Being a College Counselor on Today's Campus

Roles, Contributions, and Special Challenges

Bruce S. Sharkin

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9781138135338
• eBook ISBN: 9781136944963
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Mental Health in Psychology
• Index: Psychology

There has been increasing attention in recent years, both positive and negative, on college student mental health and the provision of counseling services on campus. At the same time, there continue to be misperceptions of college counselors, both within and outside college campuses. Drawing on over 20 years of experience as a college counselor, Dr. Sharkin addresses these misunderstandings, providing a detailed description and discussion of the many roles and contributions these professionals have.

He explores topics such as the history of college counseling and its evolution, who college counselors are, how someone can become a college counselor, and what skills are needed to be a college counselor today. Roles and responsibilities, including counseling, crisis intervention, consultation, outreach, and administrative duties, are discussed in detail and supplemented with both research and case studies. Diversity competencies and special challenges faced by today's college counselors are also considered. This engaging and accessible book will be a valuable resource for those already working in college mental health settings and those wishing to enter the field.

1

THE SPECIALTY FIELD OF COLLEGE COUNSELING

As a profession, college counseling has been around for many years, yet its emergence as a true specialty seems to have occurred in more recent years. College counseling is now considered a specialty field within the larger professional domain of counseling, similar to long-existing specialties such as addictions counseling and family counseling. This means that it is a field that requires specific qualifications and skills and consists of its own unique experiences and challenges. It also means that being a college counselor encompasses its own sense of professional identity regardless of the particular background or educational credentials of the individual practitioner. Simply stated, there is nothing quite like the experience of being a counselor on a college or university campus. Grayson and Meilman (2006) referred to college counseling as “a world unto itself” (p. 1). The delineation of the unique dimensions of college counseling is the primary mission of this book.

In addition to providing counseling, most college counselors engage in a variety of other tasks. This includes consultation and outreach, supervision and training, research, teaching, and myriad other important contributions to the overall mission of their universities. College counselors may be appreciated and valued in some respects, while at the same time they may be underappreciated and undervalued in other respects. For example, faculty and staff members on a campus are relieved to be able to refer emotionally distressed students to those with more expertise in handling such matters. After all, this is what campus counselors are primarily there for, at least in the eyes of others on campus. But when it comes to the many other roles, responsibilities, and professional activities that college counselors engage in, this is where there may be less acknowledgment of their value.

This chapter will first provide some brief but significant historical perspective on the profession and how it has evolved, particularly over the past 20 to 30 years. This will include some discussion of the tragedy that occurred at Virginia Tech in 2007, for this is an event that significantly changed campus life in general and the role of college counselors in particular. The historical review will be followed by a discussion of the professionals who currently work as college counselors and what skills are needed to be an effective college counselor on today’s campus.

The Evolution of College Counseling

Historical Roots

The early beginnings of what is now called college counseling have been written about and summarized by others (Dean & Meadows, 1995; Hodges, 2001; Meadows, 2000; Prescott, 2008). Prescott’s review is perhaps the most thorough and interesting to read, though she is not a college counselor and rather writes from the perspective of a historian. According to Prescott (2008), mental health services first appeared at American colleges and universities during the 1920s in an effort to broaden health services in higher education after the First World War. In those days, such services were generally referred to as mental hygiene programs. Prescott noted that there were only a dozen or so private colleges that instituted these programs during the 1920s and 1930s, with Princeton being the first.

Based on the description of what these services entailed, it seems that they were primarily the domain of psychiatry, and not surprisingly there was a strong sense of social stigma associated with utilizing them back then. The sense of stigma was certainly not helped by the prevailing sentiments of homophobia, anti-Semitism, and oppression of women that influenced these early efforts at treating mental illness on campus (Prescott, 2008). Prescott described how there were also strong feelings of opposition from faculty members who viewed mental hygiene programs as a form of “coddling” academically under-performing students. Indeed, there are still some remnants of this attitude that persist today.

Following the Second World War, there was further expansion of mental health services in higher education, in large part due to the influx of veterans who were given financial assistance to enroll in colleges and universities. In the 1950s, a significant proportion of counseling provided was in the form of career counseling to veterans, and the vocational planning for these veterans opened up avenues of exploration into personal and social concerns (Hodges, 2001). Theories of late-adolescent development that emerged at the time also helped focus attention on the importance of nurturing the emotional maturation process of college students, further expanding the role of counseling into more personal and social dimensions of students’ lives.

