Mandated Disciplinary Counseling: Working Effectively With Challenging Clients

Mandated disciplinary counseling has been a long‐established practice for many college and university counseling centers. Although the practice is well established, practitioners continue to raise questions about its appropriateness and effectiveness. Student dynamics and other issues influencing the efficacy of mandated counseling are explored. Counseling readiness interventions are recommended to mitigate the types of reactance issues that can be barriers to effective counseling outcomes.     

Social Work Students' Attitudes About Working With Involuntary Clients

Social workers employed in areas such as public child welfare, substance abuse, and corrections often provide services to involuntary clients. These individuals do not seek social work services on their own volition and may be actively opposed to the services they are receiving. This study explores social work students' attitudes about working with involuntary clients. The article is based on a cross-sectional survey of social work students (N = 107) at a large Southeastern university. Participants answered questions regarding their experience, knowledge, and attitudes about involuntary clients. Findings and implications for social work education and practice are discussed.     

Working With Clients Who Self‐Injure: Providing Alternatives

The topic of self‐injurious behavior (SIB) has been gaining widespread attention. Although college counselors engage in various types of treatments in order to uncover the underlying reasons for a client's SIB, there is another step in treatment that might be helpful to clients who self‐injure. This step involves alternatives to self‐injury. The authors provide various alternatives to self‐injury and discuss matching the alternative to the function and type of SIB.     

Working With Clients Who Have Religious/Spiritual Issues: A Survey of University Counseling Center Therapists

University counseling center therapists (N = 220) completed an Internet survey about religion/spirituality in therapy, with 200 of these therapists describing therapy with a recent client whose issues involved religion/spirituality. Common client religion/spirituality issues were questioning one's childhood religion, exploring religion/spirituality beliefs, and using religion/spirituality as a source of strength. Similarity of therapist and client religion/spirituality values was not related to the strength of the therapeutic relationship. Therapists with higher levels of religious commitment tended to rate religion/spirituality goals as more important and use religion/spirituality interventions more frequently than therapists with lower levels of religious commitment. Finally, therapists with more religion/spirituality training had higher self-efficacy for working with religion/spirituality issues. Implications for practice, research, and training are discussed.     

Clinical Supervision of Counselors-in-Training: A Nationwide Survey of Ideal Delivery,Goals, and Theoretical Influences

The study reports opinions of counselor educators regarding the ideal delivery, goals, and methods of clinical supervision, and the supervision models and theories influencing practice.     

The Development and Evaluation of the Intersectional Privilege Screening Inventory for Use With Counselors-in-Training

As counselor preparation programs are compelled to demonstrate student social and cultural competence, valid inventories are needed to measure development consistent with contemporary standards. The Intersectional Privilege Screening Inventory was created for this purpose, was assessed using 4 types of validity evidence, and has results supporting its use in student development.     

Counselor Training and Ethical Issues With Older Clients

Working with older adults requires specialized preparation in professional ethics. A rationale for including this training in the counseling curriculum and a possible approach to this instruction are presented.     

Online Teaching and Self-Efficacy to Work With Suicidal Clients

We used an experimental design to evaluate the impact of three online teaching strategies on students' self-efficacy to work with suicidal clients. Results showed that the three strategies, informed by adult learning and social learning theory, were equally effective. Implications for programs preparing students for suicide intervention roles are discussed.     

A Cross-Cultural Study of the Self-Confidence of Counselors-in-Training

In this era of globalization, cross-cultural comparison studies could help counselor training programs enhance educational opportunities that are informative, supportive, and culturally responsive to students. Counselors-in-training in both the United States and South Korea were sampled in this study assessing self-esteem (individual and collective) and counselor activity self-efficacy (CA self-efficacy). Results indicated that American students endorsed higher levels of collective self-esteem and CA self-efficacy compared to Korean students. Age was positively correlated with CA self-efficacy in both the American and Korean samples. Additionally, the variable of supervision hours and internship experience was positively correlated with CA self-efficacy for American students, but showed no relationship with CA self-efficacy for Korea students. Implications for understanding the cultural differences of counseling-trainees’ self-confidence and the need for conducting cross-cultural comparison studies to provide insights about the training and development of trainees in cross-cultural settings are discussed.     

