Preliminary Establishment of the Dispositional Development Scale: Incorporating the Working Alliance in Professional Disposition Assessment

This article discusses the initial development of an instrument which was designed to aid educators in assessing professional dispositions in rehabilitation counselor education students, in accordance with the 2016 Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) Standards. Furthermore, the development of the instrument was embedded with the concept of the working alliance (Bordin, 1979). The current study leads to the introduction of the Dispositional Development Scale (DDS), which was created using a two-phase approach, including content validation by Certified Rehabilitation Counselors (n = 148). The implications for using DDS in rehabilitation counselor education are significant and include a systematic, more transparent method of evaluating students' nonacademic competencies.

Influences of Training and Personal Experiences on Counselor Trainees' GLBT Ally Development: A Case Stud

The goal of this multiple case study was to investigate straight counseling students’ perceptions of their preparation to work with GLBT clients. For this study, semi - structured interviews were conducted with six straight counselor education students from two universities. Pattern matching analysis revealed that students with significant exposure to GLBT individuals, as well as those who believed their training provided adequate preparation for GLBT counseling, were more likely to adopt a GLBT - affirmative identity and to experience greater self - efficacy about counseling with GLBT individuals. In addition, thematic analysis revealed seven themes of participants’ experiences that fell into four categories. Ideas for counselor educators to incorporate experiential learning into their programs are offered.