The 20-year period from 1960 to 1980 has been characterized as perhaps the most significant period of growth in the development of the profession of college counseling (Meadows, 2000). Many counseling centers assumed increasing responsibility for testing services, including national testing programs such as the Scholastic Aptitude Test and Graduate Record Exam (Weissberg, 1987). Early pioneers such as Thomas Magoon, Charles Warnath, and Allen Ivey made significant contributions through research and publications to a young but blossoming field. Common standards were adopted by the International Association of Counseling Services to govern the accreditation of counseling services at different types of institutions of higher education. Despite the tremendous strides that were being made, Meadows related how this period represented a serious challenge to the development of the profession as well. Particularly during the 1970s, the field was trying to advance while facing the threat of looming cuts during difficult economic times, something that the field is once again experiencing today.

The 1980s Through the 2000s: Growing Concern About College Student Mental Health

Beginning in the 1980s, research began to emerge showing an increase in the severity of problems being treated in college counseling centers. For example, Robbins, May, and Corazzini (1985) reported that a significant percentage of counseling center staff members held the perception that the severity of problems was on the rise. A similar finding was subsequently reported based on the perceptions of counseling center directors (O’Malley, Wheeler, Murphey, O’Connell, & Waldo, 1990). During the 1980s, the traditional developmental approach of college counseling started to give way to the medical model with an emphasis on assessment and diagnosis of disorders (Hodges, 2001), and counseling centers began to merge more with health services (Cooper, Resnick, Rodolfa, & Douce, 2008). Career counseling, once the predominant domain of college counselors, was increasingly becoming a separate service provided by others on campus (Cooper et al., 2008).

As the decade of the 1990s ushered in, Stone and Archer (1990) argued that the purported trend of increasing numbers of students with serious psychological problems was a key challenge facing counseling centers in the new decade. Their article has been deemed to be crucial for setting the tone for the entire decade of the 1990s (Cooper et al., 2008) and continues to be just as influential in the world of college counseling today. Bishop (1990) wrote a similar article making the same claim, and other articles subsequently appeared addressing concerns such as ethical dilemmas associated with increasing psychopathology among college students (Gilbert, 1992). However, the Stone and Archer article remains one of the most cited in the college counseling literature.

Most college counselors in the field at that time believed that the trend of increasing severity was occurring and did not question what was documented in the Stone and Archer (1990) article. However, a closer review of the studies cited by Stone and Archer revealed a lack of convincing evidence (other than the perceptions of counseling center staff members) to support the purported trend (Sharkin, 1997). An ongoing debate subsequently ensued over whether there was a true trend. If in fact there was an increase in the level of distress of college students over the years, particularly those that came to the attention of college counselors, such a trend was difficult to demonstrate through research (Sharkin & Coulter, 2005).

Several large-scale longitudinal studies were subsequently conducted to test the notion that problems presented in counseling centers were becoming increasingly more severe (Benton, Robertson, Tseng, Newton, & Benton, 2003; Cornish, Kominars, Riva, McIntosh, & Henderson, 2000; Kettmann, Schoen, Moel, Cochran, Greenberg, & Corkery, 2007; Pledge, Lapan, Heppner, Kivlighan, & Roehlke, 1998; A. J. Schwartz, 2006). These studies varied in the time period assessed (ranging from 6 to 13 years), sample size (ranging from 827 to 13,257), and the measures used (from one to multiple measures, most of which were completed at intake, except in the Benton et al. study). A detailed summary of these studies by Much and Swanson (2010) shows that the purported trend of increasing psychopathology has not yet been demonstrated.

Of all of the studies, it was the Benton et al. (2003) study that garnered the most attention, for it was and continues to be cited as evidence for the trend. Though it was an ambitious and important study, there were frequent misinterpretations of its findings due to its methodological shortcomings (Sharkin, 2004a). Nonetheless, the publication of that one study helped continue to fuel national media coverage of college student mental health concerns that had already begun since the start of the new millennium (Arenson, 2004; Duenwald, 2004; Goode, 2003; K. Kelly, 2001; Kirn, 2003; McGinn & DePasquale, 2004; Shea, 2002; Young, 2003).

