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Working with students requires you to know laws and ethics related to teaching. The content of this chapter orients students with FERPA, ADA, and IDEA. It includes a review of the ACA ethical guidelines and CACREP standards related to the roles and functions of Counselor Educators and Supervisors. Though the use of case study examples, readers have the opportunity to develop applied understanding of the ethical and legal guidelines related to the role of being an instructor and gatekeeper of the profession.

The first purpose of the study was to assess burnout in pre-licensed counselors who are working towards licensure compared to burnout in counselors who are already licensed. The second purpose of the study was to assess what factors contribute to burnout in pre-licensed counselors. Counselors working towards licensure were an under-studied population at risk for burnout. Further, burnout of counselors working to gain their licensure had not been studied previously. A total of 2,400 pre-licensed and licensed counselors in Florida and Louisiana were emailed the quantitative survey. The instrument included a researcher designed demographic survey and the Maslach’s Burnout Inventory for Human Services (MBI-HSS). Using descriptive statistic ANOVA, inferential statistic Levene’s test and non-parametric tests including Spearman’s rho, and Kruskall-Wallis were calculated to measure the degree of burnout and to compare burnout scores of licensed counselors and pre-licensed counselors working toward licensure. Results of this study indicate that pre-licensed counselors experienced high levels of burnout in emotional exhaustion, moderate levels of burnout in depersonalization, and inversely high levels of personal accomplishment. Licensed counselors exhibited moderate levels of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization and inversely high levels of personal accomplishment. In addition, the following demographics were found statistically significant in burnout of pre-licensed counselors: age, weekly supervision, work setting, and client population.

The purpose of this qualitative, narratological research was to gain a deeper understanding of the stories of three African American counselor educators who experienced research mentorship as counseling students and faculty members while working towards tenure. The three participants were employed as assistant professors in CACREP-accredited counselor education graduate programs provided their perspectives of research mentorship. The primary research question for my research was: How do pre-tenured African American female counselor educators perceive their research mentorship experiences? The foundation for my study was provided by the review of literature focused on critical race theory, marginalized groups in academe, mentorship among specific populations, and research mentorship Semi-structured interviews were used to collect data. The transcribed interviews, vitas, and faculty profiles were analyzed by within-case and cross-case analysis. The findings indicated seven super-ordinate themes. 1) Benefits of Research Mentorship, 2) Social Racial Membership with Other Forms of Marginalization, 3) Professional Networking/Support, 4) Perceptions of Institutional Climate and Culture, 5) Perceptions of Research Mentoring Experiences, 6) Barriers of Research Mentorship, and 7) Behaviors that Foster Effective Research Mentoring. Implications for students and counselor educators along with recommendations for future research are presented. Personal reflections of the researcher are provided.

A growing trend in counselor education in the United States is to accommodate current technological change by including more online academic opportunities. Slow to emerge in the counselor education literature is information that highlights how instructors have negotiated the move from land-based teaching to online teaching. A lack of knowledge about this transitional experience is concerning because counselor education programs might overlook important opportunities to support indeed, facilitate the transitional process. The purpose of this research study was to illuminate the experiences of counselor educators who have transitioned from land-based to online teaching. A transcendental phenomenological approach provided the framework and guided the methodology. This study highlighted the experiences of 6 counselor educators from small universities across the United States who transitioned from teaching counseling courses in the classroom to teaching them online. Semistructured interviews provided the data for this study; analysis used Giorgi's systematic process of data reduction. Four major themes of common experience emerged from the data: (a) high expectations and low support from university leaders, (b) limits to transitional enthusiasm among counseling faculty, (c) solutions for transitional success for counseling faculty, and (d) support essential for the counselor educator's transition. Results of this study confirm a need for greater attention to the transitional process. Counselor educators requested more opportunities for experience and support. When considering social change, understanding the needs of counselor educators in this transition can help inform much needed training strategies and supportive services in counselor education programs.

Childhood sexual abuse is a prevalent but taboo topic in society. Conservatively 80,000 new cases are reported each year with many more either unreported or unsubstantiated within the legal system. Survivors of childhood sexual abuse often times seek counseling assistance to manage the variety of short- and long-term emotional issues that may arise as a result of their abuse. Professional counselors listen to the stories of the survivors and attempt to assist survivors in making sense of this horrific act of personal violence. This study examines the meaning-making experience of master's level professional mental health counselors who work with childhood sexual abuse survivors. A phenomenological qualitative research design was utilized to better understand the process that these counselors use to make sense of their work. Fifty participants were selected from a national data-base of professional mental health counselors who work with survivors. Telephone interviews were conducted with 10 participants. The study revealed that the stories of abuse had a profound impact on the counselors and that there was a significant evolution in how they felt about their work and the survivors they helped. The participants shared that a strong belief system and their theoretical orientation as counselors were essential in their meaning-making process. Other issues such as supervision and mentoring and the development of increased empathy proved to be important to the counselor's meaning-making process.

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.

