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Meaning in life and work among counselors: A qualitative exploration
Abstract
Research has shown that meaning in life is beneficial to mental and physical health. Furthermore, having a sense of meaning in work has also been found to generate greater well-being and job satisfaction. However, the literature has paid scant attention to exploring the manner in which meaning in life is experienced among professional care providers such as therapists and counsellors. The purpose of this qualitative study was to provide an in-depth understanding of the experience of meaning in life among counsellors whose work is oriented towards the cultivation of well-being in educational settings. Three themes emerged from the analysis of 46 interviews with Israeli counsellors: (a) the development of meaning in life and work, (b) the sources of meaning in life; and (c) the sources of meaning in the counsellors' work. Implications for future research and practice regarding the experience of meaning are discussed.
... School counsellors' perception of enjoying a high level of positive affect, as reflected in the research findings, may be related to career choice and development of the positive meaning embedded in the profession (Russo-Nezer, 2018;Russo-Netzer et al., 2020;Steger & Dik, 2009;Wright, 2011), the sense of autonomy felt by the counsellor (Deci & Ryan, 2011;Ribbak & Rosenthal, 1994), and the potential for professional development. Negative affects in counsellors' perception of their job may be linked to the professional ambiguity inherent in the profession (Erhard, 2014), the burden of tasks (Comptroller of State, 2014), and the feelings of loneliness experienced by counsellors due to their unique status in school, ethical dilemmas, and feelings of professional burnout (Shadmi, 2004;Skovholt & Mathison, 2011). ...
The study focuses on the subjective well-being (SWB) of school counsellors in Israel and its relationship with environmental and personal resources. School counsellors work within a stressful organizational high-pressure high-touch environment, characterized by crises and involving complex tasks related directly and indirectly to their emotional world. Therefore, counsellors’ SWB is an essential condition for them to fulfil their roles in an optimal manner. The research population comprised 216 school counsellors. The data collection included six questionnaires describing the participants’ SWB and personal and environmental resources. Research findings demonstrated a high level of SWB among participants, self-control being the strongest explaining variable regarding the variance in SWB levels. The study offers both practical implications and theoretical contributions by identifying personal and environmental resources related to counsellors’ SWB essential for the implementation of the counsellors’ role.
... Studies on resilient therapists have also pointed out the importance of being self-aware when working with clients in crisis (Ling et al., 2014;Russo-Netzer et al., 2020). These therapists remain mindful of problems in their personal life and distress that come about during therapy in order to resolve and correct them when they arise. ...
Research is uncovering the repercussions of the COVID‐19 pandemic on the mental and emotional state of various populations around the world. It is of particular interest to this study to explore how the pandemic has affected psychologists conducting therapy with clients in distress during this time. A qualitative approach was used to analyse the narratives of eight Filipino psychologists who were living in community quarantine while conducting therapy from March to December 2020. The results revealed four chapters: (1) ‘thrown up in the air’, (2) struggling to find their footing, (3) gaining stability and (4) ‘finding new rhythm’. It was found that these psychologists suffered the emotional distress from the pandemic that many are experiencing around the world. They needed to first regain stability in their well‐being before being able to become effective helpers to their clients again. Moreover, they eventually found new purpose and growth in their practice. This study documented and discussed the journey of therapists in a shared traumatic reality, from first exposure to growth.
... Research suggests that providing emotional support to clients is a key source of MIL for counsellors (Cleary, 2019;Russo-Netzer et al., 2020). MIL has also been found to buffer against burnout in hospice nurses (Barnett et al., 2019), with counsellors also an at-risk group for burnout (Hardiman & Simmonds, 2013). ...
Both meaning in life (MIL) and perceived self-competence (PSC) have been linked to
a sense of calling, and better well-being. To the authors' knowledge, no study has examined MIL or PSC in counselling students. Current counselling students (N = 292) were asked whether studying counselling brought them MIL, and completed the Meaning in Life Questionnaire, and an adapted Perceived Competence Scale for
Counselling Students (PCS-CS). Results showed that students with a higher sense of MIL had a higher level of PSC. Over 95% of participants found meaning in their study of counselling, implying that many found it to be a calling. The PCS-CS was found to be reliable, and implications include its potential usefulness in future research on PSC in counselling populations. With MIL and PSC being linked to better workplace well-being, this study implies that trainee counsellors have high levels of these protective factors, with further research warranted to establish whether this is also the case for counselling professionals.
