Predictors of Psychological Help Seeking in Clinical and Counseling Psychology Graduate Students.

Psychologists are often called upon to provide supervision, mentorship, and training to graduate student therapists-in-training. In these roles, psychologists may influence whether graduate students enter personal therapy during their training. This study investigated variables (including perceived faculty attitudes about students in personal therapy) that predict psychotherapy help seeking in clinical and counseling psychology graduate students (N = 262). The findings indicated that confidentiality issues, general attitudes about therapy, and perceptions of the importance of personal therapy for professional development were important predictors of graduate student help seeking. The implications for faculty, supervisors, and mentors of therapists-in-training are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Understanding the perceptions and experiences of faculty who teach multicultural counseling courses: An exploratory study.

Professional psychologists who teach multicultural counseling courses often face significant challenges, and very little information is available on their perceptions and experiences. A survey blending quantitative and qualitative questions was distributed to 169 faculty members who teach multicultural counseling courses. Results indicate that most faculty members surveyed typically incorporated self-disclosure when teaching and viewed their cultural identity as influential in how they teach. They also identified the specific teaching strategies they used and specified common group dynamics in class. Understanding the perceptions and experiences of faculty members who teach multicultural courses is essential to providing support for the important work done by these multicultural educators. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Student and faculty perceptions of counseling centers: What's in a name?

Surveyed 296 university students and 115 faculty members by telephone and asked them to rank order 4 counseling center titles in terms of the likelihood that they would utilize services offered by the centers. The titles were Psychological and Career Exploration Service; Personal and Career Counseling Service; Psychological and Career Counseling Service; and Counseling, Career, and Consultation Service. Ss were also asked to indicate whether they had ever used or referred students to the university counseling service and how important the title of the agency was to them in deciding to use its services. Results indicate that the counseling center title was important to students and faculty in determining their use of a counseling center; both groups preferred the 1st title. The discussion focuses on the extent to which the present findings are consistent with and broaden understanding of help-seeking behavior and on implications for representing counseling center services. (26 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychologists in medical schools—professional issues for the future: How are rank and tenure associated with productivity and satisfaction?

The authors surveyed a random sample of 293 psychologists employed as faculty members in medical schools to evaluate professional activities, academic productivity, and work satisfaction. A relatively high response rate (62%) was obtained. Medical school psychologists devoted significant amounts of time to clinical service (30%) and research (34%). Overall satisfaction was relatively high, and participants expressed substantial enthusiasm regarding the future of psychology in medical schools. When differences were examined by tenure track and academic rank, psychologists on the tenure track and full professors displayed the highest levels of productivity and satisfaction. This pattern continued when medical school psychologists ranked their satisfaction in relation to physician colleagues and faculty in university departments of psychology. Results are discussed within the context of the rapidly evolving health care delivery system and the future of psychologists in medical schools. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Employee Assistance Program: A Systems Intervention Model for Health Care Settings.

The August 1979 special issue of Professional Psychology on psychologists in health care settings covered activities of psychologists in a variety of such settings. The importance of a "life-space developmental frame of reference" is described by Donald Wertlieb (1979) in "A Preventive Mental Health Paradigm for Health Care Psychologists." We should like to respond to his argument for a preventive health frame of reference by drawing your attention to the employee assistance program as one such prevention and early intervention model for both the academic and nonacademic staffs of universities and colleges. The University of Missouri-Columbia Employee Assistance Program (EAP) is an example of such a program. We have recently completed our fourth year of operation and have provided services during these 4 years to over 500 faculty, staff, and their families. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Addressing disparities: Consultation and outreach strategies for university settings.

This article explores consultation and outreach within a counseling center setting, analyzing its usefulness for identifying and addressing systemic barriers in college settings to learning and development. An outline for counseling center consultation and a case study are provided, demonstrating how counseling psychologists can help to create a more equitable and comfortable workplace and learning environment for faculty and students. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Career patterns in counseling centers: Counseling psychologists review their past, present, and future.

Surveyed 381 psychologists working in college or university counseling centers to gain insight into career patterns of counseling center psychologists. Included were reasons for seeking, staying with, or leaving a particular position; satisfaction with past and current work activities; and future career planning. An analysis of the survey responses led to identification of distinct career patterns for counseling center psychologists as well as unique drawbacks and advantages associated with counseling center work, including flexibility of job functions, the opportunity to work with students in an academic setting and the low pay scale. Results suggest that the college counseling center is a satisfying employment setting characterized by early entry and a minimal number of job changes over the span of a career. (6 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The impact of school violence on school personnel: Implications for psychologists.

