An Exploration of Empathy and Personality in Preservice Counselors

Empathy allows individuals to care for the well-being of others and act with compassion. Research indicates that empathy is an essential ingredient for developing successful counseling relationships, leading to positive change for clients. Determining how empathy is related to personality provides counselors with valuable information for exploring the impact of personality on empathy in counselor trainees. To explore the relationship between empathy and personality among counselor trainees, the researchers compared scores on the MBTI® and the IRI. Results of this study suggest a clear relationship between personality and empathy and were similar to the findings of previous researchers. In addition, this study demonstrated that the MBTI® type preferences of extraversion, intuition, feeling and perceiving are significantly higher than introversion, sensing, thinking and judging on the various empathy scales, specifically in the areas of empathic concern, perspective taking, personal distress and fantasy. Implications were discussed for both counselor educators and practitioners.

Fatmisia and Clinical Counseling Decision-Making in Master’s-Level Counselor Trainees

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization have documented an increase in fat people in recent decades, which is being met with a backlash of anti-fat biases, or fatmisia. Fatmisia is prevalent in most aspects of society, especially among fat people who have internalized fatmisia. Utilizing a diagnostic questionnaire in combination with the Fat Phobia Scale–Short Form and the Weight Bias Internalization Scale, this study explored the relationship between client body size, the presence of a major depressive disorder (MDD) diagnosis, and if applicable, the severity of MDD symptoms assigned by counselor trainees (N = 113). Results were analyzed using one-way analysis of variance and covariance. This sample (N = 113) significantly differed in diagnoses assigned to obese clients by assigning more severe MDD. Study limitations and implications are discussed.

School Counselor Preparation to Support Inclusivity, Equity and Access for Students of Color With Disabilities

The effective implementation of comprehensive school counseling services to all students is premised on the ASCA National Model framework themes of leadership, advocacy, collaboration, and systemic change. The school counselor’s role is to support the academic, career and social-emotional development of all students. From a school counselor advocacy and social justice perspective, school counselors engage in practices that will support all students and create opportunities for equal access and success through their leadership and service as collaborators, consultants and change agents. School counselor leadership results in positive changes within the school community. Using the ASCA Model Framework themes, school counselors can integrate these themes to support inclusivity, equity and access for students of color with disabilities, to the general education curriculum. In order to better prepare school counselor trainees to provide culturally appropriate support and services for students of color with disabilities, school counselor education programs must be more intentional in providing graduate-level course work that introduces trainees to best practices in their work with students with disabilities. First, this writer will discuss the ethical imperative for school counselor educators to be intentional in integrating special education curriculum in preparation programs and how school counselor education programs can use the ASCA Model framework themes in preparing school counselor trainees to engage in best practices to encourage, support, and ensure that students of color with disabilities have access and inclusion in the general education settings. Secondly, this writer will also discuss the incorporation of interactive related ASCA theme activities as preparation for school counselor trainees, in a special topics course as well as during practicum and internship and future professional school counselor opportunities.

Examining the Experiences of Counselor Trainees towards Practices in Individual Counseling Practicum Course

The aim of this study is to examine the experiences of the counseling trainees regarding the first practices they have carried out within the scope of Individual Counseling Practicum course. In the current study, phenomenological method based on qualitative approach was used. The sample group of the research consists of 20 participants who are senior students of the Counseling and Guidance undergraduate program and have completed their counseling practices. Data were collected through a semi-structured interview form and analyzed by inductive thematic analysis method. The experiences of the trainees were classified under 6 categories as a) the problems faced by trainees, b) the resources they use to solve their problems, c) their perceptions and experiences of their client's culture, d) contributions of the practices to them, e) their preferences for clients and f) the use of Culturally Sensitive Counseling course contents in counseling practices. The findings of the present study concluded that while the trainees were anxious due to the problems which they encountered during the practicum; they enjoyed many contributions of experiencing counseling. Based on the findings, some recommendations were made.

Working Alliance as a Mediator between Supervisory Styles and Supervisee Satisfaction

To answer the research question whether there is a mediation effect of the supervisory working alliance between supervisory styles and supervisee satisfaction, we developed a mediation model and tested this hypothesized mediation effect with a sample of 111 participants that was comprised of master’s and doctoral counselor trainees and counseling practitioners recruited from several counseling professional networks. Results indicated a statistically significant indirect effect of supervisory styles on supervisee satisfaction through the supervisory working alliance. Specifically, when supervisees rated higher on a mixture of three supervisory styles, they were more likely to report a stronger working alliance with their supervisors; this alliance, in turn, contributed to their higher levels of satisfaction with supervision. These findings also speak to the importance of maintaining a flexible, balanced approach in supervision, and shed light on how both supervisors and supervisees can contribute to the supervisory working alliance so as to enhance supervisee satisfaction.

The Impact of Curiosity on Counselors’ Social Justice Identity

The role of counselors has expanded to emphasize social justice principles and community action, encouraging social justice to become infused with counselor’s professional identity. As a result, counselor educators are examining strategies for promoting the social justice identity of students and new professionals. Curiosity has been positioned as theoretically related to the concept of social justice. The current study investigated the relationship between counselor curiosity with social justice identity across three domains (self-efficacy, interest, and commitment) in a sample of 124 counselors and counselor trainees. Results indicated that three types of curiosity (specific, diversive, and competence) predicted each domain of social justice identity. Strategies to incorporate counselor curiosity into social justice pedagogy are discussed.