This chapter presents theoretical data for the foreclosed identity variant. The aim of the chapter is to illustrate to the reader how this identity variant appears in an ISA, Ipseus report and how it can be analysed. To build on the reader’s understanding of ISA analysis, this chapter includes figures and tables of raw scores taken from the report that Ipseus generated from the theoretical data. These figures and raw scores are provided to better the reader’s understanding of how and why the interpretation of the raw scores might be useful in a professional development setting such as supervision or mentoring.
Purpose
This study aims to explain the health impact of work demands and organization, job content, leadership and values in the workplace. It also explores the extent to which health conditions influence the meaning in life in late career.
Design/methodology/approach
The sample consisted of 1,330 Portuguese-based individuals aged 55–75 years. The structural equation modeling (SEM) was used for the data analysis and to test the research questions.
Findings
The results showed that stress and burnout are influenced by work demands and organization, job content, leadership and values in the workplace. Employment status had no influence. Health status affects the meaning in life.
Research limitations/implications
Although participants were asked to answer the questionnaire bearing in mind their last work experience, retirees could have had difficulty reporting on their last work; therefore, in future research, the use of a qualitative methodology could also be equated as to complement richer information regarding past experiences in the work context.
Practical implications
Considering the main goals of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for sustainable development, this study contributes, namely, to the third one – Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages. In fact, directing a look at the condition in which older people work and at their health contributes not only to more productive organizations, to less spending of public money on health, but also to a more inclusive society. Bearing in mind workers are progressively retiring later and that the exposure to certain work conditions during the late career is problematic for organizations and for society in general, this study has practical and social implication.
Originality/value
Considering demographic changes and the aging of the active population in Portugal and the scarce studies carried out in the country concerning this relevant theme, the authors believe that the conclusions may constitute an important input for workplace policies regarding older workers. In addition, little research has focused on the effect of health in meaning in life.
Based on qualitative interviews with four Danish psychologists and employing Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), this study explored
psychologists’ understandings about the good life and how these influence the participants’ clinical practice. The study found that the participants were
quite aware of how their conceptions of the good life play a role in their work. Good life understandings that influenced therapeutic practice were quite
similar amongst participants and were largely characterized by traits often associated with good mental health. Themes identified were: “Everyday wellbeing,”
“presence”, and "taking care of oneself and others,” and subthemes were “contact with the self,” “awareness of the good things in life,”
“connectedness,” “to mean something to others,” “coping with distress,” and “compassion for oneself and others.” Among participants, these good life
conceptions had a similar influence on different areas of their practice in terms of how the participants understand their clients’ issues, which impacted
what they talk to their clients about, and what they seek to achieve with the clients in therapy. Therefore, the good life conceptions influenced the methods,
techniques, personal behaviors, and therapeutic approaches used to provide good and effective therapy. Another finding was that participants’ clinical
experiences also seemed to impact their good life conceptions. The interpretation of the participants’ experiences represented a hermeneutic model
suggesting that the participants’ good life conceptions and their clinical practice experiences might inform and reinforce each other in a continuously
expanding overlap. The actual nature of this interaction and its implications are relevant for future research.
In this qualitative research study, we explored the multicultural awareness development of 12 multiculturally adept non-Latino White counselors. Using a grounded theory approach, we found that early personal experience with diversity was the most important contributing factor in developing understanding and empathy for oppression among White counselors. This factor appeared to lay the foundation for an ongoing personal initiative to develop multicultural awareness. Subsequently, counselors tried to maximize what they could learn from their culturally diverse clients, work environments, coursework, supervision, and mentoring opportunities. Their personal initiative also inspired them to persevere despite the difficult emotions and conflict inherent in this developmental process. Results suggest the need to incorporate personally transformative experiences in counselor training and to prepare counselors for the emotional challenges of multicultural awareness development.
Objective:
Research on searching for meaning in life has focused on trait level relationships rather than within-person relationships. Our goal was to examine within-person relationships between daily states of searching for meaning in life, daily states of presence of meaning in life, and daily states of well-being.
