Counseling Research Research Articles

Collecting sexual orientation in counseling research: Implications for counselor education

AbstractSexual orientation is often invisible in counseling research despite increasing LGBQ+ identity in the United States. We used consensual qualitative research to explore considerations from LGBQ+ counseling researchers for collecting sexual orientation. Three domains emerged: risks, benefits, and methodological considerations. Our findings highlight inclusive research practice strategies for LGBQ+ research participants.

Integrating reality counseling with the creative arts as a counselor's professional practice: A review literature

Counselor creativity is one aspect that needs to be strengthened by counselors in providing counseling services. The creativity of this counselor can encourage the emergence of meaningful counseling services and significantly impact changes in counselee behavior. This article explains the integration of reality counseling with the creative arts. This article is a structured and systematic literature review of the development of ideas and reality counseling research related to the creative arts. This article is an analysis of 51 articles published from 2010 to 2020. In addition, three scientific articles directly relate to combining creative arts and reality counseling. A study of these articles found that creative arts can increase the effectiveness of reality counseling with the WDEP (wants, doing, evaluation, planning) system pattern. Creative arts supporting the efficacy of the WDEP system pattern of reality counseling are drawings, puppets, metaphors, and sand trays. The combination of reality counseling by utilizing creative arts such as drawing, puppets, metaphors, and sand trays produces operational guidelines for counselors consisting of four counseling sessions. Integrating creative arts into reality counseling is a form of professionalism for counselors in counseling services. Operating procedures for combining reality counseling with creative arts are discussed in this article. The findings of this study provide recommendations for further research to identify the effectiveness of counseling empirically in overcoming specific problems in counselees.

The emergence of unique elective identities in the professional identity development research in the counseling profession

AbstractIn this study, a qualitative content analysis of the professional identity development research in counseling was conducted to describe elements of the development of “elective identities” of leader, research, counselor educator, and social justice practitioner. Predisposing, process, and outcome codes reveal experiences and contexts that influence this development in students, educators, and counselors.

Social determinants of mental health: Informing counseling practice and professional identity

AbstractThe counseling field, with its grounding in wellness, social justice, and development, is well positioned to adopt a social determinants of mental health framework and lead initiatives to further integrate this type of framework into the larger mental health field. The purpose of this article is to bring together and apply two existing models, the social determinants of mental health and the social determinants of mental disorders, to the field of professional counseling. The authors argue that by adopting this framework, professional counselors will be better positioned to identify and address social determinants of mental health both proximal and distal to their clients and use this to inform direct clinical practice, the design and evaluation of counselor training programs, the development of community‐based intervention programs, counseling research, as well as policy initiatives ranging from the organizational to public policy levels.

Global trends and themes in genetic counseling research.

This article seeks to highlight the most recent trends and themes in genetic counseling that are of broad interest. A total of 3505 documents were published between 1952 and 2021, with a trend toward increase in paper/year. The most common documents are original articles (2515, 71.8%), followed by review articles (341, 9.7%). Journal of Genetic Counseling publishes the highest number of genetic counseling articles (587, 16.7%), followed by Clinical Genetics (103, 2.9%) and the South American Journal of Medical Genetics (95, 2.7%). Co-occurrence analysis revealed five research themes: genetic testing, cancer, genetic counselor, prenatal diagnosis, and psychiatry. The genetic counselor theme contained most of the recent keywords, including "covid-19," "underrepresented population," "service delivery models," "workforce," "disparities," "service delivery," "professional development," "cultural competence," "access," "diversity," "telemedicine," and "health literacy." Genetic counseling researchers may use these keywords to find topics pertinent to their future research and practice.

Wellness and well‐being in counseling research: A 31‐year content analysis

AbstractTo examine wellness and well‐being research in professional counseling journals, we completed a comprehensive 31‐year content analysis of counseling research within 25 counseling journals. Of the sample of 374 publications that met the search criteria, wellness publications accounted for 222 (59.4%) of the articles, and well‐being publications accounted for 152 (40.6%) of the articles. The authors examined publication patterns, topics, theoretical frameworks, and research methodologies within wellness and well‐being counseling research.

