Relationship between Standardized Admissions Variables and Certain Interpersonal Skills

Most research on admissions criteria has shown that academic admissions variables are generally not related to counseling skills before, during, or after training. On the other hand, substantial research has demonstrated a good predictive relationship between some nonintellective variables and counseling skills and performance. An admissions model was developed in the Department of Counselor Education at Boston University that included standardized intellective and nonintellective variables. The admissions “scores” of three groups of subjects were tested against levels of performance on a tape-test of three counseling skills. It was found that linear combinations of grade point average, quality of undergraduate college, major area of study, and recommendations and work experience were generally unrelated to pre- or posttraining ratings of empathy, respect, and genuineness. New variables based on Carkhuff's Counseling Simulation Inventory were added to the admissions equation and significantly raised the predictive power of the admissions score. Implications and further research are discussed.     

Grief counseling training in counselor preparation programs in the United States: A preliminary report

A survey of counselor preparation programs was conducted to document the status of grief counseling training in the United States. Respondents gave their opinion about the importance of teaching grief counseling and their reasons for including/not including grief counseling in their curricula. Specific information about the manner in which grief counseling is currently being addressed in counselor preparation programs was also gathered. Results from 135 programs indicated that training in grief counseling is considered important by most respondents, most programs do address grief counseling, and grief counseling is taught primarily by infusing the topic into various courses. Class lecture/discussion was the most frequently reported method for teaching grief counseling. Suggestions for further research on grief counseling training are included.     

The Counselor Evaluation Rating Scale: A Valid Criterion of Counselor Effectiveness?

Should the Counselor Evaluation Rating Scale (CERS) be used as a criterion measure of counselor effectiveness in studies attempting to identify correlates of counselor effectiveness? The validity of recent recommendations regarding the use of certain factors of the 16 Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF) to select persons for counselor training programs, where the CERS was the criterion measure, is challenged. Relationships between the three scales of the CERS and levels of empathy, respect, and empathy offered in a counseling relationship were investigated; only one of the hypothesized relationships was found (p < .05).     

Anxiety and Empathy in a Counseling and Guidance Institute

This article investigates the relationship between anxiety and the development of empathy in counselor trainees during a full-year counseling and guidance institute. Anxiety was assessed three times during the program and empathy twice. It was found that anxiety decreased significantly during the course of the institute. No significant relationship was found between anxiety and empathy changes. It appears that such changes in trainees may be related to length of training. It is suggested that research concerning effects of training be longitudinal and focus on trainee change throughout the training period.     

Problems of Professional Competence Among Counselor Trainees: Programmatic Issues and Guidelines

Counselor education programs have a responsibility to ensure that individuals are competently trained, demonstrate understanding of ethical guidelines, and are free of observable psychological issues that may affect their ability to provide adequate counseling services. Counselor trainees who do not reach or maintain these professional standards may exhibit problems of professional competence (PPC). This position paper provides a review of the issues related to PPC among counselor trainees. It offers guidelines to counselor education programs for developing PPC policies and procedures. Future directions for research and training practice are discussed.     

A Review of: “GAY AND LESBIAN AGING: RESEARCH AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS By Gilbert Herdt and Brian deVries, (Eds.)”

A program of peer counselor training was conducted to evaluate the acquisition of counseling skills by older volunteers. Modeled on similar programs developed for younger paraprofessionals, the course emphasized the learning of three core therapeutic conditions: empathy, warmth, and genuineness; it also contained information on the aging process to reduce stereotypic thinking. The results indicated that the trained groups changed significantly compared to controls on two of the three core dimensions, empathy and warmth, and had scores on all three scales above the minimum necessary for effective counseling. These findings suggest the potential for older persons to provide supportive, peer‐counseling services.     

