Counselor Educator Nonverbal Behavior in the Supervision Process

Sixteen counselor educators and counselors-in-training participated in a content analysis study that investigated supervisors' nonverbal behaviors in the supervision process. The investigation displays the high-to-low frequency of 21 identified nonverbal behaviors of supervisors and indicates a statistically significant association and consistency among the supervisors' nonverbal behaviors. It implies the applicability of these behaviors to counselor supervision and training, provides a methodological approach for the further investigation of nonverbal behavior in actual supervision and counseling situations, and suggests that counselor educators should not overlook these variables in systematic research or their influence in the supervision process with novice counselors.     

Silver to Gold: The Alchemy,Potential, and Maturing of ACES and CES

Exponential changes in Western and international society and in American and international education afford promise, opportunity, and challenges for tomorrow's counselor. Roles of counselors, counselor supervisors, and counselor educators must reflect and shape the needs and growth of populations in specific countries and throughout the world to afford timely and appropriate responses and intelligent and sensitive proactivity. Leadership in services, teaching, research, credentialing, policy, and law all seem to be areas of potential contribution and growth for the counselors, counselor educators, and counseling supervisors of tomorrow.     

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.     

The Relationship of Facilitative Functioning to Effective Peer Supervision

This study was conducted to investigate the process of peer supervision. The criterion used was counselor trainees' growth in facilitative functioning. The study sought to ascertain whether the facilitative counselor trainee was also the effective peer supervisor, to provide information on evaluating the peer-supervisory experience, and to shed light on the most effective techniques of supervision. Peer supervisors were found to be effective in improving the performance of counselor trainees in the core dimensions of empathy, respect, genuineness, and concreteness. A significant positive correlation was found between peer supervisors' level of empathy in the counseling relationship and the trainees' ratings of supervisors on the relationship questionnaire. No significant correlation was found, however, between the trainees' ratings of their supervisors and the improvement demonstrated by the trainees in the core conditions. In addition, no significant correlation was found between the extent of the trainees' improvement and the supervisors' level of functioning as counselors. The relationship between trainees' responses to the supervisor role-analysis form and their improvement in counseling skills suggested that the most effective supervisors were structured, didactic, and more technique oriented.     

Another Look at Counselor,Client, and Supervisor Ratings of Counselor Effectiveness

The purpose of the study was to compare the perceptions of counselors, clients, and supervisors with regard to the effectiveness of counseling. The Counseling Evaluation Inventory (CEI) was used as a measure of counseling effectiveness, using client satisfaction as a criterion. 25 graduate student counselors provided self-ratings on the CEI. Additional CEI ratings of these counselors were obtained from 120 of their clients and their practicum supervisors. The counselor self-ratings and the supervisors' ratings were significantly correlated with each other, but neither was significantly correlated with the client CEI ratings. In addition, the client CEI ratings were significantly higher than both the counselor self-ratings and the supervisors' ratings.     

Paid Clients in Counselor Education - An Investigation

This investigation follows an earlier attempt to evaluate the use of paid clients in practicum work. Pre- and post-counseling responses of paid and unpaid clients, counselors, and counselor supervisors were tested by Fisher's exact probability tables. Before-counseling paid clients were found to be different from unpaid clients only in that paid clients did not expect counseling to make them more independent in their relationships with other people. Post-counseling responses did not reveal any significant differences between paid or unpaid clients. Counselors saw paid clients in the way that paid clients saw themselves. Counselor supervisors did not expect significant differences between paid and unpaid clients. The only significant difference in post-counseling ratings was that neither counselors or counselor supervisors had anticipated that paid clients did want counselors to offer alternative solutions to problems. Differing pre-counseling responses of unpaid clients and of counselors and counselor supervisors reflected unfounded expectations that unpaid clients would have greater counseling needs than paid clients. All those involved in the study evaluated paid-client counseling as being a worthwhile experience. The writers encourage further investigation and evaluation.     

Are You There,Supervisor? It's Me,Your Counselor!

In recent years counselors have attempted to clarify their role for their employers and/or supervisors. These attempts although well-intentioned, have achieved limited success because supervisors in community mental health centers, principals in schools, deans in community colleges and universities, and employers in governmental agencies continue to heap administrative and secretarial tasks upon counselors. This leads to a reduction in counselor-client contact hours and an increase in counselor burnout. Suggestions are presented here to help counselors understand the employers' frame of reference—an important first step in initiating change.     

Dual Supervision: A Model for Counseling and Supervision

The counseling practicum is generally accepted as an essential part of a counselor-training program. Likewise, the training of future counselor educators necessitates experiences in supervision of counseling-practicum students. The dual supervision model described in this article is an approach that simultaneously meets the training needs of future counselors and counselor educators. The rationale for the dual supervision model, the results of an exploratory study of the counselor trainees' attitudes toward the dual supervision process, and the counseling-practicum supervisors' reactions to the model are described. Both the students enrolled in their second quarter of counseling practicum and the supervisors had very positive reactions to the dual supervision model.     

