Counselor Anxiety During a Counseling Interview

Physiological and subjective measures of counselor anxiety were compared to determine if counselors experienced greater anxiety during a counseling interview than during a conversation, Twenty experienced rehabilitation counselors in a graduate-level practicum course volunteered to participate in a 10-minute conversation and counseling session. Anxiety was assessed by self-report skin conductance and heart-rate measures. Results indicated that there were no significant treatment, period, or interaction effects for heart-rate data; however, there was a significant period effect for conductance data. There were no significant differences for participants' self-report evaluations of the two situations. Baseline autonomic data were highly related to autonomic data during the anticipation and stimulus periods, and preexperimental self-report data were moderately related to postexperimental self-report data. Conclusions were that counselors experience comparable anxiety during counseling and conversing, that expectation accounts for most of the counselors' anxiety, and that baseline physiological and self-report data may prove useful in identifying counselors who would experience anxiety during an interview.     

Ethical Concerns for Counselor Educators

This article identifies four areas of ethical concern in counselor education. Counselor educators in the Southern Association for Counselor Education and Supervision (SACES) region were surveyed regarding their attitudes and practices concerning these four areas. Survey results with conclusions and recommendations are given. Vignette 1: J. Jones, a single counselor education professor, is told by K. Adams, a single female graduate student in one of his classes, that she finds him very attractive. She then invites him to her home for dinner. Vignette 2: J. Smith, a student and advisee of counselor educator M. Thompson, is taking a group dynamics course from her this semester. He believes that participation in the course has triggered his desire to work on some issues in his personal life. He approaches Dr. Thompson to be his counselor. Vignette 3: Counselor educator F. Rogers suggests an idea for a research study to graduate student P. Collins. Ms. Collins carries out the study and submits a paper describing it in order to meet a requirement in Dr. Rogers's class. Dr. Rogers later decides that with some revision this paper could be publishable. He spends many hours revising the paper so that it is suitable for publication. When he submits it, he lists himself as first author. Vignette 4: Counselor educator A. Johnson is serving on C. Young's dissertation committee. Ms. Young, who is a training director at a major business in the community, offers Dr. Johnson a lucrative consulting contract with her company.     

Empowering and Enabling or Patronising and Pressurising?: Opening dialogues between staff and students

In this article we reflect on the process and experience of our attempts to open dialogues between Women's Studies staff and students on the topic of feminist teaching practices. The article provides biographies of the staff and students concerned, discusses what is meant by empowerment and delinates the debates regarding the Women's Studies teaching model. By reflecting on the responses made to the points in an earlier conference paper on teaching practices we address the contradictions and conflicts inherent in attempting 'empowering' education and opening dialogues.     

Effects of Tape-Recording & Supervisory Evaluation on Counselor Trainee Anxiety Levels

Fifty-three in-service employment and rehabilitation counselors, enrolled in supervised counseling practica, participated in a study to assess their subjective and physiological anxiety responses to counseling under different stimulus conditions. Participants were randomly assigned to one of four treatment conditions: a counseling session, a counseling session that was tape-recorded, a counseling session that was tape-recorded and evaluated by their supervisor, and a control condition in which participants read an article on counseling. Results of the 4 treatment conditions × 3 period analyses of variance for subjective (p <.001) and conductance data (p <.05) indicated that participants who counseled had higher anxiety levels than those who read the article. There was no treatment effect found for heart rate data. None of the counseling groups experienced significantly more anxiety than any of the others. It was concluded that tape-recording and supervisory evaluation do not increase the anxiety levels of participants over the levels experienced while counseling without recording and/or evaluation.