Professional Identity: A Classic Case of Avoidance

A relationship is suggested between the national image of the American Personnel and Guidance Association (APGA) and its membership requirements of graduate counseling programs. Citing the total absence of APGA membership requirements in training programs of one state, growing professional problems for APGA are predicted if the national perspective includes similar absences. I propose that counselor educators initiate the integration of APGA membership criteria with accreditation of graduate programs to enhance APGA's status as a national professional organization.     

Generalization of Microcounseling Skills from Training Period to Actual Counseling Setting

This study attempted to measure the generalization of the counseling skills learned via the microcounseling paradigm to the actual counseling setting. Twenty practicum counselors were assigned to two groups: (a) experimental group, training focused on the microcounseling skills of attending behavior, reflection of feeling, and summarization of feeling and (b) control group, no training. Measurements of the microcounseling skills were obtained at four intervals: (1) pretraining, (2) posttraining, (3) counseling session I, and (4) counseling session II. Results indicated that experimental subjects evidenced greater learning and retention of skills in reflection of feeling and summarization of feeling. There were no significant differences between subjects on attending behavior skills. Results are discussed with implications for training counselors via the microcounseling paradigm.     

中小学心理辅导的现状研究

本研究设计了“中小学心理辅导现状调查问卷(校长问卷)”,通过对浙江省8个地区148所中小学的抽样调查,对当前中小学心理辅导的现状作了研究,并对影响心理辅导效果的因素进行了相关研究。研究表明:(1)大多数中小学校长对学校开展心理辅导只停留在思想认识上,而在具体实施时,表现得不够重视;(2)学校为心理辅导建立专门的管理体系、每年一定经费的投入、配备一定数量的心理辅导教师、对教师进行专业培训、采取多种辅导形式等五方面因素与心理辅导的实际效果均有显著相关;(3)在经费投入与教师培训方面存在着城乡差异。     

论辅导员硕士专业学位设置的必要性和可行性

论述设置辅导员硕士专业学位的必要性和可行性,提出设置辅导员硕士专业学位的基本构想。文章认为,实施辅导员硕士专业学位研究生教育不仅可破解辅导员专业化不强的难题,而且能从源头上解决辅导员专业化的实现途径问题。     

Conceptualizing the Counseling Training Environment Using Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Theory

While learning environment research has been growing in popularity over the past few decades, little attention has been given towards the learning environment of graduate students, and virtually no attention has been given specifically towards graduate counseling and related programs such as professional counseling, clinical and counseling psychology, and marriage and family therapy. In this paper we propose using Bronfenbrenner’s (1979, 1992) ecological theory as a model to conceptualize the training environment of such counselor preparation programs. Through the application of Bronfenbrenner’s theory, counselor educators and counseling trainees can better understand the systemic nature of the training environment that they create and where they train. Implications and recommendations for future research are provided to further advance the knowledge and awareness of the counseling training environment.     

Experiences with Counselor Training in Central Europe: Voices from Student Trainees

Globalization has led to an increase in United States-influenced counseling programs the world over; however, the extent to which these training models apply to other cultures is unclear. Using a sample of master’s-level counseling students studying in the Czech Republic (n?=?5), the authors conducted a phenomenological inquiry examining the experiences of European students trained in a program developed and supervised by faculty in the United States. Three themes (and potential barriers) related to English-language training programs in Central Europe included: cultural differences between faculty and students, complications related to the notion of professional identity, and concerns related to the utility of wellness-based principles in the Czech Republic. Implications for educators include cultural adaptation of training and course material as well as reframing illness perspectives through a wellness lens.     

Mindfulness and Counseling Self‐Efficacy: The Mediating Role of Attention and Empathy

This study examined the predictive relationship between mindfulness and counseling self‐efficacy and the potential mediating effects of attention and empathy. Master's‐level counseling interns and doctoral counseling students (N = 179) were surveyed to determine levels of mindfulness, attention, empathy, and counseling self‐efficacy. Pearson product‐moment correlation coefficients revealed significant pairwise relationships between the 4 variables of interest. A multiple‐mediator path analysis supported the hypotheses that mindfulness is a significant predictor of counseling self‐efficacy and that attention is a mediator of that relationship. Results suggest that mindfulness may be an important variable in the development of key counselor preparation outcomes.     

