Investigated mental health counselors' (N=223) perceptions of ethical and unethical behaviors. Examined ability to recognize whether ethical violations had occurred, to identify ethical issues, and to project how subjects would have behaved. Found significant differences for course work, degree, and situation. (Author/ABL)

This study compared practicing counselors who are licensed and not licensed on four aspects of empowerment: collective identity, propensity to act, self-concept, and overall empowerment. Results revealed that nonlicensed counselors scored significantly higher on collective identity, propensity to act, and overall empowerment. (Contains 24…

Surveys American Mental Health Counselors Association members' perceptions regarding obtaining independent and dependent prescriptive privileges for psychopharmacological agents and requisite training needs. Forty-one percent agreed that independent prescription privilege should be attained; 64 percent agreed that dependent prescription privilege…

Examines differences between professional work setting, gender, and ethnicity, and attitudes toward brief and nontraditional therapeutic approaches. Results indicated that practitioners of minority classification, males, and individuals employed in private practice held more favorable attitudes toward brief therapeutic approaches, and ethnic…

Reviews material related to American Mental Health Counselors Association Clinical Judgment Project. Recommendations include invoking more sensitive analyses of clinical judgment process, establishing defensible diagnostic and treatment criteria, attending to threats to statistical conclusion validity, and increasing attention to counselor…

Updated reimbursement literature and sought to remedy some significant limitations in prior reports. Provides a model for conducting future studies of this nature. Updating of reimbursement experience through survey of Ohio counselors has yielded important success-rate data. (JBJ)

Presents training format that encourages mental health counselors to address their own comfort with sexuality and then offers specific concepts for working with sexually active clients. Presents five areas: counselor comfort with sexuality, sexuality assessment tools, societal values about sexuality, treatment approaches to clients' sexual issues,…

Reports on a 33-item questionnaire based on Alexander G. Zaphiris's conceptualization of the terminology of sexual mistreatment. Results indicate that mental health counselors (N=300) who encountered sexual abuse, incest, and sexual exploitation agreed with Zaphiris's conceptualization but did not use this system of classification in actual…

Presents the phenomenon of ethnographic countertransference as an often overlooked aspect of qualitative research. Claims that researchers working in a qualitative paradigm must learn to recognize their own unconscious ethnographic countertransference as a source of information and bias, and use it effectively as a source of information. (EMK)

Counselors in a variety of settings will most likely be faced with clients with a history of child sexual abuse. Counselors should be aware of what to expect in terms of their own personal issues when confronted with a sexual-abuse survivor. This article describes counselor reactions to sexual-abuse survivors and examines ways counselors can cope…

Describes the results of research that explored how mental health counselors consider the confidentiality of minors and conditions under which they would breach it. Results indicate that mental health counselors are protective of their minor clients' confidentiality rights with variation based on degree of seriousness and age of the client.…

States importance of multicultural perspective in providing more diverse and complex mental health counseling perspective. Argues that counselor understanding of group differences (ethnographic, demographic, status, and affiliation) is important for accurate interpretation of behaviors. Concludes pervasive influence of culture through underlying…

Study reports the results of a national survey of 1000 professional counselors regarding the frequency and impact of client suicide. Counselors reported having intrusive and avoidant thoughts regarding the crisis that were higher than those of either psychologists or psychiatrists. Results indicate that the effects of client suicide have…

Counselors often encounter clients who have experienced forms of trauma. As a result, counselors may experience symptoms of secondary traumatic stress due to vicarious traumatization. To help with symptoms of burnout, this article offers a self-care prevention plan based on wellness concepts. Offers 30 references as a starting point for counselors…

Explored mental health counselors' and counselor educators' perceptions of the training mental health counselors receive. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 12 mental health counselors or counselor educators. Key issues that emerged from interviews concerned licensure movement, what distinguishes mental health counseling, variability of…