TPC-Journal-V5-Issue4

The Professional Counselor /Volume 5, Issue 4 469 faculty who were not in their own discipline. After the first year of implementation, the program directors placed more emphasis and deliberated at length on how to assist trainees with navigating the dynamics of interdisciplinary training, and a protocol was discussed for addressing student- related training challenges. However, as mentioned above, a similar process was not identified for participating faculty and program directors. That is, at the director level, a process was not articulated for how to assure a truly interdisciplinary focus would be honored during the planning and implementation stages of the project, nor was a protocol developed to articulate how professional disagreements would be managed. While a process for navigating professional differences emerged organically, the absence of such a conversation in the early stages caused tense deliberations as participating faculty and program directors tried to communicate their professional boundaries, roles and functions. Therefore, we recommend that interdisciplinary teams develop protocols for addressing differences in perspectives for both students and training faculty. There is value in investing in leadership that understands the practice of the various disciplines involved in a project and has a commitment to infusing interdisciplinary and collaborative practices in every aspect of a training program (Nancarrow et al., 2013). Skills for Collaboration As previously mentioned, some authors have suggested that interdisciplinary collaboration requires particular skills or competencies (e.g., Arredondo et al., 2004; Bemak, 1998; Delunas & Rouse, 2014; Meyers et al., 2013) that are not regularly taught to health care professionals. These authors suggested that working in interdisciplinary teams also requires particular attitudes and special knowledge that are communicated through interpersonal skills. Collaboration attitudes. Working with others across disciplines requires a certain spirit or willingness to share, collaborate and respect others (Nancarrow et al., 2013). This includes avoiding judgment, working in the spirit of “joining” (Miller & Katz, 2014, p. 7), and overcoming professional hostilities, prejudices or phobias (Bemak, 1998). It also requires openness to collective decision making, an ability to redefine one’s role in an interpersonal context (Bemak, 1998) and demonstrating a sentiment of appreciation and accommodation to multiple perspectives (Arredondo et al., 2004). Included here is an ability to be flexible—to “share your street corner” as Miller and Katz (2014, p. 10) put it, or “playing well” with others (Arredondo et al., 2004, p. 791). Being flexible also means remembering that one professional orientation/approach is not the only valid approach (Bemak, 1998); it requires an ability to be uncomfortable—“leaning into discomfort” (Miller & Katz, 2014, p. 8). An attitude of collaboration also requires being open to feedback (Nancarrow et al., 2013) and a willingness to negotiate power (Bemak, 1998; McLean, 2012). In our SBIRT training project, it appeared that a true spirit of collaboration developed over time among trainers. Its development appeared to emerge, as the examples from earlier discussions in this article illustrate, from the assertiveness and confidence as much as from the flexibility of faculty who may have otherwise been marginalized from decision making. Thus, it is possible that collaborative attitudes are more likely to develop when everyone in the group has had an opportunity to contribute, whether by invitation or self-assertiveness. It is essential to highlight the fact that even counseling and social work faculty, who have been trained to be open to multiple perspectives, engaged from time to time in their familiar silo foundation to professional orientation. Collaboration knowledge. Interdisciplinary practice requires that individuals have professional competence in their own areas of expertise (Nancarrow et al., 2013) as well as an ability to effectively communicate this discipline-specific information effectively to others (Wellmon et al., 2012). It also requires an ability to learn about the language and roles that define other disciplines (Miller & Katz,