OSU Counseling Services: Article Analysis

Statistics have shown that emotional and mental disorders in the United States range around twenty percent and counselors are vulnerable for such disorders for a variety of reasons

According to the American Counseling Association (ACA) website the organization’s mission is to help society by offering well trained professional counselors. In the process, assisting counselors develop into the contingent professional’s in which society can depend upon, at the same time stimulating human self-worth and diversity. When counselors are trained in graduate school the aspects that goes into becoming a professional counselor, is they equipped with a vast amount of knowledge. Some of the basics include how to work with diverse populations, acknowledging their own biases, how to advocate for the client who is among an oppressed population, congruency with their clients, empathic listening and communication skills, knowing when to refer a client to the appropriately trained counselor and many more. All of these elements and more are just some of the tools, professional counselors are required in order maintain the standards the American Counseling Association’s mission statement entails.

The purpose of this memo is to provide a professional biography of the person I interviewed for the expert interview portion of this project. Dr. William Harrar is the person I chose to interview, Dr. Harrar is the Director of Bloomsburg University’s Center for Counseling and Human Development. It will be a concise report, consisting of Dr. Harrar’s education, field experience, and publications. I will highlight items in the aforementioned areas that best reflect Dr. Harrar’s expertise.

According to the Counseling.org website, the ACA’s mission is to “enhance the quality of life in society by promoting the development of professional counselors, advancing the counseling profession, and using the profession and practice of counseling to promote respect for human dignity and diversity”. I interpret this as a wide array of assurances, through continuing education and enlightenment of counselors, and then the quality of services is improved upon by dedication. The ACA started out as the American Mental Health Counselors Association (AMHCA), and it originated because so many professional counselors were dissatisfied that they did not fit to the subscription of contemporary styles of mental health professionals (Palmo, Weikel & Borsos, 2006). The advancement of the counseling profession began when the term professional counselor was recognized as a profession. It continues to grow through research and theory developments that have proven to positively impact the lives of the client professional counselors see.

Students need to feel like they have something they can gain from seeking counseling. If they don’t feel like they will get that with the selection of counselors on their campus, they would rather hold their problems in. “The idea that client preferences regarding the particular characteristics of counselors may critically influence such factors as whether the client seeks help, the duration of counseling, subsequent client evaluation of counseling, and certain aspects of the counseling interaction has long held currency in counseling theory and research (Strohmer, 2003).” Strohmer stated that half of the minority clientele dropout of counseling after the initial meeting in comparison to a third of the White clients. According to the Office of Minority Health more than half of the African American population have

The American Counseling Association (ACA) developed the code of ethics with six principles in mind that they thought were the foundation for ethical behavior and decision making: autonomy, nonmaleficence, beneficence, justice, fidelity and veracity (American Counseling Association, 2014). This lead to the six different purposes for the code of ethics. First, it sets ethical obligations and ethical guidance for professional counselors (American Counseling Association, 2014). Second, it recognizes ethical dilemmas that are relevant (American Counseling Association, 2014). Third, it clarifies what is ethically expected and accepted of its members (American Counseling Association, 2014). Fourth, it is an ethical guide for members deciding the best course of action and expectations for conduct, when it comes to those using their counseling services (American Counseling Association, 2014). Fifth, it supports the mission of the American Counseling Association (American Counseling Association, 2014). Finally, it has standards that serve as a baseline for questions and complaints for ACA members (American Counseling Association, 2014). To fulfill the purposes of the code of ethics, the ACA categorizes the ethics into nine different areas (American Counseling Association, 2014).

Starting out as a Vocational focused field counseling eventually developed a preventative measure for those “wanting to work with a more “normal” population” (Noah, 2018). As needs arouse throughout history counselors have developed different ways of working with people. Today there are 16 different divisions in the American Counseling Association (ACA) (Norton, 204). Mental health counseling specifically was developed as a hybrid between “psychology and educational counseling” as a way to fill gaps in services for those conflicted with mental health issues (Smith & Robinson, 1995). Today mental health counselors utilize a holistic approach and wellness models to assist people with a multitude of issues, from clinical

