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Chapter 14
Issues in Counselor Education
FOCUS QUESTIONS
1. What kinds of information do prospective students need to receive about a counselor
training program so that they can make an informed decision regarding whether to
apply?
Points instructors may want to make:
2. What do you think you should do if you know that a classmate is struggling and does
not seem to be learning the skills, behaviors, and dispositions needed to become a
competent counselor?
Points instructors may want to make:
3. What kinds of relationships outside the classroom between counselor education
professors and students are appropriate?
Points instructors may want to make:
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• Situations that are inappropriate are babysitting for professors; attending social events
together without other students being involved; going on vacations together; dating;
having a sexual relationship; or borrowing money.
IN-CLASS ACTIVITY
Title: View from the Other Side
Learning
Goal: To provide experiential learning about (1) the challenging nature of non-
academic dismissal issues, and (2) the potential struggles associated with how
programs handle students who face such issues.
Procedures: In small groups, ask students to role play a group of faculty members in a
specific counseling graduate program. First, generate a brief description of your
program, describing its accreditation (or lack of), level and number of students,
number of faculty, type of institution, and any other descriptive information you
feel to be important in understanding your particular context. Second, based on
your context and your knowledge of the relevant ethical codes and guidelines,
generate a set of policies and procedures for handling student non-academic
problems or concerns, and also the dismissal policies and procedures in the
event remediation procedures are unsuccessful.
Discussion
Questions: What struggles occurred in your group and how did you resolve them?
What contextual factors did your group consider important?
How would you go about ensuring that the procedures your faculty group
developed would continue to be revisited and adapted, in order to continually
increase effectiveness and fairness, and to be representative of the entire
faculty?
Point/Counterpoint (Debate) Topics
Title: A Personal Counseling Experience for Students
Learning
Goal: To consider the arguments both for and against requiring students in counseling
programs to have an experience as a client in counseling.
Procedures: Assign (or allow students to volunteer) 2 groups of students (preferably 3-5
students per group) to each take one of the positions described below and
prepare a 5-minute argument in favor of that position. Have each group present
its argument. Next, allow the groups to confer for 2 minutes and then have each
group present its rebuttal to the other group’s argument. Lastly, have the class
members who served as the audience vote for which side was most persuasive.
Point: Counseling students should be required to have a minimum number of
sessions of (ungraded) experience as a client in counseling.
vs.
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Counterpoint: Counseling students should be encouraged but not required to have an
experience as a client in counseling.
Title: Relationships between Faculty and Students
Learning
Goal: To consider the benefits and risks involved in outside-of-class relationships
between faculty and students.
Point: Faculty in counseling programs should maintain strict and consistent
boundaries in their relationships with students, to protect students who are in a
vulnerable position.
vs.
Counterpoint: Students in counseling programs are all adults and faculty should be
flexible and use professional judgment in adjusting relationship boundaries to foster
mentoring and personal/professional growth.
OUTSIDE CLASS ACTIVITY
Title: Understanding Ethical or Legal Experiences from the Perspective of a
Counselor Educator
Learning
Goal: To facilitate a personal connection with an experienced counselor educator (one
who has likely experienced a major ethical or legal challenge at some point in
his or her career) such that students experience the reality of ethical or legal
issues in counselor education.
Procedures: Based on the central issues in this chapter, ask students to contact a current
counselor educator. He or she does not have to be in your own program. Ask
students to take the steps listed below:
Depending on your geographical proximity, interviews may take palace in
person, by telephone, through video conferencing, via e-mail, or any other
method of connecting that works. Prior to the scheduled interview, create a
number of interview questions based on your understanding of this chapter’s
issues. The purpose of this exercise is to facilitate a discussion between you and
an experienced counselor educator related to ethical and legal issues associated
with the counselor education professorate. After the interview, generate a report
summarizing the key takeaways from your interview. Provide a list of your
interview questions, a summary of your interview experience, what you learned,
and any insights that occurred during your interactions related to the potential
ethical or legal challenges associated with being a counselor educator.
Topic for Self-Reflection/Journaling
Topic: As you progress through your counselor training program, you will receive
feedback about your skill development and interpersonal characteristics that
may affect your counseling relationships. Reflect on how you receive feedback.
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What are some areas of development about which you may be uncomfortable
with or resistant to feedback? If necessary, how would you hope to manage your
discomfort or resistance?
CASE STUDY
You are a counselor educator working in a CACREP-accredited counseling graduate
program which prepares both masters- and doctoral-level students. As a part of their
required internship, doctoral students serve as university individual supervisors for master’s
students who are enrolled in either practicum or internship. During this particular semester,
you are one of the faculty members running the doctoral student supervision group—a
scheduled weekly group meeting during which doctoral students consult with their peers,
receive feedback from both peers and the faculty member, problem-solve challenges or
concerns, and provide updates regarding the status of their master’s-level supervisees. One
of these doctoral students is working with two individual supervisees and leading one
group. One of her two individual supervisees, an attractive male student, is nearing the end
of his internship and is getting ready to graduate. Lately, you have noticed a significant
shift in this doctoral student’s defensiveness regarding her male supervisee’s behavior,
activities on his internship site and, generally, any time a question arises regarding their
relationship. Furthermore, this defensiveness has extended into times when she receives
feedback about her own choices, comments, and interpretations as a supervisor, particularly
in regard to this late-stage internship student. On numerous occasions, this doctoral student
has shared with you her struggles with setting limits, becoming overly involved in others’
lives, and the tremendous care she maintains for her students’ experiences in supervision.
Informally, you have learned that she recently experienced the ending of a long-term
intimate relationship and you have noticed a marked reduction in her presence and overall
level of attentiveness during the group.
Case Study Discussion
As a counselor educator, what would you do? What should you do? What should you not
do? What are your responsibilities? What do you suppose is going on? What are significant
pieces of information that stand out to you? How, and to what extent, might you involve your
fellow faculty—or would you? Which ACA ethical standards might apply in this situation?
Counselor educators assume the responsibility of monitoring the effectiveness of their
doctoral students who supervise master’s students. Given the information possessed by the
counselor educator in this case study, the issue should be raised and discussed, individually, with
the doctoral student. The counselor educator should accuse the doctoral student of any wrong-
doing but, instead, should point out specific behaviors of the doctoral student and ask the student
to respond. During the individual meeting with this supervisee, the counselor educator should
express his or her concerns, discuss the extent to which the doctoral student’s supervisory
responsibilities may be being compromised, and the need to address such concerns. Counselor
educators must not become counselors to their students; however, this professor may suggest
personal counseling as a potential resource. Furthermore, due to their role as gatekeepers,
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counselor educators do not facilitate the continuation of supervisory responsibilities with
knowledge of compromised effectiveness. Accordingly, this counselor educator has a
responsibility for not only ensuring that a conversation with the doctoral student is started, but
also to follow through and, if necessary, to ensure that a remediation plan has been initiated. The
doctoral student and the counselor educator should decide together how much of the content of
their individual consultation will be shared within the context of the supervision group.
SHORT PAPER OR ORAL CLASS PRESENTATION TOPICS
1. Dual Relationships in Counselor Education – Positive Potentials and Effective
Management
2. Develop three self-growth exercises you believe would be appropriate in a counseling
graduate program, in light of the information presented in this chapter. Talk about why you
believe each exercise is appropriate and highlight similar examples that may not be
appropriate within the context of counselor education.
3. Explain and discuss the gatekeeper role, highlighting its responsibilities, potential
challenges, and importance.