TPC Journal V8, Issue 2 - FULL ISSUE

The Professional Counselor | Volume 8, Issue 2 203 field experiences. We employed these journals for four primary purposes: (a) to deepen students’ reflections on their developing practices and professional identity; (b) to nurture students’ self- awareness; (c) to encourage a shift toward self-directed learning; and (d) to address the temporal limitations of supervision—that is, to create a process by which students might reflect on their experiences outside the limited time that students spend with their instructors during supervision. Recently, we shifted toward the use of video reflective journaling. Our initial rationale for using digital video, rather than writing, as the means for reflection was based upon the notion that digital video might allow for more authentic responses on the part of our students. In addition, our transition to video journals grew from our recognition of our society’s familiarized use of digital video as exemplified by popular user-generated social media, such as YouTube, and the use of video “confessionals” within the context of reality television. In a previous qualitative inquiry (co-authored by Janson and colleagues) of student perceptions of the use of video journals, it was found that students perceived that video reflective journaling was a better support for their development as counselors, allowed them to reflect with greater authenticity, and presented compelling parallels to developmental issues related to counseling clients (Parikh et al., 2012). As a result of these promising findings, our continued use of digital video media to enhance the supervision experience and student counselor development led us to further explore how the use of digital video might facilitate even more significant reflective practices among our students. Video reflective journals maintain the same process and content goals of traditional written journals, but they instead use digital video technology as the mode of reflection, rather than the written word. As with traditional approaches to handling counseling recording, DDR sessions are conducted upon obtaining signed consent, fully disclosing the limits of confidentiality and safety precautions, and providing guidelines for the disposal of recordings to supervisees and clients. Dialogic reflection. Dialogic reflection involves the exploration of an event or experience through the construction of a dialogue with self that weighs different perspectives, approaches, and solutions (Moon, 2001). These dialogues encourage students to reflect from various vantages, thereby emphasizing the complex, interpersonal process of counseling. Dialogic reflection also can support students’ recognition of their own preconceptions and biases that enter into the counseling relationship and process. This approach to reflection honors the social constructionist perspective that knowledge is generated through discourse with others—even if those others are representations created by the students themselves. Within our program, we incorporated elements of dialogic reflection into student reflective journaling, specifically by encouraging self-dialogue in which conjectures and perceptions of client beliefs and attitudes were represented. However, as with IPR, we were searching for ways in which client perceptions and beliefs regarding the counseling process were not merely represented by our students, but were authentically provided through actual discourse with real clients. Interpersonal Process Recall. IPR (Kagan & Kagan, 1990) remains one of the most utilized methods of supervision. In its original use as a counseling training tool, the IPR process involved the examination of videotaped counseling sessions that were reviewed and processed by the supervisor and supervisee, and the client (Bradley, Gould, & Parr, 2001). There can be many areas of focus within the IPR process; however, one that was particularly influential in our development of DDR is the growth that occurs when counseling students learn how to better attend to and understand the communicated perspective of the client. This takes place most clearly through what is called a mutual recall session , during which the supervisee and the client watch a taped counseling session with the supervisor. Both the supervisee and the client are invited to share perceptions, thoughts, and feelings specifically around the interactional patterns of the other. The desired outcome of a mutual recall