Search

Argues that the impact of client suicide on the student counselor potentially has severe and long-term consequences. Suggests that the integration of Kleespies' plan for supervision with Brown's recommendations regarding the larger administrative process provide a comprehensive and flexible framework for addressing the needs of students after client suicide. Includes recommendations for counselor education programs. (Author/JDM)

This article reports the findings of a study that examined why families choose to return to family therapy after their first family therapy session. The 87 families that were referred to a university family counseling center for assistance with their children's behavioral problems at school completed an author-developed survey in which they rated the influence of various therapist-related and family-related factors on their decision to return for a second session. Factor analysis of the survey data revealed that the families' positive experience of the therapist during the first session had the strongest influence on their continuation decision. The findings suggest that family therapists are not helpless victims to client attrition after the first session, but rather, have the strongest potential for influencing client decisions to come back. Specific family therapist actions for maximizing family continuation after the first session are described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Creativity plays a critical role in today’s society by aiding an individual’s response to the mounting complications of modern life and assisting in the maintenance of mental health. Though counselors seek to promote similar developments in their clients, they often do so without the benefit of any particular training in theories of creativity or creativity-enhancing techniques. This article examines literature in the fields of creativity, counseling, and education to highlight the essential nature of creative processes in counseling and psychotherapy, ultimately presenting a rationale for the incorporation of creativity in counselor education. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This descriptive study examined 160 former students' perceptions of one assessment tradition in counselor education: the doctoral oral examination. The findings suggest that oral examinations continue to have substantive value for students, but changes are needed to ensure their future objectivity, transparency, and regard for students' rights as consumers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This preliminary study examined the similarities and differences between online and face-to-face counseling with regard to general mental health, working alliance, and social presence. Participants included 50 current counseling clients (37 face-to-face, 13 online) who all were recruited through online mediums. Results indicated that online counseling clients perceived a significantly stronger working alliance on the total Working Alliance Inventory-Short Form as well as the Goal subscale than did those who received face-to-face only counseling. No significant differences existed between the groups on general mental health or social presence. These results suggest that a more controlled study with a larger sample might find that a strong working alliance can be developed through online counseling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Students unfamiliar with their counseling program's professional performance assessment policies may consider such policies pejorative. Moreover, student beliefs about the primacy of ethical service to clients may be confounded when faculty members are reluctant or fail to formally address concerns about deficient professional performance of students. The authors propose a framework intended to promote openness and transparency in professional performance assessment and believe this framework is critical to students' accurate perceptions of the assessment process, their trust in faculty members, and their future investment in safeguarding public welfare and the ethical integrity of the counseling profession through gatekeeping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Home-based counseling is an incredibly demanding intervention, yet little is known about the counselors providing this important service. This study sought to profile ego development, conceptual complexity, and supervision satisfaction for 120 home-based counselors. Counselors scored at moderate levels on measures of both ego development and conceptual level. Most counselors (74.2%) reported dissatisfaction with supervision because they are "undersupervised." Implications for using a cognitive developmental framework for training and supervising home-based counselors are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Strategies are needed that assist both current practitioners and counselors-in-training in working safely and effectively with potentially aggressive young people and their families. To emphasize with at-risk client families the seriousness of violence, all or part of an initial or early counseling session with an at-risk family should be devoted exclusively to prescribed risk assessment and crisis planning processes. This safety session is intended to reduce the risk of client violence by opening a forthright dialogue regarding the risk of violent behavior, specifying appropriate behavior and setting limits and consequences for noncompliance. The specific framework for a safety session and a case study illustrating its application are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Residential counselors are occasionally expected to be in contact with clients at risk for violent behavior. Client violence poses the obvious risk of physical harm, and there is evidence to suggest that it may have a potentially harmful psychological impact as well. As a result of the potential variability within training programs in didactic and clinical instruction, residential counselors may be neither adequately informed about the nature of violent behavior nor prepared for the potential effects of client violence. The purpose of this article is threefold: (a) To call attention to the potential crisis of client violence for counselors, (b) to propose a conceptual framework for counselor preparation and practice regarding client violence, and (e) to make recommendations for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]