Becoming a Marriage, Family and Child Counselor: Notes from a Chicano

Becoming a licensed Marriage, Family and Child Counselor (MFCC) in California is presented from a Chicano's perspective based on the author's own training. He reports that 1) there is a need for Chicanos trained extensively in marriage and family counseling to serve the large Mexican American population; 2) MFCC is a growing profession yet few Chicanos are entering it; 3) few Chicano professionals are involved in the training, teaching and supervision of marriage and family counselors; and 4) the state licensing board and the two marriage and family counselors' associations do not identify minority counselors nor those who provide Spanish speaking services .     

Constructing a Life That Works: Part 1, Blending Postmodern Family Therapy and Career Counseling

Postmodern approaches to career counseling are well suited to addressing the challenges a postindustrial world poses to career development and overall life design. In this, the 1st of 2 articles exploring theory and practice, the authors examine the differences between traditional trait and factor models of career counseling and postmodern approaches using life narratives and social constructionism. As career counselors and marriage and family therapists, the authors' approach to career development integrates the literature on postmodern family therapy with emerging narrative approaches to career counseling. The 2nd article (C. Campbell & M. Ungar, 2004) discusses 7 aspects of the authors' daily practice as postmodern career counselors.     

Counselor confounds in evaluations of vocational rehabilitation methods in substance dependency treatment

Evaluation research on vocational counseling in substance dependency treatment should distinguish between the effects of counselors and counseling methods on clients' employment outcomes. Three experimental designs permit investigation of possible confounds between these types of effects: (a) nested designs (each counselor delivers one counseling method so counselors are nested under methods), (b) crossed designs (each counselor delivers all counseling methods so counselors are crossed with methods), and (c) no-treatment control group designs (experimental group's counselors all deliver the same method). Each design is optimal for one stage of evaluation research. No-treatment control group designs are best for exploratory evaluations of new types of vocational counseling. Nested designs are best for outcome evaluations of different types of interventions. Crossed designs are best for (causal) process evaluations of counseling methods of demonstrated efficacy. Despite the importance of methodological issues and problems, vocational rehabilitation in substance dependency treatment has a greater need for stronger interventions than better evaluation designs.     

Revising Premarital Relationship Interventions for the Next Generation

In this article, we review research on contemporary social trends that influence the next generation's ability to form and sustain a healthy marriage. As a result, we argue for greater attention to premarital interventions for engaged couples to help the next generation address the potential challenges created by these trends. After we briefly review the current state of premarital education and counseling, we examine four general, interrelated social trends: individualism and commitment ambivalence, changing attitudes about marriage, premarital relationship histories, and the omnipresent media environment. In addition, we offer four general proposals corresponding to these trends that we believe will enhance the future effectiveness of premarital interventions. We urge premarital educators and counselors to evaluate their current interventions with these proposals in mind.     

Trends in Premarital Counseling*

Recent developments and current problems in the field of premarital counseling are discussed. Particular attention is given to the need for better training of premarital counselors and for more systematic evaluation of the impact of premarital counseling strategies.     

The effects of specialized training in alcohol information for counseling students

The alcoholism problem in the United States has reached proportions impossible to ignore. It follows that we need trained professionals in significant numbers to deal with the alcoholic population. Graduate programs, however, provide little or no course offerings in the area of specific training for dealing with alcoholics. In academia some attempts have been made to address this situation. However, budget restrictions, limited marketability of counselors with specialized training, and the superiority of the generalist training model are some of the main arguments that have compromised adequate chemical dependence training. The research literature, however, is replete with studies indicating the need for specialized training to prepare mental health professionals to work as competent alcohol counselors. The focus of this research was to examine the effect of specific training for counseling students in preparing them to work with alcoholic clients. The results of the analyses indicated that a training session specifically designed for working with alcoholic populations significantly increased the objective knowledge base of counseling students, although the single training session was not enough to significantly improve subjective judgment and response scores. This research emphasizes a need for specialized training in counseling programs for alcohol counselors. Further, it is implied that training programs should include at least one semester-long course on alcohol remediation for counseling students.     

Getting Unemployed Job Seekers Back to Work: The Development of a Process Model of Employment Counseling Behavior

The aim of this study was to propose a tentative model of employment counseling based on 31 critical incident interviews with supervisors, employment counselors, and unemployed job seekers. The incidents (N= 599) mentioned in the interviews were inductively used to develop a category framework describing behaviors of employment counselors. On the basis of the interviews, categories, and incidents within these categories, the authors proposed a 4‐phase preliminary model of the employment counseling process. Findings suggest that employment counseling is a complex and dynamic process involving several distinct and consecutive steps focused on clients, governmental funding agencies, colleagues, and employers.     

Changing Roles for Women: Implications for Marriage Counselors*

Noting that marriage counselors focus on the male-female relationship and that changes affecting women also affect men, the author examines changes in womens' roles in American society and draws implications for marriage counselors. Editor.     

A GENOGRAM WITH AN ATTITUDE

The approach described in this paper is predicated on the fundamental belief that in order to become competent and ethical practitioners, students must understand themselves and how they see others. They must be given tools and skills that facilitate examinations of their own assumptions and beliefs about themselves, other, and how the world works. It is also essential that students examine how these assumptions and beliefs will influence the way they choose to conduct therapy. Once they are aware of their biases, they must learn to choose to consciously influence themselves in a way that permits their clients the largest room for change within the clients' own contexts of belief, understanding, experience, and possibility. In this paper I describe the use of the genogram as a tool to facilitate the process of gaining self knowledge. This tool has been used in a multicultural counseling course, as well as in professional development workshops for psychologists, mental health counselors, and marriage and family therapists.     