Wellness is defined as an individual's lifestyle, choices, and habits as a way to achieve optimal health and well-being. Professional organizations and literature in the counseling field underscored the importance of enhancing personal wellness of professional counselors and counselors-in-training. The assumption underlying this movement was that counselors' personal wellness would be directly translated into their effectiveness with clients in counseling practice. However, this assumption has received little empirical attention. In addition, the review of counselor wellness literature illustrated the need for addressing potential moderators in the relationship of counselor wellness to counseling effectiveness as an attempt to provide an elaborated knowledge base for wellness interventions in counselor training. Thus, this study investigated the relationship of Korean counselors' personal wellness to their clients' perceptions of counseling effectiveness and the moderating effects of counselor empathy on this relationship. Participants in this study were 133 counselor-client dyads who had engaged in face-to-face individual counseling at university counseling centers or youth counseling institutes located in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province, South Korea. Survey measures for counselors were used for the assessment of personal wellness, empathy, and social desirability. Client survey measures were used to assess counseling effectiveness variables: (a) satisfaction with counselors' in-session behavior, (b) evaluation about the session impact, and (c) perception of the working alliance. The results from correlation and multiple regression analyses indicated that Korean counselors' personal wellness scores were not significantly related to their clients' ratings of counseling effectiveness. However, a series of hierarchical regression analyses revealed that Korean counselors' cognitive empathy moderated the relationships of their personal wellness to client-perceived counseling effectiveness. Specifically, the findings suggested that, for Korean counselors with lower levels of cognitive empathy, wellness in Essential Self had a positive influence on client-perceived session smoothness, but wellness in Coping Self had a negative effect on client-rated working alliance. Also, wellness in Creative Self was found to have a negative influence on client-perceived session smoothness only among Korean counselors with higher levels of cognitive empathy. These findings call into question the supposition that well counselors are more likely to be effective with their clients, suggesting that a more complicated interplay between counselor wellness and other potential moderators should be considered as a determinant of counseling effectiveness. Future research is warranted to see if this study's findings are replicated with American counselor samples. Limitations are presented with a focus on range restrictions on the counseling effectiveness variables and small effect sizes associated with the interactions. In light of these limitations, future research directions are also discussed.

The scholarly literature surrounding counselor supervision suggests that relational bonds built on liking, trusting, and caring between supervisors and counselors positively impact counselor willingness to disclose practice errors and ethical issues in supervision. This Delphi study explored the opinions of expert public rehabilitation supervisors regarding issues that affect the development and maintenance of relational bonds, as well as what factors affect counselor willingness to disclose in supervision, particularly minor ethical issues that may become more serious if not openly addressed. Forty-three supervisors who met the study criteria for experts were nominated for participation by TACE directors and public VR administrators. Expert criteria included five or more years of counselor supervision experience, possession of a Master's degree in Rehabilitation Counseling or related fields, and previous supervision training. This Delphi study was designed to solicit the insights of expert supervisors and add to the base of research knowledge concerning counselor supervision. The study is significant because it is the first of its kind to be pursued exclusively among public rehabilitation supervisors exploring how relational bonds, counselor disclosure, and ethics are integrated into rehabilitation counseling practice. Experts submitted their input using online questionnaires and were anonymous to other group members. In Round One, experts answered four open-ended questions regarding bonds and disclosure. In Rounds Two and Three, they ranked the importance of 39 Likert-scaled questions developed from Round One responses. Means and standard deviations were calculated for each round, and significance was tested using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). The major findings of this Delphi study were that trust has the most impact on the development of relational bonds, and that anticipated supervisor reactions are the biggest factor in counselor disclosure. Experts rated availability and fairness as the most important factors for bond development, and cultivation of trust as the highest-ranked strategy for facilitating disclosure. Experts ranked counselor fear of recrimination of lower importance than the literature indicates. The extent of expert understanding regarding the differences between egregious and non-egregious ethical behaviors was unclear. Suggestions for further investigation include (a) a Delphi study of expert rehabilitation counselors regarding bonds and disclosure, (b) examining supervisor needs for support from administration, (c) continuing education for supervisors and counselors regarding non-egregious ethical errors, and (d) reviewing ethics training opportunities for non-CRC supervisors and counselors in public rehabilitation agencies.

The purpose of this dissertation study was to increase understanding of licensed mental health professionals' experiences as they have encountered and navigated through compassion fatigue (CF). CF is a complex construct with an attendant constellation of secondary stress responses. In order to examine the complex and varying factors associated with experiencing CF, the research was conducted using a grounded theory, qualitative approach and methodology. Nine licensed mental health professionals across the disciplines of marriage and family therapy, mental health counseling, professional counseling, psychology, and social work were individually interviewed three times, for a total of at least 180 minutes. All interviews were recorded, transcribed and analyzed. As a result of the analyses, four main categories emerged, experiencing internal dissonance, recognizing and processing the effects, becoming intentional, and creating ongoing changes. Becoming intentional is the central category because of its central and pivotal relationship to the whole process of participants' experience of encountering and navigating through CF. This fulcrum punctuates participants' experiences leading up to becoming intentional and those which came after as delineated in the other three categories of the theory. Prior to becoming intentional, participants experienced internal dissonance, which escalated to distress or crisis. When this distress or crisis reached a point where it became untenable, participants recognized and processed the effects. One of the effects which participants came to recognize was a loss of internal locus of control. Becoming intentional served as a catalyst for participants to take action and recapture their locus of control. The process of becoming intentional is reflected in three practices, transforming perceptions, developing support, and making professional changes. These findings are applicable to a variety of models of counseling, supervision, counselor education, and clinical practice in either a single or interdisciplinary setting. / Graduation date: 2013