha-1 Association Genetic Counseling Program: An Innovative Approach to Service

In an era of specialty medicine, genetic counselors are becoming increasingly focused in their service provision. The Alpha-1 Association Genetic Counseling Program, established in September 2007, specializes in confidential toll-free genetic counseling provided by a certified genetic counselor for Alpha-1 Antitrypsin deficiency, a co-dominant condition associated with lung and/or liver disease. The program received more than 600 callers in its first 2 years. Sixty-seven percent of new callers were family members, carriers, or health professionals. The number of callers increased between the first 2 years, with the greatest increases being family members and health professionals. Testing options and explanation of results encompassed 60% of initial reasons for calls. Seventy-two percent of referrals came from family and friends, test result letters, and the Alpha-1 Association. Between year 1 and 2 family member referrals showed the largest increase. This disease-specific genetic counseling program provides a model that may be useful for other rare disease communities.     

A Metastudy of Journal of Employment Counseling: An Analysis of Publication Patterns From 2000 to 2019

Articles published in the Journal of Employment Counseling from 2000 to 2019 were analyzed for trends over time related to author characteristics (i.e., domicile, gender, work setting, and leading contributors and institutions) and article content (i.e., typology, topical issues, research methodology, characteristics of participants, research design, statistics used, report of effect size and sample reliability and validity).     

Mattering: A Foundation for Employment Counseling and Training

Clients and employment counselors need to feel that they matter, that they are significant to people around them. This article addresses the nature of mattering with respect to client service and counselor training.     

Addictions Counseling Certification: An Emerging Counseling Specialty

This article summarizes the national standards for addictions counseling of 4 different professional groups or boards. The new addictions specialty certification standards that are being developed jointly by the National Board for Certified Counselors and the International Association of Addictions and Offender Counselors (a division of the American Counseling Association) are compared with the standards of 3 other groups.     

Adventure Based Counseling: An Innovation in Counseling

Increasingly, Adventure Based Counseling (ABC) is recognized as providing a significant means to help clients. This article describes the outdoor and indoor adventure experience and its relationship to counseling. A conceptual framework of ABC has been developed to provide a better understanding of the process and potential benefits of this approach and to serve as a model for researchers. Counseling theories, educational theories, setting, programming, processing, and transferring client gains to real life are explained as well as the potential psychological, educational, sociological, physical, and spiritual benefits of ABC.