60 The Professional Counselor | Volume 12, Issue 1 compared to White counselors, we expected minoritized counselors to experience lower CS. However, the current study found that being a minoritized counselor actually predicted higher CS and lower burnout. It may encourage all counselors to know that greater CS among minoritized counselors indicates that ACEs and PCEs are not determinative of whether a person experiences burnout or satisfaction. Our findings that female counselors were more likely to have higher CS than their male peers, and that counselors from low-income or working-class SES had higher CS than those from middle and upper classes, are also noteworthy. It is possible that the more collectivist tendencies of minoritized individuals in general, and of female counselors regardless of race, may help foster greater professional resilience or quality of life (Graham et al., 2020; Jordan, 2017). Counselors from lower- or working-class childhood SES may also maintain the collectivist orientation of their upbringing. This proposition is supported by previous research, which indicates that social support is a significant factor that promotes CS in therapists (Ducharme et al., 2008). This may also relate to Crouch et al.’s (2019) finding that the most significant PCE that mitigates the effects of ACEs is having a safe relationship with an adult. These results are further supported by research indicating that secure attachments in adulthood moderate the effect of childhood adversity (Klasen et al., 2019). Despite a limited sample size, Conteh et al. (2017) found that 95% of their sample of 86 counselors-in-training reported having experienced at least one trauma. Although male participants in Conteh’s study were significantly more likely to report more traumas than women—4.93 to 3.46 respectively—women reported more post-traumatic growth than men. Similar to our findings, this may indicate why female counselors were more likely to experience greater CS than male counselors. Although close to half of our participants (42.9%) met the critical threshold of four ACEs, it is encouraging that the average participant indicated that they were not experiencing burnout. This may be the result of more than half of our participants having five or more PCEs, with PCEs predicting lower burnout. It should also be noted that in this study, ACEs were not significantly correlated with STS, which may be counterintuitive as one may assume that childhood adversity may leave one more susceptible to STS. The strongest findings in the current study, as demonstrated by high effect sizes, are that lower ACE scores predict higher CS and lower burnout. However, the potentially mitigating influence of PCEs only predicted burnout, not CS, with a lower effect size. Limitations Threats to internal and external validity are unavoidable in descriptive studies. As such, one limitation of this study is that it focused on descriptive and predictive relationships and therefore does not describe causation. Furthermore, this study used self-report data which may threaten internal validity. Finally, selection bias may be a risk to generalizability. However, the sample in this study is demographically similar to other studies examining the counseling population, so this risk may be minimal. Implications Both professional organizations (e.g., ACA, AMHCA) and CACREP can promote counselor wellness by putting policies in place recognizing that individuals going into the counseling profession are likely to have personal histories shaped by adverse experiences. These policies may include a more systemic understanding of wellness strategies for counselors. Self-care is often conceptualized as a personal endeavor achieved outside of work hours, yet policies may be put in place to promote organizational wellness by providing space and emotional support for counselor wellness. For example, far too often grants require caseloads that are too heavy to foster and maintain the well-being of counselors. The results of this study may also have implications for counselor education. Given that 42% of our participants had four or more ACEs, it may be likely that close to half of students within
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