Spirituality is an important component in the lives of many Black Americans. Black American life has spirituality woven into multiple aspects. From what clothes to wear, what words to use when creating a dialogue with others, which television shows to watch, which jobs to pursue, how to treat those who...
Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a prevalent issue that impacts individuals around the world. Mental health professionals need comprehensive and inclusive IPV training to support victims/survivors well. The IPV literature posits several concerns surrounding the quality of IPV training that counselors-in-training (CITs) receive. Obtaining an understanding in how master’s level...
In counselor education, gatekeeping is essential practice, particularly as new and learning counselors enter the field of counseling (Benshoff & Gibbons, 2011). While the expectation of gatekeeping is clear and valued in the profession of counselor education, gatekeeping is difficult for faculty (Chang & Rubel, 2019). Two intersecting factors that...
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...
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...
The purpose of this dissertation was to contribute to deeper understanding of how men experience support seeking. The first manuscript is located in chapter 2 and titled A Qualitative Metasynthesis of Male Client Experiences of Counseling. This metasynthesis integrates sixteen pieces of qualitative research which contain first-person accounts of male...
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...
Adult students are a population that is critical to addressing the college completion crisis. Retention and completion for adults lags behind students who enter college directly from high school. However, higher education has largely been built around service to younger high school graduates, and institutions are slow to change. A...
This dissertation presents two qualitative studies investigating expert trauma counselors’ experiences of clinical decision-making and countertransference. Chapter 2, Acutely Alert: A Grounded Theory of Clinical Decision-Making Processes of Expert Trauma Counselors addresses the research question, what are the clinical decision-making experiences and processes of expert trauma counselors? Chapter 3, Exploring...
The counseling field is infused with multiculturalism and social justice competencies from the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs accreditation standards of the academic institutions to the American Counseling Association Code of Ethics. Counselors are tasked with understanding multiculturalism from self-awareness to clients’ worldviews to larger implications...