Each year, approximately 234,000 teachers in the United States are victims of school-related violence. After a violent incident, school-based mental health professionals, psychologists from the community, and administrators appropriately intervene to provide counseling and other services for students. Unfortunately, many school personnel who have been victimized do not receive adequate treatment after such incidents occur. In this article, the authors argue that psychologists, school personnel, and mental health counselors must be aware of the needs of teachers and administrators who have been affected by these events and must, therefore, provide counseling for them as well. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychologists in secondary schools in the 1990s: Current functions, training, and job satisfaction.

Surveyed 173 school psychologists serving secondary schools concerning their current roles and functions, training needs, and general job satisfaction. Results revealed that many school psychologists in secondary schools are providing a wide variety of services, including direct (e.g., counseling) and indirect (e.g., consultation) services. Approximately three-quarters of the Ss reported being satisfied with their work in secondary schools. Job satisfaction was related to increased time spent in intervention-related activities and decreased time spent in psychological assessment activities. Data reflected encouraging findings regarding the scope of school psychological services in secondary settings but also underscored the need for diversified training of school psychologists. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Selected outcomes of accredited programs.

For a representative sample of 149 accredited doctoral programs, 3 types of outcomes are reported: activities of students, time to degree, and employment settings of graduates. Comparisons of activities on the basis of program specialty area yielded a difference only for the activity of providing professional services (with clinical?>?counseling?>?school). Comparisons on the basis of degree type (PhD, PsyD) yielded differences for all activities except providing professional services, with PhD students and faculty reporting higher median levels of involvement. Students in PhD programs require significantly longer (approximately 1.5 years) to complete their degrees than do PsyD program students. Graduates' employment settings tend to be consistent with the specialty area of their doctoral programs with interesting shifts from initial to subsequent employment. Recommendations are made for expanding outcome assessment of graduate education and training in professional psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Faculty consultation: An emerging role for the counseling psychologist.

Considers that a recent trend for counseling psychologists working in higher education settings has been an increasing repertoire of effective therapeutic interventions. The traditional role of one-to-one and small group intervention is being expanded to include associational group and institutional and community intervention. Consultation with college and university faculty is one expression of this emerging role. In response to requests from faculty members, a university counseling center staff developed a training procedure designed to help students acquire the skills needed to interact productively in small groups with the purpose of learning academic material. The history, theoretical basis, and operations of this program, entitled "Education Through Student Interaction," is described. The emphasis was later changed to teach faculty how to train their students by means of this procedure. The extensive use of paraprofessionals and student assistants added to the effectiveness of the consultation program. (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Work activities of academic clinical psychologists: Do they practice what they teach?

Do PhD-level clinical psychologists who work in academic settings engage in both research and clinical practice, as the Boulder model recommends? Clinical psychology faculty members in 3 types of psychology departments were surveyed regarding their actual and preferred work activities and their attitudes toward clinical practice. Respondents indicated that they spent more than twice as much time in research as in clinical activity, with many (44%) reporting no involvement in clinical practice. Implications of declining practice among clinical faculty include potentially ineffective instruction in clinical course work, less informed clinical research, and the devaluing of clinical practice in traditional academic settings. Recommendations for facilitating practice among clinical faculty who wish to do so are proposed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Training in medical psychology: A survey of graduate and internship training programs.

Surveyed American Psychological Association-approved doctoral and internship programs in clinical and counseling psychology regarding training opportunities in medical psychology. 42 graduate and 65 internship programs responded. Results indicate that the majority of both types of programs offered didactic and experiential training, including diagnostic and therapeutic activities with a wide variety of medical/surgical patients. There appears to be a sufficient number of faculty psychologists with special interest and/or expertise in this area to adequately prepare new psychologists for employment in medical centers and other types of medical settings. (9 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Institutional affiliations of contributors to scholarly and professional activities in counseling psychology: 1980–1983.