Method:
To advance our understanding of searching for meaning in life, we conducted a daily diary study with two samples in which 254 undergraduate students (Mage = 18.54, SD = 1.55, 66.9% female) completed daily reports of presence and search for meaning in life and well-being for two weeks (n = 3,288).
Results:
Between persons, search was negatively related to presence and well-being. In contrast, within persons, daily search was positively related to presence and well-being. Relationships between daily search and daily well-being were mediated by daily presence of meaning in life. Lagged analyses indicated that greater search on one day led to greater presence the next day.
Conclusions:
The implications of these within-person findings suggest that researchers should reconsider the potential consequences that occur from searching for meaning in life, including the possibility that greater searching is associated with increased well-being. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
To advance meaning in life (MIL) research, it is crucial to integrate it with the broader meaning literature, which includes important additional concepts (e.g., meaning frameworks) and principles (e.g., terror management). A tripartite view, which conceptualizes MIL as consisting of 3 subconstructs—comprehension, purpose, and mattering—may facilitate such integration. Here, we outline how a tripartite view may relate to key concepts from within MIL research (e.g., MIL judgments and feelings) and within the broader meaning research (e.g., meaning frameworks, meaning making). On the basis of this framework, we review the broader meaning literature to derive a theoretical context within which to understand and conduct further research on comprehension, purpose, and mattering. We highlight how future research may examine the interrelationships among the 3 MIL subconstructs, MIL judgments and feelings, and meaning frameworks.
The purpose of this study was to describe the demographic identity of a national sample of professional school counselors who were members of the American School Counselor Association (ASCA), understand the manner in which they conceptualized their professional peer membership, and explore what sources they use to make professional and ethical decisions. Consistent with previous research, the majority of participants were white woman, across all four regions in the sample; however, when compared to previous studies, there were a slightly higher percentage of non-white school counselors. Results suggest that there is still a significant gap between the demographics of school counselors and the students they serve. The results of this study indicate that professional school counselors hold a wide range of opinions concerning who they view are their professional peers. There were also significant differences on what resources participants’ used to make professional and ethical decisions. Implications and future directions for research are discussed.
Social relationships are seen to be vital to human functioning, both in terms of psychological functioning and physical health. Relationships are a cornerstone of well-being. For instance, having positive relationships has been linked to greater happiness, life satisfaction and physical health outcomes. Meaning in life, or the perception that one's life is significant and has a purpose, is another prominent cornerstone of well-being. As such, social relationships and meaning in life should have reciprocal associations. In this paper, cross-cultural theory and empirical research will be reviewed to explore the role of family, romantic and friendship relationships in supporting meaning in life. Further, we will discuss the implications of the current research and propose new directions for future research.
Despite growing interest in meaning in life, many have voiced their concern over the conceptual refinement of the construct itself. Researchers seem to have two main ways to understand what meaning in life means: coherence and purpose, with a third way, significance, gaining increasing attention. Coherence means a sense of comprehensibility and one’s life making sense. Purpose means a sense of core goals, aims, and direction in life. Significance is about a sense of life’s inherent value and having a life worth living. Although some researchers have already noted this trichotomy, the present article provides the first comprehensible theoretical overview that aims to define and pinpoint the differences and connections between these three facets of meaning. By arguing that the time is ripe to move from indiscriminate understanding of meaning into looking at these three facets separately, the article points toward a new future for research on meaning in life.
In 2014, the Association for Multicultural Counseling and Development (AMCD) appointed a committee to revise the Multicultural Counseling Competencies developed by Sue, Arredondo, and McDavis in 1992 and operationalized by Arredondo et al. in 1996. This article reflects the updated competencies, titled the Multicultural and Social Justice Counseling Competencies (MSJCC; Ratts, Singh, Nassar-McMillan, Butler, & McCullough, 2015a), which were endorsed by AMCD on June 29, 2015, and by the American Counseling Association on July 20, 2015. A conceptual framework of the MSJCC visually depicts the relationships among the competencies' key constructs: multicultural and social justice praxis, quadrants, domains, and competencies. Implications are discussed. En 2014, la Asociación para la Consejería y el Desarrollo Multicultural (AMCD, en sus siglas en inglés) formó un comité para revisar las Competencias en Consejería Multicultural desarrolladas por Sue, Arredondo y McDavis en 1992 y operacionalizadas por Arredondo et al. en 1996. Este artículo refleja las competencias actualizadas, denominadas Competencias en Consejería Multicultural y de Justicia Social (MSJCC, en sus siglas en inglés; Ratts, Singh, Nassar-McMillan, Butler, & McCullough, 2015a), que fueron avaladas por la AMCD el 29 de junio de 2015 y por la Asociación Americana de Consejería el 20 de julio de 2015. Un marco conceptual de las MSJCC muestra visualmente las relaciones entre los constructos principales de las competencias: la praxis multicultural y en justicia social, los cuadrantes, dominios y competencias. Se discuten las implicaciones.
