Volume_5_Issue_4_Digest

5 TPC Digest but limited communication skills. Many lacked basic information about the other professions. Third, it is critical that interdisciplinary training truly be interdisciplinary. We noticed that our training protocols seemed to favor one practice orientation over others. As a result, some of the participants struggled to demonstrate the required skills—not because they didn’t have the skills, but mostly because the training scenarios were irrelevant to their practice orientation. Clearly, in order for training to be truly interdisciplinary, training protocols must offer points of entry and meaningful engagement for all of the trainees present. When training faculty are firmly grounded in the professional identity of their practice, have a full commitment to interprofessional collaboration, and have the skills for participating in collaboration practice, they will be able to structure and scaffold this learning for their trainees. Finally, we also found that it was critical for the trainers to carefully monitor the interdisciplinary practice sessions and establish clear protocols for intervening in response to non- conforming or challenging participant behaviors. Jane E. Atieno Okech, NCC, and Anne M. Geroski are Associate Professors at the University of Vermont. Correspondence can be addressed to Jane Okech, Mann Hall 101B, 208 Colchester Avenue, Burlington, VT 05405, jokech@uvm.edu . Read full article and references: Okech, J. E. A., & Geroski, A. M. (2015). Interdisciplinary training: Preparing counselors for collaborative practice. The Professional Counselor , 5 , 458–472. doi: 10.15241/jeo.5.4.458 Counselor educators have long argued that interdisciplinary collaboration is necessary for addressing complex mental health challenges. This is a sentiment that is echoed throughout the social service and medical practice profession. Yet, little has been written in the counseling literature about interdisciplinary training or competencies. The literature in medical and allied medical health service professions on this topic is replete with comments regarding the challenges of multidisciplinary practice and points to a clear lack of training protocols for preparing professionals to work across disciplines. This manuscript uses a case study approach to elucidate some of these challenges. The case used is based on an interdisciplinary training project offered to medical residents and counseling, nursing and social work master’s-level graduate students. It was designed to teach team-based substance misuse screening, brief intervention and referral services. Consistent with the literature, our participants experienced a number of challenges. First, there seemed to be a tension between participants’ professional orientation and identity and their receptivity to others. We witnessed that these newly trained professionals seemed to cling rigidly to their training orientations and practice approaches and appeared unaccepting or critical of the work of their peers in the other disciplines. As the literature suggests, training that has largely occurred in silos can limit one’s ability to work multidisciplinarily, leading to barriers, mistrust and a lack of collegiality. This is particularly true when professional hierarchies and public perceptions award prestige to some professions over others. Second, the literature also suggests that few students in mental health and allied health receive training in the skills and practices necessary for collaboration. While they are expected to work together in their practice settings upon graduation, few students have actually been trained or know exactly how to do that. Some of the trainees in our project displayed these challenges. Some seemed to have a good grasp of their discipline-specific content 5 TPC Digest Interdisciplinary Training: Jane E. Atienko Okech Anne M. Geroski Preparing Counselors for Collaborative Practice