This paper considers the implications for training and practice of counsellors' responses to the notion of challenging clients' prejudices. It explores tensions in counselling discourse between social responsibility, responsibility to the client and responsibility for one's self as counsellor. Three focus groups of counsellors were asked whether a…

The purpose of this study was to understand the relationship among counselors' self-reported multicultural counseling competence and their attitudes of the geriatric population. A statistically significant negative correlation was found between participants' attitudes of the geriatric population and their self-reported multicultural counseling…

Mental health counselors (MHCs) are generally perceived as empathic, caring professionals. However, the terms that mental health counselors use to describe their clients sometimes contribute little to the valid assessment and treatment of psychological problems and are disrespectful to clients. This article reviews the literature on counselor…

Counselor educators can utilize the ideas of philosopher Michel Foucault in preparing preservice school counselors for their work with K-12 students in public schools. The Foucaultian ideas of "governmentality," "technologies of domination," "received truths," "power/knowledge," "discontinuity," and "archaeology" can contribute to students'…

Sex, age, race, social class, and other variables as sources of counselor biases and stereotypes are discussed in a dialogue between Schlossberg and Vontress, moderated by Sinick. (Author)

Offender status had a negative effect on dimensions involving acceptance of the client for therapy but little effect on assessment of personality variables. (Author)

Investigated effect of clients' sex on psychotherapists' treatment recommendations. Clients' sex influenced only one treatment recommendation. Psychologists were more likely to recommend vocational counseling for same-sex clients than for opposite-sex clients. More experienced therapists rated male clients as more severely disturbed than female…

Questionnaires were sent to a national random sample of the clinical membership of the American Association of Marriage and Family Counselors (N=465) to ascertain their attitudes and practices toward clients involved in sexually open marriage, secret affairs, and recreational swinging. Counselors' biases toward such clients are discussed. (Author)

Sixty-four volunteer male and female psychotherapists from various disciplines with 5.83 average years experience and case loads of 17.88 hours per week were studied with the aid of a questionnaire to rate possible bias toward women counselees. Cultural expectations are examined along with response bias. The study found that personal agreement had…

A sample of 324 practicing school psychologists received a fictitious case study to which was attached a photograph of an attractive boy, an attractive girl, an unattractive boy, or an unattractive girl. Results indicated that a pupil's attractiveness had a significant effect on the judgments of school psychologists. (Author/HLM)

Presented 192 clinical psychologists with clinical vignettes in which client ages varied. Respondents rated older depressed and older agoraphobic clients as significantly less ideal than younger clients with identical symptoms and histories. Older depressed and manic clients also were given significantly poorer prognoses than younger clients.…

Research has documented bias toward elderly clients by mental health professionals. To determine whether counselor trainees held similar biases against elderly clients, counseling (N=40) and non-counseling (N=25) graduate students were given an intake summary of a female client exhibiting symptoms of depression. The client's age was manipulated on…

Substance abuse is a major social problem and concern for counselors. It is the most prevalent mind disorder encompassing some 40% of the diagnoses in the DSM-IV, the number one continuing health problem, and the number one prison problem in the United States. Yet, school, rehabilitation, and mental health counselor education programs do not…

The treatment of children with Gender Identity Disorder is laden with important ethical and moral considerations. Gender-typed behavior is defined by culture; therefore, it is of paramount importance that therapists clarify their own biases and expectations of gender-based behavior before attempting treatment. Two case studies are presented. (LSR)

This research was designed to assess female and male counselor sex-role stereotyping in their perceptions of the appropriateness of female and male students' occupational choices. The following variables were controlled in a six-way analysis of variance: sex of counselor, sex of student, occupational status, occupational stereotype, ability of…