Counselors and researchers interested in examining meaning in life often use the Life Regard Index (LRI; J. Battista & R. Almond, 1973). In this study, confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) of several factor models based on J. Battista & R. Almond's work failed to support the structural validity of the LRI. CFA results suggested an influence of positive and negative item wording, and subsequent exploratory factor analyses suggested 3 factors for the LRI.
Evidence-based practice in school mental health explains the nuts and bolts of infusing research throughout school-based practice following guidelines set forth by the US Department of Education. In clear, step-by-step detail, it provides the conceptual tools needed to locate, evaluate, and apply evidence in order to demonstrate positive outcomes for students. With its case examples and exercises, this book offers a pragmatic approach to informing practice decisions with appropriate research to ensure that students receive the best service. The chapters amount to an easy-to-follow road map to evidence-based practice (EBP), explaining how to ask the right questions; search for evidence; appraise the literature while avoiding the pitfalls of web-based information; adapt and apply evidence in a developmentally and culturally sensitive way; and evaluate the results. Detailed examples from practice and adaptable sample spreadsheets to evaluate students' progress make the goal of accountability attainable for school professionals who otherwise would struggle to find the time, resources, and support to utilize research in their work.
The experience of work as meaningful, evoking a positive sense of purpose, is consistently associated with beneficial work-related and general well-being outcomes. This chapter briefly overviews the sources, mechanisms, and correlates of meaningful work before summarizing three theoretical frameworks that may help explain the experience of meaningful work. Although research investigating meaningful work has proliferated in recent years, comparatively little scholarly attention has focused on strategies workers use to foster a sense of meaningfulness. Drawing from theory and research within social psychology, we propose three steps employees might take to increase their sense of their work as meaningful. © 2013 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht. All rights reserved.
Objective:
Our goal was to explore the meaning experienced psychotherapists derive from providing psychotherapy, their beliefs about the role of meaning in life (MIL) in psychotherapy, how they worked with MIL with a client who explicitly presented concerns about MIL, and how they worked with a different client for whom MIL was a secondary and more implicit concern.
Method:
Thirteen experienced psychotherapists were interviewed and data were analyzed using consensual qualitative research.
Results:
Therapists derived self-oriented meaning (e.g., feeling gratified, fulfilled, connected) and other-oriented meaning (helping others, making the world a better place) from providing psychotherapy. They believed that MIL is fundamental and underlies all human concerns, including those brought to therapy. In contrast to the clients who had implicit MIL concerns, clients who explicitly presented MIL concerns were reported to have more interpersonal problems and physical problems, but about the same amount of psychological distress and loss/grief. Therapists used insight-oriented interventions, support, action-oriented interventions, and exploratory interventions to work with MIL with both types of clients, but used more exploratory interventions with implicit than explicit MIL clients.
Conclusions:
MIL is a salient topic for experienced, existentially oriented psychotherapists; they work with MIL extensively with some clients in psychotherapy. We recommend that therapists receive training to work with MIL in therapy, and that they pay attention to MIL concerns when they conduct psychotherapy. We also recommend additional research on MIL in psychotherapy.
