The helping alliance and premature termination

The study was conducted to determine the relationship between strength of the helping alliance and type of client termination (premature or with mutual knowledge of client and counselor). Participants were 102 client-counselors dyads at a university counseling center. After an average of 8 sessions, clients and couneselors completed Alexander & Luborsky's (1986) Helping Alliance Questionnaires. Clients terminated after an average of 19 sessions. Clients who later terminated with mutual knowledge of their counselors gave significantly higher strength of helping alliance ratings than did clients who later terminated unilaterally and prematurely. Counselors' ratings of strength of helping alliance were only modestly related to clients' ratings and unrelated to type of client termination.     

Counseling dropout relative to client attractiveness,disturbance, and expected number of sessions

Participants were 12 counseling center psychologist and thir 257 college-student clients. Immediately after intake, clients indicated whether or not they would make an additional appointment, their reasons for not making another appointment, and the estimated number of sessions they would attend. Counselors rated clients' attractiveness and disturbance and estimated the number of sessions they would have with each client. Clients who did not make a second appointment were generally satisfied with the help they received in one session. Client estimates were more predictive than counselor estimates of actual number of sessions. Relative to less attractive and disturbed clients, more attractive and disturbed clients made and kept post-intake appointments.     

Caretaker Psychological Factors Predicting Premature Termination of Children's Counseling

This study examines the psychological factors associated with caretakers' premature termination of counseling for their children. Data were collected on the 85 primary caretakers of 85 children in Texas who applied for counseling at community mental health centers or who received private practitioner care. The general hypothesis of the study was that scores on general hostility, intrapunitive hostility, extrapunitive hostility, paranoid ideation, depression, and anxiety would discriminate caretakers who prematurely terminated their children's counseling from both those caretakers whose children, in the judgment of the counselors, met therapeutic goals and those caretakers whose children did not meet therapeutic goals but who attended at least 10 counseling sessions. The effect size results suggest that counselors should primarily consider caretaker intrapunitive hostility when anticipating potential premature termination of counseling for children.     

Counselor Empathy or “Having a Heart to Help”? An Ethnographic Investigation of Chinese Clients' Experience of Counseling

Current understanding of counselor empathy is almost entirely based on Western culture. Clients'; perceptions of counselor empathy are scarcely investigated within any non-Western group. Using ethnographic interviews, this study explored the concept of counselor empathy from Chinese counseling clients'; perspectives by exploring their experiences of therapeutic relationships. Although informants did not commonly and explicitly consider counselor empathy as a priority in counseling, preliminary results suggest that they may perceive it in Chinese counseling relationships as a different phenomenon linguistically and conceptually.     

Addressing Mental Health Disparities With Asian American Clients: Examining the Generalizability of the Common Factors Model

Although mental health disparities for Asian Americans are known, reasons for the disparities are not well understood within the counseling process. This study coded Asian American and White clients' reports of helpful counselor actions into empirically supported common factors to determine which within‐session processes might reduce mental health disparities for Asian American clients. Asian American clients' reports of helpful therapist actions did not differ from those of White clients, suggesting that disparities do not originate in differences in the foundational aspects of counseling. Implications for addressing disparities are discussed.     

Factors Assisting Female Clients' Disclosure of Incest During Counseling

The purpose of this study was to explore specific behaviors and characteristics of counselors that relate to adult, female clients' disclosure of incest during counseling. A total of 37 female incest victims who had sought counseling within the previous 3 years completed the study. Information about disclosure of incest during counseling and perceptions of counselors' characteristics and reactions were gathered by a structured interview and the modified Barrett-Lennard Relationship Inventory. Results suggest that factors related to initial disclosure and exploration of incest are client readiness, direct questioning by the counselor, specific counselor characteristics, and positive counselor reactions to initial disclosure. Guidelines for assisting clients' disclosure of incest are presented.     

Predicting Expectations About Counseling: Psychological Factors and Gender Implications

The authors replicated and extended prior research regarding the relations among stages of change and expectations about counseling for actual clients. They added testing the predictive effects of personal growth orientation and gender for clients' expectations about counseling. Results indicated that personal growth orientation and gender contribute to understanding clients' expectations about counseling and that these effects may interact. Prior counseling experience was not an important predictor of these expectations for men or women.     

Using Case Documentation to Strengthen Counselor Trainees' Case Conceptualization Skills

A format for organizing case notes is presented that could increase counselor trainees' case conceptualization skills. The STIPS format of case note writing consists of 5 major sections, including documenting clients' current Signs and symptoms, Topics discussed in counseling, counseling Interventions used, clients' Progress and counselors' continuing plan for treatment, and finally, any Special issues of importance regarding clients (e.g., suicidality). The structure and design of this STIPS format is intended to enhance trainees' ability to acquire relevant facts about clients, better understand clients' presenting problems, better monitor counseling processes, and better evaluate and adjust treatment interventions.     

Demands for Privacy Among Adolescents in Multimodal Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Treatment

Adolescent clients' perceptions of the limits of confidentiality, as well as their privacy demands within the counseling relationship, were assessed. A total of 30 adolescents involved in individual, group, and family counseling for alcohol and other drug abuse served as participants. Participants were asked to respond to vignettes of confidentiality issues in terms of what they believed the counselor should do and what they would prefer the counselor to do. Results suggested that adolescents generally want higher levels of confidentiality than they expect to receive. This group of adolescent clients, however, made clear distinctions in their privacy expectations and demands according to specific situations.     

