Toward a Unified Consciousness Theory

Although research and personal experiences are indicating that telepathy, clairvoyance, psychokinesis, and healing may be more common than previously believed, human development continues to be viewed primarily from physical or cognitive frameworks. These traditional theories are not comprehensive enough to include many human phenomena. As a result many people label these phenomena as extrasensory or paranormal and presume that they exist in only rare cases, if at all. Counselors are not trained to recognize or deal with such phenomena. The beginning of a holistic theory that can treat paranormal phenomena as normal human development is presented. Implications for counseling, counselor education, and counselor supervision are discussed.     

A Role for the Counselor Educator in Teacher Education

Teacher education can use the knowledge and skills counselor education takes for granted. This article outlines a role for counselor education in preservice teacher education by describing two programs in which a counselor education faculty has contributed to the improvement of teacher education. Both programs—one facilitating the career development of prospective teachers and the other, teaching human relation skills to prospective teachers—have been integrated into the teacher education curriculum.     

An Introduction to Proposed Human Sexuality Counseling Competencies

The presentation of human sexuality information within counselor education programs seems inconsistent, leaving counselors typically underprepared to handle the sexuality-related components of many clients’ distress. Addressing this gap, the present article, using guidance from the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors, and Therapists (AASECT), proposes 10 human sexuality counseling competency domains to aid counselors in working more effectively and comprehensively with clients. These domains are: Ethical/Professional Behavior, History and Systems, Anatomy/Physiology, Sexual Identity, Sexual Development, Intimacy and Interpersonal Relationships, Pleasure and Sexual Lifestyles, Sexual Functioning, Health/Medical Factors, and Sexual Exploitation. Clinical implications are discussed and include improved case conceptualization and developing counselor competence. Opportunities for future research are presented as they relate to counselor education and training.     

Infusing Human Sexuality Content and Counseling in Counselor Education Curriculum

Human sexuality is a pervasive and universal part of being human and despite this, receives inadequate attention in counselor education curricula. Consequently, counselors may be ill-prepared to assist clients who present with sexuality issues. The authors provide support and recommendations for infusing sexuality content throughout counselor education programs.     

Human Sexuality: A Survey of What Counselors Need to Know

A nationwide sample of counselor educators and practicing counselors responded to a survey questionnaire containing 20 items about human sexuality. Their ratings of the items' importance to a new, master's degree counselor about to begin practicing led to conclusions about the sexual information that counselors may need to have and priorities for instruction in sex counseling.     

Selection and Training for Human Rights Counseling

Human rights counseling is needed today as much as or more than it was in the 1960s. Counselor educators can help meet societal needs for human rights counselors by selecting counselor trainees sensitive to human rights issues and by preparing them to work with problems resulting from oppression. This article examines the shortcomings of traditional selection and training procedures and presents suggestions for improving them vis-á-vis human rights counseling.     

Changes in the Perception of the Counselor: Self,Ideal Self,and Self as Judged by Peers

Thirty counseling practicum students' perceptions of self as counselor, ideal counselor, and self as counselor as perceived by other practicum students were measured by the semantic differential technique before and after the supervised practicum experience. Posttest perceptions of self as counselor, ideal counselor, and ratings by other practicum group members were significantly closer to the hypothetical model counselor than were the pretest ratings.     

Effective Physical Functioning: A Precondition for the Helping Process

Within the human resource development model, there is an emphasis on operationalizing and developing the counselor's physical, intellectual, and emotional skills necessary to deliver an effective helping process. Until recently, there has been little discussion of physical functioning. However, within this model physical fitness is viewed as a key factor of counselor functioning. A review of the literature reveals that fitness is related to several physical, intellectual, and emotional factors that can have a bearing on counselor and client functioning. The review also relates the development of fitness to the development of other intellectual and emotional factors. Implications for the training of counselors on fitness and for the importance of physical programs as they relate to the helping process are explored.     

Effect of Experimentally Induced Sets of High and Low ‘Expertness' During Brief Vocational Counseling

A study was designed to evaluate the effects of an experimentally induced set of “expertness” on clients' evaluations of their selected experiences during brief vocational counseling. Thirty-one college freshman males were randomly assigned to two induced sets of high and low expertness, and client responses to both quantitative and qualitative aspects of the interview were obtained. The results suggested that (a) clients responded more favorably to relationship aspects of the interview with a counselor who was introduced as a nonexpert than with a counselor who was introduced as an expert, (b) informational recall was greater for clients interviewed by the expert counselor, and (c) global ratings of counselor effectiveness did not differentiate between expert and nonexpert counselors. Implications for counselor training and counselor practice are discussed.     

A National Survey of Counselor Education Departments: Course Offerings on Marriage and Family

In this article the authors summarize information gathered in a national survey of the course offerings and programs in marriage and family counseling offered by 244 counselor education departments. Approximately two-thirds of those departments offered such courses, which typically included: family counseling, family counseling practicum, human sexuality, family theory, couples counseling, and marriage and family dynamics. Approximately 90% of the departments supported marriage and family course offerings in counselor education departments. Implications for programming in marriage and family counseling are discussed.     