The interviews of 10 female counseling psychology doctoral students regarding their views about meaning in life (MIL) were analyzed using consensual qualitative research. The participants defined MIL as goals or purposes, were actively involved in searching for meaning, and believed that MIL had been stimulated by life-changing experiences and culture. On a personal level, they gained meaning from relationships, personal growth, and religion/spirituality. On a professional level, they gained meaning from providing therapy, conducting research, and teaching. As therapists, participants approached MIL indirectly by asking about client goals/motivations or by focusing on other clinical problems that if resolved would enhance MIL. Implications for doctoral training and for psychotherapy are offered.
http://psycnet.apa.org/index.cfm?fa=search.displayRecord&UID=1998-06124-006
This article presents the findings of a descriptive content analysis of 54 multicultural and diversity-related course syllabi drawn from counseling and counseling psychology programs accredited by the American Psychological Association and the Accreditation of Counseling and Related Programs. Results suggest that most courses adhere to the knowledge, awareness, and skills paradigm of multicultural competence. However, actual course content varies considerably. Whereas the findings identify social justice content as a growing presence in multicultural courses, there is a need to more clearly outline the fundamental points of distinction and overlap between multicultural competence and social justice advocacy in counselor and counseling psychology training.
Many people desire work that is meaningful. However, research in this area has attracted diverse ideas about meaningful work (MW), accompanied by an equally disparate collection of ways of assessing MW. To further advance study in this area, the authors propose a multidimensional model of work as a subjectively meaningful experience consisting of experiencing positive meaning in work, sensing that work is a key avenue for making meaning, and perceiving one’s work to benefit some greater good. The development of a scale to measure these dimensions is described, an initial appraisal of the reliability and construct validity of the instrument’s scores is reported using a sample of university employees (N = 370) representing diverse occupations. MW scores correlated in predicted ways with work-related and general well-being indices, and accounted for unique variance beyond common predictors of job satisfaction, days reported absent from work, and life satisfaction. The authors discuss ways in which this conceptual model provides advantages to scholars, counselors, and organizations interested in fostering MW.
Interviews were completed with eight counseling psychologists who viewed their careers as a calling. Using the Consensual Qualitative Research guidelines, six domains emerged: definition, process of discerning, content of the calling, professional impact, personal impact, and maintenance. Generally, interviewees viewed the discernment of their calling as the result of an indirect route that included self-reflection, support from others, and an identified calling source. Interviewees generally viewed their calling as what one is meant to do, as something that evolved over time, as synonymous with one’s purpose in life, and as tied to helping or serving others. Generally, interviewees were satisfied with their personal and professional lives and noted that the calling positively impacted their daily work tasks and interpersonal relationships. Interviewees generally viewed their calling as an ongoing process, and they identified role models and supportive work environments that aided in maintaining their calling.
This article presents an overview of the Houston 2001 National Counseling Psychology Conference. The authors discuss the context for the 4th National Counseling Psychology Conference, documentthe process of decision makingaboutthe conference, andexamine the content of the conference. The authors also examine a unique feature of the conference, the social action groups, discussing their philosophical underpinnings as well as how they were organized, what took place, and recommendations drawn from the groups. The authors evaluatethe outcomes of the Houston Conference andalso assess the conference within the context of the legacy of the three other counseling psychology conferences held at Northwestern University in 1951, in the Greyston Conference Center at Teachers College in 1964, and in Atlanta in 1987. Finally, the authors make recommendations for the field to move the conference’s initiatives forward and plan for future conferences.
Rev.& expanded from Case study research in education,1988.Incl.bibliographical references,index
This article discusses minority-majority practice relations on the basis of a case study analysis of the dynamics and strategies reported by 32 Palestinian social workers living in Israel regarding their practice with Jewish clients. The described encounters reflect the charged political reality and are loaded with many tensions, fears, anger, and hatred. The results indicate five major categories, reflecting perceived mutual reactions: Avoidance, power reversal, confrontation and anger, minimizing differences, and exploiting differences. The article discusses the need for a context-informed practice theory as well as training and supervision to change the emotional encounters from a potential battleground to a growth-enhancing experience within minority-majority practice relations.
This book confronts the barriers that face the cross-cultural application of western psychotherapy. It puts forward an argument for applying culture analysis, in which the therapist analyses the inconsistencies within the client's culture, before applying psychoanalysis, in which the analyst analyses the intra-psychic conflicts. The book explains through several cases how metaphors, memories, and physical environment can be used to understand and analyze the client's belief system in a culturally sensitive way that mitigates the client's resistance and avoids confrontation with the family. In this way, the book will be invaluable for psychotherapists and psychoanalysts, as well as researchers of cross-cultural psychology.
