The Coached Client as a Research and Training Resource in Counseling

Coached client methodology can be an important resource in the education of student counselors by simulating a counseling experience with a standard client stimulus before actual counseling is begun. The authors carried out the following procedures for establishing and maintaining standard client consistency: (a) development of a general concept of the content of the client's role; (b) incorporation of specific information about the coached client in a cumulative folder to be used by the counselor; (c) development of specific client statements as essential aspects of the client's role; (d) training the coached client to incorporate all essential statements into his role; (e) assessment of client consistency across interviews with different counselors. Research applications of coached client methodology were discussed as well as its use by schools in the hiring of counselors. Editor Abstract     

Counseling as a Critique of Gender: On the Ethics of Counseling Transgendered Clients

This paper examines the responsibilities of mental health professionals, particularly counselors, to those who identify or might be identifiable as “transgendered.” There are two main objectives. The first is to describe the critical reflection necessary to deal with gender-variant clients in an ethical and effective manner. The second is to discuss a psychotherapeutic model that is likely to be effective in integrating such reflection into the clinical process, and to make counseling recommendations on that basis.     

Counseling Outcome as a Function of Counselor Nationality for American Expatriate Clients

This study tested the proposition that national similarity between counselor and client results in improved counseling outcome. Using a repeated-measures, quasi-experimental design, eight female counselors (four Turkish, four American) saw 16 volunteer, expatriate female American clients for single, individual counseling sessions. Results indicated no differences on (a) clients’ and counselors’ ratings of working alliance and of progress on goals, or (b) clients’ ratings of utilization intent as a function of counselor nationality. Irrespective of nationality, clients’ ratings of working alliance were higher than their counselors. These results echo a trend suggesting that clients’ preferences for cultural/ethnic similarity dissipate as the research methodology approximates actual counseling sessions. Additionally, local mental health service providers may be a viable resource for expatriate Americans.     

Written Versus Videotaped Precounseling Training of Clients for Counseling

The comparative effects of two types of precounseling training in facilitating client-counselor relationships and client self-exploration of internally and externally oriented clients were investigated. Treatments included viewing a videotaped, simulated, initial counseling session depicting desirable client and counselor behavior and the reading of a document that matched the content of the videotape. Sixty college undergraduates, who presented themselves as first-time counselees, were randomly assigned to one of the two treatments and classified as internally or externally oriented. Both internally and externally oriented clients who experienced videotaped precounseling training reported a significantly higher level of client-counselor relationship than internally and externally oriented clients who experienced written precounseling training. No significant differences were found for level of self-exploration according to either type of precounseling training or locus of control orientation.     

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.     

Examining the Process and Outcome of Career Counseling for Different Types of Career Counseling Clients

Using cluster analysis, we identified two types of career counseling clients: (a) Clients with moderate levels of career-related distress, discomfort, and uncertainty and (b) clients with high levels of career concerns, personal distress, and stigma about career counseling. The more distressed group expressed lower evaluations of a career counseling session and perceived their counselors as providing fewer action-oriented counseling skills than the less distressed group. No differences emerged in terms of client's perceptions of the therapeutic relationship. The practical implications and limitations of these results are discussed.     

Counseling Students' Level of Ego Development and Perceptions of Clients

Several current models of counseling supervision provide an outline of the developmental stages of counseling students' growth in conceptual and behavioral skills. Research based on these models, however, has grouped students by experience level rather than by developmental level. In this study the authors investigated the relationship of 63 counseling students' level of ego development and level of experience with their perceptions of clients. Analysis of structural complexity and content of students' perceptions of eight actual clients and their level of ego development revealed no significant main effects or interaction of either ego level or experience level on the structural complexity of client perceptions. Students at high ego levels described their clients more frequently in interactional terms than did those at low ego levels.     

Clinical Assessment of Dissociative Identity Disorder Among College Counseling Clients

College counseling professionals address a wide range of complex student mental health concerns. Among these, accurately identifying client presentations of dissociative identity disorder (DID) can be especially challenging because students with DID sometimes present as if they are experiencing another problem, such as a mood, anxiety, or psychotic disorder. This article reviews DID diagnostic criteria, introduces assessment strategies for use during intake and subsequent counseling sessions, and presents case illustrations.     

