One in five children and adolescents in the United States has a mental health disorder (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1999) and 12.5% of children and adolescents receive treatment in a special mental health setting each year (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2009). Children and adolescents have special needs in counseling, and applying adult based counseling skills and knowledge onto children is inappropriate and unethical (Lawrence & Robinson Kurpius, 2000). There exists no nationally recognized licensure, certification or training standards for professional counselors to work with children and adolescents in non-school settings despite the need for specialized skills. Several scholars have made recommendations for the training of professional counselors who work with this population including coursework and supervised clinical experiences. There has been no examination to date, however, of whether these recommendations are in line with the experiences of professional counselors who work with children and adolescents in non-school settings. It is essential that counselor educators advocate for the students, the profession and the youth by examining what training is necessary. This grounded theory study aimed to identify what the experiences of professional counselors who work with children and adolescents in non-school settings are as well as what training and clinical experiences these professional counselors have. There were 14 participants in the study all of whom had at least 5 years of experiences counseling children and adolescents in a non-school setting, currently practicing, and were perceived by their peers as exhibiting exceptional practice. Data was collected using semi-structured interviews and data analysis included open, axial and selective coding. Trustworthiness was established using peer debriefing, progressive subjectivity, member checks, and detailed record keeping and was confirmed through the audit process. Authenticity was also established. Themes were identified and a theory of skill acquisition to work with children and adolescents in non-school settings was developed. With a greater understanding of the experiences of these professional counselors, counselor education programs can more appropriately construct training experiences thereby producing more competent and prepared professional counselors to work with children and adolescents in this setting.

Thesis (M.S.W.)--York University, 1999. Graduate Programme in Social Work. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 102-105). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/yorku/fullcit?pMQ39226.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oklahoma, 1991. / Includes bibliographical references.

Currently, 3.5 million people experience a lack of stable living conditions in the U.S. Families with children account for over 35% of the homeless population. As the present economy continues to struggle, this growing sector will result in more families losing their homes. The increasing volume of the homeless population, along with the fact that severe poverty and homelessness pose significant risks to child development, indicates that homelessness is a pressing social concern. This literature review seeks to explore the current research that exists pertaining to physical, psychological, social, and academic issues that impact children experiencing homelessness. Prevention and intervention strategies for school counselors are then explored in order to promote academic and emotional success for children who are homeless. Finally, recommendations for future research are presented. / text

In this study teachers provided responses indicating what actions they would take towards the bully and victim after watching three bullying vignettes in which the gender and race of the students varied. Significant differences revealed that when race, gender, or race and gender of teacher and student differ teachers are more likely to dismiss the victim or seek out adult resources. If the race or gender or race and gender of teacher and student were the same then teachers indicated that they would comfort the victim with more frequency, use a wider array of approaches regarding the victim, and they would also reprimand the victim more. Females were more likely than males to show care toward the victims and Whites were more likely than non-Whites to dismiss the victim. No significant differences were found when comparing teacher responses by student characteristics alone. Implications for teachers and school counselors are discussed.

The aim of this study was to examine, in the work against bullying how collaboration between the school counselor and other professions is described by the different professions within the student health team as well as how they describe that the different competencies involved in such teams shapes problem definitions and solutions. The student health (swedish- elevhälsoteamet) team of which the study is based on consists of different professions such as school counselors, school nurses, special education teachers, school psychologists and school principles. We have interviewed representatives of all the above mentioned professions with the exception of school psychologists using a qualitative research design. In this study we have chosen to focus on two student health teams from two different primary schools located in a middle-sized municipality in southern Sweden. We have analysed the results using new institutional theory and the terms domain and power.   The main conclusion of the study is that school counselors themselves feel they have a specific knowledge regarding bullying but have difficulties in capitalizing on it while collaborating with the other professions in the student health team. In line with early research the school counselors also feel marginalised by the fact that they are the only professional social workers in a work place mainly dominated by educationalists. Other problems facing school counselors and similarly affecting the collaboration with other professions within the school and particularly in the student health team are indistinct roles, less contact with students and restriction due to confidentiality.

The effect of the perception of fitness on the acquisition of several basic interviewing skills was explored. Furthermore, the relationship between perceived and actual fitness was investigated, as well as the relationship between actual fitness and basic interviewing skills. The interviewing skills were eye contact, talk time, verbal following (topic change) and focus of subject verbalization. / The study consists of two parts. The first part explored the viability of altering an individual's perception of personal physical fitness. Fifty-four subjects were randomly assigned to either the experimental or control condition. Experimental subjects received positive feedback related to their physical fitness during a bicycle ergometer test of actual fitness. Control subjects received only neutral feedback. Results indicated that positive feedback worked to successfully alter perception of fitness among experimental subjects. / The second part of the study explored the effect of fitness perception on interviewing skill acquisition. Results indicated that increasing an individual's perception of personal fitness did not enhance skill acquisition. There was also no significant difference in skill acquisition among subjects with higher and lower levels of perceived fitness. It was further determined that no significant relationship existed between actual fitness and the acquisition of basic interviewing skills used in the study. Additionally, it was determined that although a significant relationship between perceived and actual fitness was evident for female subjects in the study, this relationship did not hold true for male subjects.

