Life-Flow Leisure Counseling for Older Persons

Work is a primary source of self-satisfaction and self-definition for many people during most of the years of their lives. Consequently, the loss of work and the necessary transition to leisure as the primary life activity are often difficult for older persons. Leisure counseling is a method of helping older persons find self-satisfaction in leisure and therefore better adjust to their life situations. This article presents some suggestions for effective leisure counseling with older persons.     

Counseling Supervision and Consultation: A Psychobehavioral Approach

The Florida Bureau of Employment Service within the Florida Department of Commerce has developed and implemented a competency-based counselor training model. The model has established competencies for counselors in the areas of relationship skills, career development, individual and group assessment, group guidance and counseling, continuity of services, community relations skills, professional development and workload, and intra-office relationships. In the supervisory portion of the model competencies were explicated in the areas of supervisory skills, assuming that all the counselor competencies are also present in the supervisor's behavior. This article is limited to a discussion of the basic components of the supervisory model and the presentation of an actual case, to illustrate its direct application in the field.     

Generic Models of Counseling Supervision: Counseling/Instruction Dichotomy and Consultation Metamodel

Major conceptual models for counseling supervision are described and compared: supervision as a counseling analog, as an instruction or teaching analog, and as a role that includes counseling and teaching aspects. Although each of these approaches avails supervisors of familiar roles, none adequately provides the scope and utility required of a model for such a complex function. Thus, a higher order metamodal, supervision as consultation, is presented, and this consultation metamodel is related to the psychoeducational model for counseling psychology.     

Enhancing CBT Consultation With Multicultural Counseling Principles

The use of multicultural principles to enhance cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for individuals of marginalized backgrounds has received increased attention in light of the heightened national awareness of systemic oppression and racialized violence directed towards Black, Indigenous, and People of Color. However, there has been less of a focus on applying such principles to consultation for skill development. If ethical guidelines are expected to influence the behavior of clinicians in session, guidance is needed to indicate how and where and when clinicians should receive training in implementing culturally responsive CBT. Individual reading and reflection are necessary but are not sufficient in acquiring new clinical skills. Consultation is recommended and strongly suggested when clinicians are working with new populations or delivering a new treatment, or even using a new modality. Consultation can also be useful when adopting a new approach or stance to therapy. For practicing clinicians who have not developed these skills, additional consultation can and should be used to address this gap. Moving forward, integration of cultural responsiveness into standard consultation will ensure that these skills are seen as a core competency, rather than an optional additional skill that may be (or not be) elected. This paper presents core experiences that may be integral to a CBT consultation model that aims to enhance providers’ ability to provide CBT in a way that is culturally responsive to their clients. These recommendations attend to both content and process within CBT consultation and reflect guiding assumptions for helping clinicians to develop the ability to practice CBT in a culturally responsive manner, including (a) normalizing discussions of cultural identity and oppression, (b) an emphasis on cultural self-awareness, (c) emphasizing culturally informed CBT case conceptualization, and (d) skill development in applying cultural elements to CBT interventions.     

Reducing Psychological Distress in a Genetic Counseling Consultation for Breast Cancer

High levels of cancer specific distress have been found before and after genetic counseling for breast cancer. This study investigated the process of reducing distress during 111 genetic counseling consultations for familial breast cancer. Consultations were audiotaped, transcribed, and a detailed coding system developed to measure cues of emotional distress from the patient, and consultant (clinical geneticist or genetic counselor) behaviors before and after the cues. At least 1 emotional cue was given in 64 consultations, with a median of 1 cue per consultation. More emotional cues of distress occurred when the consultant responded empathetically to the first cue of distress. Satisfaction outcomes were largely positive regardless of the consultant's attentiveness to distress. Postconsultation depression scores were significantly reduced if more empathic responses were given, but anxiety remained the same. These results are discussed and recommendations are made for improving patient care.     

Counseling,Consultation, and Supervision: A Visual Clarification of their Relationship

A graphic matrix, the Three-Dimensional Intervention Model, serves as a framework to help counselors visualize the mutual relationships of counseling, consultation, and supervision.     

Leisure Counseling: An Antidote for “The Living Death”

Employment counselors need to assist their clients in the exploration of leisure interests as an antidote to unemployment or “the living death.”     

Burnout and Leisure

The purpose of this study is to determine whether leisure behavior, leisure satisfaction, leisure attitude, and self-determination are associated with decreased burnout. A systematic stratified random sample of 438 clergy (55% return rate) was used to collect the data. In path analysis, results indicate that leisure behavior and leisure satisfaction had an inverse effect on all 3 components of burnout, while leisure attitude had no effect. Self-determination predisposition contributed inversely to 2 components of burnout. Similarly, age and years in ministry had a direct, inverse relationship with the emotional exhaustion and depersonalization dimensions of burnout. Number of years employed with the present church was also negatively related to emotional exhaustion. All 3 variables (age, years in ministry, and years with the present church) were positively associated with leisure behavior. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.     

African Americans and Consultation

This article reviews key issues related to racial minorities working as consultants, provides an analysis of possible impediments to successful consultation by stage of the process, and provides examples of how majority consultants can provide support for this underrepresented group in the field. Implications for training are discussed.     

Ethics Consultation and Autonomy

Services of ethics consultants are nowadays commonly used in such various spheres of life as engineering, public administration, business, law, health care, journalism, and scientific research. It has however been maintained that use of ethics consultants is incompatible with personal autonomy; in moral matters individuals should be allowed to make their own decisions. The problem this criticism refers to can be conceived of as a conflict between the professional autonomy of ethics experts and the autonomy of the persons they serve. This paper addresses this conflict and maintains that when the nature of both ethics consultation and individual autonomy is properly understood, the professional autonomy of ethics experts is compatible with the autonomy of the persons they assist.     

Creativity and Counseling

This article distinguishes between curative, restorative psychotherapy, and educative, growth-oriented counseling. The authors show how the processes and methods of creativity in scientific and artistic pursuits are similar to those of personal growth and counseling. They also discuss divergent production, deferred judgment, preparation, incubation, illumination, elaboration, and the balance between thought and emotion in terms of creativity and counseling. In this article, counselors can find new methods of facilitating creativity.     

Consultation Contracts

Consultants enter into legal contracts each time they agree to a consultation arrangement outside of their regular work setting. They need to understand the legal context of contracts within which they perform their services and recognize the benefits a written agreement provides. Counselors often provide consultation services as a regular part of their job responsibilities. In such situations, a separate legal contract is not formed when a consultation relationship is created. A written understanding of the consultation arrangement, however, can be beneficial to the consultant and consultee even though a legal contract does not exist.