Creating Personal Dispositions for a Professional Counseling Program

The Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs requires counselor training programs to undergo systematic evaluation of trainees. This evaluation can be challenging at times. The authors posit the use of dispositions as a tool for ongoing assessment of student development by detailing the process used to establish dispositions in a counselor training program. Using an N= 1 intensive case study approach, they provide information about the relevance of dispositions in counselor training, the origin of dispositions for the program, and ongoing efforts to evaluate the dispositions in terms of their relevance to student growth. Implications for counselor training and curriculum development are discussed.     

Role conflict for school counselors: training versus job demands

Principals' expectations on six counselor role dimensions were compared with ideal counselor roles as seen by counselor educators. The relationship of principals' training and practice in counseling to appropriate counselor role perceptions was also studied. Disagreement was found between principals and counselor educators on the role of the counselor in situations involving clerical tasks, confidentiality, personal-emotional counseling, and non-related counseling functions. Principals with some counseling training or experience were more similar to counselor educators in expectations concerning discipline, confidentiality, and clerical activity than those principals without counseling training experience. Yet all principals differed markedly from the ideal role as viewed by counselor educators.     

Incorporating Lesbian and Gay Issues Into Counselor Training: A Resource Guide

In order for counselors to facilitate the growth of their lesbian and gay clients, they must be familiar with and become sensitive to the special needs of this population. However, most counselors and counselor trainees have had little exposure to these needs. One way of increasing their awareness and sensitivity is to incorporate lesbian and gay issues into counselor training programs. The focus of this article is to present a limited list of strategies and resources that can be used to supplement materials in traditional courses in counselor training so as to better prepare counselors for dealing with lesbian and gay clients.     

Conceptual Versus Competency Approach in Human Relations Training Programs

This study examines how the changes in the Carkhuff Human Resources Development (HRD) training model affect the acquisition of defined interpersonal discrimination and communication skills. A competency-based HRD (post-1974) counselor training group was compared with a conceptual-based (pre-1974) human relations counselor training group and a no-contact counselor training group. Although the groups were equivalent on the pretest, the posttest results show statistically significant differences (p >.01) between all groups as a result of training. The findings support the competency-based training as more effective than the conceptual-based human relations training in acquiring interpersonal counseling skills.     

Biological Foundations of Behavior: Implications for Counseling

Professional and social movements of the 1980s demand that counselors have a basic knowledge of biological foundations of behavior, a knowledge that has been neglected in counselor training programs, theories of counseling, and theories of personality. This article discusses biological explanations of human behavior and problems, along with implications and applications for the counselor in terms of the counseling setting, client problem, counselor role, counselor training, and the counseling profession.     

Microcounseling: the counselor as trainer

The skills of the counselor are too important to be used only in the guidance office. The counselor should move into the school and the community to teach others the various skills of counseling and interpersonal communication. Microcounseling is a systematic method for teaching counseling skills in a short period of time. The author explains the relationship of microcounseling and counselor education to the role of the practicing counselor. He believes that conducting systematic training programs in such skills as microcounseling should become an important role for counselors.     

Listening and Communication Skills Training: Implications for Counselor Accountability

This article describes the development and implementation of a training procedure in listening and communication skills for employment service counselors. Implications are drawn from the listening and communication skills training and other human relations training approaches for counselor staff development and counselor accountability.     

A radical change in counselor education and certification

The new Washington state certification plan for school counselors includes promising innovations. The plan calls for behaviorally stated performance standards related to client outcomes. Resulting programs for in-service as well as pre-service counselors are developed in a partnership among professional associations, school districts, and university counselor education personnel. Professional identity and involvement are encouraged through counselor self-assessment against specific performance criteria, individualized training and self-renewal programs, and lifelong professional development plans. A new role is developed of a counselor staff development specialist who functions as a school training consultant and counselor educator.     

An accountability model for counselors

A sound counselor accountability system would collate counselor accomplishments with costs. Better decisions could then be made about effective methods, staffing, student needs, and training. The system would define the domain of counselor responsibilities, use student behavior changes as evidence of counselor accomplishments, state counselor activities as costs, promote self-improvement, permit reports of failures and unknown outcomes, be designed by users, and be subject to revision. An illustrative accountability report shows how the cost, but not the value, of an outcome can be estimated. Experimentation is needed in order to answer the practical implementation problems of the system.     

Using Photography to Enhance Development of Self,Professional Identity,and Multicultural Awareness

Counseling can be a vulnerable process for clients and counselors alike. Counselors-in-training often find their early development to be an ambiguous and anxiety-provoking process. Both metaphors and experiential activities are effective methods in counselor training for addressing the ambiguity of counseling and the concerns experienced by counseling students. This article describes how counselor educators can use photography as a metaphor to support counselor development. We also outline four creative photography activities designed to foster self-reflection, professional identity development, and multicultural awareness among counselors-in-training.     

A National Survey of AIDS Training in Counselor Education Programs

A review of the literature suggests that counseling professionals may not be receiving substantive training related to AIDS. In this article, all U.S. counselor education programs were surveyed to determine the extent of such training. The responding programs (N = 243) identified AIDS as a high priority for inclusion in curricular programming, yet nearly 40% of the responding programs did not include any AIDS training in their curricula. Implications for counselor education and the counseling profession are discussed, and suggestions are made for including AIDS-related training in programs.     