Training Counselors to Work with Disabled Clients: Cognitive and Affective Components

This study examines the relationship of cognitive complexity, counselor anxiety, and client disability condition to accurate empathy on the part of students in training. A sample (n = 28) of students in a graduate counseling program observed a series of eight vignettes of counseling interviews (four clients with disabilities and four without disabilities) and reported a verbal counseling response to a client statement. A significant main effect was found for the cognitive complexity variable only (p < .05). A significant interaction among cognitive complexity, anxiety, and client disability condition (p < .01) indicated that all three factors interact to influence empathy. Implications for research and the training of counselors are discussed.     

An Approach to Counselor Education

A training approach emphasizing the specifics of selection and intentionally structured practice experiences is described. The program is as applicable to nonprofessional as to professional training programs. It is proposed that nonprofessionals can be better selected and equally trained. Research is reviewed giving specific selection criteria on personality measures and on initial levels of interpersonal skills as measured from tape recordings of trial group counseling interviews. A specific integrated didactic (feedback) and experiential training approach is described.     

Moral Development and Empathy in Counseling

Of interest to counselor educators are variables associated with helper empathy. The authors investigated the relationship between empathy and moral development. Students enrolled in a facilitative skills development course completed a measure of moral development before making their first counseling audiotape. After approximately 12 weeks of skills training, they were subsequently rated for their demonstration of empathic understanding to client statements on an analog videotape and on a counseling audiotape made for their course evaluation. Empathy ratings of their responses to the analog videotape correlated .61 (p < .001) with moral development scores and .35 (p < .05) with supervisory empathy ratings of their final audiotape and moral development scores. Implications for counselor education are discussed.     

Effects of Supervisors' Sex,Focus, and Experience on Preferences for Interpersonal Power Bases

The authors examined the effects that supervisor's sex, amount of supervisory experience, and supervisory focus had on preferences for the referent, expert, and legitimate power bases. Supervisors from seven counseling center training programs (20 women, 36 men) rated the utility of responses reflecting each power base in enhancing the professional development of a female trainee. Results indicated that men preferred the referent power base to a greater extent than did women and that supervisors with relatively little experience preferred the referent power base to a greater extent than did supervisors with more experience. Supervisors who focused on trainee self-awareness preferred the expert power base to a greater extent than did supervisors who focused on the trainees' conceptualization skills. Significant differences were not found in the preferences for the legitimate power base. Results were discussed in terms of differences between counseling and supervisory-relationships and the characteristics of each power base.     

Consultant Training in Counselor Education Programs

Although the role of consultant has received increasing professional attention recently, little has been reported regarding the emphasis in counselor education programs given to consultation in the preparation of counselors. This study involved a survey of 31% of the existing counselor training programs. Findings indicated that 44% of the programs offered formal courses in consultation; the counselor as consultant was ranked second only to counseling as a major counselor role. Consultant training was reported as mainly focusing toward work with individual consultees and small groups.     

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.     

Effects of Short-Term Training Upon Accurate Empathy and Non-Possessive Warmth

Twelve experienced counselors engaged in an intensive 40-hour training program over a two-week period. It was hypothesized that they would make rapid gains in accurate empathy and non-possessive warmth and that counselors initially highest on these dimensions would show the greatest increase during training. There was a substantial and significant increase in accurate empathy, but counselors initially high (N = 6) and counselors initially low (N = 6) made approximately equal gains on empathy. No overall gains were made on nonpossessive warmth, and there was evidence suggesting that some decrease may have occurred, particularly within those counselors initially providing high levels of warmth. The pre-training empathy and warmth levels of these counselors were compared with those in other studies conducted in training programs not providing specific training in empathy and warmth. The comparison data were consistent with the hypothesis that gains on these dimensions occur after the initial graduate training program.