College seeking students are facing a hard reality. They may not be able to attend the school they most desire if they can not get a good scholarship, or they will need to choose a school less desirable because it is among the few they can afford. This proves to be a serious problem, limiting student’s decisions by limiting their choices. Students might choose to attend an expensive school of their choosing and find that they do not have the funds to pay the tuition and then are forced to leave the school. Such situations are evident at Norwich by data provided by the Department of Education, an interesting statistic to note is that the retention rate at Norwich University is 77% (National Center for Education Statistics). This means every new school year Norwich only holds about 77% of the students it had the prior year. However, not all of the

The retention rate expresses the likelihood of a student to return to the institution he or she is attending the following year. Taking this data and pairing it with the SAT scores of the institution, the formula generated is able to determine the percentage of a specific student or incoming body of students continuing in their studies at a given school. The average retention rate for all institutions was 0.642, or 64.2% which means that 62% of entering students are likely to continue their education. For public institutions, the retention rate averaged 0.565, or 56.5% while private institutions had a rate of 0.657, or 65.7%. The likelihood of students enrolled in private institutions exceeded that of public institutions by almost 10%, showcasing the need for assistance and priority for public

Sheperis, Young, and Davis (2017) explained how the counseling profession often view research studies as unneeded and having no place to the clinical setting. However, counselors have realized the importance of research and therefore use it more readily in the field today. With this research, counselors also have a path to see the proof of the success of their services to the client they work with on a daily basis. According to Sheperis, Young, and Davis (2017)

Retention or attrition problem has been studied for over 80 years. However, the main question remains: what an institution should/can do to retain a student from enrollment to graduation. Tinto 's retention theory considers lack of student engagement to be the main risk factor -- the less a student is involved in academic and social settings the higher chances he/she will drop out. (V. Tinto, 1999) Earlier studies considered environmental factors, academic success, and students ' personal characteristics. (D. Knoell, L. Medsker, 1967) All studies on this topic agree that the first year is crucial for students ' persistence whether they study in urban or suburban institution; public or private; small or big; whether they are Hispanic, White, Asian, African-American or Native American; live in residence halls or commuters, etc. Numerous studies track first-time full-time students and not so many look at challenges that transfer students face. Most studies of transfer students compare their academic performance and graduation rate to the same of the "native" students. Fewer papers are devoted to psychosocial and developmental changes that transfer students undergo when transfer from one school to another.

Many colleges and universities throughout the United States and several other countries face a common problem. Student retention is a growing problem across the nation for all ethnic groups and all ages. Each individual who chooses to drop out of school has their own personal reasons as to why they do. However, many drops out can be completely avoided. When students drop out they are not clearly thinking about how it’s going to affect their future, the future of their children and even grandchildren. Although there are several reasons as to why students drop out of school, we will be exploring a few as it relates to why student retention is a growing problem.

Research by Ryan suggests that first-time students perform better throughout their first semester and more inclined to be retained if they are familiar with their academic advisor and meet with him frequently in the course of their first semester (2013). Furthermore, in 2004 the ACT conducted a study of retention practices of four year public colleges. The outcomes advance the strong correlation between advising and retention. Moreover, the study points to academic advising alongside first year programs and learning support services as providing a considerable impact to student retention in public colleges. The findings indicate that high-performing colleges in terms of retention practices and graduation practices offer services that comprise a larger degree of academic advising. In addition, the participants in the study agreed that academic advising is one of the three most effective retention practices. Finally, the study infers that colleges who intend to influence student retention must concentrate on the approaches that have been shown to have an impact, improved interventions, and include enhanced academic advising objectives.

Looking back, I now have higher expectations about the duties of a school counselor and acknowledge the areas in which the counseling department at my school lacked. Most notably being that I was never given any traditional form of counseling. Unfortunately, I think this is due to the this growing field having not yet obtained its identity of a counseling emphasis. I knew that I could go to my counselor for academic advisement, I was sure that I would get more assistance if I struggled with my classes, but I do not believe that my counselor took an active approach of inquiring about mental health. Instead the counseling department seemed focused on student’s only when grades were down.

Counseling is a relatively new profession which has transformed over time from treating mental illnesses to providing educational guidance to counseling with a variety of specializations. Pistole summarizes by stating that counselors, now, aim to, “contribute to the vitality and vigor and to the soundness in body, mind, spirit, and social connection that sustains well-being, and so is considered, by our society, to be health” (2001). However, this was not always the case. National events such as the industrial revolution, World War