Integrating Personal and Career Counseling: A Challenge for Counselors

In recent years career counseling has often been viewed as separate and distinct from personal counseling, ignoring a long tradition in the career development field that has consistently recognized the importance of personality factors in the process of choosing and maintaining a career. This paper argues for the use of an eclectic career counseling model that embraces both personality and career development theories. The model requires the counselor to be able to move back and forth between the active and directive role of the career counselor and the facilitative and exploratory role of the personal counselor. A case is presented to demonstrate its application and implications for counseling and training are discussed.     

Evaluation of Counselor Effectiveness

This literature review summarizes research in the general area of the evaluation of counselor effectiveness. Research into the role of the counselor continues, and is typically done in reference to a specific setting. The state of the art is such, however, that the evaluation of the counseling process continues to focus primarily on the presence or absence of the core facilitative conditions; program evaluation, conversely, is becoming more sophisticated. Counselor educators have focused on means of presenting counseling experiences and of providing feedback regarding trainee performance and evaluating that performance; much of this work has been directed toward the counseling practicum. The implications of the movement toward certification or licensure are discussed with reference to both practitioners and counselor educators.     

Adapting Basic Skills to Counsel Children

The purpose of this article is to help counselors modify basic adult interviewing skills, often the focus of the skill development component in counselor education programs, for more effective application with elementary-age children. In particular, 4 specific areas regarding counseling skills are presented: (a) establishing the appropriate physical environment, (b) building trust, (c) maintaining the counselor's facilitative attitude, and (d) using questions appropriately. Recommendations on how these skills can be modified are also discussed.     

Toward a Constructivist and Developmental Identity for the Counseling Profession: The Context-Phase-Stage-Style Model

The constructivist and developmental metatheories offer foundations for prevention- and health-oriented counseling approaches that target the whole population. In the assessment model proposed here, the counselor is directed toward 4 specific dimensions of human construction and development. They are the following: social context, life phase, constructive stage, and personality style. It is proposed that such assessment be infused into everyday counseling practice in schools, mental health settings, and colleges while also being a ground for the counselor education curriculum.     

Addictions Counselors' Credibility: The Impact of Interactional Style,Recovery Status,and Nonverbal Behavior

The impact of addictions counselors' interactional style (confrontational vs. motivational), recovery status (recovering vs. nonrecovering), and nonverbal behavior (facilitative vs. neutral) on 116 clients' perceptions of addictions counselor credibility was examined in a fully crossed factorial design. Significant results were found, and implications are discussed.     

Cognitive Complexity Among Practicing Counselors: How Thinking Changes with Experience

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether years of experience in the counseling profession can help predict levels of cognitive complexity among practicing counselors. Results of a regression equation found that counselors with more years in the counseling profession had higher levels of cognitive complexity, with highest degree obtained in the counseling profession also contributing to the prediction equation. Years as a practicing counselor, age, gender, and race did not contribute significantly to the equation.     

Acting the Role of a Counselor

In this article, Yager and Hector argue that all people, including counselors, developmentally learn and subsequently act out a set of roles that includes both “real self” roles and other, less familiar, and more uncomfortable roles. They suggest that certain principles employed in the training of actors can be applied to counselor preparation. The authors briefly discuss relevant research and offer specific implications and suggestions for counselor educators.     

Model of Effects of Adult Attachment on Emotional Empathy of Counseling Students

The effects of adult attachment on emotional empathy were investigated using a sample of master's‐degree level counseling students. Through structural equation modeling, the authors found that the latent attachment dimensions of avoidance and anxiety work in tandem in their effects on empathy. Lower avoidance and higher anxiety were associated with highest levels of empathy. Results are discussed in terms of attachment theory and the wounded healer concept, with implications for counselor trainees, counselor educators, and counselor supervisors.     

Positive Mental Health and Facilitative Genuineness During Counseling

This study was undertaken to determine if the scales on the Personal Orientation Inventory (POI), a measure of positive mental health, could effectively discriminate between two groups of counselors with respect to ability to communicate the therapeutic condition of facilitative genuineness within counseling relationships. Results disclosed that 7 of the 12 scales of the POI significantly differentiated between the “high genuineness” and “low genuineness” groups. Findings suggest that counselor education programs should focus more directly upon providing personal growth experiences for students of counseling.     

Counselor Bias and Women

Counselors are biased against girls and women. Several recent studies examining counselor's sex biases are reviewed. Research indicates that attitudes of counselor trainees, school counselors at all levels, counselor educators and supervisors, and clinicians are sexist. The Attitude Toward Women Scale was administered to 80 employment counselors. Male counselor attitudes were more sexist than female counselor attitudes. Suggestions for dealing with counselor bias are reviewed. Counselors must first battle their own biases. They should also be sensitive to the developmental stages of a person's life, as well as to job requirements and employer attitudes. Occupational literature should be nonsexist and nontraditional.     

