The counseling profession has historically emphasized generalist practice, viewing specialization as a possible threat that could lend to fragmentation. Specialization is occurring within CACREP graduate programs (CACREP, 2016) through post-graduates focused on continuing education experiences and the professions’ acknowledgment of the importance of competence areas. Research has noted the importance...
This set of studies delve into the complex realm of healthy sexuality within sexual addiction treatment, where diverse perspectives often lead to confusion and suboptimal outcomes. The primary goal of most treatment models is guiding clients toward a healthier sexual experience.
Sex addiction, a complex phenomenon, involves compulsive sexual behaviors,...
Over the past 20 years, there has been a steady increase in the popularity of online gaming in the United States culture. There are many factors that have contributed to this spike in popularity, but the most significant are advancements in technology, televised competitions, social media, lucrative cash prizes, product...
This dissertation consists of two qualitative grounded theory studies on the professional development process experienced by first year high school counselors during the United States’ 2020 public health and sociopolitical crises. Chapter two contains the first study which answers the research question: What is the professional development process experienced by...
Health anxiety prevalence is increasing (Tyrer et al., 2019). Health anxiety is a preoccupation or overestimation of the serious physiological symptoms that cause significant distress (Salkovskis & Warwick, 2001). Those with health anxiety may endure significant suffering, intense misery, and for some health anxiety leads to suicide (Tyrer & Tyrer...
Inpatient psychiatric hospitals are critical to delivering community-wide acute mental health care. Professional counselors hold roles as intake counselors within the system of inpatient facilities (Werrbach, 2011). While they are essential to the processes within the system, there is no known research on intake counselors and their tasks of assessment...
The purpose of this dual-manuscript dissertation is to assess and synthesize the current body of qualitative literature on the topic of the experience of counselor trainees as participants in experiential groups. The first manuscript is presented in Chapter 2. In this study, I performed a directed content analysis on 15...
This dissertation is organized in accordance to the Manuscript Documentation Dissertation format required by Oregon State University. Chapter 1 provides a general overview of Alzheimer’s disease, defines AD as marginalized population, and explains the relevance and characteristics of qualitative research. Also, Chapter 1 provides an overview of Manuscript 1 (Chapter...
Counselor self and relational awareness (SRA) is an important aspect of counselor training and development. Counselor education programs engage students in a variety of practices targeted towards enhancing SRA. Although supervision is regularly used to promote SRA, there is no existing research that focuses on how supervisors experience using supervision...
This dissertation presents the results of two studies that explored the constructs of compassion fatigue, compassion satisfaction, and self-compassion. Each study employed a cross-sectional survey design to survey elementary, middle, and high school counselors in Oregon. The online questionnaire was developed using the Professional Quality of Life Scale (Stamm, 2009),...