Volume 3 – Issue 1

To date, few scholars in counselor education have attended to the processes and impacts of introducing business-related concepts within counseling curricula. The authors describe the development, implementation and evaluation of a graduate-level course titled Entrepreneurship in Clinical Settings wherein students were tasked with producing a business plan for their ideal clinical practice. Implications and recommendations are explored.

The present paper advocates for standardized regulations and laws for supervision of pre-licensed counselors in the
United States, particularly for direct observation of clinical skills. A review of regulations by the American Counseling
Association (ACA) Office of Professional Affairs (2012) reveals that only two states (Arizona and North Carolina)
specify requiring supervision interventions that include the use of reviewing audio or videotapes, or live supervision
modalities, to help evaluate pre-licensed counselors’ competence. Literature on the current state of regulations, extant
research on supervision practices, and effects on satisfaction with supervision and self-efficacy are presented and
framed in terms of standardized policy.

The professional identity of a counselor educator develops primarily during the individual’s doctoral preparation program. This study employed consensual qualitative research methodology to examine the phenomenon of professional identity development in counselor education doctoral students (CEDS) in a cohort model. Cross-sectional focus groups were conducted with three cohorts of doctoral students in counselor education (N = 18) to identify the experiences that contributed to their professional identity development. The findings identified that (a) programmatic goals to develop professional identity align with the experiences most influential to CEDS, (b) experiential learning opportunities enhanced CEDS professional identity development, (c) the relationships with mentors and faculty contribute to their identity as counselor educators, and (d) being perceived as a counselor educator by faculty influences professional identity development. Implications for counselor education and the counseling profession are discussed.