Research on client perceptions and expectations: Client Perceptions of Counselors' Nonverbal Behavior: A Reevaluation

The purpose of this audiovisual counseling study was to determine if variations in counselor nonverbal behavior result in enhanced or debilitated perceptions of counselor expertness, attractiveness, trustworthiness, and helpfulness. Three groups of participants rated the perceived expertness, attractiveness, trustworthiness, and helpfulness of a counselor emitting nonverbal behavior at a high, moderate, or low frequency. In addition, a fourth group rated the perceived expertness, attractiveness, trustworthiness, and helpfulness of the counselor role. Results indicate that: (a) low frequency counselor nonverbal behavior results in debilitated perceptions of counselors; (b) the counselor role is perceived as moderately expert, attractive, trustworthy, and helpful; and (c) compared with the counselor role, high frequency counselor nonverbal behavior does not enhance the perceived expertness, attractiveness, trustworthiness, and helpfulness of counselors. Implications for counseling practice, theory, and research are discussed.     

Baccalaureate Programs in Counseling: Follow-up and Implications

Several counselor education programs across the country have become increasingly involved in the training of helping professionals at the undergraduate level. This article reports the results of a follow-up study of the first 144 graduates of the baccalaureate programs offered in the department of Counseling and Personnel Services at the University of Missouri-Columbia. The author also describes what the graduates did initially on completion of their programs and suggests several implications that baccalaureate programs have for colleges of education, counselor education programs, and the helping and human services professions in general.     

Neophyte Counselor Attire and College Student Perceptions of Expertness,Trustworthiness, and Attractiveness

Strong (1968) proposed that counseling can be viewed as a two-phase process. During the first phase, counselors use various techniques to enhance client perceptions of counselor expertness, trustworthiness, and attractiveness. These perceptions result in influence-power and have an effect on outcome. According to Strong, clients use reputational, behavioral, and evidential cues to assess counselor credibility and attractiveness. Previous research has indicated, however, that counselor attire is not used as an evidential cue when counselors display expert verbal and nonverbal behavior. It was hypothesized that counselor attire is an evidential cue for expertness, trustworthiness, and attractiveness of the inexperienced neophyte counselor-in-training. To test this hypothesis college students participated in group counseling sessions with either a formally or informally attired neophyte counselor. It was found that the informally attired counselor was perceived as more expert, trustworthy, and helpful.     

Assessing and Promoting Cultural Relativism in Students of Counseling

Multicultural counseling is often promoted as a core element in counselor development. As such, educational efforts aim to increase counselors’ cultural relativism, or their ability to recognize their own enculturation and to appreciate the value of other cultural norms. This mixed qualitative-quantitative study explored the relationship between counselor and human service professional trainees’ moral development levels and their cultural assumptions after they had experienced a course in cultural diversity. Four themes were noted: (i) reflexivity about culture, (ii) orientation toward activism and advocacy, (iii) differences in attitudes toward sexual orientation and religion, and (iv) increased alertness to culture. Implications for culturally alert practice are discussed.     

A Comprehensive Model for Multidimensional Competencies in the Training of Secondary School Counselors

Counselor education programs throughout the country have employed competency-based objectives as part of their training programs. The utilization of behavioral objectives in defining specific counselor skills has produced numerous systems and models for the training of counselors. This article presents a multidimensional model for counselor education that uses a behavioral approach in conjunction with the more globally accepted services and functions of the secondary school counselor. The multidimensional model places the competencies in three distinct domains: (a) 10 identifiable services provided by the secondary counselor; (b) the three functions performed by the counselor; and (c) the three types of program training components commonly used in counselor education programs. The three dimensions of the model are presented in a Guilford-like cube for simplicity.     

加强辅导员职业培训 推进队伍专业化建设

辅导员职业培训是辅导员专业化和职业化建设的重要途径。辅导员职业培训作为一种人力资源开发活动,应以人为本,坚持专业化、职业化的发展方向,应在转变培训观念,健全培训体系,丰富培训内容与手段,注重培训实效等方面进一步改进。     

Effects of Counselor's Ordinal Position When Involved in Role Play Practice in Triads

To investigate the effects of the order of being the counselor when involved in role-play practice, 36 novice trainees were assigned to counseling triads and then to the levels of ordinal position—counselor first, second, or third. Each participant also served as a client and as an observer within the triad. No difference among the three ordinal positions was found in the trainees' abilities to produce reflection of feeling responses. Similarly, there were no differences between those trainees who functioned as as observers before being the role-play counselor. There was a significant positive linear trend, however, for ordinal position (i.e., the accuracy of the trainees' reflection of feeling responses steadily improved from first counselor role play to third counselor role play). These results are discussed from a social-learning theory perspective.     

Simulated Consulting Experiences in Counselor Preparation

Simulation, using role-playing and commercially available materials, was used to provide counselor-teacher consultation experience for counselor trainees. Students in a master's level guidance program worked with teachers in a consultative situation on a series of problems. Representative situations in which a teacher might consult with a counselor about possible courses of action in solving a problem were presented via simulation. Experienced teachers rated the adequacy of counselor recommendations concerning the problem situation. The trained counselors' recommendations were rated as superior (p < .01 level) to those of untrained counselors. These results support the use of simulation as a technique for counselor education. Implications for counselor education programs are discussed.