Multicultural Career Counseling: A National Survey of Competencies and Practices

Career counselors' multicultural competence has not been widely investigated. In this study, a national sample of 230 career counselors completed an online survey that included measures of career counseling self‐efficacy and multicultural counseling competence. Beyond these self‐report instruments, counselors responded to open‐ended items that requested specific examples of their actual multicultural counseling practices. Results indicated that counselors rated themselves as multi‐culturally competent, but those ratings were more closely linked to general career counseling self‐efficacy than to external evaluations of their self‐reported multicultural counseling practices. Findings also reinforced the importance of training and experience in developing multicultural competence.     

Advocacy Evaluation for Counselors Serving LGBTQ Populations

ABSTRACT

Advocacy and social justice initiatives for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning (LGBTQ) clients in counseling emphasize counselor and client collaboration in challenging discrimination and oppression and promoting LGBTQ inclusive sociopolitical changes. Although researchers have highlighted the counseling and advocacy needs of LGBTQ populations, few have yet examined processes for assessing the outcomes of advocacy efforts. Advocacy evaluation may provide counselors and counseling organizations with a framework for monitoring and assessing the outcomes of LGBTQ advocacy initiatives. The authors discuss the goals and elements of advocacy evaluation and review the LGBTQ Counseling Advocacy Evaluation Self Assessment.     

Professional School Counselors' Career Development Practices and Continuing Education Needs

This study explored the practices of professional school counselors in their delivery of career counseling. School counselors were found to spend significantly less time on career development than on personal–social and academic development. In addition, new professionals placed more priority on career counseling compared with their more experienced counterparts. Continuing education opportunities, future research directions, and implications for school counselors are presented.     

Career Counselors Confront a Critical Crossroad: A Vision of the Future

The current challenges confronting career counselors require increased discourse regarding career counseling models. Some authors have initiated this discourse, but more participants are needed. The need also exists to communicate more aggressively the special expertise that career counselors bring to their work. As career counselors construct contemporary intervention models, they will need to engage in action research to demonstrate accountability and to document that their services are effective. Career counselors can embrace these activities by building on past practices to construct a vision for the future.     

A Survey of Campus Peer Counseling Activities

Abstract

The directors of counseling services at 200 colleges and universities were contacted by mail and asked to complete a survey regarding peer counseling activities on their campuses. One hundred fifty-six responses to this questionnaire were received; one hundred twenty-two indicated ongoing peer counseling activities in a wide variety of settings at their respective campuses. The most common client concerns confronted by peer counselors involved academic difficulties and relationships with friends and lovers. The survey identified a variety of peer counseling training programs, from one-weekend, intensive encounter-type experiences to full-year credit courses in counseling and therapy. Also examined were the funding resources available for peer counseling centers, which often proved quite marginal, and the amount of interaction between student counselors and professional mental health service staff members. Although the authors have been able to uncover a great many peer counseling programs on college campuses, there is a dearth of systematic research evaluating the effectiveness of the services provided by these centers or the appropriateness of various peer counselor training programs. Such work should be encouraged.     

Constructivist Counseling for Career Indecision

Twentieth-century vocational guidance has been an objective enterprise in which counselors have studied and treated career indecision by abstracting and objectifying it. This article describes how the logical positivist perspective on indecision as an objective phenomenon has evolved over the course of this century. Then, the article explains how constructivist counselors view indecision as clients' subjective attempts to give meaning to crisis points in their lives. This view permits a conceptualization of career counseling as a process of articulating a client's life theme. The article concludes with a case study that illustrates a life-theme approach to counseling for career indecision.     

Assumptions Regarding Vocational Counseling

Vocational counseling interviews involve the client and counselor in viewing each other, as the term inter-view indicates. As counseling begins, counselor and client view each other's assumptions about the nature of counseling processes and outcomes. Clients have assumptions about the kind of help they need to make occupational choices, what they can expect of counselors, what they can expect from any tests used, what they may be asked to do, and what will occur in the total process. Counselors need to understand the kinds of results clients expect from vocational counseling. Many assumptions, when held by either clients or counselors, lead to client (and possibly counselor) dissatisfaction with counseling because the assumptions build false anticipations for the client. Essentially, both clients and counselors often expect more definite outcomes and less effort from each party than is reasonable. This paper is written to promote counselors' reflections on their own and their clients' vocational counseling assumptions.     

Divorce and Emerging Adult and Young Women: Building Foundations for Self-Development

Informed by consensual qualitative research methodology, the experiences of nine divorced emerging and young adult women were analyzed. Prior to marriage, themes of feeling unmoored, in transition, and without an anchor shaped their narratives. Lack of self-reflection and evaluation predisposed the participants to making decisions based on partial and “convenient” truths. Unfolding processes led the majority of the women to revisit their premarital selves, engage with the emotional work that was deferred, and build foundations that were growth enhancing. Implications for counselors and related professionals are discussed.     

Counselors' Perspectives on Using the Career Style Interview With Clients

The authors investigated counselors' perspectives on using the Career Style Interview (CSI) with clients who had career concerns. Participants were a purposive sample of 34 counselors who had been trained in and who had used the CSI with clients. The findings indicated that the counselors viewed the CSI as a helpful and positive career counseling intervention. It was most effective at identifying clients' life themes and assisted them with making meaningful career decisions. Implications of these findings for career counseling practice and research are also discussed.