Counseling Psychology Research Research Articles

Meaning-making in psychotherapy after traumatic loss: therapists’ perspectives

ABSTRACT Sudden, unexpected loss can be particularly devastating for the bereaved as they struggle to make sense of their loss. We interviewed 11 therapists who specialized in loss/trauma about how each of them helped one client make meaning after a traumatic loss. Data, analyzed using Consensual Qualitative Research (CQR), revealed that the traumatic loss had negatively impacted clients’ relationships, mental health, and beliefs/religion/spirituality; therapists utilized a range of interventions to facilitate meaning-making, including supporting clients through the grief process, as well as helping them experience/regulate emotion and change their narratives around the loss; clients made meaning in diverse ways that could be broadly categorized under meaning-as-comprehensibility and meaning-as-significance; and clients experienced positive adjustment (in mental health, relationships, etc.) through the meaning-making work. Implications for counseling psychology research and practice are discussed.

Correction to Grzanka (2021).

Reports an error in "The shape of knowledge: Situational analysis in counseling psychology research" by Patrick R. Grzanka (Journal of Counseling Psychology, 2021[Apr], Vol 68[3], 316-330). The article included a production error. An incorrect Figure 3 was published. The online version of this article has been corrected. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2020-51960-001.) Situational analysis (SA) is a powerful method for visually mapping qualitative data. As an extension of constructivist grounded theory developed by Charmaz and others, Clarke's situational analysis encourages researchers to transform qualitative data into various visual maps that can illuminate dynamics that may be obscured by more traditional analytic approaches. Fifteen years since Fassinger's landmark article on grounded theory in counseling psychology research, I make an argument for SA's potential uses in counseling psychology using data from a mixed-methods dissertation on White racial affect. I outline the exigency of SA and its epistemological and methodological underpinnings in detail, with a focus on SA as a critical, structural analysis. Each primary mapping procedure-situational, positional, and social worlds/arenas maps-is introduced and examples are provided that illustrate SA's unique analytic capacities and insights. By way of SA, I argue for a "critical-cartographic" turn in counseling psychology along four axes: promoting systems-level research and advocacy, deepening consideration of intersectionality, cultivating alternative epistemologies beyond post-positivism, and invigorating qualitative research on counseling and psychotherapy. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Understanding systemic racism: Anti-Blackness, white supremacy, racial capitalism, and the re/creation of white space and time.

In this article, the authors explain systemic racism through a racial-spatial framework wherein anti-Blackness, white supremacy, and racial capitalism interlock to create and recreate white space and time. Through the creation of private property, institutional inequities become embedded and structured for the benefit of white people. The framework provides a way to conceptualize how our geographies are racialized and how time is often used against Black and non-Black people of Color. In contrast to white experiences of feeling "in-place" almost everywhere, Black and non-Black people of Color continually experience displacement and dispossession of both their place and their time. This racial-spatial onto-epistemology is derived from the knowledge and experiences of Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian, and other non-Black people of Color, and how they have learned through acculturation, racial trauma, and micro-aggressions to thrive in white spaces and contend with racism such as time-theft. The authors posit that through reclaiming space and time, Black and non-Black people of Color can imagine and practice possibilities that center their lived experiences and knowledge as well as elevate their communities. Recognizing the importance of reclaiming space and time, the authors encourage counseling psychology researchers, educators, and practitioners to consider their positionalities with respect to systemic racism and the advantages it confers to white people. Through the process of creating counterspaces and using counterstorytelling, practitioners may help clients develop healing and nurturing ecologies that challenge the perniciousness of systemic racism. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

A Content Analysis of Immigrant and Refugee Research: A 31-year Review

This study systematically reviewed the immigrant and refugee research in counseling psychology and related fields, which included 323 empirical studies in 310 articles, over a 31-year period. We analyzed the content and methods in (a) participant characteristics, (b) study characteristics, (c) topics and theoretical frameworks, and (d) publication trends. To summarize key findings, top nations of origin included Mexico, China, and South Korea. English-speaking, young individuals and college students were overrepresented in study participants. Acculturation and enculturation was one of the most frequently used variables, topics, and theories. Nevertheless, the proportion of acculturation and enculturation research has declined over time, while research on racial bias and discrimination has increased since 2000. It suggests growing attention to sociopolitical dimensions of migration beyond cultural transition. Qualitative methods were frequently used when studying Middle Eastern immigrants, refugees, and LGBTQ issues. We evaluated the findings from strength-based, bidirectional, ecological, and intersectional perspectives and suggest directions for research, practice, advocacy, education, and training.