Used presentations at Division 17 programs of the American Psychological Association conventions, affiliations of authors of articles in the Journal of Counseling Psychology and The Counseling Psychologist, and Division 17 leaders to determine that the University of Maryland (College Park), Ohio State University, and the University of Iowa were the most highly active institutions in counseling psychology over the period 1980–1983. The size of the faculty and faculty rewards and pressures appear to be factors in determining ratings. Counseling psychologists in nonacademic settings are disadvantaged in making research contributions by these factors. Since most current counseling and clinical psychology graduate students are trained to be practitioners, it is suggested that research and professional leadership dimensions should be measured on their value to practitioners. It is further suggested that quality of supervision, knowledge of practitioner skills, and capacity to meet credentialing and/or licensing requirements should be included in evaluating graduate education in counseling psychology. (13 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychologists in rehabilitation: Preparation and experience.

Examined the preparation and experience of the Directors of Psychology Services in the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities of 219 accredited hospitals and specialized settings. These organizations offer services in comprehensive inpatient rehabilitation, spinal cord injury, chronic pain management, and brain injury. 219 Directors of Psychology Services were surveyed. Doctoral specialties were in clinical (60%), counseling (21%), and rehabilitation psychology (4%). Postdoctoral training for 48% was primarily in neuropsychology. 5% had a master's degree in rehabilitation counseling. The work day included psychotherapy, administration, and neuropsychological assessment for the majority. 52% declared that they were not rehabilitation psychologists, and 50% had less than 5 yrs of experience in rehabilitation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Marriage counselors and psychologists in the United States.

In view of the fact that clinical and counseling psychology have much in common with the growing profession of marriage counseling, this new profession merits special scrutiny by psychologists. Yet it has been found difficult to know who constitutes the new profession or even to identify those who call themselves marriage counselors. Whoever the marriage counselors of the United States are, it seems clear that few of them claim to be psychologists. Since the work of clinical and counseling psychologists often includes marriage counseling, and since announced marriage counselors often could be regarded as or mistaken for psychologists, it is of importance that a study of the relation of each profession to the other be made by APA. The marriage counseling movement is here to stay. In spite of the interdisciplinary character of the movement, APA should follow it vigorously and take appropriate action whenever such would be of value to the professions and to the public. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Genetic counseling: A developing area of interest for psychologists.

This article presents genetic counseling as a challenging field for psychologists. Developments in the field affect individual and public conceptions of the basic issues of reproduction and pregnancy, health and illness, and normality and abnormality. Genetic counseling provides a uniquely structured setting in which to examine major psychological topics, such as coping with threatening events, family dynamics, reactions to uncertainty, risk perception, and decision making. Psychological aspects of genetic counseling are presented on several key issues, including meanings of genetic information, patients' and families' coping with a genetic condition, recall and comprehension of information conveyed in genetic counseling, and decision making. Four roles are delineated for psychologists in this new field: providing direct services to counselees, consulting with counseling teams, training genetic counselors, and researching the psychological aspects of genetic counseling. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychologists’ attitudes and ethical concerns regarding the use of social networking web sites.

Most psychologists seek to control self-disclosures they make to patients, but the Internet’s rapid development and widespread use over the past decade have introduced new problems for psychologists trying to avoid inappropriate disclosures. A total of 695 psychology graduate students and psychologists were surveyed about their current use of social networking Web sites (SNWs), opinions regarding regulation of online activities by the American Psychological Association (APA), and interactions in clinical work as a result of online activities. Established psychologists seldom use SNWs and may lack the experience to provide relevant supervisory guidance. No consensus about the need for APA guidelines emerged. Historically, APA has not issued guidelines in technological areas of rapid change. Thus, graduate training and continuing education should address the ethics of SNWs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Current perceptions and practices of charging fees in college and university counseling centers.

Mailed a questionnaire that assessed the practice of charging special fees for counseling, testing, and outreach programs, as well as the perceptions of counseling center directors on the fee issue, to 281 directors of college and university counseling centers. Results indicate that 36% of the agencies receive partial funding from student fees; only 3% receive compensation from student or faculty insurance programs. Charging fees for counseling services to students is a practice of only 4% of the respondents, a proportion which has remained stable over the past 10 yrs. In contrast, the proportion of agencies that charge fees for testing has increased from 11 to 34% over the 10-yr period. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Student and faculty perceptions of student needs and the services of a university counseling center: Differences that make a difference.

800 university students and 400 faculty members were telephoned and asked to estimate how common 14 areas of concern were in the student body and to indicate how likely they would be to refer students to the university counseling service for assistance with those same concerns. Analyses revealed significant differences between the 2 groups on 8 of the 14 items. The 2 groups also differed significantly in their reasons for referring students to counseling. Students were more likely to refer on the basis of a pragmatic need such as finances and career planning. Faculty would refer for personal–social issues. (14 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)