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.     

Developing Questioning Effectiveness in Counseling

A model based on a hierarchy of questioning skills in counseling situations was developed to facilitate training of counseling students. This model is designed to help counseling students understand the impact of their questions on clients using the various stages in the counseling process as a framework. It is based on a synthesis of current theoretical views on the role and effects of questions in the counseling process. The model helps to identify question types and to assess their effectiveness along a continuum. Implications concerning the mechanisms through which effective questions can be taught are discussed in terms of present theoretical assumptions and the need for developing empirical support for the model.     

Training Counseling Students to Work More Effectively with Short-Term Clients

Most clients attend only a few sessions before dropping out of counseling and, consequently, never traverse the series of stages delineated in many counseling process models. There is frequently a mismatch between the counseling process as portrayed in many counseling textbooks with the counseling process students are likely to experience when they begin practicum and internship placements. Based on the counseling duration and premature termination literature, this article considers several models that counselor educators could adopt to better prepare students to work with the large proportion of clients who will often attend only a few sessions before terminating contact.     

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.     

A Comparison of Teacher Effectiveness Measures Calculated Using Three Multilevel Models for Raters Effects

This study examines the use of cross-classified random effects models (CCrem) and cross-classified multiple membership random effects models (CCMMrem) to model rater bias and estimate teacher effectiveness. Effect estimates are compared using CTT versus item response theory (IRT) scaling methods and three models (i.e., conventional multilevel model, CCrem, CCMMrem). Results indicate that ignoring rater bias can lead to teachers being misclassified within an evaluation system. The best estimates of teacher effectiveness are produced using CCrems regardless of scaling method. Use of CCMMrems to model rater bias cannot be recommended based on the results of this study; combining the use of CCMMrems with an IRT scaling method produced especially unstable results.     

Investigation of Clinically Significant Change by Severity Level in College Counseling Center Clients

The authors investigated the number of sessions necessary for college counseling center clients of different levels of severity of distress at intake to achieve clinically significant change (CS) in therapy. The Outcome Questionnaire‐45 (M. J. Lambert, N. B. Hansen, et al., 1996) was used to categorize 914 clients by severity of distress. Analyses of outcome indicated that clients with less and more severe distress needed 14 and 20 sessions, respectively, for 50% in each group to achieve CS. Implications are discussed.     

A Follow-Up Study of School Counseling Graduates Specializing in Work with Hearing Impaired Clients

This study evaluated the adequacy of training provided to more than 80 graduates of a school counseling program for specialists with hearing impaired individuals according to employment demands and continuing education needs. Results indicated that almost all graduates were employed in settings consistent with their training. Continuing education needs in the areas of consultation skills, networking strategies, and administrative and management training were similar to results obtained in studies of generic counselor education programs.     

The Relationship Between Client Reluctance and Counseling Effectiveness

The effect of client reluctance, resistance to professional assistance, has received little attention in the research on counseling effectiveness. In a short-term college counseling situation, it was found that intake measures of client-reluctance were: (a) negatively correlated with client-perceived satisfaction and improvement, (b) negatively related to degree of congruence between perceived problem and perceived emphasis of the agency, and (c) positively correlated with premature termination in counseling. No differences were found between vocational and personal problem groups on measures of client reluctance, satisfaction, or improvement. Client reluctance was shown to be directly related to counseling outcome. Implications for these findings on counselor education and training are discussed.     

Counseling Effectiveness and Trainee Helping Qualities: Another View

This study addresses the importance of client satisfaction as an index of counseling effectiveness and also examines the relationship between trainee personality characteristics and supervisor ratings of trainee performance. Results indicated that a significant inverse relationship existed between trainee levels of self-acceptance and client's ratings of counseling satisfaction. Supervisor's ratings of the trainee's performance and progress in supervision were also inversely related to trainee levels of self-acceptance. Agreement was found between supervisor's ratings of trainee performance and client satisfaction with counseling. Implications of these results are discussed in terms of counselor training programs and future research designs.