TPC Digest-Vol 9 Issue 3-FULL

9 TPC Digest C onsultation is an important domain for counseling practice. Consultation is recommended by the American Counseling Association Code of Ethics to facilitate resolution of ethical dilemmas and ensure counselors provide effective services to clients. For counselors and other professional helpers, consultation is defined as a professional helping relationship in which a consultant seeks to foster growth and change to benefit the consultee, the consultee’s clients, and/or the organizational context in which the consultee provides services. The Council for the Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) identifies training in consultation as a key element of counselor preparation, and consultation is also identified as an essential component of the Multicultural and Social Justice Counseling Competencies. After counselors complete clinical supervision mandated by training and credentialing standards, seeking consultation can foster acquisition of new competency areas and also ensure the standard of care is being implemented in novel clinical situations. The main, evidence-based outcome of consultation provided as a service is to improve treatment fidelity, where interventions are applied consistently in accordance with their intended design and purpose for best practice. Scholars have articulated multiple consultation models and theories, including mental health consultation designed to enhance treatment with specific populations or presenting issues, systemic consultation focused on organizational development, and behavioral consultation based on behavior theory. Steps or phases common to all consultation models include establishing collaborative rapport with consultees, formulating and defining the problem or focus of the consultation effort, implementing and evaluating the effect of interventions, and terminating the consultation relationship in an intentional, organized manner. Although similar to other triadic helping relationships such as supervision and interprofessional collaboration, consultation is best conceptualized as a distinct mode of practice that requires training in specific consultation skills and models. Clinical supervisors retain gatekeeping authority for their supervisees’ practice, whereas consultants are peers with no gatekeeping role. In the paradigm of interprofessional collaboration, providers from different professions may work closely with each other but each has a duty of care to provide service to identified clients or patients. Consultants may or may not interact directly with identified clients, and the duty of care typically remains with the consultee provider. In modern education and health care systems, where collaboration between professionals is encouraged to improve services, assessing counselors’ ability to provide consultation as a distinct mode of service is an important aspect of ensuring the quality and efficacy of counseling. Counselors as consultants can be vital in diffusing innovations in standards of care, such as LGBT counseling competence or mindfulness-based interventions. The present study was based on development of a consultation skills measure geared to counselors’ professional identity and practice, as opposed to the consultation practice of other professions like school psychology. Building off of previous research, the present study incorporates confirmatory factor analysis, and reliability and validity analyses, resulting in a psychometrically stable 8-item measure termed the Consultation Skills Scale – Short Form. This brief, theoretically derived measure can facilitate further research on counselors’ consultation skills and help identify how consultation as practiced by professional counselors influences effective training and practice. Gulsah Kemer is an assistant professor and graduate program director at Old Dominion University. Jeffry Moe is an associate professor at Old Dominion University. Kaprea F. Johnson is an associate professor at Virginia Commonwealth University. Emily Goodman-Scott is an associate professor and graduate program director at Old Dominion University. Zahide Sunal is a doctoral student at Old Dominion University. Chi Li is an assistant professor at the University of Memphis. Correspondence can be addressed to Gulsah Kemer, ODU Counseling and Human Services, 2106 New Education Building, Norfolk, VA 23529, gkemer@odu.edu. Gulsah Kemer, Jeffry Moe, Kaprea F. Johnson, Emily Goodman-Scott, Zahide Sunal, Chi Li Further Validation of the Consultation Skills Scale (CSS) 9 | TPC Digest Relationships Between Consultation Skills, Supervisory Working Alliance, and Interprofessional Collaboration