상담심리 연구의 혼합연구 방법에 대한 동향 분석

The purpose of this study is to analyze the trend of studies applying mixed research methods related to counseling psychology. As a result of selecting and analyzing a total of 51 mixed studies from 2013 to 2022, there is an increasing trend by year, and the number of papers on general psychological counseling by research area was the highest at 16, and by research subject, adulthood showed the highest rate. The ratio of the papers presenting the reason for the design of the mixed study and the purpose of utilization were 85% and 80.0%, respectively, and the simultaneous internal design was identified as 49% and the sequential inquiry design as 39%. This study is meaningful in that it has examined the steady application and development of mixed research methods in the field of counseling psychology, and it is expected to be used as basic data to help the field of counseling psychology research.

Qualitative story completion: A creative and novel method for psychotherapy and counselling psychology research

Story completion (SC) – where respondents are presented with the start of a story (the story ‘stem’ or ‘cue’) and asked to complete it – originally developed as a projective technique for clinical and research assessment. While SC continues to be used in this way, it has also evolved into a qualitative data generation technique, providing qualitative researchers with a creative and novel alternative to the self-report data typical of qualitative research. In this paper, we outline the growing interest in the method within psychotherapy and counselling psychology research and explain what we think the method offers to this field of research. To support psychotherapists and counselling psychologists in adding SC to their methodological toolkit, we also provide practical guidance on the design and implementation of SC, drawing on an example study exploring perceptions of ethnic/racial differences between a therapist and client.

Racial Discrimination and Risky Sex: Examining Cognitive-Emotional Factors in Black College Students

Using the lifespan biopsychosocial model of cumulative vulnerability and minority health as a theroretical lens, the present study proposed two models to test the relationships among racial discrimination, cognitive–emotional factors, and risky sexual behaviors in a sample of 302 Black college students in the United States. Our models provided support for some of the hypothesized direct and indirect pathways. As expected, overt racial discrimination and subtle racial discrimination (i.e., racial microaggression) were both positively related to cognitive–emotional factors (i.e., anxiety, depression, hopelessness, and hostility). Racial microaggressions were significantly positively related to risky sexual behaviors, but overt racial discrimination was not. Hostility was the only cognitive–emotional factor that facilitated an indirect, significant effect from racial microaggressions to risky sexual behaviors. Potential implications are discussed for practice, training programs, and future counseling psychology research with Black college students using the lifespan biopsychosocial model of cumulative vulnerability and minority health.

Latinx Undergraduates’ Navigation in the Context of COVID-19 and Racial Injustice

Six self-identified, first-generation, Latinx, undergraduates from West Coast public institutions were recruited via social media to participate in individual, semi-structured, qualitative interviews about their experiences with COVID-19 and racial injustice during the summer and fall of 2020. Interviews explored challenges and meaning-making around what was happening in participants’ lives during the COVID-19 pandemic and how they experienced and made sense of those events. Interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to identify emergent themes that fell into two main categories: (a) Adversities and (b) Ways of Overcoming. Several subthemes also emerged and are discussed for each category, including various ways of facing adversity, such as reliance on family and friends. Results highlight the need for expanded resources for first-generation Latinx undergraduate students. Limitations and future directions, as well as implications for counseling psychology researchers, educators, and practitioners are discussed.

Construction and Validation of the Legitimizing Income Inequality Scale

Although income inequality has become a focus of political and social discourse, counseling psychology research examining correlates and consequences of legitimizing income inequality remains sparse. A significant barrier to the study of income inequality is the lack of available measures to assess attitudes toward socioeconomic inequality. The purpose of this study was to develop and provide initial validity evidence for the Legitimizing Income Inequality Scale (LIIS). Results supported a bifactor structure for the LIIS with a general factor (ω = .95) and subfactors measuring Social Welfare Beliefs (ω = .92), Economic Fatalism (ω = .87), and Economic Meritocracy Beliefs (ω = .90). The LIIS significantly correlated in theoretically consistent directions with scores on measures of classist attitudes, socioeconomic conservatism, impression management, and colorblind racial attitudes. Implications for future research and training using the LIIS are provided.

Listening beyond words: The absence of non-speaking autistic input in counselling psychology research and practice

While an increasingly researched field, most autism research has focused on children and adolescents. Adult-based research remains sparse by comparison, particularly research focussing on those who are nonverbal, or who require alternative communication strategies. The following literature review was conducted while concurrently engaging with the members of autistic community in order to establish research gaps and to include their input in practice. Using search terms including (but not limited to autis*, nonverbal, non-speaking, autis* AND adult*) a number of databases and journals were explored in search of research which included and stemmed from direct autistic input. The literature revealed a gap in research focussing on autistic wellbeing and including the voices of those who are non-speaking, or who use alternative communication strategies. Prompted by this literature review and discussions with a number of autistic adults, a constructivist grounded theory study was proposed by the author and, following ethics approval by Regents University London, has begun data collection. The study aims to explore the experiences of non-speaking autistic adults and how these can guide psychotherapeutic practice. It is hoped that this research will contribute to counselling psychology and wider practice through the conceptualisation of a sensitised model of understanding and working psychotherapeutically with this population group.