Effective Counseling With Lesbian,Gay, and Bisexual Clients

Professional organizations mandate that effective counseling be provided to lesbian, gay male, and bisexual male and female (LGB) clients. This article presents the characteristics, challenges, and needs of sexual minorities, along with therapeutic strategies that practitioners may use in facilitating a positive self‐image among the lesbians, gay men, and bisexual men and women whom they counsel.     

The Concerns of School Counselors‐in‐Training About Working With Children and Adolescents With HIV Disease: Training Implications

As the number of children and adolescents who have or are affected by HIV disease increases, so does the need to examine the preparation of counselors to work with this population. This study assessed (a) the knowledge, beliefs, and social comfort of school counselors‐in‐training, as related to working with this population, and (b) these students' concerns and perceptions about their preparedness. Participants reported high levels of general knowledge and positive beliefs; however, they also demonstrated deficits in specialized knowledge and discomfort in counseling situations. Participants expressed concerns about their preparation and ability to deal with grief issues. Implications for training counselors are discussed.     

The Sexual Orientation Counselor Competency Scale: Assessing Attitudes,Skills, and Knowledge of Counselors Working With Lesbian,Gay, and Bisexual Clients

This study examined the psychometric properties of the Sexual Orientation Counselor Competency Scale (SOCCS), an instrument that measures the attitudes, skills, and knowledge of counselors who work with lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals. Internal consistency of the SOCCS was .90, and 1‐week test‐retest reliability was .84. Criterion, concurrent, and divergent validity tests established the SOCCS as a psychometrically sound instrument.     

Survey of HIV/AIDS Clients in Botswana: Reactions to Supportive Counselling

A survey of HIV/AIDS clients in Botswana, Africa, all of whom were receiving supportive counselling, was conducted. A total of 328 volunteer clients from randomly selected sites completed the survey related to client perceptions of counselling helpfulness, outlook on life, satisfaction with goal setting in counselling, experience of social stigma, and acceptance by family and others. Overall, clients were very positive concerning the benefits received from counselling, their relationship with their counsellor, the goal setting process, their family/friends support system and their present quality of life. The majority of clients did, however, indicate some level of feeling stigmatized by being HIV-positive. Additional major findings indicated that clients with family incomes of less than 10 K pula per year (around US$1 k) were less positive about their counselling and related experiences than were those with higher levels of family income, with the exception of social stigma where lower family income was associated with less perceived social stigma. Clients reporting counselling sessions lasting more than 15 min were generally more positive in their reactions to counselling and related experiences than were clients reporting sessions typically lasting 15 min or less. A discussion of the findings, along with recommendations for areas needing further study and attention, is provided.     

与中国的“Y一代”共事

美国《时代》周刊报道说,美国职场即将迎来7600万"Y一代"人,这些20多岁的人的特点是:只想做有意义、有用处的事情。在中国,"Y一代"对个人成长的期许以及对工作价值的判断等各个方面都与他们的父辈有着本质的不同,企业要想聘用"Y一代"中的青年才俊,就要充分考虑他们的特点,这样才能把他们留住。     

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.     

Working With Students With Psychiatric Disabilities or Other Emotional Problems

The professional literature on gatekeeping in social work education has grown; however, there remains a dearth in the literature regarding how educators truly work to engage students who are experiencing a psychiatric disability or other emotional problem. This qualitative study explored the experiences of 26 social work educators from 22 colleges and universities in the United States. Practice wisdoms emerged as interwoven strategies which encourage proactive interventions that accentuate students’ strengths through socially just opportunities. Identified strategies include having an awareness of psychosocial and environmental stressors that students may be experiencing, recognizing warning signs, approaching students, and building appropriate faculty–student relationships.     

The Use of Portfolios in the Clinical and Comprehensive Evaluation of Counselors-in-Training

This article discusses the use of portfolios in the clinical and comprehensive evaluation of counselors-in-training. Issues related to the development, implementation, and evaluation of portfolios are presented.     

领导干部要用优良的作风抓好作风建设

治党治军的实践证明,成也作风,败也作风。中央作风建设的八项规定,既是一个言简意赅、振聋发聩的政治宣言,也是一个以身示范、上行下效的时代样本。当前,面对党风廉政建设的新形势,领导干部在作风建设上既要有"拨云见日"的气魄,也要用"踏石留印"的韧劲,抓住"四风"问题的"牛鼻子",找准"四风"问题的"蛇七寸",立说立行、改进作风,用优良的作风抓好作风建设。