550 The Professional Counselor | Volume 10, Issue 4 essence of counselor educators’ lived experiences with emotionally intense gatekeeping (Lopez & Willis, 2004). Transcendental phenomenology allowed us to (a) explore how emotionally intense gatekeeping experiences affect counselor educators personally and professionally, (b) bracket our own assumptions about emotionally intense gatekeeping, and (c) understand the common elements of participants’ gatekeeping experiences. Participants Participants qualified for inclusion in this study if they self-reported at least one emotionally intense gatekeeping experience and were currently employed as a counselor educator at a CACREPaccredited institution. Eleven counselor educators participated in this study, representing years of experience between 2 and 37 years (M = 19.8, SD = 11.58). Table 1 provides a snapshot of participant demographics. Table 1 Participant Demographics Name Gender Race or Ethnicity Rank Degree Major Degree Type Yrs. Exp. CES Sue Female White Assistant CES PhD 0–5 Rosie Female White, Caucasian Full CP PhD 20–25 Rose Female White, Caucasian Associate CES PhD 15–20 Mike Male Caucasian Full CEs EdD 25–30 Mark Male White Full CES PhD 35–40 Maria Female White, Caucasian Associate CES PhD 5–10 Lila Female Multicultural Full CP PhD 25–30 Frank Male Caucasian Full CES EdD 20–25 Rita Female Hispanic Associate CES PhD 20–25 Herbie Female Asian Assistant CES PhD 5–10 Dan Male White Adjunct CES EdD 30–35 Notes. All participant names are pseudonyms. For gender, race, or ethnicity, participants’ responses were recorded verbatim. CES = Counselor Education and Supervision. CP = Counseling Psychology. PhD = Doctor of Philosophy. EdD = Doctor of Education. Yrs. Exp. CES = Years Working as a Counselor Educator and Supervisor. Recruitment Procedures To seek out counselor educators with emotionally intense gatekeeping experiences (Miller et al., 2018), we recruited participants through three purposeful sampling and screening procedures. First, participants were recruited based on their authorship of at least one gatekeeping article published in a journal or magazine that noted their professional experiences with gatekeeping. Four articles addressing the authors’ personal experiences with gatekeeping were identified. Those authors were sent an email inviting them to participate in this study. Second, we used a purposeful sample of accredited counselor education programs listed on CACREP’s official website. This search yielded a total of 880 potential counselor training programs. We generated a stratified sample three times that resulted in three separate batches of 23 programs. Program coordinators were sent emails asking them to share the study invitation with their faculty members who may identify as having one or more emotionally intense
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