A Discourse Map on Counseling International Students in Korea

Abstract The number of international students has drastically increased over a decade in Korea. And a psychological demand to make them successfully adjust their college life in Korea has also increased. Accordingly, it is necessary to explore how international student-focused counseling research has unfolded in Korea. To this end, this study provides research trend in Korea through a content analysis of 79 theses and articles published over recent two decades (1996-2016). Over 140 research contents are classified into 10 categories, including cultural adjustment, psychological health, and career and vocation as the main three categories. Frequency of conceptions or terms in each category, and relationship between those conceptions are analyzed. Based on the content analysis, a discourse map is finally drawn. Also, future research agendas are suggested.

Adapting Strauss and Corbin's grounded theory in clinical case study research in the field of counselling

AbstractCase study can be adopted when aiming to understand an individual's lived experience. Such experience produces rich and complex qualitative data for analysis, conducive to counselling and psychotherapy research. Furthermore, grounded theory (GT) can be adopted to produce a theory from qualitative data, fitting well with case study research that explores complex experiences regarding social, psychological and phenomenological processes. This paper aims to guide the counselling researcher to incorporate Strauss and Corbin's model into the main arena of qualitative counselling research. In addition, this paper draws on a multiple case study that adopted Strauss and Corbin's method and identified various phases in the GT process. The aim is to inform the reader how to put the iterative process and pragmatic theoretical sampling into practice to produce a robust theory from clinical case study data.

Pengembangan dan Validasi Instrumen Kepercayaan Diri Siswa dalam Merespon

The activity of responding to learning in the classroom is one of the indicators of the success of the learning process. One aspect that is very influential on students' ability to respond during learning is self-confidence. This study aims to develop and validate a student confidence instrument in responding to learning that can be used by counselors / counseling teachers in schools and researchers in the field of counseling. The instrument developed can measure students' level of confidence in responding. This research and development study was conducted in 2015 at SMA Negeri 8 Padang. The aspects of self-confidence measured in the instrument include: believing in themselves in responding, thinking positively in responding, having an internal locus of control in responding, and daring to accept and face the rejection of others in responding based on the theory of Fatimah (2008); Lauster (2012); Goel and Agarwal (2012). The validity test uses product moment correlation with an overall item validity value of 0.441. The reliability test used the Croncbach Alpha formula with a coefficient value of 0.705. The results of this data analysis mean that the self-confidence instrument in responding can be declared valid and reliable. So that the instrument of student confidence in responding to the developed can be used by school counselors / counseling teachers and counseling researchers to be able to measure the level of student confidence in responding to learning in the classroom.

Transitions to the Journal of Counseling Research and Practice

This article introduces the 2022 the Journal of Counseling Research and Practice(JCRP) fall issue. The transition process of JCRP and the editors are explainedthrough Schlossberg’s Theory of Transition. This theory has been applied to severaltypes of transitions in the lives of adults such as a person’s situation, self, supportand strategies also known as the 4 S’s. Examples provided by Schlossberg werestarting and finishing college, college graduation, starting to work, becoming acaregiver, military transitions and retirement. Transition theory has been appliedto lives of adults who took on major life roles.

Reclaiming the System: Group Counseling Landscape in Schools

Postpandemic culture has provided educators the opportunity to rebuild and reclaim the education system from its very foundation. Pioneering researchers in school counseling have begun reexamining what antiracist school counseling programs look like and providing school counselors practical recommendations for addressing racism and dismantling racist policies and procedures in their schools. This article disseminates findings from a quantitative research study that examined how school counselors are currently utilizing the lens of power, privilege, and intersectionality in their implementation of small groups in their schools. The results indicated that about half (52%) of participants are implementing small-group counseling through this lens while the other half are not. Further results showed that, demographically, school counselors who identified as Black or African American are more likely to do this critical work. We discuss implications for practitioners as they explore their own racial identity and battle racial inequities in schools.

Using an Antiracist Lens in School Counseling Research

It is important for school counselors to learn more about antiracism and to incorporate antiracist concepts into their practice more consistently ( Holcomb-McCoy, 2021 ; Mayes & Byrd, 2022 ; Stickl Haugen et al., 2022 ). Operating from a critical political standpoint perspective ( Cushman, 1995 ; Prilleltensky, 1994 ), namely, critical race theory (CRT), we offer a conceptual framework for helping school counselors and counselor educators develop an antiracist lens that guides and informs their research agendas and research-informed practices.