Certification and licensure have been sources of debate and controversy for many years in the counseling profession. Counseling psychology, in contrast, has developed uniform standards for licensure across most of North America. Virtually no literature, though, has examined whether these phenomena have any impact on a client's perceptions of a counselor. This dissertation reports on a study designed to examine this issue. University student and university counseling center client perceptions of helper credential status and educational achievement were studied. Subjects reviewed written vignettes of a helper that included the person's credential status and level of educational achievement. Credential status was presented in one of three ways: not certified or licensed; certified but not licensed; certified and licensed. Educational achievement was presented in one of two ways: a master's degree in counseling or a doctoral degree in counseling psychology. Subjects then completed the Counselor Rating Form - Short (CRF-S) (Corrigan & Schmidt, 1983) and the 15 Personal Problems Inventory (15 PPI) (Cash, Begley, McCown, & Weise, 1975). Data from the CRF-S and the 15 PPI were analyzed using multivariate analyses of variance (MANOVAs). The data were analyzed in terms of three samples: a combined student-client sample (N = 127), a student sample (N = 96), and a client sample (N = 31). The results of the analysis of the CRF-S data showed a significant main effect for credential status in the combined and student samples (p < .01), but not in the client sample. A significant main effect was also found for educational achievement in the combined sample (p < .01) and student sample (p < .05), but not the client sample. Follow-up analyses showed that helpers with more credentials were generally rated better than helpers with fewer credentials, and that helpers with a master's degree were generally rated better than helpers with a doctoral degree. The results of the 15 PPI analyses also found a significant main effect for credential status in the combined student-client sample (p < .01) but no other significant main effects. The study's results are discussed in terms of their implications for the field of counseling psychology. / Department of Secondary, Higher, and Foundations of Education

This dissertation applied the social psychological research on deception to a counseling situation. The social psychological literature on deception has demonstrated that judges are notextremely accurate in their evaluations of deception. The majority of investigators in this arena have reported that judges of deception have difficulty exceeding accuracy levels which could be obtained merely by chance. Furthermore, researchers have had difficulty identifying cues to deception which could benefit judges when making their assessments.It seems that the ability of counselors to detect deception would be an important facet of their repertoire--especially in situations where the counselor interacts with clients who may be more prone to lying (e.g.. substance abusers, perpetrators of family violence, criminals, and malingerers). If counselors are accurate in their determinations of client deception at levels of accuracy only slightly greater than chance (as the social psychological literature implies), then the entire assessment process might be undermined.This study was an examination of counselors' abilities to detect deception among their clients, the verbal and nonverbal cues to which counselors attend in making their assessments, and how client deception effects a counselor's psychological assessments. Four major findings were obtained. First, a factor analytic study revealed that counselors believe they attend to four general groups of verbal and nonverbal cues when suspecting a client of deception: (1) Stationary Cues of a Client's Face and Body, (2) Movements of a Client's Limbs, (3) the Quality/Style of a Client's Communications, and (4) the Content/Expression of a Client's Communications. Second, counselors in this study were accurate in their assessments of honest and deceptive clients at levels significantly greater than chance (85% overall accuracy). Third, this study was unable to identify cues which benefit counselors in making accurate assessments of client deception and/or honesty. Fourth, the accuracy of a counselor's psychological assessments were not affected by client deception. Results are discussed in relation to the social psychological literature on deception and implications for the profession of counseling psychology. / Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services

Attribution theory provides a rich foundation of literature addressing how individuals infer causes of behavior. While a great deal of marital therapists have utilized attribution theory to examine dysfunctional patterns of couples, no research to date has examined therapists' own attributions. The purpose of this study was to examine therapists' causal explanations, or attributions, for the difficulties of a marital dyad.One hundred thirty masters and doctoral level students completed the Causal Dimension Scale after viewing a videotape of a couple in an initial interview for therapy. Each subject was randomly assigned to one of three conditions when viewing the videotape: (1) Empathy induction for the wife; (2) empathy induction for the husband; or (3) a control group.Results indicated that empathy instructions did not significantly affect subjects' causal explanations for the couple's problems. Additionally, there was no relationship between empathy-induction and the subsequent prognosis for each spouse. While empathy instructions did not significantly affect therapist prognoses, there were gender differences among therapists and their prognoses. In general, female observers rated the prognosis for therapeutic gain for both the husband and wife higher than did male observers; however, the only significant difference between male and female observers was on the prognosis for therapeutic gain for the husband. Finally, another influential variable affecting therapist prognosis was the video scenario. The prognosis for therapeutic gain for both the husband and the wife was judged to be higher when he/she was the "pursuer" who was upset with the other spouse for spending too much time at work with an opposite-sex co-worker. Implications of this study for marital therapists were discussed. Additionally, limitations as well as suggestions for further research in this area were noted and discussed. Further investigation is needed to examine possible therapist biases in working with couples. / Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services