Personal and Organizational Characteristics of Employment Counselors

Eleven personal and organizational variables were measured in a large national sample of employment counselors. Data indicate that female counselors were younger than males, older counselors had higher educational levels than younger ones, and as the level of education increased, so did the number of professional association memberships and time spent in counseling activities. Employment counselors with first-line supervisors who had counseling experience tended to be older, spent more time in counseling activities, had higher education levels, and belonged to more professional associations than did counselors whose supervisors did not have counseling experience.     

An Investigation of Client and Counselor Variables That Influence Likelihood of Counselor Self-Disclosure

Selected client and counselor variables affecting reported likelihood of self-disclosure by 120 experienced clinicians in relation to four scenarios were examined. Variables included client age and diagnosis and counselor gender, experience, and exposure to disclosing counselors in their own experience of counseling. Disclosure likelihood was greatest for high ego-strength diagnoses and for respondents who reported positive disclosures from counselors in their own counseling experiences. Reasons for and against using self-disclosure also were examined. Reasons for disclosing included promoting universality, giving encouragement, modeling, rapport-building, and offering alternatives. Reasons against disclosing included boundary blurring, concern about counselor welfare, merging, and premature closure. Implications for practice and research are discussed.     

Effect of Client Expectations on the Counseling Relationship

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect upon an initial interview of positive and negative client expectations for counseling. 30 subjects or clients were randomly assigned to 3 groups (1 positive expectation group, 1 negative expectation group, and a control group). Following a 30-minute counseling session, the counselors and clients were asked to evaluate the relationship that had been established. Despite pre-counseling differences in client expectations, no significant differences were found in the relationships established.     

Twenty Counseling Maxims

Beginning counselors typically experience difficulty in transitioning from classroom-based counseling skills and theory training to their initial clinical experience. Current training models fail to provide a conceptual bridge of practical value to assist in this transition. Three organizing processes, illustrated through 20 counseling maxims, were developed for skills-trained novice counselors to provide a conceptual foundation for their clinical decision making.     

Overcoming Initial Group-Leader Anxiety: Skills Plus Experience

Although most counselor education programs offer at least one course in group counseling, there is little evidence that a supervised group counseling practicum is a part of the training of most counselors. This article explores initial group leader anxiety and the importance of the personal involvement of the counselor in facilitating a group. Reactions of counselors to their first group leadership experience are presented to emphasize the personal, theoretical, and practical learning counselors can achieve from a supervised experience.     

Philosophical Orientation of Counselors in Iowa Secondary Schools

Guidance and counseling in the schools lack focus and direction. Some attribute this confusion within guidance and counseling to a lack of a philosophical foundation. Little is known about the philosophical assumptions of counselors functioning in secondary schools. In this study, the counselors in the secondary schools of Iowa identified most frequently with the phenomenological orientation. The experience of the counselors was related to their philosophical orientation. Counselors with less experience subscribed to an existential orientation.     

Parental Involvement in School Counseling Services: Challenges and Experience of Counselor

School counselors include parents as informants in school counseling for various reasons like for consultation and client’s intervention which could lead to a different experience. The objective of the present study was to explore the challenges faced by school counselors when involving parents in the school counseling process and the ways they handle the challenges. The participants consisted of seven school counselors, with whom in-depth interviews were conducted. The subjective experiences of the school counselors were objectively interpreted by the researcher using interpretative phenomenological analysis. The research results were categorized into master and subordinate themes using double hermeneutics. The results revealed that although school counselors have their own individual perceptions of challenges and methods of handling parental inclusion in the school counseling context, there still exist similarities in their methods of handling. The study highlights school counselors’ beliefs about parents’ perceptions and expectations of counseling as well as parents’ reaction toward their child’s problem as a challenge. The findings throw light on the need for stronger evidence-based practices and policies for school counseling programs. Training and competence-building programs for school counselors would improve the service delivery.     

Is self-positive information more appealing than money? Individual differences in positivity bias according to depressive symptoms

The self-positivity bias, which is inherent to healthy people, is known to be blunted in depression. The lack of positive or excessive negative self-reference is considered to be a potential mechanism underlying depressive rumination. However, the motivational factors that drive people to approach and avoid emotional self-related materials are still unclear. Therefore, we measured intrinsic motivation that is associated with emotional self-references by using a reward-based decision-making task (pay-per-view paradigm). Forty-nine undergraduates completed two tasks in which they were asked to choose between negative vs. positive references (Task 1) and self vs. other references (Task 2) for variable monetary rewards. Participants with lower levels of depressive symptoms showed a self-positivity bias, sacrificing rewards for the opportunity to engage in positive self-reference, whereas those with higher levels of depressive symptoms had no specific preference for either negative or positive self-reference (Task 1). However, all participants sacrificed monetary rewards for the opportunity for self-reference versus other reference, regardless of the symptom level or the primed valence (Task 2). Together, these findings suggest that depressive cognition could be characterised by the lack of intrinsic motivation for positive self-reference, which is attributable to the biased valence selection, but not to self–other preferences.     

