Paraprofessional Trainees and Counselor Education Students: A Comparison of Personality and Predicted Counseling Effectiveness

This study compared 55 counselor education students with 34 junior college students being trained as counseling paraprofessionals, regarding their personality and predicted counseling effectiveness. All members of both groups were enrolled in practicums at their respective institutions. The two groups differed significantly on 8 of 16 personality characteristics as measured by the 16 Personality Factor Questionnaire. And a higher percentage of the paraprofessionals received lower ratings as determined by a regression equation used to predict counseling effectiveness.     

Counseling and Counselor Education: A Developmental Approach

The article reviews the need for a developmental conception as the aim of educational intervention. The rationale is presented and compared to the mental health treatment approach. A case is made for the importance of a primary prevention, an ego and moral development focus for the psychological education of pupils and young adults.     

College Counselor Attitudes Toward Spiritual and Religious Issues and Practices in Counseling

In this study, 86 mental health professionals employed in university counseling centers in the United States were surveyed on their attitudes toward discussing religious and spiritual topics and toward using religious and spiritual practices in counseling. These participants viewed the use and discussion of spiritual topics/practices more favorably than the use and discussion of religious topics/practices. Differences in attitudes toward specific topics and practices are reported, as are implications for practice.     

Racism Attitudes,White Racial Identity Attitudes,and Multicultural Counseling Competence in School Counselor Trainees

The author investigated the relative contributions of prior multicultural training, racism attitudes, and White racial identity attitudes to self‐reported multicultural counseling competence in 99 school counselor trainees. After accounting for the number of previous multicultural counseling courses taken, results revealed that racism attitudes and White racial identity attitudes together contributed to significant variance in self‐perceived multicultural counseling competence. In particular, higher levels of racism were correlated with lower levels of self‐reported multicultural counseling competence. Moreover, higher Disintegration racial identity attitudes held by Whites were associated with their lower levels of self‐perceived multicultural counseling competence. Implications of the findings are discussed.     

Attitudes Toward Homosexuality among Graduate Counseling Students

The authors surveyed graduate counseling students regarding their attitudes toward homosexuality: its etiology; the mental health of homosexuals; the role of the mental health professional in treating homosexual clients; and myths and fallacies surrounding homosexuality. The results indicate that counseling students feel ill-prepared to deal with homosexual clients, are unsure about the etiology of homosexuality, and that female students respond differently from male students regarding many aspects of homosexuality.     

Attitudes Toward Death Education and Grief Counseling

This article surveyed counselors and counselor educators across the nation regarding their attitudes toward death education and grief counseling. Results were compared to previous research in this area, and it was found that death education and grief training has increased significantly in recent years. Results also indicated that elementary school counselors were more willing than junior or senior high counselors to prepare teachers to help in the area of grief. The primary reasons given by counselors for not attending courses, workshops, or seminars on death education were that training was either not available or not convenient. Counselor educators' reasons for non-attendance varied from time conflict to lack of interest.     

African American Students in Counselor Education Programs: Perceptions of Their Experiences

The authors explored 11 African American doctoral students' perceptions of their experiences in counselor education programs, and their findings are presented. Using a phenomenological methodological framework, the authors investigated the various systems of support that students use as they navigate their respective programs. Human agency was the theoretical framework for this study, and 4 themes emerged from the data: assertiveness, more experienced African American students, race‐based organizations, and personal and professional care from advisors. Implications for students and counselor education programs are discussed.     

On Racial Gamesmanship and Anti-Intellectual Attitudes In Counselor Education

Racial gamesmanship and anti-intellectualism in higher education aided and abetted by guilt-ridden whites creates a crippling reinforcement for black fantasy and myth-making. Guidelines for professional action within a framework of rationality and civility are presented toward the end that “our Negro compatriots can acquire those educational skills and technical competencies… that will actually enable them to achieve equality and fulfillment within the context of an American society presently grappling with the burdens of renewal.”     

Counseling Athletes: A New Specialty in Counselor Education

A master's-level specialization in athletic counseling is described. Development of the program, course work, student recruitment, and program evaluation are discussed.     

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.     

Counselor Education Students as Program Evaluators

Rarely are students given the opportunity to evaluate the total effect of a counselor education program on them as persons, learners, and emerging professionals. This article describes a comprehensive system analysis in which students evaluated their educational experience on such dimensions as faculty-student communication and decision making, psychological closeness, freedom to express deviant views, sexual and racial bias, and the degree to which the program climate encouraged them to be active rather than passive learners. Results categorized the program as consultative—a system in which power and authority are freely shared yet are not distributed equally.     

An Epistemology of Counseling: Implications for Counselor Education and Research

Administrators of counselor education programs have identified specific skills and content areas for their students to master. Counselors in training need to make theory applicable to individuals through the use of counseling techniques and assessment. What counselors do is related to the qualitative, quantitative, and performative knowing that Maccia (1973) found present in student-teacher relationships. This epistemology can be applied to what a counselor needs to know to counsel. Such applications of the epistemology described by Maccia (1973) are significant for counseling in two ways. First, they may aid counselor educators and students in making clear distinctions between content and skill areas as well as making strong connections between content and skills. Second, an epistemology of counseling may point to fruitful areas of research.     

Working With Minority Counselor Education Students

This article addresses three major issues in the training of minority counselor education students: sensitivity to client; cultural differences in counseling; and relationships between the counselor trainee and his or her clients, professors, classmates, and agency–placement supervisors.     

Predictors of Attitudes Toward Seeking Counseling Among International Students

This study investigated predictors of international students' attitudes toward seeking counseling. One hundred twenty‐one international students responded to mailed questionnaires. Results indicate that being female, having greater openness to emotions, and having had prior counseling experience were significant predictors of more open attitudes toward seeking counseling.     

A Comparison of Doctoral Graduates in Counselor Education and Counseling Psychology

In a nationwide study of graduates of doctoral programs in counselor education and counseling psychology, researchers found similarities between the two groups in educational and work history, current employment, professional activities, and future goals.     

Attitudes Toward Counseling Among Asian International and Native Caucasian Students

Asian international and native born Caucasian students indicated the source of help they would go to first if they had a personal problem; rated the importance of four counselor characteristics: ethnicity, university degree, age, and gender; and completed Fischer and Turner's scale of attitudes about seeking professional psychological help. There was no difference between Asian and Caucasian Students in the sources of help they would seek. Asian students indicated it was more important that a conselor be or similar ethnicity and older. There were no ethnic differences in attitudes toward professional help. Women were no ethnic differences in attituses toward professional help. Women were more likely to report indicate a need for help regardless of ethnic group. Caucasian women were more tolerant of the stigma of being a client, likely to report interpersonal openness, and to express confidence in mental health practitioners than Asian women or men form either group. Colleges should consider the use of older paraprofessional counselors of the same nationality as interantional student clients.     

Preparing Site Supervisors of Counselor Education Students

Counselor educators maintain a responsibility for providing site supervisors with professional development opportunities (Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs. 2009 ). The goal of this study was to evaluate a model for providing preparation to site supervisors. Significant differences were observed from pretest to posttest on the Supervisory Self‐Efficacy Scale (Johnson & Stewart, 2008 ).     

Counselor Self-Awareness and Counseling Effectiveness

It has been assumed that counselor self-awareness is important to counseling effectiveness. The purpose of the present study was to determine if there were differences in perceived effectiveness between counselors who said they related self-awareness to their counseling role and counselors who believed self-awareness was unrelated to their role. Those counselors who did not relate self-awareness to counseling received higher client ratings of effectiveness than did counselors who related self-awareness.