Addressing Anxiety: Practitioners’ Examination of Mindfulness in Constructivist Supervision

It is widely documented that practicum students experience anxiety as a natural part of their counselor development. Within constructivist supervision, mindfulness exercises are used to help counselors-in-training (CITs) work with their anxiety by having them focus on their internal experiences. To inform and strengthen our practice, we engaged in a practitioner inquiry study to understand how practicum students experienced mindfulness as a central part of supervision. We analyzed 25 sandtray reflections and compared them to transcripts from two focus groups to uncover three major themes related to the student experience: (a) openness to the process, (b) reflection and self-care, and (c) attention to the doing. One key lesson learned was the importance of balancing mindfulness exercises to highlight the internal experiences related to anxiety while providing adequate opportunities for CITs to share stories and hear from peers during group supervision.

Measuring Christian Integration in Professional Counseling Practice and the Contributions of Spiritual Formation and Mentoring

This study surveyed counselors who integrate Christian faith to determine the impact of spiritual formation and mentoring relationships on integration satisfaction and activity. A holistic measure of integrative practice is proposed and used. In a convenience sample of 226 counselors who were Christian, a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) found spiritual formation and mentoring relationships significantly contribute to satisfaction ( p < .001, [Formula: see text] = .127) and activity ( p = .001, [Formula: see text] = .041) of integration. A second MANOVA and post hoc tests explore the contribution of spiritual formation and mentoring relationship to 12 integration elements. A T-test found mean satisfaction was significantly higher than activity ( p < .001, d = 0.7) of integration. Counselor development is discussed in light of study findings with specific recommendations including a focus on spiritual formation.

Trainee Counselor Development of Social Justice Counseling Competencies

This grounded theory study sought to identify the process by which master’s level counselors-in-training (CITs)develop social justice counseling competencies. Participants (N = 41) from a clinical mental health counseling(CMHC) program were interviewed at pre-practicum, pre-internship, and post-internship phases. CITsprogressed through the stages of exposure, recognition, and action, influenced by self-reflection and attitudes.These stages differed from the awareness, knowledge, and skills domains identified in prior multicultural andsocial justice counseling literature. Most CITs planned advocacy action steps by the conclusion of their program,though few implemented them. Implications for counselor educators are discussed.

Variations among Students’ Experiences of Learning to Counsel

We explored students’ experiences of learning in a part-time, two-year counseling course (60 European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System [ECTS] credits). We wanted to know if there were any systematic variations among individual experiences — if so, what kinds of patterns characterized the variations and how to understand the patterns. We applied the Q method, in which 22 out of 23 participants shared their experiences. Our key findings emerged in three factors. We interpreted and named them F1: building effective counseling relationships is fundamental, F2: the entirety of the course, and F3: self-development. We discuss the factors from theory of counselors’ professional development. The knowledge may support students and teachers in their awareness of what is the important aspects of counselor development. From a subject-didactic perspective, the study informs readers on how to implement a curriculum for a part-time counseling course.

Counselor Development as The Hero’s Journey: Reflections from a Counselor Educator

The use of the monomyth to shape the narratives of fiction with deep meanings, while feeling both new and recognizable, is consistently experienced across all cultures throughout time. As past publications have utilized this approach to subconscious symbolism to explain many experiences, it has not yet been utilized to explain the process of counselor development. The structures utilized in this exploration of the Hero’s Journey concept include the seminal work Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell (1949) being applied to the structure of counseling development as reviewed by Rønnestad and Skovholt (2003). Each stage of the journey will be translated into an understanding of how students grow from before their master’s program through their senior years as experts in the counseling field. The following article will engage this metaphor to explore the narrative of a counseling student on their quest to become a counseling professional through use of the stages from the monomyth as used to describe the Hero’s Journey.