Toward the Development of Facilitative Counselors: The Effects of Practicum Instruction and Individual Supervision

The functioning of 22 counseling and therapy practicum students on the dimensions of empathy, regard, genuineness, and concreteness was assessed over a 20-week period. Predictions of growth were made on the basis of the level of functioning of individual supervisors and practicum instructors. It was found that those students with high-level practicum instructors and high-level individual supervisors showed significant growth. The students with high-level practicum instructors and low-level individual supervisors also showed significant gains but took a longer period of time to do so. Those students with low-level practicum instructors and low-level individual supervisors showed no growth on these dimensions.     

On Diffidence: the Moral Psychology of Self-Belief

The language of self-belief, including terms like shyness and diffidence, is complex and puzzling. The idea of self-esteem in particular, which has been given fresh currency by recent interest in 'personalised learning', continues to create problems. I argue first that we need a 'thicker' and more subtle moral psychology of self-belief; and, secondly, that there is a radical instability in the ideas and concepts in this area, an instability to which justice needs to be done. I suggest that aspects of deconstruction are helpful here, and offer a deconstructive reading of Kipling's poem, If —, in order to illustrate the power of literature and a certain kind of philosophy to destabilise and resist closure.     

Basic Skills for Leadership of Counseling Groups

Basic skills training has emerged as an important element in educating counselors and other helping persons. Although the literature on small groups contains numerous schemata for describing and categorizing the behavior of group leaders, none was discovered which was specifically developed as a basis for systematic skill training in the leadership of counseling groups. The author identifies a set of basic group leadership skills to be used in a systematic skills training approach. The skills fall into two broad categories, teaching and group management. Definitions and examples of the skills are provided, and the author discusses adaptation of a microcounseling format for training in group leadership skills.     

Integrating DSM-III-R Training Into School,Marriage and Family,and Mental Health Counselor Preparation

The authors discuss integrating Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (3rd edition, revised; DSM-III-R; American Psychiatric Association, 1987) training into the school, marriage and family, and mental health counseling tracks of a master's level program that was designed according to Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs standards.     

Coached-Client Effects on Counselor Trainee Response

This study investigated whether or not coached clients modified the verbal responses of counselor trainees. The responses were judged on two dimensions: (a) interpersonal relatedness and (b) portion of total time consumed by the counselor. The subjects of the study were 58 pre-practicum graduate students in counseling at the University of Washington. The coached clients did elicit significantly different responses on both the dimensions of relatedness and speaking time. For example, aggressiveness or intrusiveness on the part of a mother client limited counselor verbalism, while aggressiveness on the part of a boy client stimulated overtalk. The counselor's social responsiveness was significantly related to his tendency to respond with reflected feeling instead of inference of diagnosis.     

Practicum Supervision Roles: Effects on Supervisee Statements

The practicum supervision model evaluated in this study utilized the three commonly accepted supervision roles of teacher, counselor, and consultant as methods of addressing specific supervisee issues. Supervisors performed the roles in structured supervision sessions, and supervisee statements were analyzed to determine if use of the roles influenced supervisee behaviors. Utilization of the roles was found to be a significantly effective means of influencing the content of supervisee verbalizations during practicum supervision sessions.     

Training of Support Personnel in Three Human Relations Skills: A Systematic One-Year Follow-Up

This article reports a systematic, one-year follow-up of trainees taught three human relations skills. Results support the conclusion that response-contingent behavior decreases when supervisor reinforcement is not present. The results and their implications for training support personnel and counselors via the microcounseling paradigm are discussed.     

Preservice Occupational Information and Vocational Guidance Curriculum: An Evaluation

This study was designed to identify the areas of strength and weakness in the occupational information and vocational guidance preservice counselor education curriculum. Interviews were conducted with 197 counselors and 21 counselor educators concerning the extent of coverage actually and ideally devoted to 22 content areas. Arranging the ratings for the 22 content areas from highest to lowest suggests a hierarchial emphasis for these topics in curriculum planning. In addition, within group and between group comparisons provide bases for discerning the types of curriculum that are seen as most advantageous by both counseling practitioners and counseling professors.