TPC-Journal-V5-Issue4

The Professional Counselor /Volume 5, Issue 4 474 Though conventional wisdom may tell us that the more experience one has, the better, we do not have empirical data in the CES field of how counselor educators are advising master’s students on this issue, or of what faculty search committees prefer in terms of the clinical experience level of candidates. Thus, this study broadly examines the questions: What are faculty members recommending to counselor education master’s students regarding PME when considering doctoral studies? What are current faculty hiring preferences in reference to levels of experience needed? Faculty members, supervisors and advisors frequently encounter these questions from master’s students, and the researchers believe students, faculty and ultimately the counseling field will benefit from information clarifying the current industry standard for counselor education. Research on CES Preferred Clinical Experience The field of counselor education lacks clear professional standards regarding the amount or type of necessary counseling experience for admission into doctoral programs (Schweiger et al., 2012; Warnke et al., 1999). One study’s findings concluded that work experience was a necessary component to doctoral admissions (Nelson, Canada, & Lancaster, 2003). Of the 25 CACREP programs that participated in this study, 20 programs rated successful work experience as a criterion for admission to their doctoral programs. In addition, 16 of those reported that work experience is often helpful or always helpful in selecting good doctoral students. One of their respondents reported difficulty in requiring successful work experience because so few applicants had post-master’s counseling experience. A recent study reviewed the requirements and preferences listed in counselor education faculty position postings on the Counselor Education and Supervision Network (CESNET) between 2005 and 2009 (Bodenhorn et al., 2014). The researchers found 83% of assistant and associate professor position announcements listed counseling experience or licensure as a required or preferred qualification. This remains consistent with a previous finding from Rogers, Gill-Wigal, Harrison, and Abbey-Hines (1998) that counselor education programs ranked clinical experience as the second most important criteria for faculty positions, second only to a PhD in counselor education. Researchers of the 1998 study asserted that although it is clear in their findings that clinical experience is important, whether that clinical experience occurs during internships or outside of coursework is unclear. These studies showed that experience is prioritized in doctoral admissions (Nelson et al., 2003), as well as in hiring CES faculty members (Bodenhorn et al., 2014; Rogers et al., 1998), yet the counselor education field still lacks important information around this topic. Specifically, the field is lacking data indicating what advice counselor educators give master’s-level students about the amount of experience to obtain prior to entering a doctoral program, and data indicating the amount of post- master’s clinical experience CES faculty search committees prefer in candidates. The current study addresses these gaps in the literature in the exploration of preferences for PME. Research on Other Helping Professions’ Preferred Clinical Experience A review of American Psychological Association (APA) accredited clinical psychology programs found academic criteria to be the most important in selecting doctoral students, with achievement of clinical competence also being important (O’Leary-Sargeant, 1996, as cited in Nelson et al., 2003). Another study’s findings included that success in a marriage and family therapy doctoral program correlated positively with age, and students with clinical experience were rated as better clinicians than those who did not have clinical experience (Piercy et al., 1995). It should be noted that researchers did not distinguish between participants who became faculty or expert clinicians in their study.