Intrinsic and extrinsic types of motivation have been widely studied, and the distinction between them has shed important light on both developmental and educational practices. In this review we revisit the classic definitions of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in light of contemporary research and theory. Intrinsic motivation remains an important construct, reflecting the natural human propensity to learn and assimilate. However, extrinsic motivation is argued to vary considerably in its relative autonomy and thus can either reflect external control or true self-regulation. The relations of both classes of motives to basic human needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness are discussed.
A particularly intimate relationship between religion and meaning has long been suggested; however, many sources of meaning are nonreligious. This raises the question of whether religious meaning is distinct from nonreligious meaning. We review empirical evidence suggesting that religion makes unique contributions to global meaning and to the meaning-making processes of situational meaning. In light of this evidence, we conclude that religion appears to make meaning more meaningful. Potential mechanisms include the comprehensiveness of religious beliefs and practices, the sacred as a way of providing significance, particular religious beliefs that speak to meaning, and social components of religion that support meaning. Future studies should document specific characteristics of religious meaning that differentiate it from nonreligious meaning to better understand the interrelationship of meaning and religion. © 2013 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht. All rights reserved.
The purpose of this investigation was to determine the perceptions of regular and special education teachers, school counselors, and school psychologists on presenting problems of students, available community mental health services, family-based and community-based barriers to services, and the provision of mental health services in schools. A random national sample of participants completed a School Mental Health Issues Survey. The final sample included 413 respondents from all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The background of the study, survey development, administration and analysis, descriptive statistics and analyses of variance are provided. Significant differences based on position, school level, and school geography, as well as implications for mental health services in schools and future research are also discussed.
Research has identified a variety of sources for deriving meaning in one's life. The present research examined how central sources of meaning varied according to age, gender, and level of education, and, second, whether these sources predicted well-being differentially. A New Zealand community sample of 247 individuals (30 - 69 years) provided open-ended descriptions of the meaning in their lives, rated their meaning in certain domains and completed 11 well-being measures. The most frequently reported source of meaning was family, and the second was interpersonal relations. Differences were found by age, gender, and amount of education, for example, younger individuals were more likely to find personal growth meaningful, whereas older people were more likely to find standard of living and community activities meaningful.
This article describes the concept of posttraumatic growth, its conceptual foundations, and supporting empirical evidence. Posttraumatic growth is the experience of positive change that occurs as a result of the struggle with highly challenging life crises. It is manifested in a variety of ways, including an increased appreciation for life in general, more meaningful interpersonal relationships, an increased sense of personal strength, changed priorities, and a richer existential and spiritual life. Although the term is new, the idea that great good can come from great suffering is ancient. We propose a model for understanding the process of posttraumatic growth in which individual characteristics, support and disclosure, and more centrally, significant cognitive processing involving cognitive structures threatened or nullified by the traumatic events, play an important role. It is also suggested that posttraumatic growth mutually interacts with life wisdom and the development of the life narrative, and that it is an on-going process, not a static outcome.
The study in this article examined the relationship of school counselors' reports of demands and resources in their work environment to perceived stress, biographic factors, and caseload characteristics. Participants were 227 school counselors in Texas. Paperwork requirements and size of caseload were rated the most demanding aspects of their job, and other counselors were rated as the most helpful resource by participants. The perceived equality or inequality of work demands and resources also was assessed. School counselors classified in the higher-demand group reported having higher perceived stress, being less likely to remain in the profession the next year, and having higher caseload percentages of students with disabilities, lower academic performance, and poor attendance.
This study examined linear and nonlinear relations between age and the presence and search for meaning in life and examined if these relations were moderated by the presence of meaning in work. Age did not significantly relate to the presence of meaning in life, but age had a significant, negative linear relation with the search for meaning in life. Moreover, work meaning moderated the quadratic relation between age and life meaning. Specifically, people high in work meaning demonstrated negative quadratic curves, with high life meaning during middle adulthood, and people low in work meaning had positive quadratic curves, with low life meaning during middle adulthood. Work meaning also moderated the linear relation between age and the search for meaning in life with people highest in work meaning showing the strongest negative relation between age and the search for meaning in life. Limitations and implications for future research are discussed.
