The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the experiences of conservative orthodox Christian students attending public, secular, accredited counseling and counseling psychology graduate programs. Conservative orthodox Christian students who were attending public, secular, accredited counseling and counseling psychology graduate programs were recruited by email. A prescreening interview was conducted with each respondent. Seven respondents participated in three rounds of individual interviews. The overall research question was: What are the experiences of conservative orthodox Christian students attending public, secular, accredited counseling and counseling psychology graduate programs? Follow-up questions explored the participants' perceptions and experiences in depth. Data were analyzed through within case and cross case displays using a phenomenological approach. Emergent categories, themes, and descriptors were gathered from each round of interviews. Data were organized into three major categories: reflections on secular programs, experiences attending secular programs and Christian identity, and further organized into underlying themes and descriptors. Implications related to conservative orthodox Christian students attending public, secular, accredited counseling and counseling psychology graduate programs were discussed. Finally, suggestions for future research were provided.

It is likely that a counselor-in-training (CITs) will counsel a lesbian, gay, or bisexual (LGB) client in practice. The American Counseling Association (ACA, 2014) and the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP, 2009) address ethical and training standards about counseling clients from diverse populations and multicultural counselor competence. The purpose of this dissertation was to examine master's-level CITs' perceived LGB counselor competence and potentially related and predictive factors including age, gender, religiosity, spirituality, personal relationships with LGB individuals, and having an "out" faculty or peer in the training program. This quantitative study included 105 CITs from CACREP accredited counselor education programs, surveyed from a national stratified sample, based on CACREP regions. The survey included the Sexual Orientation Counselor Competence Scale (Bidell, 2005), the Toronto Empathy Questionnaire (Spreng, McKinnon, Mar, & Levine, 2009); a Religiosity Index (Statistics Canada, 2006), Spiritual Transcendence Index-Modified (Seidlitz et al., 2002), the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale-Sort Form C (Reynolds, 1982), and additional survey items to collect information on the number of personal relationships with LGB individuals (i.e., family, friends, faculty, and peers), age, gender and demographic information. Results indicated that CITs felt least competent in their skills to work with LGB clients and most competent in their attitudes towards LGB individuals. A regression analysis revealed that religiosity negatively predicts perceived LGB counselor competence and personal relationships with LGB individuals positively predicted LGB competence. Additionally, there was a significant positive relationship between having an "out" LGB peer in the training program and perceived LGB counselor competence. Implications suggest that counselor training programs increase the use of LGB themed case studies, role plays, and other classroom initiatives to help CITs meet the needs of their future LGB clients. An interesting finding in this study was the positive relationship between having an "out" LGB peer in the training program and increased LGB competence. Future research should investigate the dynamics of this relationship.

There is a lack of accredited doctoral-level counselor education and supervision (CES) programs available to meet the documented and growing need for more qualified and competent professional counselors. The problem addressed via this study is the shortage of trained doctoral-level counselors and counselor faculty to train other counselors due to the lack of accredited doctoral-level CES programs. The purpose of this study was to better understand the factors that may influence or predict an institution's decision to pursue Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) accreditation in order to increase the number of programs that pursue specialized accreditation. The research question focused on understanding the predictive relationship between institutional factors and CACREP accreditation status. A quantitative, cross-sectional correlation design was employed that used existing secondary data provided by institutions on institutional, government, and CACREP websites, as well as existing literature. The target population was 91 doctoral-level CES programs offered through U.S. institutions. Key findings from both correlational and logistic regression analyses indicated that the existence of master's-level CACREP accredited programs was the strongest predictor of CACREP-accredited doctoral-level CES programs. Graduate enrollment and the public/private status of an institution were also found to be predictors of doctoral-level CES CACREP accreditation status. Increased availability of accredited doctoral CES programs would impact the number of highly trained counselors practicing within mental health services, thereby improving quality of life for counseling clients, their families, employers, communities, and society.

