Volume_5_Issue_1_Digest

17 TPC Digest specifically, through the professional identity development model, this mixed-methods research study examined how the integration of transformational learning practices impacted CITs’ self-reported skill development on the Professional Performance Review Policy Standards (PPRPS) assessment tool and how reflective journaling impacted CITs’ personal development. Seventeen ( N = 17) graduate counseling students completed five learning experiences and journaled about each activity afterward. Participants also completed the PPRPS at four data collection time points. Results demonstrate that the transformational learning experiences improved PPRPS results across all 10 items, though results were not statistically significant. Qualitative analysis results show that the activities brought awareness to life challenges, the need for change, the impact of group processing and the future use of these activities in clinical practice. Study implications include integrating transformational learning experiences into core and peripheral counseling courses in order to support personal and professional identity development. In doing so, counselors-in-training are deepening their intrapersonal and interpersonal learning and developmental journey, thus potentially enriching the skills and techniques that they will eventually use in counseling relationships with future clients. Michelle Kelley Shuler and Elizabeth A. Keller-Dupree, NCC, are Assistant Professors at Northeastern State University. Correspondence can be addressed to Michelle Kelley Shuler, 4330 Bull Creek Rd. Apt. 3218 Austin, TX 78731, shuler@nsuok.edu. The promotion of professionalism is a significant component of counselor training and is recognized by the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs as a core curriculum requirement for graduate counseling programs. Development in this area includes both personal and professional growth and is often referred to as counselor development or counselor professional identity. Many view counselor identity development as a process that results in congruency between personal worldview and professional worldview, or consider it an equal combination of professional (e.g., roles, decisions, ethics) and personal selves (e.g., values, morals, perceptions). Recent research has provided counselor education with a model for professional identity development, including transformational tasks to assist with identifying the personal and professional facets of one’s developing counselor identity. Transformational learning experiences for counselor training can be described as expressive or experiential activities that facilitate the ability to express feelings and meanings related to life issues. Experiential activities in counselor training have been applied to creative approaches in the classroom as well as in individual and group supervision. By all accounts, the benefits of including expressive arts in training suggest an outlet for teaching by assisting the counselor-in-training (CIT) with reframing and deepening understanding of experience and enhancing development of personal awareness skills, all of which are considered highly important to the personal and professional development described in models of supervision. To date, few studies have examined pedagogical methods used to enhance CITs’ level of professional development. As a result, there is a dearth of literature exploring strategies to incorporate student self-reflective experiences, along with transformational learning experiences, into counselor education in order to influence professional identity development. Accordingly, this study was designed to examine the impact of a 2-day seminar using transformational learning experiences on CIT personal and professional identity development. More Read full article and references: Shuler, M. K., & Keller-Dupree, E. A. (2015). The impact of transformational learning experiences on personal and professional counselor-in-training identity development. The Professional Counselor , 5 , 152–162. doi:10.15241/mks.5.1.152 The Impact of Transformational Learning Experiences on Personal and Professional Counselor-in-Training Identity Development Michelle Kelley Shuler Elizabeth A. Keller-Dupree