Responds to Miller's article on encouraging gullibility by recommending that a balance between suspicion and gullibility be attained in counseling situations. (Author/ABB)

Previous studies have demonstrated the inability of naive observers (i.e., those who have no counseling training) to differentiate an empathic counselor from a content-only counselor on a variety of counselor rating scales. The present study extends these earlier studies by attempting to determine whether individuals who had been clients…

All people, including counselors, learn and act out a set of roles that includes both "real self" roles and other, less familiar, more uncomfortable roles. Certain principles employed in the training of actors can be applied to counselor preparation. Implications and suggestions for counselor educators are offered. (Author)

The seven studies reported in this paper represent successive attempts to explain the inability of observers to differentiate "good" counseling from "bad" counseling. Essentially, the researchers found that subjects, both undergraduate education majors and graduate counseling students, did not rate a videotaped counselor's performance as more…

The experiment was designed to test the effects of covert behavior upon the verbal expression of emotional words contained in a TAT-like story. Subjects were 63 college students. The first independent variable, "self-regulation," consisted of three levels: (a) a no self-monitoring condition, (b) a self-monitoring condition, and (c) a…

Thirty-one prepracticum counselors were assigned randomly to two methods of confrontation skill training: (a) a cognitive self-instructional modeling group and (b) a discrimination/communication training group. The self-instructional group practiced aloud and, later silently, a set of questions designed to identify and to verbalize a discrepancy…

Several approaches have been used to teach basic counseling skills to beginning trainees. A cognitive self-instructional modeling approach was employed with a student pre-practicum class. The treatment group (N=9) received 6 hours of training by observing counselor models, formulating their helping responses aloud, practicing the asking of focused…

Beginning counselors are rarely able to avoid anxiety during early counseling sessions. The fears involved in demonstrating counseling arise from: (1) irrational beliefs concerning "the perfect response;" (2) academic coursework which seems to equate psychological illness with poor counseling skills; (3) uncertainty about necessary skills; and (4)…