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.

This study used qualitative research method to examine the values and experiences of parents raising adolescent children in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. It aimed to understand their perspectives, priorities, practices and concerns. Such contextual knowledge can inform practitioners to help parents achieve their parenting goals. Ethiopia is also undergoing numerous cultural, economic and social changes that call for examining existing approaches to raising adolescent children. Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) guided the process of this study. This qualitative method is useful to study daily experiences that have significance to participants (Brocki & Wearden, 2006). Eight Ethiopian parents from Addis Ababa who raised at least one adolescent child during the period of this study were interviewed. Semi-structured interviews were used to ask parents about their perspectives on an array of topics including the meaning of adolescence, parental aspirations, parental expectations, discipline, parent-child communication and parenting concerns. Nvivo, a Computer Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis Software (CAQAS) was used to manage all data and theme development process. Data analysis generated obedience and marriage, dating and sexuality as superordinate themes. The following subthemes were developed under obedience: culture and family; respect and Relationships; educational and career success; approaches to raising obedient children and challenges against raising obedient children. Findings showed that parents aspire to raise obedient children. The second theme, marriage dating and sexuality showed the emphasis participants gave to delaying dating and intimacy experiences of their children until after their children were closer to getting married or became economically independent. Most parents described the period of adolescence as a time when children show more defiance toward parental expectations and thereby a call for more parental control and monitoring. Participants often used advice giving, supervision, limiting their children’s exposures and punishment to achieve their parenting goals. Few parents advocated for the use of high control on adolescent children while most parents stated that coercive measures do not help to raise obedient children. The results of this study showed that most participants expressed authoritarian perspectives and approaches that impose high expectations on children while providing low parental support that help children achieve parental goals. Recommendations and implications for future research, teaching and practice called for the importance of developing and using contextual knowledge to help parents in Ethiopia raise healthy and successful children.

With over 2.3 million individuals in a states, federal prison and/or local jail, the United States has the largest prison population in the world. Ninety-five percent of all offenders incarcerated will return to society at some point in their lives; nevertheless, at least two-third recidivate within three years of their parole/post-release and return to prison. The high volume of offenders contributing to the crime rates, enormous prison growth and the budget needed for correctional operation, has led scholars, policymakers, and correctional officials, in addition to society as a whole, to give great attention in discovering and determining ways to break the repetitive cycle of incarceration and recidivism. Once an offender returns to society after incarceration, they face perplexing challenging barriers, and obstacles that impedes upon their ability to resist crime and complete parole supervision. For African American men, these challenging barriers and obstacles are exacerbated, because of their race and gender. Research shows that African American men are disproportionally represented, among the incarceration rates, prison population and are highly susceptible to factors that lead to recidivism. The purpose of this study sought to gain more in-depth understanding of former African American male offenders’ experiences and perceptions of resisting crime and completing parole/post-release supervision. In particular, this study used qualitative methods to interview six African American men, in order to determine the significant impact which social and personal factors led them to successful parole/post-release supervision completion. The results of this study indicated that African American male offenders have the ability to complete parole/post-release supervision, when provided the opportunity to gain employment, higher levels of education and vocational training, strong support from their family and friend, establish positive social networks, participate in rehabilitative programs. The research further revealed other contributing factors aids in their success as well.