Spiritual Evolution of Bereavement Counselors: An Exploratory Qualitative Study

This article draws from a phenomenological study on the experience of being a bereavement counselor. Ten bereavement counselors shared their experiences in bereavement counseling. Spiritual and emotional aspects of bereavement counseling with grieving and dying persons are discussed as well as the spiritual effects on and growth processes of the bereavement counselors. Participants also describe their self‐care strategies pertaining to their bereavement counseling work.     

The Impact of Contemporary Idealogy and AIDS on the Counseling of Gay Clients

The counseling of gay clients, historically an uncomfortable and unsatisfying experience for many clients and psychotherapists, has become even more of a problem because of the emergence of the political right, the revival of fundamental religiosity, and AIDS. We used survey data and published literature to support the thesis that the above developments have had both subtle and gross negative effects on the attitudes of counselors toward gay clients.     

Counselors' and clients' ethnic similarity and therapeutic alliance in time-limited outcomes of counseling.

51 pairs of clients and counselors at a Southwestern university counseling and research training clinic were assessed for ethnic similarities in relation to the therapeutic alliance and counseling outcomes in 6 sessions of counseling. Analysis showed after 6 sessions symptom distress was reduced. Also, counselors and clients who had similar ethnicity had significantly more positive counseling outcomes than ethnically dissimilar pairings, but ethnic similarity was not related to the nature of the therapeutic alliance and therapeutic alliance was not a correlate of counseling outcomes.     

Needs and Preferred Style of Supervision Among Israeli School Counselors at Different Stages of Professional Development

The study aimed to identify differential needs for supervision and preferred roles and style of supervision among 202 Israeli school counselors with varied experience levels. Results of multivariate analysis of variance procedures indicated that counselors with 7 or fewer years of experience consistently expressed significantly higher needs on all but one of the items studied, compared with more experienced counselors and counselor supervisors. The counselor supervisors were also different from the more experienced counselors. By contrast, in respect of roles and style of supervision, there was more agreement across all 4 levels of experience; all counselors placed important values on the counseling, process, and personalization components, suggesting a basic need for growth-oriented supervision.     

Coping with the stress of pastoral counseling

Using a stratified random sample of the three membership categories of the American Association of Pastoral Counselors, this study investigated the experience of stress, related to the pastoral counseling profession, among 143 pastoral counselors and 95 of their spouses. In addition, the study examined how pastoral counselors were coping with stress by evaluating self-reported functional and dysfunctional behaviors. The data indicated that pastoral counselors and their spouses did not report high levels of stress related to the pastoral counseling profession. However, significant differences were found by work setting and age for pastoral counselors regarding the level of stress experienced. The data also indicated that pastoral counselors reported using more functional stress reduction behaviors than dysfunctional stress reduction behaviors.     

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.     

共情的双刃剑效应：COVID-19心理热线咨询师的继发性创伤应激和替代性创伤后成长

关注新型冠状病毒肺炎流行期间的心理援助热线咨询师由共情带来的消极和积极影响及机制, 并探究从消极影响转变为积极成长的内在机制具有重要的理论和实践意义。本研究以国内疫情期间, 776名在教育部华中师范大学心理援助热线平台上工作的咨询师(平均年龄42.57岁, 平均咨询经验12.44年)为研究对象, 使用问卷法测量热线心理咨询师的共情、正念、寻求意义、继发性创伤应激(Secondary Traumatic Stress, STS)和替代性创伤后成长(Vicarious Posttraumatic Growth, VPTG)。采用潜变量结构方程模型进行分析, 结果发现：(1)咨询师的共情正向预测STS和VPTG; (2) 正念在共情和STS间起部分中介作用, 寻求意义在共情和VPTG间起部分中介作用; (3) 共情还可以分别通过STS、STS-寻求意义、正念-STS、正念-STS-寻求意义的中介路径对VPTG起正向预测作用。该结果提示要辩证看待共情带来的消极和积极影响, 关注从消极反应到积极成长的转变, 这不仅能够深化共情及其影响的理论, 还能为相关研究应用提供启示。     

toward professional commitment through risking and sharing

Because many counselors perform tasks that offer little satisfaction, their commitment to the counseling profession is minimal. In this article the author suggests that by taking the risk to implement innovative counseling techniques and by sharing ideas both within and outside the profession, counselors can derive greater satisfaction from their work and consequently experience increased professional commitment.     

Spiritual Empowerment: A Metaphor for Counseling

The metaphor of counseling as spiritual empowerment is presented, followed by an explanation of spiritual empowerment as a metaphor and spiritual empowerment as a theoretical framework for counselors. In the use of this metaphor, counselors initiate a spiritual experience with clients, and clients often experience a spiritual awakening in which they discover or rediscover their own spiritual power. Five conclusions are identified.