Christine J. Schimmel

When Leaders Are Challenged: Dealing With Involuntary Members in Groups

Leading groups can be challenging and difficult. Leading groups in which members are involuntary and negative increases the level of difficulty and creates new dynamics in the group leading process. This article proposes specific skills and strategies for dealing with three specific issues related to involuntary members in groups: groups where all members are involuntary; groups where some members are involuntary; and groups with open membership where involuntary members join groups that are already in progress. The emphasis is on leaders using creative and multi-sensory interventions to insure that members are actively engaged in the group process.

Creative Interventions Using Chairs: Going Beyond Gestalt

In this article, we present numerous ways in which chairs can be used to enhance the counseling process beyond the traditional Gestalt use of chairs. Counselors can use chairs to help clients bring issues into the present, make issues more clear and concrete, understand how interactions unfold, and understand how past experiences affect present-day functioning.

Creative Strategies to Foster Pre-Service School Counselor Group Leader Self-Efficacy

Counselor education programs accredited by the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs are charged with the important task of providing pre-service school counselors with didactic information and experiential opportunities that prepare students for the realities of group work in the school setting. It is important for programs to consider ways in which students develop self-efficacy around their group leadership skills. The accomplishment of this task can be a challenge given time constraints and potentially limited opportunities to provide experience, observation, and supervision of group leadership during coursework training. This article attempts to provide creative solutions to these challenges.

A Content Analysis of Military Psychology: 2002–2014.

Content analysis of articles published in professional journals is a viable method to assess the trends and topics a profession deems to be important. Military psychology does not involve only 1 subspecialty of psychologists, so research from many different perspectives has contributed to the field. The purpose of this manuscript is to present a post-9/11 content analysis of articles published in Military Psychology to identify critical issues and trends in the research and practice of military psychology. A total of 379 articles were analyzed, and revealed that the majority were empirical (n = 304, 80.2%) and employed quantitative methods (n = 283, 93.1%). The primary key topics were personnel (air force, army, military, and navy; n = 166), military (psychology, training, veterans, etc.; n = 104), and career issues (e.g., employee, interests, job, vocation, etc.; n = 57). Trends and directions for the future of military psychology are also considered.

What Counts When it Comes to School Enjoyment and Aspiration in the Middle Grades

Abstract Young adolescents, and the middle level educators who work with them, face many exciting but demanding challenges during this key period of development. According to stage-environment fit theory, the degree to which middle grades students perceive a good fit between their school environment and their needs impacts their academic and life outcomes. The authors endeavored to build on middle level research by studying the extent to which students’ needs are supported by school environment factors and how this “fit” relates to two academic outcome variables: school enjoyment and aspiration. The sample consisted of middle grades students (N = 1,027) between the ages of 10 and 14. Hierarchical logistic regression analyses were conducted. After controlling for age, ethnicity, and gender, four subscales (Social Skills Needs, Mental Health Needs, Academic and Career Needs, and School Support) were entered as potential predictors. Both models were significant and accounted for ~20% of the variance. This study suggests that middle level educators, counselors, and administrators may benefit from considering ways to enhance the match between students’ and the middle grades’ learning environment, especially by considering non-academic factors as a way to provide indirect, but powerful, support for academic and life success.

Learning the Ropes: A Creative Orientation Approach for Counseling Students

ABSTRACT Although the literature base for student retention and attrition within counselor education is somewhat lacking, we can glean much from the general literature on student retention. This study examines a unique orientation program for counseling students aimed at increasing the factors related to counseling student self-efficacy and completion of graduate work. A consensual qualitative research-modified design was used to analyze student reactions to an outdoor orientation program geared toward increasing comfort and reducing student anxiety in regards to beginning their program.