Introduction to the Special Issue: Integration of Practice, Advocacy, and Research in Counseling Psychology

In this article, we introduce the special issue of The Counseling Psychologist on the integration of practice, advocacy, and research in counseling psychology. This special issue was driven by Dr. Shavonne Moore-Lobban’s project as a member of the Society for Counseling Psychology Leadership Collaborative. The aim of the special issue is to highlight the unique practice, advocacy, and research contributions of practitioners, and specifically focus on the integration of the three roles of everyday counseling psychologists. There are six practitioner-led manuscripts that strengthen a focus within counseling psychology of the integration across the three roles, and through the diverse lens of counseling psychologists as therapists, supervisors, educators, researchers, program developers, and advocates. The development of this special issue is reviewed. We provide a brief summary of the manuscripts and discuss implications for continued integration.

La Clinica In LaK’ech: Establishing a Practicum Site Integrating Practice, Advocacy, and Research With Latinx Clients

This article concerns the establishment and development of La Clinica In LaK’ech, a bilingual mental health clinic collectively founded and staffed by a counseling psychologist and doctoral students in a counseling psychology doctoral program in the Southeast United States. During over 5 years of existence, the clinic has blended bilingual counseling psychology services, advocacy, interdisciplinary collaboration, and research with the Latinx population. The authors describe the development of the clinic and resultant clinical, training, and ethical issues that confronted the clinic in terms of providing services to a marginalized community in a state where anti-immigrant rhetoric, detention, and deportations were escalating. Also discussed are implications for training in practice, advocacy, service, and research for counseling psychologists working with Latinx communities.

Digital storytelling methodologies: Recommendations for a participatory approach to engaging underrepresented communities in counseling psychology research.

While counseling psychologists made substantial proposals to advance qualitative research since the special issue on related methods was published 15-years ago (Haverkamp, Morrow, & Ponterotto, 2005), the field continues to demonstrate an overreliance on quantitative methods. Though important for producing knowledge we can depend on, excessive use of these methods poses a barrier for counseling psychologists to address the needs of the communities that are at the core of our discipline's values-those who are marginalized and underserved in society. In alignment with our values of social justice, advocacy, and empowerment, we propose counseling psychologists adopt a methodology within a critical paradigm to better address issues of inequality and inequity when working with underrepresented communities, such as digital storytelling. Rooted in a movement to increase access to art for marginalized communities in the 1970s and 1980s, digital storytelling is an arts-based research methodology that captures first-person narrated accounts of peoples' lives through the use of stories, photos, and videos, and empowers communities to be a part of research to create social change. We provide recommendations for using digital storytelling in counseling psychology research as outlined through 5 phases, including Phase I) digital storytelling's critical paradigm, Phase II) project development, Phase III) implementation, Phase IV) data analysis, and Phase V) dissemination. While doing so, we draw on examples from 2 digital storytelling projects we are familiar with, Immigrant Stories and OrigiNatives, providing a framework for a digital frontier in counseling psychology research. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

The shape of knowledge: Situational analysis in counseling psychology research.

Situational analysis (SA) is a powerful method for visually mapping qualitative data. As an extension of constructivist grounded theory developed by Charmaz and others, Clarke's situational analysis encourages researchers to transform qualitative data into various visual maps that can illuminate dynamics that may be obscured by more traditional analytic approaches. Fifteen years since Fassinger's landmark article on grounded theory in counseling psychology research, I make an argument for SA's potential uses in counseling psychology using data from a mixed-methods dissertation on White racial affect. I outline the exigency of SA and its epistemological and methodological underpinnings in detail, with a focus on SA as a critical, structural analysis. Each primary mapping procedure-situational, positional, and social worlds/arenas maps-is introduced and examples are provided that illustrate SA's unique analytic capacities and insights. By way of SA, I argue for a "critical-cartographic" turn in counseling psychology along four axes: promoting systems-level research and advocacy, deepening consideration of intersectionality, cultivating alternative epistemologies beyond post-positivism, and invigorating qualitative research on counseling and psychotherapy. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Exploring human action in counseling psychology: The action-project research method.