A lack of knowledge and training on the topic of gay, lesbian, and bisexual persons (GLB) in mental health graduate programs can lead to a culture of ignorance and ineffective treatment for a subset of the population. Multicultural competency is defined as having self-awareness of one's own values and biases, knowledge, and skills to work with a given population; and it is important in order to ensure appropriate mental healthcare. The purpose of the current study was to identify if there is a difference in GLB competency among graduate students and faculty (dependent variables) from mental health programs that are accredited by organizations like the APA and CACREP versus those from nonaccredited programs (independent variables). The key theoretical foundation that grounded this study was Multicultural Counseling and Therapy Theory (MCT). The research questions explored herein center on whether GLB competency differs between graduate students and faculty from accredited programs versus those from nonaccredited programs. Results of this quantitative comparative research design study were derived via a multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) procedure in order to compare mean scores among the four groups. Results identified a significant difference between the groups in skills and knowledge; however, mean averages for graduate students from accredited programs (Skills M = 2.54, Knowledge M = 3.83) were below four, indicating little to no skills/knowledge. In order to optimize mental health treatment for the GLB community, graduate students in mental health programs must be exposed to GLB counseling training curriculum. The implications for social change focus on policy and accreditation standards set forth by APA and CACREP accrediting bodies.

Comprehensive School Counseling Programs (CSCP) are data driven programs utilized by school counselors to ensure the students they serve receive measurable benefits in academic, career, and personal/social development. The purpose of this study was to better understand if differences existed in the perceptions of graduates from school counseling programs accredited by the Council for the Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) and non-accredited programs regarding effective implementation of CSCP. This study is relevant to counselor educators, university administrators, and aspiring school counselors who are stakeholders in the decision to pursue CACREP accreditation or attend a CACREP accredited school counseling program. The theoretical foundation used to guide the study was competency based education (CBE), which emphasizes student competencies. Using a quantitative, contrasted groups design, the answers to 4 research questions were answered utilizing 132 school counselors who completed the School Counseling Program Implementation Survey (SCPIS). The participants' scores on the SCPIS were analyzed using a t test to compare the means of the 2 groups. The results indicated no statistically significant difference between the 2 groups regarding their perception of effectively implementing CSCP (RQ1),being professionally oriented to CSCP (RQ2), providing school counseling services (RQ3), or using computerized data to accentuate their CSCP (RQ4). The social change implications for this study include imparting the importance of school counseling masters' level students receiving the knowledge and training to effectively implement a CSCP, regardless of the program's CACREP status.

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The principal investigator (PI) for this study analyzed mean scores on the National Counselor Examination (NCE) of students from CACREP accredited and non- CACREP accredited programs. Data was provided by the National Board of Certified Counselors, Inc., for a total of ten examination administrations across six years. The fourteen variables examined in the study consisted of the eight common-core knowledge domains identified in CACREP standards, the five counselor work behavior areas identified by NBCC via periodic job analysis of counseling practice, and one overall or total score on the NCE. NCE mean scores of students from CACREP accredited programs were higher than NCE mean scores of students from non-CACREP accredited programs on all variables across all ten NCE administrations. Data seem to indicate that students from CACREP accredited programs perform significantly better on the NCE than students from non-CACREP accredited programs, in all fourteen variables. Sample size was large, totaling 9707, so the PI calculated effect sizes using Cohen's d for each variable to aid interpretation of statistical significance. Five variables had large effect sizes of .70 or higher. The higher effect size statistics were associated with the counselor work behavior areas, with the highest effect size (.85) associated with the overall, or total, score on the NCE. Statistically significant results in the counselor work behavior areas, in the presence of large effect size statistics, may represent reasonably good support for CACREP accredited programs' superiority in developing overall counselor clinical skills and knowledge beyond simply content knowledge. Additionally, the large effect size of the Total Score variable might be interpreted to indicate that student knowledge gained from CACREP accredited programs is superior to student knowledge gained from non-CACREP accredited programs.

Trauma has been studied sporadically in the past. The Council on Accreditation for Counseling and Related Programs (CACREP, 2016) created several standards that address crises, disasters, and other trauma-causing events. These standards address the importance of the studying of trauma for those in the counseling profession. The broadly written standards do not have competencies that would address more specifically how best to implement the standards. This study used the Delphi Method to seek the experts help with creating competencies for the standards created by CACREP that address crises, disasters, and other trauma-causing events. The results will be the development of trauma competencies that can be used by counselor educators to train future counselors about trauma.