Graduate Thesis Or Dissertation
 

Counseling Sex Trafficking Survivors: Considerations for the Mental Health Profession

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https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/graduate_thesis_or_dissertations/zp38wm149

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  • As more awareness of the global issue of sex trafficking comes to light, counselors must prepare to provide therapeutic services to this specific client population (Litam & Lam, 2021). Individuals who have survived sex trafficking are entering mental health counseling practices and community agencies regularly (Ide & Mather, 2019); yet, the mental health profession is unprepared to provide effective counseling services (Thompson & Haley, 2018). With limited research on counseling individuals who have survived sex trafficking (Greenbaum, 2020), counseling competencies and evidence-based practices have not been established for work with this specific client population. In addition, mental health professional educators and trainers are impacted by this lack of knowledge base to inform their preparation of early career mental health professionals to work with this population. Two studies were conducted related to counseling individuals who have survived sex trafficking. Study 1 was a content analysis study that examined the professional literature to determine what specific awareness, knowledge, and skills are important as counseling competencies. Thirty-four articles were reviewed for this study. Study 2 investigated predictors for early career mental health professionals’ (N = 113) preparedness to provide services to this population. Study 1 examined peer-reviewed journal articles from 2010 to 2021 to determine what specific awareness, knowledge, and skills seem important for counselors to understand when working with individuals who have survived sex trafficking. The research question guiding the study was: What specific awareness, knowledge, and skills does the extant literature seem to indicate are important for counselors to possess when working with individuals who have survived sex trafficking? To answer this question, content analysis was utilized to examine the contents of 34 full-length, peer-reviewed scholarly articles. These articles spanned different disciplines of study that satisfied keyword requirements (sex trafficking, counseling, awareness, knowledge, and abilities) and had competencies that could be applied particularly to mental health professionals when working with individuals who have survived sex trafficking. Significant data surfaced, pointing to trends, new approaches, limited research, and ambiguous areas that still require attention. Through a priori and emergent consensus coding, the research team used the three a priori domains (awareness, knowledge, and skills) along with the three emergent categories and 11 emergent subcategories to describe counseling competency aspects for working with individuals who have survived sex trafficking in each part of the tripartite framework. Study 2 examined whether (a) stages of practice, (b) counselor self-efficacy, (c) client-specific counselor self-efficacy, (d) positive attitude toward sex trafficking, (e) professional exposure to sex trafficking, and (f) personal exposure to sex trafficking could predict early career mental health professionals’ preparedness to provide services to individuals who have survived sex trafficking. The research question guiding this study was: To what extent do stages of practice, counselor self-efficacy, client-specific counselor self-efficacy, sex trafficking attitude, professional exposure to sex trafficking, and personal exposure to sex trafficking predict preparedness of early career mental health professionals to provide services to individuals who have survived sex trafficking? Bivariate analyses among the variables were performed and found that early career mental health professionals with a more advanced stage of practice, higher counselor self-efficacy, higher client-specific counselor self-efficacy, higher positive attitude toward sex trafficking, higher professional exposure to sex trafficking, and higher personal exposure to sex trafficking are more prepared to provide services to individuals who have survived sex trafficking. A standard multiple linear regression was run to examine the hypothesis expecting all predictor variables to significantly predict the overall preparedness of early career mental health professionals to provide services to individuals who have survived sex trafficking. Results from the regression analysis indicated that the combined variables accounted for 39% (R2 = .390, R2adj = .350) of the variance in preparedness. However, only general counselor self-efficacy and client-specific self-efficacy significantly contributed uniquely to the variance in preparedness at the preset .05 level. Findings in the study indicate that the hypothesis was supported by the data. The results in both studies revealed critical information about considerations for the counseling profession regarding providing services to individuals who have survived sex trafficking. The results suggest the importance of having counseling competencies as a reference to increase confidence when working with individuals who have survived sex trafficking. Mental health professional educators and supervisors can use the results to understand what prepares early career mental health professionals to provide services to individuals who have survived sex trafficking. Overall, findings from both studies contribute to the growing body of knowledge of on providing mental health services to survivors.
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