The publication of the Benton et al. (2003) study was soon followed by the publication of several books on the subject of college student mental health, including the widely recognized College of the Overwhelmed: The Campus Mental Health Crisis and What to Do About It (Kadison & DiGeronimo, 2004) and College Mental Health Practice (Grayson & Meilman, 2006). Concerns were being raised about the increasing use of psychotropic medication among young people in general (Kluger, 2003) and college students in particular (Carter & Winseman, 2003; Fromm, 2007; Whitaker, 2007; Young, 2003). High-profile cases of student suicide, such as Elizabeth Shin at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2000 and several suicides that occurred at New York University in 2003 and 2004, were creating a media frenzy (Kennedy, 2004) and raising anxieties on campuses nationwide (Arenson, 2004). College counseling centers were being characterized as similar to community mental health clinics (Rudd, 2004). A special section in an issue of the Journal of College Counseling (Beamish, 2005) was devoted to the problem of “severe and persistent mental illness on college campuses.” The special issue included a reiteration of earlier concerns with the lack of research evidence for the trend of increasing problem severity and methodological limitations in the Benton et al. study (Sharkin & Coulter, 2005).

Concern about the mental health care for college students even prompted the federal government to respond with legislative action aimed at strengthening or increasing student access to mental health services on campuses. There was the Campus Care and Counseling Act (HR 3593, 2003; S 2215, 2004), which was eventually incorporated into the Garrett Lee Smith Memorial Act (HR 4799, 2004; S 2634, 2004) and signed into law by then-president George W. Bush in the fall of 2004. A similar type bill, the Mental Health on Campus Improvement Act (HR 1704, 2009; S 682, 2009), was more recently introduced and has been referred to committees in the House of Representatives and Senate, but no further action has been taken by Congress.

Impact of a Tragedy: The Mass Shootings at Virginia Tech in 2007

The level of concern regarding college student mental health and the need for proper assessment and intervention intensified following the tragedy at Virginia Tech on April 17, 2007, in which 32 people were killed by a student named Seung-Hui Cho. Even though this was not the first case of mass murder on a college campus (Charles Whitman, the Texas Tower sniper, killed 16 and wounded 31 people at the University of Texas in 1966), it came at a time of increased hypervigilance to emotionally troubled students, which raised anxieties to a new level. Anxieties had already been high in the wake of several high-profile cases of student suicide, many of which prompted lawsuits against the institutions where they occurred (Arenson, 2004; Franke, 2004). With the Virginia Tech shootings, however, concerns shifted more in the direction of fears of emotionally disturbed students being dangerous to others. Much has been written about the specific events leading up to the shootings, what actually happened on the day of the shootings, and the aftermath of the tragedy (Flynn & Heitzmann, 2008; Shuchman, 2007).

In the ensuing weeks and months following the tragedy, there was considerable scrutiny on what appeared to be missed signs of the potential dangers posed by Cho. For example, it was revealed that a number of people including campus police officers, professors, and fellow students experienced troubling encounters with him. In an article that was published soon after the shootings, Amada (2007) raised questions as to why Cho was not disciplined by the school for the known instances of misconduct, such as stalking female students. It was further revealed that Cho had been briefly committed to a psychiatric hospital in 2005, but his parents had not been informed about this. In the governor-appointed Virginia Tech Review Panel report (2007), it was noted that the campus counseling center failed to communicate with officials in other campus offices or with Cho’s parents because of beliefs about privacy restrictions on such communication. The report also made reference to the fact that Cho received “minimal treatment” at the counseling center, but detailed records of any contacts with the center were missing.

News reports eventually revealed that the missing records had been discovered at the home of the former director of the counseling center, Dr. Richard Miller, who was fired from Virginia Tech in December 2005 (Urbina, 2009). According to the reports, on December 14, 2005 (the day Cho was discharged from the psychiatric hospital), Dr. Miller had received an e-mail message about Cho’s temporary detention at the hospital and examples of his troubling behavior, which he then forwarded to counseling center staff members with an “FYI” in case the student was seen in the center. Dr. Miller was unaware that Cho had already been seen earlier that day (Schulte & Jackman, 2009). For some reason, the Virginia Tech Review Panel chose not to interview Dr. Miller, perhaps because he had not worked in the counseling center for more than a year before the shootings.