Individuals with disabilities (IWDs) continue to experience stigma, prejudice, and discrimination that result in social injustice. Counselors of all specialties and theoretic orientations provide services to IWDs. However, there is little discussion about disability-related social justice in the counseling and psychology literature. Counselors, psychology professionals, rehabilitation counselors, and society as a whole, must first be aware of the social injustices that IWDs experience and the role that society has in maintaining them; otherwise, counselors risk perpetuating these social injustices. However, there are no instruments that measure the awareness of social justice issues as they relate to IWDs. By creating and validating an instrument that measures awareness of social justice issues as they relate to IWDs, counselors may be able to increase their sensitivity, and develop both curricula and empirical research designed to address the social injustices faced by IWDs. This research focused on the exploratory development and validation of a new instrument, the Awareness of Social Justice for Individuals with Disabilities Scale (ASJIDS). Five domains were identified that underlie disability-related social justice, (a) equity, (b) access, (c) participation, (d) the effects of the biomedical model of disability, and (e) sympathy and lowered expectations for individuals with disabilities. Items for the ASJIDS were grounded in these five domains and evaluated by expert reviewers. The ASJIDS was administered to 503 undergraduate students at a Midwestern state university, of which 436 completed every item. Internal consistency of the ASJIDS was found to be high; however, Cronbach’s alpha for each of the five domain-grounded subscales did not meet the accepted 0.70 cutoff. The values obtained from Bartlett’s test of sphericity and Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin’s measure of sampling adequacy met the criteria needed for exploratory factor analysis (EFA). However, interitem correlations were low, suggesting a weak factor solution. A five-factor solution accounted for 30.33% of the variance. The limitations of this research, implications for theory, practice, and training, and recommendations for future research are discussed.

Thesis (M.A. (Maatskaplike Werk))--University of Pretoria, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 221-232).

Thesis (M.Ed.)--Memorial University of Newfoundland, 2002. / Bibliography: leaves 103-113.

Thesis (M.Ed.)--Memorial University of Newfoundland, 1997. / Restricted until June 1998. Bibliography: leaves 98-102.

Thesis advisor: Tarrell A. Portman. Includes bibliographic references (p. 140-155).

This study preliminarily identified clinical supervision competencies needed for alcohol and other drug abuse (AODA) clinical supervisors for integration into rehabilitation counselor training (RCT) curriculum. The Delphi method via LimeSurvey® was utilized to identify competencies specific to AODA clinical supervision. A panel of six experts in RCT and AODA clinical supervision completed five rounds of data collection beginning with an open-ended question. Consensus and stability of responses were calculated following Rounds 2-5 of data collection. Panelist fatigue resulted in data collection being discontinued after Round 5, prior to a consensus or stability of responses being reached. A total of 115 competencies and 51 competency sub-items were administered in Round 5. Results suggested that a consensus was not reached on items as one panelist represented a minority view on many items during multiple rounds of data collection. This panelist discontinued responding during the fifth round of data collection. Rank analysis of items based upon mean response was inconclusive due to limited sample size and response options. Sub-item analysis revealed mixed results regarding original competencies versus sub-items. At times a competency was rated higher, at times a sub-item was rated higher, and in other examples a second sub-item was rated higher. A clear pattern of responses for sub-items was not evident upon visual inspection of mean responses. Content analysis with two reliability raters in addition to the primary investigator suggested competencies fell into seven content areas: Legal and Ethical Concerns; Organizational Management, Administration, and Program Development; Personal Characteristics and Skills of Leadership; Supervisee Performance Evaluation and Feedback; Supervisory Relationship; Theory, Roles, and Interventions of Clinical Supervision; and Treatment Related Knowledge and Skills. Implications for the field, supervisors, supervisees, and rehabilitation educators; limitations including panel and data collection, technology, and reliability and validity; and future research were discussed.

The phenomenon being explored in this study was the understanding of minority clients' perceptions in relation to their rehabilitation counselors' cultural competence. A descriptive qualitative research methodology consisting of eight participants was used. Hycner's (1985) phenomenological analysis was used to investigate the in-depth interviews. The investigation revealed seven different themes that comprised of the essence of the phenomenon. The themes include: clients' understanding of the term cultural competence, self, attitudes, advocacy, understanding culture is important, role of culture, and expectations from the agency. The invariant structure that was consistent through all the above mentioned themes was the representation and manifestations of culture in the lives of the clients that continually challenged rehabilitation counselors' cultural competence through different phases of the vocational rehabilitation counseling experiences. The essence behind cultural competence was - perceiving the phenomenon as an experiential relationship based concept, where the client and the rehabilitation counselor educate one another about the all inclusive nature of the term culture and its role in the vocational rehabilitation process.