Paramodeling Effects in Counselor Training

This study was based on the hypothesis that modeling techniques utilized in counselor training may foster unintended and often undetected behaviors in counseling trainees. Samples of counselor trainees viewed either a series of expert modeling or coping modeling video-tapes. Specifically, it was hypothesized that counselor trainees who viewed expert models would illustrate concommitant or paramodeling phenomena by exhibiting a decrease in anxiety toward participation in a counseling interview. Similarly, it was predicted that those who viewed the coping models would demonstrate paramodeling phenomena by exhibiting an increase in tolerance of ambiguity. Results confirmed the hypotheses across the first sample, the cross-validation sample, and both samples combined. Implications regarding counselor training are discussed.     

Marriage and Family Counseling in Counselor Education: National Trends and Implications

The authors report the results of a survey of 274 counselor education chairpersons asked to respond to a series of questions concerning the current status of marriage and family counseling in counselor education. Respondents indicated that marriage and family programs in counselor education are continuing to grow in popularity, identified courses most frequently employed in the training of such counselors, provided information about support that AACD could give to enhance the development of marriage and family counseling, and gave their opinions about how marriage and family counseling programs should be accredited.     

A Preliminary Survey of Relationships Between Counselor Educators' Ethics Education and Ensuing Pedagogy and Responses to Attractions With Counseling Students

Literature suggests that counselor education does not consistently teach ethics and that ethical violations currently occur between trainees and faculty. The literature also suggests that ethical dilemmas during training strongly influence later ethical counseling practice. A survey examined the ethics training of counselor educators and ensuing attitudes and actions in professional practice. The author discovered that ethics pedagogy during training was related to later pedagogical strategies and to reactions to attraction with students. Furthermore, no single pedagogical strategy seems to guarantee best teaching or ethical professional practice. This survey reinforces the need for ethics education for counselor educators and suggests directions for research.     

Metaphor as an Instrument for Orchestrating Change in Counselor Training and the Counseling Process

The authors explore the use of metaphors as a training tool for beginning counselors for enhancing client case conceptualization, counselor‐client relationships, and intervention strategies. The history of the use of metaphors in counseling, several definitions, and a case study are presented. The authors discuss intentional use of metaphors with students in training and with clients. How to introduce the use of metaphors into counselor training and practice is also included.     

The Rape Myth and Blame‐Based Beliefs of Counselors‐in‐Training Toward Male Victims of Rape

The authors surveyed counselors‐in‐training at counselor education programs nationwide, accredited by the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs, to examine trainees' acceptance of rape myths and their willingness to make blame‐based attributions toward a male victim of rape. Results suggested that male counselor trainees with no experience counseling sexually assaulted clients tended to endorse the greatest degree of acceptance of rape myths. Trainees of both sexes thought that a male rape victim who showed no resistance to his attacker should have done so. The authors discuss implications for counselor training and supervision.     

Graduate Training of Counselors in the Addictions: A Study of CACREP-Approved Programs

Results are reported from a survey of counselor education programs approved by the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP). The survey focused on counselor training in the addictions.     

Developing a Model of Advanced Training to Promote Career Advancement for Certified Genetic Counselors: An Investigation of Expanded Skills,Advanced Training Paths,and Professional Opportunities

There are currently multiple paths through which genetic counselors can acquire advanced knowledge and skills. However, outside of continuing education opportunities, there are few formal training programs designed specifically for the advanced training of genetic counselors. In the genetic counseling profession, there is currently considerable debate about the paths that should be available to attain advanced skills, as well as the skills that might be needed for practice in the future. The Association of Genetic Counseling Program Directors (AGCPD) convened a national committee, the Committee on Advanced Training for Certified Genetic Counselors (CATCGC), to investigate varied paths to post-master’s training and career development. The committee began its work by developing three related grids that view career advancement from the viewpoints of the skills needed to advance (skills), ways to obtain these skills (paths), and existing genetic counselor positions that offer career change or advancement (positions). Here we describe previous work related to genetic counselor career advancement, the charge of the CATCGC, our preliminary work in developing a model through which to view genetic counselor advanced training and career advancement opportunities, and our next steps in further developing and disseminating the model.     

HIV/AIDS Training in CACREP-Approved Counselor Education Programs

This article presents the results of a survey mailed to 64 CACREP-approved counselor education graduate programs to explore the amount and the level of training provided on HIV/AIDS. The results show that 51% of the programs offered at least a colloquium on basic information about HIV/AIDS. The survey also explored course work that might be indirectly related to HIV/AIDS, as well as other courses directly related to the topic. Suggestions are made for ways to incorporate HIV/AIDS training into counselor education programs.     

Effects of Counselor Disability and Reputation on Client Perceptions During a Career Counseling Session

This study examined the effects of three counselor influence factors—expertness, trustworthiness, and attractiveness—on participants' impressions of a counselor during a counseling analogue situation. Using a 2 (counselor disability) x 2 (level of training) factorial design, no significant differences were found with respect to counselor social influence. These results are interpreted relative to the literature on perceptions of counselors with physical disabilities.