Counselor or change agent: support from the profession

This article supplements the ideas on counseling and the social revolution which appeared in the May 1971 P&G—especially regarding the common behavior models of the counselor and the change agent. Because adherence to a model often places a counselor in jeopardy, the authors call on the profession to offer support and leadership on a national level to those counselors who wish to act as change agents.     

Interpretation style and reactance in counselor's social influence.

This study compared two different interpretation styles (tentative and absolute), two levels of subjects' reactance (high and low), and gender on the counselor's social influence, willingness to see the counselor, willingness to help, ability to help, and subjects' anger. No significant main effects or interaction were found for the counselor's social influence, but men in contrast to women perceived the counselor as more willing to help and indicated that they were more willing to see the portrayed counselor. Highly reactant subjects were more willing to see the counselor when absolute interpretations were used; they also thought the counselor was more willing to help when absolute interpretations were used, whereas low reactant subjects thought the counselor was more willing to help when tentative interpretations were used. Mixed results were found for subjects' anger.     

Psychological Openness and Counselor Effectiveness: A Further Investigation

The purpose of this study was to crossvalidate previous findings which lend credence to the widely hypothesized positive relationship between a student's psychological openness and his effectiveness as a counselor. Rorschach indicators of psychological openness were compared with supervisor ratings of competence and scores obtained from the application of the Truax Scales of accurate empathy, genuineness, and nonpossessive warmth to tapes of actual counseling sessions. The data offer further support for the hypothesis that psychological openness is an important predictor of success in counselor training.     

Induced abortion: an ethical conundrum for counselors

Induced abortion is one of the most controversial moral issues in American culture, but counselor value struggles regarding abortion are seldom addressed in counseling literature. This article considers the conflictual nature of the the ethical principles of autonomy, fidelity, justice, beneficence, and nonmaleficence as they can occur within the context of the counseling relationship, particularly with clients considering abortion. In addition, the authors present strategies for counselor self-evaluation, offer recommendations, and provide questions to facilitate ethical decision making.     

Substance Abuse Counselors in Recovery: Implications for the Ethical Issue of Dual Relationships

The issue of dual relationships is a significant ethical challenge for all counselors. For the counselor recovering from an addiction to substances, this issue can be even more problematic. Existing codes of ethics offer insufficient guidance to the recovering counselor. Following an overview of dual relationships, the author reviews the ethical codes of the American Counseling Association and the National Association of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Counselors, with particular attention paid to their applicability to the recovering counselor. Potentially difficult situations are considered, and recommendations are offered both for the recovering counselor and for the counseling field in general to minimize the incidence of unethical behavior due to dual relationship issues.     

On Becoming A Counselor

Counselor education theory requires a broad-spectrum model that makes room for a wide diversity of orientations. This paper presents several broad-spectrum formulations about the nature of counselor behavior. Counselor behavior is described in terms of three elements (introgression, intervention, implementation), two simultaneous levels, and the principal domain of counseling. Together, these constructs become a theoretical framework with potential for facilitating cognitive communication between counselor educator and counselor trainee. The framework presented here is admittedly in tentative form. It is presented not solely for whatever inherent merit it may have but also to suggest how counselor education theory can help to give direction and meaning to the process of becoming a counselor.     

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.     

A Counselor Classification System: Accountable

The Wisconsin State Employment Security Division has an employment counselor classification scheme which responds to the cry for accountability. This article discusses (a) technical requirements and performance standards for three levels of employment counselors; (b) specific job duties and levels of skill for Manpower counselors 1, 2, and 3; (c) caseload size, counseling outcomes, counseling and assessment skills, community resources, job development activities, and additional performance requirements expected of the master level counselor; (d) the system of reclassifying a Manpower counselor 2 to the Manpower counselor 3 level; and (e) the use of an on-site review by a state counseling supervisor as the method of evaluating a counselor's Performance. Values of the counselor classification scheme are indicated.     

Intervention packages: an approach to self-management

Intervention packages—planned units of instruction and practice designed to deal with specific student problems—offer a systematic, economical strategy for counseling. Not only do the packages allow the counselor more time for counseling individuals and small groups but they also give students a feeling of greater control over their behavior and environment. This article suggests guidelines for developing and administering intervention packages.     

Getting a grip on your feelings: effects of action orientation and external demands on intuitive affect regulation

The authors propose that volitional action is supported by intuitive affect regulation, defined as flexible, efficient, and nonrepressive control of own affective states. Intuitive affect regulation should be most apparent among action-oriented individuals under demanding conditions. Consistent with this, a demanding context led action-oriented individuals to down-regulate negative affect in self-reports (Study 1), in an affective Simon task (Study 2), and in a face discrimination task (Study 3). In line with the idea that intuitive affect regulation is guided by top-down self-regulation processes, intuitive affect regulation in a face discrimination task was mediated by increases in self-accessibility (Study 3). No parallel effects emerged among action-oriented participants in a nondemanding context or among state-oriented participants.