Records show that Cho had three contacts with the campus counseling center in November and December 2005, two times by telephone and once in person (Schulte & Jackman, 2009). In essence, records of all three contacts showed that he was believed to be depressed, had episodes of anxiety, and was socially isolated. Although it was documented that he engaged in self-destructive behavior, it is unclear what this was referring to. However, he reportedly denied suicidal and homicidal thoughts. In the one face-to-face contact he had, he was described as nonverbal, avoidant of eye contact, and showing no emotion. Because this session was at the end of the fall semester, it ended with the counselor encouraging him to return the following month after the semester break, but he never did.

One particular issue of discrepancy revolves around whether Dr. Miller or members of the counseling center staff were informed that he was court ordered by a judge to undergo involuntary treatment at the campus counseling center after his discharge from the psychiatric hospital in December 2005. It has been reported that when he was discharged, the hospital forwarded records to the counseling center, including a court order for treatment (Shuchman, 2007). However, Schulte and Jackman (2009) reported that the campus counselors maintain that they were never informed of such an order to undergo treatment. Clearly, there was a breakdown in communication in this case.

Questions as to whether the counselors involved in evaluating Cho and the former director of counseling will ultimately be held responsible for failing to take steps to prevent what happened will undoubtedly be answered as a result of a pending lawsuit filed by families of two students who were killed that tragic day (Neil, 2010). These were the only two families that would not agree to a settlement from the state that was offered in 2008. While the tragedy itself has had a significant impact on colleges nationwide, the outcome of this lawsuit is likely to have a tremendous impact as well.

The horror of what occurred at Virginia Tech will be felt on campuses for years to come. The sense of safety that was once felt on college campuses has been shattered, and there is now a sense of hypervigilance to the potential risk of another such tragedy (Flynn & Heitzmann, 2008). In many respects, the Virginia Tech tragedy has changed college campuses in the same way the September 11th terrorist attacks changed the entire nation. In particular, colleges have been establishing threat assessment teams on campus in an effort to prevent such tragedies from occurring again. With the emergence of these teams, college counselors have been assuming a growing role in the domain of threat assessment. Hence, this increasing role will be further examined in terms of membership on campus intervention teams (in Chapter 3) and the swirling controversy related to this new role for college counselors (in Chapter 6).

Summary

The evolution of the profession of college counseling has occurred over the span of over 80 years and been influenced by a variety of people and events and the changing culture in which we live. As with most professions, there have been significant changes over the years in terms of the roles and responsibilities of college counselors. Thus, as the field has evolved so have the required skills needed to function as a college counselor on today’s campus. The path to becoming a college counselor and the specific skills needed to be effective as a college counselor will be addressed in the following section.

Becoming a College Counselor

How Does One Become a College Counselor?

The path to becoming a college counselor is not always a direct one. Because there are no college counseling degree programs per se, most of the people who end up working as college counselors come from broad-based training programs in counseling psychology, clinical psychology, counseling and human services, mental health counseling, counselor education, and social work. There are master’s programs that may offer a specialization in college counseling, as part of either a broader counseling program or student affairs in a higher education program aimed more at developing administrative skills. Typically these programs offer a number of specialized courses devoted to understanding the needs and issues of college students on today’s campus. Programs offering a college counseling specialization may require students to participate in a field placement or to complete an internship in a college counseling center, though this may not necessarily involve counseling clients.

Perhaps the field that shares the longest association with college counseling centers is counseling psychology. College counseling centers have a long tradition of serving as training sites for graduate students in counseling psychology programs (Gallessich & Olmstead, 1987; Neimeyer, Bowman, & Stewart, 2001; Richardson & Massey, 1986) and as a rewarding career option for new counseling psychology professionals (Phelps, 1992). In addition, counseling psychology programs have strong ties with counseling centers based on their shared commitment to clinical, research, and training activities (Guinee & Ness, 2000). Although a large percen...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Halftitle
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• About the Author
• Chapter 1 The Specialty Field of College Counseling
• Chapter 2 The Primary Roles and Responsibilities of College Counselors
• Chapter 3 Additional Roles and Contributions on Campus
• Chapter 4 Professional Activities of College Counselors
• Chapter 5 Being a Diversity-Competent College Counselor
• Chapter 6 Special Challenges for College Counselors
• Chapter 7 The Future Outlook
• References
• Index