Surviving and Thriving in Your Counseling Program
Description
"Drs. Julius and Jude Austin have written a most informative and engaging guide for students navigating the demands of their academic program and internships. They provide practical wisdom in each chapter and serve as mentors to their readers through their self-disclosure and the lessons they have learned. This book needs to be in the hands of every counseling student, as it offers extremely useful pointers and encouragement to survive and thrive in their program." -Marianne Schneider Corey, MA, LMFT, NCC -Gerald Corey, EdD, ABPP, NCC, Professor Emeritus of Human Services and Counseling, California State University, Fullerton
"This is a valuable resource for students in graduate-level training in counseling or counselor education and supervision. In addition, it will be a useful update for counselor educators regarding the experiences of contemporary graduate counseling students." -Richard E. Watts, PhD, LPC-S, Sam Houston State University
Written for graduate students who want to get the most out of their experience, this book presents down-to-earth discussions and suggestions on counselor training and life after graduation. The authors, both millennials and recent doctoral program graduates, draw upon their own personal and professional training and career experiences, as well as shared insight from a diverse group of current graduate students, recent graduates, and new professionals. The realistic, personal, and often humorous narratives throughout the book give an insider's perspective on graduate school and illuminate the emotional journey of students and new professionals.
Topics include choosing and getting into a program, handling the opportunities and challenges that each year of the program presents, gaining emotional maturity, dealing with setbacks, managing conflicts, increasing cultural awareness, getting a doctoral degree, searching for a job, finding a supervisor, and obtaining licensure. Readers will also be able to peek behind the curtains of faculty meetings to glean what faculty members expect, develop skills for their first session, and create and maintain a self-care plan for improving work-life balance.
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More details
Persons
Julius A. Austin, PhD, isa clinical therapist and coordinator for the Office of Substance Abuse and Recovery at Tulane University.
Jude T. Austin II, PhD, is an assistant professor and clinical coordinator in the Professional Counseling Program at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor.
Content
Preface vii
Acknowledgments xi
About the Authors xiii
About the Voices From the Field Writers xv
Chapter 1 You Got In. Now What? 1
Chapter 2 First Year 17
Chapter 3 Second Year 31
Chapter 4 Third Year 53
Chapter 5 Life After Graduation 67
Chapter 6 Getting a Doctoral Degree 95
Chapter 7 Emotional Maturity 117
Chapter 8 Dealing With Setbacks 129
Chapter 9 Managing Conflicts 135
Chapter 10 Multicultural Considerations 149
Epilogue 161
References 163
Chapter 1
You Got In. Now What?
For starters, take a deep breath and try to become increasingly aware of the sacrifices you and your family have made up to this point in your life. There may have been times where your life depended upon making one decision: turning left or right, going or not going to an event, saying no or yes, or ending or beginning a relationship. Think about your hustle-that side job you hated but needed because it helped you pay tuition or rent. Reflect upon the group projects you were required to do as an undergraduate where no one did their share, so you carried the whole team because you wanted a good grade. Be humbled by everyone in your life who contributed, in small and large ways, to you being where you are today. Know that all of those decisions and experiences have led you into this graduate counseling program for a reason.
Now, take another deep breath and read the rest of this book knowing that you have everything you need to make it through counselor training. Purchasing this book should indicate that you already seek out the support you need when you need it. You have been surviving and thriving your whole life. You will need this mentality to make it through counselor training because it is a crucible of self-determination. The training process holds, molds, and changes you forever. Everyone's journey is different, but how you process this change and the person you are becoming can either help or hinder your development as a counselor.
When we meet with students at the beginning of their journey, they want to know how to get through the counseling program with good grades and without hurting themselves or their clients. We eventually tackle that question, but first, we spend a significant amount of time focusing on helping students answer two questions: What do you want to do with your life beyond your career, and how can you use your time in the training program to prepare for that life? Answering these questions may clear the way for us to talk about the details of degree/career planning.
In this chapter, we discuss how to start the graduate program on the right foot. We share our own answers to the previous two questions. This chapter allows readers to be in the room during these early mentorship meetings as we prepare students to begin their counselor journey. It also introduces the topics we will discuss in detail throughout the book.
The Journey Begins
You may have picked up this book after being accepted into a graduate counseling program on the first try or after several attempts. Some of you started this journey straight from your undergraduate studies, whereas others spent some time in the world before entering academia again. Before this journey, you may have had another career, raised kids, and are now spoiling grandkids thinking, "Why in the hell did I sign up for this program?" Regardless of where you were before you got here or how many times it took you to get here, congratulations. You made it.