Counselor competencies and personality traits at secondary schools in Kuwait

The aim of this research is to study the effective competencies and personality traits of secondary school counselers. A questionnaire was designed to measure counselor competencies, and a simple one way analysis of variance was used for each major competency area to test the differences between counselors who were rated high or low by their supervisors. The 16 Personality Factor Test was also administered to measure differences in personality traits between the two counselor groups. The results are consistent with previous research. It was also found that there are differences between high and low rated counselors in several personality traits.     

A National Survey of the Program and Enrollment Characteristics of Counselor Education Programs

ACES sponsored a national survey of state supervisors of guidance and counselor education institutions and of nontraditional institutions offering graduate degrees in guidance and counseling in order to secure information regarding (a) the licensure of guidance counselors, (b) the use of a competency-based approach to the certification of counselors, (c) the manpower needs for persons in guidance and personnel work, and (d) the program characteristics of counselor education institutions. Only a relatively small number of states anticipate becoming involved in the licensure of conselors in the foreseeable future; 53.6 percent of the states expect their certification of counselors to be competency-based within 2 to 5 years, and 76.1 percent of counselor education institutions have decided to make their programs competency-based but progress is slow. There is an oversupply of BA-level guidance persons, school counselors, and doctoral-level persons seeking faculty positions; there is a strong preference for ethnic minorities and women to fill counselor education positions; and abnormally high faculty/graduate ratios were reported for many institutions.     

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.     

The Relationship of Counselor Self-Disclosure to Counselor Effectiveness

Counselor self-disclosure was investigated as a dimension of counselor effectiveness with a sample of forty-one graduate students in a counseling and guidance practicum. Effectiveness was measured by ratings from clients and practicum supervisors. Clients rated the counselors in three aspects of the counseling interview and supervisors rated counselors in eight areas. Counselor self-disclosure scores were correlated significantly with all the criterion scores of counselor effectiveness (p <. 05). It was suggested that the concept of psychological disclosure may have important implications for counselor selection and training.     

Training Counselors to Interpret Psychoeducational Evaluations: A Course Model

Evidence from the literature and from reported practice indicates that school counselors are increasingly expected to be competent in the interpretation of individually administered psychoeducational tests and reports. Systematic training in these competencies, however, is often not included as an integral part of counselor education programs. This article describes one counselor education program's response to the need for training in these interdisciplinary skills. The course model presented has been positively received by students and counseling internship supervisors.     

Leadership in Guidance: A Survey of School Counseling Supervisors

The authors present the results of a survey of district-level school counseling supervisors in Virginia. The results indicate that few school divisions employ individuals with the title of guidance supervisor. In divisions where such positions exist, they are staffed most often by individuals with guidance training and experience. The supervisors surveyed indicated that they spend a substantial portion of their time providing direct consultative support and assistance to counselors, engage in few research activities, and have few consultative contacts with counselor educators. Recommendations regarding school counselor supervision are offered based on survey data.     

“Interpersonal” Clients,Students, and Supervisees: Translating Robert Kegan

The counseling profession prides itself on its developmental focus. However, counselors, counselor educators, and supervisors have generally applied only phasic, and not stage, theories to counseling and supervision practice and have not incorporated developmental concepts into their teaching. This article continues the effort of rectifying this situation by explicating the relevance of R. Kegan's (1982, 1994) subject‐object theory for counseling, supervision, and counselor education. The author reviews Kegan's (1982, 1994) interpersonal and institutional stages and applies the theory to promoting development beyond the interpersonal stage in 3 case illustrations: a counseling case, a counselor educator's experience, and a supervision challenge.     

School Counselor Supervisors' Perceptions of the Discrimination Model of Supervision

The authors examined 38 school counselor supervisors' perceptions of the Discrimination Model (DM; Bernard, 1979, 1997) of supervision, replicating and extending Ellis and Dell's (1986) investigation of the DM with mental health counselor supervisors. Participants judged the dissimilarity of each unique combination of roles and foci of the DM. The authors conducted a confirmatory multidimensional scaling analysis to compare the implicit dimensions and constructs that school counselor and mental health counselor supervisors used to make decisions. Results suggested partial similarities in the conceptual maps of school counselor and mental health counselor supervisors. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

Renewal in Career Guidance and Counseling: Rationale and Programs

This article provides a strong rationale for renewal programs in career guidance and counseling. The rationale is based on the expressed needs of counselors, counselor educators, and supervisors, and the needs of clients, as well as on major position papers of APGA, ACES, and NVGA. The APGA Counselor Renewal and Development Professional Preparation and Standards Committee has clearly stated that counselor renewal is a professional imperative for those who seek to remain effective helpers. The ACES position paper, “Counselor Preparation for Career Development/Career Education”, also clearly points out the need for renewal in career guidance and counseling. In addition to the rationale, the article describes several career-counseling-oriented renewal programs that are currently available for counselors and counselor educators and supervisors who would like to upgrade their skills in this area.     

Relevant Training for Relevant Roles: A Model for Educating Inner-City Counselors

The inner-city counselor is expected to enter into his role with an understanding of his students and their culture, as well as with a knowledge of the processes of social change and his own potential contribution. Present programs of counselor education do not tend to provide the basis for development of these wide-ranging skills. It is suggested that counselor education should place potential counselors in public school settings working in teams with practicing counselors, providing relevant experience for future counselors and invigorating contacts for future supervisors. Course work would be inter-disciplinary and provided in the public school milieu.     

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.