Establishing a therapeutic alliance or a therapeutic bond has long been seen as an essential component of obtaining positive treatment outcomes in clinical practice. More recently, the idea of recognizing therapeutic alliance ruptures (disagreements about the tasks or goals of therapy or a problem in the therapeutic bond) during counseling...
Domestic violence (DV) is pervasive worldwide and has negative psychological effects that last a lifetime. Although DV is a problem that affects all societies, it is addressed through varied legal responses and with gaps in comprehension when examined through a cultural lens. The findings of these studies have the potential...
Tabletop role-playing games (TRPG) such as Dungeons & Dragons™ are widely known and enjoyed by diverse individuals across the world. However, TRPGs and their players historically have experienced significant stigmatization due to the misconception by some that fantasy role play leads to psychological dysfunction. While a large body of research...
This dissertation reviews the literature on the specialty area of dolphin assisted therapy (DAT), a subfield of animal assisted therapy (AAT). To date the literature on the effectiveness of DAT has been mixed although a majority of it is positive. The study was conducted with 40 parents whose children were...
Attention to the benefits of mindfulness practice transcends the fields of mental health and medicine. Extensive research has explored the use of mindfulness-based practices in counseling and psychotherapy. Benefits of mindfulness practice, both during session and in cases in which mindfulness was only practiced by the therapist outside of session,...
The change process for clients in long-term adolescent residential treatment has received heightened research attention for the past 15-year (Gass, 2006). The research indicates that individuals enrolled in long-term adolescent residential treatment centers, on average, experience improved psycho-social functioning to degrees that are statistically and clinically significant (Behrens & Satterfield,...
Paraprofessional counselors comprise a significant sector of the mental health workforce (Buchbinder, 2003; Golden, 1991; Nieuwsma et al., 2014; Norcross, 2000). Professional counselors have offered both praise (Durlak, 1979) and criticism (Nietzel & Fisher, 1981) for paraprofessional counselors and the services that they provide. Paraprofessional counselors work under the guidance...
Concern about college and career readiness has been expressed in both the
business and education arenas. Employers are calling for entry-level employees with
basic academic skills and educators are being held accountable for student
achievement in academic areas similar to those required by employers. In this
environment, WorkKeys has emerged...
Clinical supervision serves a key component in ensuring practitioners' competency and professional identity. This practice also allows more skilled clinicians to serve as gatekeepers to the field, which helps protect clients and the profession. As the use of the Internet increases, many clinical services, including supervision, are more common in...
Professional school counselors are tasked with providing effective and relevant career counseling and career-focused activities with all K–12 students; however, the career domain remains the area where school counselors feel least efficacious and competent to broach as part of their role. Addressing the career domain in schools is vital as...
Equine-assisted group work has recently emerged in the empirical literature as a promising treatment approach for a variety of populations, including women trauma survivors (Whittlesey-Jermone, 2014; Shambo, Seely, & Vonderfecht, 2010). However, group therapeutic processes (e.g., therapeutic factors) and group leader characteristics have yet to be studied in equine-assisted groups....
The purpose of this study is to explore the factors that may influence students' motivation or choice to attend their institution's intercollegiate athletic events and also to relate the lived experiences of administrators of athletic programs at a university in Korea. The research design included both quantitative and qualitative approaches....
Gender bias and discrimination are currently some of the most pertinent topics being explored in counseling practice and counselor education and supervision. Because of all the public attention in recent years to the topics of transgender and marriage equality, the definitions of gender identity and gender roles have become more...
Doctoral training programs in counselor education require a dissertation, a capstone project in the academic training and development of graduate students seeking a PhD or an EdD. The dissertation is expected to contribute new knowledge to the profession through the researcher reporting the results of research. The counselor education literature...
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 last few decades, Hispanic enrollment in postsecondary education has increased significantly. Despite increased access to higher education, there are still clear issues of educational equity when graduation and persistence rates are evaluated. While these alone are imperfect measures, they shed light on a burgeoning issue within the American...
There is substantial interest in the application of mindfulness in counseling and psychotherapy. The appeal of mindfulness training and mindfulness-based interventions has increased as research continues to demonstrate benefits. Mindfulness practice has not only been effective in clinical applications with clients, but has also been conceptualized as beneficial for counselors...
Research mentorship is a new construct emerging in the literature, but remains inadequately defined and scarcely researched. This topic is of relevance to counselor education because of the paucity of literature on the topic, and because of our professional commitments to diversity, wellness, and scholarship. Effective mentorship has been shown...
Latinos have the lowest high school completion rates in the United States (United States Census, 2010). School counselors are well positioned to lead the efforts to increase these rates. Indeed, such leadership is mandated by both the ethical and program standards of the American School Counselor Association. However, little is...
There is a growing movement within the counseling profession calling on counselors to integrate a social justice perspective into counseling theories, paradigms, and practices. However, there are no empirical studies illustrating how counselor preparation programs accredited by the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) are preparing...
School attendance is perceived as a critical issue in today’s primary and secondary educational systems. This manuscript reviews literature that speaks to the complexity of issues related to truancy and then posits that many of the interventions typically recommended to address truancy are ones that school counselors already provide or...
Professional organizations in the fields of counseling and psychotherapy-related professions all require counselors and counseling students to work with a vast array of potential clients who may differ significantly from themselves. For example, these counselor and client differences can include one or several factors such as age, race, ethnicity, ability...
Understanding the development of professional identity of graduate counseling students is crucial as it contributes to and fosters the overall identity of the counseling profession. Several studies (e.g., Dollarhide, Gibson, & Moss, 2013; Gibson, Dollarhide, & Moss, 2010; Nugget & Jones, 2009) have examined the professional identity development (PID) of...
The purpose of this dissertation is to ascertain if there is a significant difference in the counselor rating of the bond component of the Working Alliance between Theist clients and their counselors and Atheist/Agnostic clients and their counselors. Measures of client religiosity, Working Alliance, and Treatment Arm from the Project...
This dissertation presents the Graham Model of Bibliosupervision (GMB). The purpose
of this study is to examine the efficacy of the GMB and its influence on the supervisory
working alliance. Specifically this study examines the effectiveness of a non-linear
approach to counselor supervision that employs children’s literature as part of...
In the United States, the utilization of digital media has assumed an omnipresent status and has altered the manner in which we communicate, conduct business, and create art and music. However, it has been demonstrated that art therapy lags behind the current culture of prolific use of digital media. To...
School counselors have potential to make significant gains in closing the achievement gap for all students as advocated for by the American School Counseling Association. School counseling is moving away from the no-model model of services delivery that places counselors at the whim of principals, parents and teachers who traditionally...
The dominant theme in the literature indicates an increase of weight bias as the weight of the average Americans rises (e.g., Andreyeva, Puhl, & Brownell, 2008; Fryar, Kruszon-Moran, Gu, & Ogden, 2018). Both weight and gender biases can lead to acts of social injustice. The majority of the studies show...
Previous reports on the state of the Latino/a-focused mental health literature suggest that the quantity of Latino/a-focused articles within the mental health field continued to be disproportionate to the growing percentage of Latino/as in the United States (Liang, Salcedo, Rivera, & Lopez, 2009). As such, Latino/a mental health experiences, needs,...
The purpose of this dissertation was to demonstrate research scholarship using the American Psychological Association (APA) manuscript-style dissertation format, in accordance with Oregon State University Graduate School and Counseling Academic Unit guidelines. Chapter 1 explains how chapters 2 and 3 are thematically linked manuscripts intended to extend professional literature in...