At the beginning of our counseling journey, we wished someone would have told us that there are specific experiences in counselor training where you can thrive and others where you just need to grunt through and survive. For example, some students thrive in the classroom. These students do well on tests, take great notes, and write excellent papers. However, those same students may fear their first practice counseling session and barely survive a fishbowl activity, where the class makes a tight circle around two individuals who sit in the middle and play therapist and client. Other students are the opposite. They survive through courses and through reading notes and books over and over again to understand concepts. They struggle to write papers and need extra support from their instructors. However, these same students thrive in clinical practice situations, where they have to hold the space for a client who is expressing intense sorrow by ugly crying (the snotty-nose, shoulder-shaking, dry-heaving type of crying) for 30 minutes.
This thrive-and-survive dynamic can also parallel students' personal lives while they are going through the counseling program. You may feel like you are thriving throughout your counseling program, but your life is a dumpster fire. All students' lives are in various degrees of shambles while in counselor training. Being more aware of circumstances where you can thrive and those where you have to survive can help you adjust to the demands of counselor training. Additionally, preparing yourself and those close members of your life for the experience can help you find the balance between surviving and thriving.
Preparing Yourself
A Deep Assessment of Your Life
There are many things to consider when preparing yourself to begin the counseling journey. Start with a merciless assessment of your life and be honest. What are the things within your life that will cause you to suck as a counselor? Is it your laziness? Do you really not want to do the work it takes to make an impact on your clients' lives? Are you entitled? Do you have unrealistic expectations from those around you, including instructors, supervisors, and clients? Are you not great at relationships and struggle to make them work (often flitting from one broken relationship to the next thinking something will be different)? Are you attracted to drama? Do you continually stir the pot and pull others down with you in the process? Do you want everyone to like you to the point that you are willing to sacrifice yourself for this approval? Are you needy, and do you expect others to bend over backward to support you? Do you see yourself as a victim and struggle to take responsibility for the things you are responsible for in your life and relationships? Is your cup already full? Do you feel as though you already know a lot of the information presented in class, and it is your job to help the other students reach their potential? Is your life schedule hectic? Do your full-time job, kids, relationships, and other commitments not leave you enough time to reflect on yourself? Do you have past demons or past life events that trigger you today? Do you see yourself as the white knight who will swoop into your client's life and whisper words of wisdom only you can impart? Really dig deep into yourself and your life to identify these vulnerabilities. Many of these questions resonated with us, so having these experiences does not mean you cannot become a great counselor. It just means that once you become aware of these potential limitations, you have to process and work through them to become the counselor the community needs.
Expenses
One of the more practical issues to consider when preparing to begin counseling training is the cost. How are you going to pay for counselor training? According to a U.S. News & World Report article, graduate school can cost between $20,000 and $80,000 (Howard, 2017). The wide distribution is related to the type of school and options to attend such as part-time, full-time, or online. Professional organizations such as the American Counseling Association (ACA; www.counseling.org), American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (www.aamft.org), and the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (www.cacrep.org) and honor societies such as Chi Sigma Iota (www.csi-net.org) and Psi Chi (www.psichi.org) provide scholarship opportunities. Without scholarships, the financial toll can be immense.
The expense goes beyond tuition. Here is a breakdown of what our money went toward as students beyond tuition: textbooks, professional organization dues, professional conferences, and professional clothes. Textbooks cost about $100-$250 a semester. We looked for deals on websites such as Amazon (www.amazon.com) and Chegg (www.chegg.com). We also consulted with our instructors regarding purchasing earlier versions of the texts we used. Being twins helped because we shared with each other as much as possible. Sometimes we coordinated with a cohort friend to share a book; we made a reading schedule to organize time, so we would not miss the class readings. We also checked with the library to see if they had the current or an earlier edition of the textbook.
Professional organization dues are another cost to consider when preparing to get the most out of your counselor training. Becoming a member of a professional organization may not be necessary, but it can be helpful. Often, organizations have a discounted rate for graduate students. To be fair, it was still too expensive for us as broke graduate students. The cost was definitely a month's groceries. However, there are plenty of professional benefits to joining a professional organization. As doctoral students, we joined ACA and experienced many advantages such as discounted conference rates, discounts at stores, discounts on continuing education units, and access to professional training. Joining helped us develop a counselor identity. We started to see reoccurring names in the emails and publications and dreamed that one day, we would have an impact on this field. We encourage you to deeply consider whether membership is right for you and your family.
Professional conferences are also an expense to consider. We were too broke as graduate students to attend a professional conference, but it would have been an excellent opportunity to learn. The student registration cost for the ACA conference can range from $250 to $400. There are ways to find cheaper registration fees by registering early or volunteering. You should also factor in the cost of...
