The mood disorder work group has proposed to eliminate the bereavement exclusion criterion from the diagnosis of major depression in the 5th edition of the American Psychiatric Association's (2012) "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders." The proposal would break tradition with the long-held distinction between…

In mental health, family, and community counseling settings, master's-level counselors engage in unstructured clinical interviewing to develop diagnoses based on the "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders" (4th ed., text rev.; "DSM-IV-TR"; American Psychiatric Association, 2000). Although counselors receive education about…

Research generated by the professions of psychiatry and psychology reveals that African Americans are more often diagnosed with specific mental disorders (e.g., psychotic disorders) compared with European Americans. No research to date, however, has investigated whether professional counselors make differential diagnoses according to client race.…

This study aimed to explore the experiences of a group of counsellors regarding working with clients who engage in self-harming behaviour, in order to gain an understanding of what it is like to work with this client group. A series of six individual, semi-structured qualitative interviews were carried out, which were then transcribed and analysed…

Even though literature indicates that particular cultural groups receive more severe diagnoses at disproportionate rates, there has been minimal research that addresses how culture interfaces specifically with clinical decision making. This mixed methodological study of 41 counselors indicated that cultural characteristics of both counselors and…

Overconfidence in clinical judgment is a common problem among counselors that undermines the validity of the counselors' assessments and, by implication, the quality of client services. The authors evaluated an instructional module designed to reduce overconfidence among counselor trainees who completed an assessment task that exposed them to some…