Sports Counseling: A New Counseling Specialty Area

This article provides background information about sports counseling for student-athletes. A proposal for a Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs specialty training area for sports counseling is presented.     

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.     

Sex Bias in Educational-Vocational Counseling

Literature pertinent to sex discrimination in educational and vocational counseling is reviewed. Among the many factors that contribute to inequitable counseling are the sex role socialization that clients bring to the counseling interaction, the sex role attitudes and biases of counselors, deficiencies in counselor training, and shortcomings of tests and other source materials used in counseling practice. Recommendations are made toward more comprehensive counseling services for women and men.     

Marriage and Family Counseling

This article provides an overview of marriage and family counseling, including the growth and interest of this specialty within the American Counseling Association (ACA). Areas discussed include the evolution of marriage and family counseling within ACA, standards for training, credentialing, and unique ethical considerations when counseling couples and families.     

Consideration of Genetic Counseling as a Career: Implications for Diversifying the Genetic Counseling Field

Under-representation of racial/ethnic minority counselors has been an ongoing issue in the genetic counseling field. A better understanding of genetic counseling awareness and career consideration may help to increase the number of applicants to genetic counseling training programs from racial/ethnic minorities. This study sampled high school and college students (n = 233) to examine their awareness and perceptions of genetic counseling. Ethnicity, gender, parental level of education, and interest in biology were significant predictors of a subjects genetic counseling awareness; previous awareness of genetic counseling, interest in psychology, and level of education were significant predictors of whether a subject would consider genetic counseling as a career. The findings suggest that knowledge of genetic counseling is lower among racial/ethnic minorities, but that racial/ethnic minorities are just as likely to consider genetic counseling as a career. Awareness of genetic counseling prior to university education may increase racial/ethnic minority representation among potential applicants to genetic counseling training programs.     

Christian Counseling: An Emerging Specialty

The emerging professional specialty of Christian counseling is examined in light of its development, theoretical underpinning, training, and roles. Also examined are the various approaches to Christian counseling. Finally, a rationale for classifying Christian counseling as a separate specialty is presented.     

The Counseling Profession's Response to Sex-Biased Counseling: An Update

Moore and Strickler summarize recent literature on sex bias in the counseling profession and challenge counselor educators to place increased emphasis in their training programs on sex equity.     

Counseling in Malaysia: An Emerging Profession

The emergence of counseling in Malaysia illustrates the importance of a strong professional association and counseling training programs at the university level.     

A Preliminary Analysis of Counseling Students' Attitudes Toward Counseling Women and Women of Color: Implications for Cultural Competency Training

In this study, 56 counseling students responded to peer‐generated presentations on counseling women and counseling women of color. Qualitative methodology was used to identify students' racial, ethnic, and gender attitudes in counseling contexts. Implications for cultural competency training are provided.     

School Counseling: An Evolving Specialty

This article provides a review of school counseling as a specialty area of the counseling profession, including attention to historical development, training standards and accreditation, certification, and future trends and issues.     

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.     

Predictors of Early Termination in a University Counseling Training Clinic

Despite the existence of counseling dropout research, there are limited predictive data for counseling in training clinics. Potential predictor variables were investigated in this archival study of 380 client files in a university counseling training clinic. Multinomial logistic regression, predictive discriminant analysis, and classification and regression trees converged on the use of a 4‐predictor model (client age, income, perceived difficulty, and functional impairment) for classifying counseling dropouts. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

The Effect of Honduran Counseling Practices on the North American Counseling Profession: The Power of Poverty

A team of researchers consisting of counselor education professors and doctoral‐level counseling students conducted interviews with Honduran mental health professionals, including counselors, psychologists, pastors, community developmental specialists, and psychiatrists. The purpose was to understand the counseling process and profession that exists in a developing economy. The results are focused on the pervasive effects of poverty on the profession, the training of counselors, and the nature of counseling interventions.     

Chuck Warnath: Visionary Gadfly of Professional Counseling

Charles F. “Chuck” Warnath, professor emeritus and former university counseling center director, was interviewed about his personal life, early training with Donald Super, counseling center experiences, convictions about professional counseling, dedication to issues of equality, and current struggles with the progressive effects of retinitis pigmentosa.     

Improving Research Training in Doctoral Counseling Programs

The authors surveyed the research training practices of doctoral-level, APA-approved counseling psychology programs, non-APA-approved counseling psychology programs, and counselor education programs to identify ways to improve such training. Some differences were found according to program type. No differences were found in percentage of students' publishing or presenting research during 1983–84. Suggestions for improving future research training were assessed; highest ratings were given to required participation in research teams; 1st-year, “hands-on” research experience; and greater emphasis on design rather than statistics training. Programs characterized by high and low student research productivity differed in the areas of required research training, research emphases and research climate, required presentation or submission of research for publication, and material support for student research. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

Effects of Second Language Usage on Genetic Counseling Training and Supervision

We conducted an exploratory study of the experiences of genetic counselors who have either trained or supervised in a second language to assess the relevance of this issue to genetic counseling training and supervision. Two hundred-thirty NSGC members, CAGC members and genetic counseling students completed the online questionnaire. Many of the respondents reported that training and supervision differed when another language was involved. Supervisors reported difficulty in assessing students’ counseling skills and discomfort with an incomplete understanding of session content. Students described a greater focus on vocabulary at the expense of psychosocial dimensions. Despite this, most felt that using another language enhanced their training experience. As such, training programs might consider increasing support to these learners and supervisors by explicitly acknowledging the challenges they face, providing students with language tools to aid in their acquisition of basic skills and providing supervisors with new methods for assessing student counseling skills when using other languages.     

New Directions in Counseling Women

A revolution in counseling women is one logical outcome of recent changes in the social, political, and economic movements that have predisposed individuals to modify their life-styles and value systems. This article discusses four facets of that revolution and concludes that new counselor training programs are required to meet the needs of emerging client populations. The conclusions are supported by research that indicates (a) new sources of knowledge about the development and functioning of women clients; (b) new groups of client populations whose needs are not being met by traditional counseling strategies; (c) innovative procedures specifically tailored to the unique characteristics of these client groups; and (d) revised standards of ethical practice to ensure competent and appropriate services for all client populations. Training programs are outlined that provide guidelines for sex-fair education for all counselors and more intensively focused training for counselors who select the counseling of women clients as a career specialty.     

Career Research Interests and Training of Genetic Counseling Students

Research is important to validate clinical services, provide information on the effectiveness of practice techniques, and develop the knowledge base of a clinical profession. Genetic counseling students from American Board of Genetic Counseling (ABGC) accredited training programs were surveyed to determine their career research interests and interest in pursuing a hypothetical doctoral degree in genetic counseling. Genetic counseling program directors were surveyed to assess the emphasis on research training within their programs. A substantial number (46%, n = 92) of genetic counseling students are interested in performing research in their careers and many (40%, n = 80) would pursue a doctoral degree in genetic counseling if it was available. Students and directors from programs with a thesis requirement reported a significantly higher emphasis on career research preparation than those from programs without a thesis requirement. The results of this study indicate that future genetic counselors are interested in contributing to the research base that will advance the field. This study suggests a need to strengthen research training within ABGC accredited graduate programs and explore the development of a doctoral degree option in genetic counseling.     

Multicultural Training in University Counseling Center Predoctoral Psychology Internship Programs: A Survey

Research indicates that graduate programs in counseling and clinical psychology are beginning to include more courses on multicultural issues. Little data is available, however, concerning the inclusion of training in multicultural issues in predoctoral psychology internship training programs. This study examined the amount and type of such training actually occurring at predoctoral psychology internship training programs in university counseling centers.