Contextual Themes in Career Decision Making of Female Clients Who Indicate Depression

Difficulties concerning female counseling center clients' career decision making were explored in this qualitative study. The authors reviewed counseling intake and progress notes of 18 female students who sought counseling services at a university counseling center and who presented career concerns and reported feeling depressed. Most women in this study described their career decision‐making difficulties in the context of relationships with their parents or significant others. Both external (i.e., family relationships, family and culture, and relationships with significant others) and internal (i.e., developmental, developmental and mental health issues, and skill deficits) conditions emerged as significantly affecting these women's career decision‐making process.     

Counseling: the reactionary profession

Traditionally counselors have functioned as agents and apologists for the established system. Current counseling theory and practice place the onus for change on the individual. The existing social order is absolved of responsibility for individual and group problems that exist within the structure of its institutions, and persons and groups who express attitudes or who demonstrate behavior inconsistent with the prevailing norms are labeled “deviant” or “abnormal.” If counselors are to become more responsive to their clients' needs, they must acknowledge the negative effects that society and its institutions can have on individuals and begin to effect changes at the institutional level.     

UCLA's Career Counseling Center: A Dialogue About a Unique Service

In this interview, two counseling psychologists describe aspects of a relatively unique career counseling service that has been validated by 40 years of success in the marketplace. Composed of 3 intensive individual interviews and 15 to 25 hours of educational and psychological testing, the service assists clients in identifying and beginning pursuit of suitable educational and occupational goals. The counselors describe how they organize and sift through test results to formulate recommendations for a client's unique career circumstances, why they accept responsibility for developing and presenting concrete recommendations, and what the changes in their clients' concerns suggest about the evolution of work in the United States. Their specificity and professionalism will help counselors understand the craft of career counseling.     

Studying the vocational counseling process: A preliminary examination

In this study, we examined the effects of counselor empathic and coping/mastery self-disclosure statements on clients' impressions of an initial vocational counseling interview. A primary purpose of our study was to reconsider one aspect of the investigation of Watkins et al(1990), in which the counselor responses of self-disclosure, self-involvement, empathy and open question were found to have no differential effects on clients' impressions of vocational counseling. Even though we attempted to provide a more specific test of empathy versus self-disclosure responses, we for the most part also obtained a general lack of significance on the dependent variables. In conjunction with Watkins et al.'s findings, we provide some discussion of our results, and their potential meanings for vocational counseling and future vocational counseling research.     

Navigating Bereavement With Spirituality‐Based Interventions: Implications for Non‐Faith‐Based Counselors

The relationship between spirituality and bereavement has been studied in a multitude of disciplines, yet there is a significant gap in the counseling literature on this topic. The authors explore how spirituality is often avoided in secular counseling settings, discuss adverse effects of unresolved grief on clients' functioning, and propose the concept that spirituality can be used to help clients through the bereavement process. Finally, the authors offer research and clinically based interventions that counselors, particularly those who do not identify as faith‐based, can use to incorporate spirituality into their work with bereaved clients.     

College Students' Perceptions of the Relationship Between Fee and Counseling

Fee as a variable that could have an impact on college students' perceptions of counseling was explored because of the authentic concerns about college counseling centers needing to charge direct fees for their services. Participants (N = 350) represented a cross-section of potential consumers of psychological services, not just individuals currently receiving services. On an overt level, fees seemed to be less influential in counseling considerations, but were taken into account on a more covert level. This study supports the psychological literature, which suggests that fee is not the most important factor in clients' decisions to seek counseling. Implications for counselors, administrators, researchers, and program planners are discussed.     

The Effect of Previous Experience on Preference of Approach for Effective Counseling

Students in a general psychology class viewed four videotapes of initial vocational-educational and initial personal concern counseling sessions. The sessions were presented from a client-centered approach and from a behavioral approach, and employed the same client and counselor. After viewing the tapes, the students were asked to indicate which approach they thought would be more effective in helping a client. Results showed that students who had previously experienced counseling preferred a behavioral approach for both the vocational-educational concern and the personal concern. Students with no experience of counseling did not exhibit a preference.     

The effect of previous experience on preference of approach for effective counseling

Students in a general psychology class viewed four videotapes of initial vocational-educational and initial personal concern counseling sessions. The sessions were presented from a client-centered approach and from a behavioral approach, and employed the same client and counselor. After viewing the tapes, the students were asked to indicate which approach they thought would be more effective in helping a client. Results showed that students who had previously experienced counseling preferred a behavioral approach for both the vocational-educational concern and the personal concern. Students with no experience of counseling did not exhibit a preference.     

Need for approval and counseling outcomes

The intent of this study was to determine the effects of a clients' need for approval on the outcomes of counseling. The expectation was that clients who have a high need for approval by others would cooperate more with the counseling process and would more often be successful in the sense of being rehabilitated. The Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale was administered to 167 applicants at a state rehabilitation agency immediately after the initial interview. It was hypothesized that successfully rehabilitated clients would obtain significantly higher social desirability scores than those clients who were not successful. The results confirmed the hypothesis at the .01 level of significance.     

Irrational Expectations in the Job Search Process

Although approaches that focus on cognitive distortions are often used in psychological and career counseling, they are rarely used in job search counseling. Rational-Emotive Therapy (RET) can be used effectively to combat clients' unrealistic expectations in the job search process.