Qualitative Research in Counseling and Treatment Research

Research methods in counseling and therapy are diversified and scientific, and the ultimate goal is to solve the problems encountered in counseling and therapy to a certain extent, so the research methods are not open to life practice. However, there is a serious disconnect between qualitative research and life practice in counseling and treatment research, which has led to a more theoretical approach to counseling and treatment research and a failure to better solve problems. In this paper, we analyze the qualitative research in counseling and therapy research.

자비중심치료 개관연구

The purpose of this study is to overview of Compassion Focused Therapy and the characteristics of the program, to suggest the application plan and research direction of domestic cognitive behavioral therapy, and to provide a theoretical basis that can be applied to clients with various psychological problems. and to provide practical assistance in counseling. To this end, this study reviewed previous studies based on the theory of compassion-centered therapy, and reviewed the core concepts of the theory and the characteristics of the program. The conclusion is as follows. First, Compassion Focused Therapy can be applied to people who have high levels of shame and self-blame, who tend to have chronic psychological problems, and who have difficulty or fear of self-gentleness and self-acceptance. Second, Compassion Focused Therapy targets self-criticism and shame, and seeks to enhance a sense of belonging, especially the ability to experience self-generating and self-centered belonging. Third, the Compassion-centered treatment program utilizes the emotional control system to expand and maintain the compassionate mind within oneself. Fourth, compassion-centered therapy can help to increase personal psychological well-being by extending self-compassion and meaning of life to clients with self-criticism in the field of cognitive behavioral therapy and reducing negative emotions. This study is significant in that it contributed to the development of clinical application and counseling research in domestic cognitive behavioral therapy by reviewing compassion-centered therapy and identifying research trends.

LGBTQ+ Substance Use and Sexual Health and Wellbeing: A Special Commentary

Although there has been some increased visibility in professional counseling literature pertaining to LGBTQ+ issues, gaps still exist. One such omission is how LGBTQ+ sexual wellbeing is negatively influenced by substance use. This commentary briefly reviews ways LGBTQ+ sexual wellbeing is negatively impacted by substance use. We provide commentary on how counselors may bolster sexual wellbeing when working with LGBTQ+ substance users and highlight gaps in counseling research. Lastly, recommendations for integrating this content into counselor training are provided.

Sex-Positive Clinical Supervision: A Special Commentary

This commentary focuses on clinical competencies, research frameworks, training implications that elevate the meta-competence awareness for the clinical supervisor. There is an identified need to expand sex-positive clinical supervision guidelines. The supervisory setting is created for the safety and personal-professional growth of the supervisee, where it is an opportunity to conceptualize the thematic development of our clinical evolution. In this space, we set a foundation for clinical frameworks to guide the applicability of specific intervention methods and strategies that allow for the critical formulation of a healthy therapeutic outcome. Without established and robust sex-positive frameworks in supervision, the clinical supervisor is exposed to incompetent practices that miss an adequate assessment, detection, and treatment, all critical elements of the conceptualization process. To make matters worse, the lack of training and preparation in sexual wellness and other sexual topics is transferred onto the supervisee, creating a circuit of uninformed clinicians and left to fend on their own when encountering a future client seeking treatment. Not only are we causing a disservice to our supervisees, but we are perpetually injuring the clinical community as a whole. This commentary will examine the clinical, research and training priorities in clinical mental health counseling.

Prenatal patient perceptions of receiving difficult news over the telephone.

