The professionalization of counseling is an ongoing process that is occurring globally. A review of the literature identified counselors, counselor educators, clients, government agencies, accrediting bodies, universities and public opinion as influencers on professionalization. Leaders from three different countries were invited to respond to…

The Self-Model of Humanistic Supervision (SMHS) entails the integration of humanist and postmodern epistemology and ontology into a model of clinical supervision. The SMHS offers five core-selves, five enactors of self, and the cyclical process of enactment as a working framework for supervisors and counselor educators. This model provides…

This article highlights how the social work academy can support innovative research, dissemination, and implementation and is a response to and extension of arguments made by Dr. Marilyn L. Flynn on innovation in social work. It argues that social work researchers need to strike a balance between the often slow and methodical scientific research…

Empathy development is foundational to counselor training, yet there is scant research on techniques for teaching empathy aside from traditional microskills models. The authors discuss empathy as a skill set, highlight how improvisation (improv) can be used to enhance training, and describe how to incorporate improv activities within the classroom.

Over the past 75 years, the history of Division 16 (School Psychology) has been integral to the science and practice of school psychology. As a constituent body of the American Psychological Association (APA), the division has advocated for role definitions and professional boundaries within APA and has represented the specialty of school…

Relational cultural theory emerged in the 1970s as a reaction to the dominant view of women in psychology and continues to challenge societal values while promoting social justice. Key tenets of relational cultural theory are to promote growth-fostering relationships and move toward connection. These may be applied in a variety of contexts within…

Counselors' considerations of racial and cultural factors in the lives and experiences of clients enhances counseling outcomes. Acknowledgement of cultural factors enhances counselor credibility, client satisfaction, and the depth of client disclosure. This article opens with an overview of the "Continuum of Broaching Behavior"…

Streamlined supervision frameworks are needed to enhance and progress the practice and training of supervisors. This author proposes the SuperSkills Model (SSM), grounded in the practice of microskills and supervision common factors, with a focus on the development and foundational learning of supervisors-in-training. The SSM worksheet prompts for…

As the counseling profession evolves, educational standards for counselor licensure must be standardized from state to state. In this article, the authors discuss historical and current influences and present an advocacy model that has been used to standardize educational requirements in state counselor licensure laws.

Skilled, ethical use of social media can advance social justice, impact policy, engage and educate the community, and elevate social workers. To assure that MSW students develop these skills, we created an assignment that required students to use a professional social media profile to advocate for a cause or policy based on findings from a needs…

Similar to all academic disciplines, the use of information and communication technology (ICT) in social work has grown exponentially in both scope and volume during recent decades. Until the COVID 19 crisis, main driving forces were the growing demand for higher education, constant evolving of innovative technologies, cost effectiveness, and…

As the number of older adults increases, it is important to understand how attitudes toward aging influence society, the aging process, and the counseling profession. Ageism--defined as social stigma associated with old age or older people--has deleterious effects on older adults' physical health, psychological well-being, and self-perception. In…

This paper reports on the use of role-play as a scenario-based learning approach in the teaching of counselling skills, client assessment and diagnostic interviewing within psychological training. While role-play is not a new technique in teaching such skills, its use is generally reserved for the training of higher level students. This paper…

Values, knowledge, and skills integral to the process of evidence-based practice have much to offer efforts to implement evidence-based practices including recognizing ignorance as well as knowledge and identifying the need for deviations from mandated programs because of individual variations in client circumstances and differences, including…

This article aims to fill a gap in the counselling literature regarding the new high technology online teaching approach called Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs), which makes it possible for thousands of students across the world to freely access university courses through the Internet. Specific attention has been given to the current and…