Qualitative research in counseling psychology in the last 2 decades has been characterized by the introduction and use of a range of methods and corresponding paradigms and conceptual frameworks. The action-project research method, described and updated in this article, is based on an understanding of human action as goal-directed and enacted in context: contextual action theory. We summarize this framework, prior to describing the method's procedures for conceptualizing research problems and questions, collecting and analyzing data from dyads of participants, and presenting research findings. We also discuss recent adaptations to the procedures and how the method addresses core issues in counseling psychology; that is, methodological integrity, culture, ethics, and power. We proceed to describe how the method relates to other qualitative methods and the kinds of research questions asked by the discipline and how the action-project method connects to professional practice issues. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Qualitative story completion for counseling psychology research: A creative method to interrogate dominant discourses.

Qualitative story completion (SC) research involves the novel qualitative application of a technique previously used in quantitative research and clinical assessment, in which participants write stories in response to a story "stem" designed by the researcher. The resulting stories are analyzed to identify patterns of meaning using conventional qualitative analytic approaches such as thematic analysis. In place of the more typical self-report methods used in qualitative research, such as interviews or focus groups, the method provides a categorically different way to explore a topic, one which can offer new understandings to counseling psychology researchers. In particular, SC's capacity to illuminate social discourses makes it particularly useful for understanding the potential ways in which socially marginalized populations are understood in therapeutic spaces as well as for understanding how clients of all kinds may make sense of therapeutic interactions. This article provides an introduction to qualitative SC, explaining the method and its origins, and offering practical guidance about how to use it. The method is illustrated with examples from the existing SC literature and a hypothetical study focused on understandings of mental health difficulties in the workplace. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Using event-related potentials to explore processes of change in counseling psychology.

The purpose of this article is to serve as a guide for counseling psychologists to learn about a neuroscience methodology that can be used to study psychotherapy change processes. Event-related potential (ERP) is a specific type of electroencephalography that can be time-locked to a stimulus and thus allows researchers to examine neural responses to specific therapeutic techniques. A conceptual overview of the method and its applicability to counseling psychologists is provided. Additionally, this article contains basic guidelines for designing an ERP study, the tools necessary for setting up an ERP lab, and an overview of data-processing strategies. Common pitfalls encountered both broadly in neuroscience research and specifically in ERP research are discussed. An integrated review of relevant literature is presented here, along with suggestions for future counseling psychology research, with a focus on establishing biomarkers of successful interventions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

A qualitative exploration of women's work aspirations and beliefs on meritocracy.

Meritocratic beliefs continue to be widely accepted in the United States; nonetheless, upward mobility is out of reach for many American women due to pervasive barriers to accessing decent work. The present study aims to explore American women's work aspirations and beliefs in the American Dream (the premise that no matter where people come from, with hard work, they can achieve prosperity) in light of the gap between this notion and the social inequalities in their working lives. We conducted semistructured interviews with 17 American women from diverse racial, educational, and work backgrounds to examine these women's work aspirations and beliefs on the American Dream. Qualitative content analysis yielded 3 domains: (a) aspiring for work that fulfills essential human needs, (b) multilayered influences on women's work aspirations, and (c) making sense of work aspirations in relation to beliefs on the American Dream. Our findings highlight the importance of relationships and systemic factors in shaping women's work aspirations. In addition, women's beliefs on the American Dream reflect complex interactions between endorsing meritocratic beliefs and their personal experiences. Implications for counseling psychology theory, research, and practice are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Meta-analytic Overview of Concept Mapping Methodology in Korean Counseling Psychology Research

Meta-analytic Overview of Concept Mapping Methodology in Korean Counseling Psychology Research

Practitioners’ narratives regarding active ingredients in service delivery: Collaboration-based problem solving

ObjectivesWe examined experienced practitioners’ (N = 21) stories about two of their athlete consultancies, with a focus on their descriptions of the active ingredients involved in service delivery. DesignQualitative interviews informed by narrative theory. MethodConsultants (9 females and 12 males, aged 27–46) with at least four years of professional experience discussed two client consultancies during open-ended narrative interviews. Data analysis began with an examination of the narrative structure of the practitioners’ stories, followed by an investigation of the narrative themes. ResultsThe structure of the participants’ stories reflected a collaborative expert problem-solving narrative, in which they described working as experts in concert with athletes who needed help in solving their problems. Narrative themes included the influence of relationships, client allegiance, and active athlete engagement towards service delivery outcomes. An additional theme involved a constrained freedom in which contextual factors influenced service delivery. ConclusionsResults had strong parallels with clinical and counselling psychology research, such as the Rogerian narrative to service delivery. Findings also reflected a self-promotional narrative that surrounds psychological service delivery. Applied implications include the value of self-awareness, developing authenticity, and learning to become part of the sport organization’s culture.