Difficult news has been described as any news that adversely and seriously affects an individual's view of their future. Research in oncology genetic counseling demonstrated that individuals do not prefer in-person or telephone delivery of their genetic test results. However, in the prenatal setting, there is limited research examining how patients prefer news related to their pregnancies be disclosed. This study aimed to assess the experiences and preferences of prenatal patients who received difficult news by telephone. A semi-structured interview guide was developed to assess patients' personal definitions of difficult news and their experiences receiving the news by telephone. Fifteen patients seen prenatally by a genetic counselor were interviewed. Interviews were transcribed and consensus-coded, using inductive content analysis to identify several themes. The most common definition of difficult news included unexpected, life-changing, or devastating information. Participants described aspects of their experience and strategies employed by their genetic counselor that was helpful when receiving the news, which was found to align with the SPIKES protocol, a six-step process of delivering difficult news to patients. Additional techniques that participants identified as beneficial and satisfactory included the genetic counselor's use of empathy, non-directiveness, and continuity and coordination of care. Participants also provided recommendations for improvement, including a discussion of the mode of result disclosure during pretest counseling, an option to follow up with their genetic counselor, personalized resources, and a summary of the results call. The findings of this study demonstrate that a patient-centered approach is preferred by patients who receive difficult news by telephone in the prenatal setting. Patients' identification of beneficial communication techniques and suggestions for improvement can be implemented by any healthcare provider responsible for delivering difficult news to prenatal patients.

Counseling Research as Caring

This study models counseling research as a social action process highlighting multicultural counselor identity. Seven co-researcher/participants engaged in a community-based reflexive contemplative practice group which aimed at dismantling the power imbalance that normally exists between researchers and participants, and to remain cognizant of the insidious nature of white supremacy. The data collected represents the content and process reflections on participating in this group which invited contemplation about identity on many different levels. Several themes emerged from data as implications for counseling research. Considering research as caring on clinical practice and future research is also discussed.

상담전공 특수대학원에 재학하는 성인학습자의 학습경험에 대한 합의적 질적 연구

Objectives The aim of the study is to analyze the learning experience of adult learners in professional counseling program based on the expectancy-value theory.
 Methods Focus group interviews were conducted with ten students in the program and the data was analyzed using Consensual Qualitative Research(CQR) method. Consensual Qualitative Research is a method in which a research team consisting of evaluators and one supervisor analyzes data and checks the overall pattern through consensus.
 Results The major results are as follows. First, most of the students had a motivation to go to graduate school by recognizing the intrinsic value such as interest in counseling, the desire to learn, and the utility value such as the second job preparation and center opening plan. However, there was no expectancy belief for success that the degree course would be completed successfully. Second, the anticipated cost before entering the program is the opportunity cost incurred by not being able to participate in work or family life as before and the effort cost from engaging in the program. Despite of the cost perception, they decided to participate in the program. After entering the program, these anticipated cost perceptions partly continued with other newly emerged costs, such as doubts and concerns about ability in counseling and counseling research methodology. Third, emotional support from the interpersonal relationships, interest and mastery experience in the counseling domain were the most influential sources for being continuously engaged in the program, compared to the perceptions of utility values such as obtaining a license or preparing for a second job were dominant before entering the program.
 Conclusions This research allowed exploration of adult learner's various difficulties and sources of continuing study during attending a special graduate school majoring in counseling. Implications for further research and practices were provided.

Factors Associated with the Choice of Contraceptive Method following an Induced Abortion after Receiving PFPS Counseling among Women Aged 20-49 Years in Hunan Province, China.

There is limited research on postabortion family planning (PAFP) services and subsequent contraception in China. The current study aimed to identify women's contraceptive methods choices and associated factors after receiving PAFP services. A cross-sectional study used a cluster, stratified and multistage random sample to collect data. All eligible data were analyzed using SPSS 26.0. The chi-square test was used to assess the association between categorical variables. Significant variables (p < 0.05) and all potential variables were then included in the binary logistic regression model for analysis. Approximately 84.7% (1043/1231) of participants had received pre-abortion PAFP counselling, and approximately 90% of them chose reliable methods. Farmers or workers (OR = 0.297, 95% CI: 0.130-0.683), family monthly income (3000-4999 RMB, OR = 0.454, 95% CI: 0.212-0.973; ≥5000 RMB, OR = 0.455, 95% CI: 0.228-0.909), reliable advice from services providers before abortion (OR = 0.098, 95% CI: 0.039-0.250), painless surgical abortion (OR = 3.465, 95% CI 1.177-10.201), and postabortion follow-up (OR = 0.543, 95% CI: 0.323-0.914) and were associated with contraception choice after receiving PAFP services. This study emphasizes the importance of pre-abortion PAFP counselling, postabortion follow-up, and increased focus on women who have experienced painless abortion. The study provides direction for PAFP services policymakers, as well as a reference for contraceptive counselling research around the world.