TPC Journal-Vol 9 Issue 3-FULL

222 The Professional Counselor | Volume 9, Issue 3 interpersonal trust in counseling. Creating such an instrument may be beneficial for a profession that is essentially relational. Further inquiries into cross-racial mentoring may prove beneficial for our understanding of its benefits and perils, such as the effects of cross-racial mentoring on the racial identity development of both the mentee and the mentor. Future studies might also examine the perspectives of the White mentors involved in cross-racial relationships with students or supervisees. In addition, researchers could examine cross-racial mentoring relationships in which the mentor is Black and the mentee is White, examining the benefits and challenges experienced in these dyads. Investigations of interpersonal trust between dyads or groups comprised of marginalized and privileged people will be beneficial to the profession and those we serve. Finally, research is needed on the boundaries within the counseling profession. Most of the participants of this study believed that their relationship with their mentor needed to be more informal and less rigid (see Alvarez et al., 2009; Luedke, 2017). It may be beneficial to examine how much of one’s perspective of professional boundaries is culturally conditioned. Summary and Conclusion In our study, 10 Black doctoral counseling students shared a range of experiences related to cross- racial trust with White mentors, along with their perspectives about succeeding in a profession that is predominately White. Their lived experiences entailed both racial stress and cross-racial support, cultural isolation within their departments, and empathic encouragement from their mentors. The research team identified three superordinate themes related to cross-racial trust in mentoring relationships: reasons for trust, reasons for mistrust, and benefits of cross-racial mentoring. We also identified several themes and subthemes that delineated the interpersonal and intrapersonal factors that helped generate cross-racial trust, despite participants’ ubiquitous experiences of racism. Conflict of Interest and Funding Disclosure The authors reported no conflict of interest or funding contributions for the development of this manuscript. References Adams, C., & van Manen, M. (2008). Phenomenology. In L. M. Given (Ed.), The SAGE encyclopedia of qualitative research methods (Vol. 2, pp. 614–619). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE. Alvarez, A. N., Blume, A. W., Cervantes, J. M., & Thomas, L. R. (2009). Tapping the wisdom tradition: Essential elements to mentoring students of color. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice , 40 , 181–188. doi:10.1037/a0012256 American Counseling Association. (2014). Code of ethics . Retrieved from https://www.counseling.org/docs/ default-source/ethics/2014-aca-code-of-ethics.pdf?sfvrsn=fde89426_5 Baker, C. A., & Moore, J. L., III. (2015). Experiences of underrepresented doctoral students in counselor education. Journal for Multicultural Education , 9 , 68–84. doi:10.1108/JME-11-2014-0036 Bell, T. J., & Tracey, T. J. G. (2006). The relation of cultural mistrust and psychological health. Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development , 34 , 2–14. doi:10.1002/j.2161-1912.2006.tb00022.x