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No description available.

The person of the counsellor, or what is sometimes referred to as the counsellor�s self, is the focus of this thesis. How the counsellor�s self is described and manifested during therapy constitute the two main research questions. Various perspectives are presented from psychoanalysis, behaviour therapy, cognitive behaviour therapy, person centered therapy and systems therapy. While issues pertaining to the counsellor�s self have been explored predominately by systems therapists, this study extends previous research by involving interviews with counsellors from a range of orientations. The study is conducted within an interpretative research paradigm, and data are collected and interpreted according to a qualitative approach. Semi-structured interviews with 16 counsellors, from a range of theoretical orientations, constitute the primary method of data collection. Other data sources include a short questionnaire sent to the same counsellors, the researcher�s reflective journal as well as recorded meetings between a peer debriefer and the researcher. Study participants describe the counsellor�s self as a multifaceted, positive and integrated entity. The counsellor�s self includes participant�s professional knowledge and skills as well as their beliefs, values, thoughts, feelings, personal style and an unknown aspect of self that some participants referred to as their unconscious. While somewhat influenced by past relationships and the client, the counsellor�s self is primarily autonomous and defined by the individual counsellor. Although the counsellor�s self has the capacity to change over time, in different environments and with different clients, the self also includes notions of stability and consistency. The counsellor�s self is involved in therapy as an inevitable presence, a deliberate tool and a stance. Participants highlighted the importance of self-awareness and various professional and personal constraints on the involvement of self. A central function of the self in therapy is in the therapeutic alliance. The study has implications for the training and supervision of counsellors and future psychotherapeutic research.

A critical review of the literature shows little evidence of the benefits of counselling for people infected with the HTV virus and rigorous follow-up studies are generally lacking. Authors reviewed in the literature urge the need for training in counselling. However, whether counseling training is a necessity in the context of HFV/AIDS is debatable as no evidence has yet suggested that trained counsellors are more effective than untrained ones. Therefore, it is necessary to know-how counsellors perceive their role in relation to people with HTV/AIDS. It is also essential to know what skills and training they regard as necessary for working with this group of clients. This thesis reports the results of two separate studies. Twelve questionnaires were returned and 3 interviews were conducted in the preliminary study among a small sample of people responsible for counselling women with HTV/AIDS. The results demonstrated that most counselling for this group of clients was not carried out by trained counsellors. It was concluded that counselling was not a central response to those clients. Acknowledgement of the limitations of this preliminary’ study led to the main study which was conducted among experienced and student counsellors on the perceptions of their role in working with people with HTV/AIDS.A number of significant differences were found between the perceptions of 30 experienced counsellors and 46 students in the questionnaire survey of the main study. However, experienced counsellors did not appear to feel better prepared than students in working with people with HIV/AIDS. Inconsistent results were found which suggested no agreement about whether counselling for people with HIV/AIDS required different skills and training to counselling other groups of clients. Furthermore, inconsistency between responses to different questions suggested that although respondents acknowledged a role in reducing the spread of HIV infection, they had not adequately thought through the implications of this for their counselling practice. The implications for counsellor training and supervision were discussed.

The person of the counsellor, or what is sometimes referred to as the counsellor�s self, is the focus of this thesis. How the counsellor�s self is described and manifested during therapy constitute the two main research questions. Various perspectives are presented from psychoanalysis, behaviour therapy, cognitive behaviour therapy, person centered therapy and systems therapy. While issues pertaining to the counsellor�s self have been explored predominately by systems therapists, this study extends previous research by involving interviews with counsellors from a range of orientations. The study is conducted within an interpretative research paradigm, and data are collected and interpreted according to a qualitative approach. Semi-structured interviews with 16 counsellors, from a range of theoretical orientations, constitute the primary method of data collection. Other data sources include a short questionnaire sent to the same counsellors, the researcher�s reflective journal as well as recorded meetings between a peer debriefer and the researcher. Study participants describe the counsellor�s self as a multifaceted, positive and integrated entity. The counsellor�s self includes participant�s professional knowledge and skills as well as their beliefs, values, thoughts, feelings, personal style and an unknown aspect of self that some participants referred to as their unconscious. While somewhat influenced by past relationships and the client, the counsellor�s self is primarily autonomous and defined by the individual counsellor. Although the counsellor�s self has the capacity to change over time, in different environments and with different clients, the self also includes notions of stability and consistency. The counsellor�s self is involved in therapy as an inevitable presence, a deliberate tool and a stance. Participants highlighted the importance of self-awareness and various professional and personal constraints on the involvement of self. A central function of the self in therapy is in the therapeutic alliance. The study has implications for the training and supervision of counsellors and future psychotherapeutic research.

This qualitative study drew from Thematic Analysis, inspired by Grounded Theory, to explore how counselling students completing their internship manage their feelings of incompetence. Four master’s level counselling students from three different masters counselling programs in Ontario, Canada were interviewed using a semi-structure interview protocol to gain an in-depth understanding of how they experienced and managed FOI during their internship. Twenty-nine subthemes emerged, which were further categorized into four over arching main themes: (1) experience of FOI, which included eight subthemes; (2) effects of FOI, which included eight subthemes; (3) management of FOI, which included six subthemes; and (4) seeking supports for FOI, which included eight subthemes. The FOI that counsellors-in-training experience can directly impact their clients and the implications of this study related to counselling pedagogy and supervision are discussed.

