Volume_4_Issue_4_Digest

TPC D igest 55 Animating Research with Counseling Values: A Training Model to Address the Research-to- Practice Gap – DIGEST Kristi A. Lee John A. Dewell Courtney M. Holmes Kristi A. Lee, NCC, is an assistant professor in Counseling and School Psychology at Seattle University. John A. Dewell, NCC, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Counseling at Loyola University, New Orleans. Courtney M. Holmes, NCC, is an Assistant Professor in the School of Allied Health Professions at Virginia Commonwealth University. Correspondence can be addressed to Kristi A. Lee, Seattle University, 901 12th Avenue, Seattle, WA 98122, leekrist@seattleu.edu. T he research-to-practice gap poses a conspicuous problem for the mental health field. Ideally, published research would focus on topics that are relevant for counseling practitioners and that contribute to solid evidence-based practices. Practitioners would be prepared to contribute to research processes and to effectively utilize published research. Such an approach would represent a useful engagement with research in the field of counseling. However, a reciprocal and productive relationship between counselors, counselor educators and research does not seem to exist. This may be due to a conflict between values that have historically undergirded the counseling profession and the research environment in higher education. Research in counselor education is often conducted within academia, where historically the dominant discourse has valued positivistic ways of knowing and prioritized measurable academic products. Central to this discourse is the perspective that value-neutral researchers can acquire knowledge through reducing complex human experiences to isolated variables that are discrete and measurable. The resultant research climate increasingly prioritizes positivistic ways of knowing. Working within this framework appears to position many counselor educators’ research selves in direct conflict with the values implicit in counseling, supervisory and pedagogical orientations. Counselor education has historically been a practitioner-oriented field that has emphasized clients’ individuality and strengths instead of reducing them to their dysfunctions. As a