Educating Counselling Psychologists: the graduates’ view

With special acknowledgement to:

- AKO for funding provided for this research and this presentation- The willing graduates who provided the data

Associate Professor Jeannie WrightBrent Gardiner

School of Arts, Development and Health EducationMassey University, Palmerston North

Context of the pilot study• Changes in the counselling field in Aotearoa New

Zealand and internationally – e.g. professional registration and regulation

• Emphasis on distance education and e-learning at Massey

• Pilot study triggered by pragmatic causes e.g. retirements, the new team and a commitment to consultation with former students.

Seeking students’ advice

• Most importantly, as a new team we were open to the students’ views and ready to make changes following their advice, together with our own experiences and preferences.

Research questionsHow did the Massey counsellor education prepare you

for:

• professional employment?

• continuing development as reflective practitioners?

• gaining professional membership and appropriate progression in the field?

DESIGN• 75 most recent graduates – 5 years.

• Monkey survey + interviews

• Questionnaire based on similar study at Canterbury (Miller, J., in press).

• Demographic data

• Looking back what aspects of the course most contributed to your professional development?

• Contact issues –poor response rate (31%)

KEY FINDINGS – Good news!

Development as a counsellor

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Areas of development

Ho

w k

no

wle

dg

eab

le/d

evel

op

ed

Before

End

After

1

Key

Personal values related to counselling

2 Professional values related to counselling

3 Sense of being a professional counsellor

4 Personal growth related to being a counsellor

5 Growth as a person

6 Generic counselling skills

7 Specialised intervention skills

KEY FINDINGS – What helped?Course component usefulness/importance

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Fieldwork - set tasks -

KIVA -

Staff mentoring -

Talking with friends -

Field visit -

Extramural assignments -

Library research and reading -

Talking with other students -

Workshop content -

Study guide materials -

Fieldwork supervision -

Learning I did for myself -

Self-reflection and/or judging -

Fieldwork - counselling -

Mean usefulness rating

Findings - Kiva

Kiva

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Usefulness Rating

Fre

qu

en

cy

Series1

Theme: ‘Kiva’ groupStudent voices disagree:

‘Kiva became increasingly treasured by our group after initial scepticism. So much so, I have adapted it for use with groups at school.’

‘Kiva – unreal and unsafe environment to deal with issues that would be better managed in private, one to one.’

Findings – Self reflection

Self-Reflection

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Usefulness rating

Fre

qu

en

cy

Series1

Theme: Cultural experience – noho marae

Student comments agree:

‘…marae visits … the visits to and contacts with certain indigenous people gave me a sense of connected spirituality. The experience helped me to acknowledge a greater depth in their culture than simple cognitive approaches or Treaty workshops.’

Cultural experience cont.)

‘ …visit to the Marae which gave a huge insight into Maori culture and thereby starting to develop a true bicultural way of working.’

IMPLICATIONS (for education practice)

• Bicultural & cultural

• Personal Therapy

• Private practice

IMPLICATIONS ( for research & some questions)

• Broader collaborative study across programmes

• Exploration of the aspects of bi-cultural education that are valuable

• What helps prepare for private practice?

Response - programme changes

• Shift from humanistic based technical eclectic model to a collaborative pluralistic integrative framework.

• DISCUSSION