Client emotional expression in session is valuable as it promotes clients’ sense of agency, increases their capacity for introspection, and is linked to decreases in depressive symptoms. By extension, understanding counsellors’ responses to client emotional expression is relevant. In the current study, retrospective accounts of self-reported securely-attached novice counsellors were collected for the purpose of exploring how they responded to client emotional expression. To obtain meaningful and descriptive accounts of the data, a thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006) was used as the research methodology. Resultant themes showed that novice counsellors reported experiencing their own covert and overt emotional reactions in response to clients’ emotional expression. They also reported struggling with the decision to use their preferred response. The results provided insights into how the task of responding to client emotion was complex for novice counsellors. Analyses and understanding of these results have potential developmental and educational implications.

Anställningsbarhet anses vara av värde för flera intressenter, däribland samhället, företagen och individen. Vårt examensarbete behandlar anställningsbarhet för studie- och yrkesvägledare. Vi har uppmärksammat att konkurrensen om vägledningstjänster är hård i Skåne. Vi ämnade därför undersöka vad som gör en studie- och yrkesvägledare, eller annan aspirant till vägledningstjänster, anställningsbar. Vi begränsade oss dock till att undersöka vad som ökar möjligheten för en studie- och yrkesvägledare att bli kallad till just anställningsintervju, för vägledningstjänster. Detta gjorde vi genom att använda en, av oss upprättad, kriterielista med anställningsbarhetskriterier. Kriterierna på listan fick sedan arbetsgivare inom sex olika vägledningsområden i Skåne prioritera och diskutera. Vidare jämförde vi detta utfall med Sveriges Vägledarförenings, och Studie- och yrkesvägledarföreningen i Lärarnas Riksförbunds, prioritering av samma kriterielista. Detta eftersom vår föreställning är att dessa föreningar kan bidra till studie- och yrkesvägledares ökade anställningsbarhet, förutsatt att de har samma syn på anställningsbarhet som arbetsgivarna har. Vår slutsats är att de anställningsbarhetskriterier som väger tyngst, hos studiens arbetsgivare, vid kallande till anställningsintervju för vägledningstjänster är: studie- och yrkesvägledarutbildning, arbetslivserfarenhet inom branschen, bred arbetslivserfarenhet inom olika branscher, eftergymnasial utbildning inom branschen samt professionella/välformulerade ansökningshandlingar. Vidare kom vi fram till att samstämmigheten, mellan å ena sidan arbetsgivarnas svar och å andra sidan svaren från Sveriges Vägledarförening, är hög gällande vissa kriterier, men skiljer sig mycket gällande andra. Detta gäller även för jämförelsen mellan arbetsgivares syn på anställningsbarhet och Studie- och yrkesvägledarföreningen i Lärarnas Riksförbunds syn på detsamma. / Employability is regarded to be valuable for several actors, among them the society, the enterprises and the individual. Our essay considers employability for career counsellors. We have noticed that competition for counsellor posts is hard in Skåne. Our aim was therefore to examine what makes a career counsellor, or other candidates for counsellor posts, employable. Yet we limited the essay to examine what increases the possibilities for a career counsellor to be summoned interviews, for counsellor posts. We did this by using a list of criteria of employability, established by us. The criterions on the list later got ranked and discussed by employers within six different counsellor areas in Skåne. Then we compared these results with the priorities of the Sveriges Vägledarförening, and Studie- och yrkesvägledarföreningen i Lärarnas Riksförbund. This because our conception is that these institutions can contribute to increased employability for a career counsellor, presupposed that they have the same vision of employability as the employers do. Our conclusion is that the five most important criteria for employability once summoned to a job interview for counsellor posts are, according to the employers in this study: career counsellor education, work experience within the trade, wide work experience within different trades, education in a higher level than upper secondary school within the trade and professional/well formulated application forms. We also made the conclusions that the consensus between, on one hand the answers of the employers and on the other hand the answers of Sveriges Vägledarförening, is high concerning certain criteria, but is very different concerning others. This also concerns the comparison between the idea of employability among the employers and the idea of the same of Studie- och yrkesvägledarföreningen i Lärarnas Riksförbund.

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Unlicensed, non-credentialed counsellors pose a substantial risk for harm to those seeking counselling in Canada. Professional associations and legislative bodies in Canada are seeking protection of the public through certification and regulation processes that require evidence of professional competence. I examine and discuss the development process for and reliability and validity measures of a prototype for a Canadian standard entry-to-practice counselling competency assessment. Unique to this study is a focus on process orientation. Using a mixed methods approach, I observe and document the steps used by a pan-Canadian test development team to create a prototype for a valid, reliable, credible, and fair national assessment of counselling competency at the entry-to-practice level. Beginning with the formation of a national competency profile that delineates a scope of practice for the counselling profession, I move through the assessment creation process from conceptual foundations and rationale to assessment blueprint, item writing, beta testing, and strategic checks for validation and reliability. The culmination of this study is a replicable process for the creation of fair, valid, and reliable test instruments for the counselling profession in Canada.