PERSPECTIVES is a special feature included in this issue of Journal of Creativity in Mental Health that provides mental health professionals with an opportunity to discuss their positions on a variety of creativity related topics. In this article, Erin Kern, a doctoral candidate, shares her perspective on the importance of integrating counselor vulnerability and professional identity.Counselors are often expected to represent the “normal” population, impervious to having their own mental health issues. However, many counselors are wounded healers, struggling to achieve integration of their own vulnerabilities with their professional identity. This article focuses on the importance of such integration to accomplish greater levels of authenticity in counseling, working, and supervisory relationships. The introduction of the superhero narrative facilitates the awareness that counselors can reframe instances of vulnerability as an opportunity for authenticity, bravery, and strength. The acknowledgment and ownership of vulnerability provides counselors with the potential to achieve deeper understanding and empathy for clients, thereby establishing a stronger therapeutic connection.
Nothing is so insufferable to man as to be completely at rest, without passions, without business, without diversion, without effort. Then he feels his nothingness, his forlornness, his insufficiency, his weakness, his emptiness. (Pascal, The Pensees, 1660/1950, p. 57). As far as we know humans are the only meaning-seeking species on the planet. Meaning-making is an activity that is distinctly human, a function of how the human brain is organized. The many ways in which humans conceptualize, create, and search for meaning has become a recent focus of behavioral science research on quality of life and subjective well-being. This chapter will review the recent literature on meaning-making in the context of personal goals and life purpose. My intention will be to document how meaningful living, expressed as the pursuit of personally significant goals, contributes to positive experience and to a positive life. THE CENTRALITY OF GOALS IN HUMAN FUNCTIONING Since the mid-1980s, considerable progress has been made in under-standing how goals contribute to long-term levels of well-being. Goals have been identified as key integrative and analytic units in the study of human Preparation of this chapter was supported by a grant from the John Templeton Foundation. I would like to express my gratitude to Corey Lee Keyes and Jon Haidt for the helpful comments on an earlier draft of this chapter.
In this article, the importance of clinical supervision for school counselors is examined in terms of prior literature and the school counseling context. Standards relative to supervision are presented, followed by an overview of each article in the special section of the Counselor Education and Supervision journal (Vol. 45, No. 4, June 2006).
The authors present the results of a multiyear collaborative research project that involved a counselor educator, graduate-level school counseling students, and school personnel in defining a new role for counselors in education reform. This collaborative effort was based on an innovative conceptual framework that informs school counselors about specific schooling processes that can either enhance or hinder student academic, personal/social, and career development. © 2006 by the American Counseling Association. All rights reserved.
Ten undergraduate students from psychology classes were interviewed regarding their beliefs about the meaning of life (definition, goals, limitations to goals, sources of meaning, and development of meaning). Interviews were analyzed using consensual qualitative research. These interviewees all indicated that meaning differs across people and time. Typical sources of meaning were relationships, altruism, career, personal growth, pursuit of happiness, and religion. Participants indicated that parents and life-changing experiences triggered changes in their thinking about meaning of life. Specific changes involved shifting from superficial to more meaningful pursuits and thinking more for themselves. Implications for further research and developing programs for helping undergraduate students examine issues related to meaning of life are offered.
In four methodologically diverse studies (N = 644), we found correlational (Study 1), longitudinal (Study 2), and experimental (Studies 3 and 4) evidence that a sense of belonging predicts how meaningful life is perceived to be. In Study 1 (n = 126), we found a strong positive correlation between sense of belonging and meaningfulness. In Study 2 (n = 248), we found that initial levels of sense of belonging predicted perceived meaningfulness of life, obtained 3 weeks later. Furthermore, initial sense of belonging predicted independent evaluations of participants essays on meaning in life. In Studies 3 (n = 105) and 4 (n = 165), we primed participants with belongingness, social support, or social value and found that those primed with belongingness (Study 3) or who increased in belongingness (Study 4) reported the highest levels of perceived meaning. In Study 4, belonging mediated the relationship between experimental condition and meaning.
Reviews have identified mental health interventions that are relevant to schools; unfortunately, this research pays insufficient attention to the school con- text. Several aspects of school context likely influence the ability of schools to change current practices or adopt new ones. Relying on an organizational frame- work, a three-level model of school context particularly relevant to the delivery of mental health interventions: (a) individual, (b) organizational, and (c) state or na- tional-level factors are described. This article argues that effective school-based mental health care will result from the marriage of system reform efforts, capacity building, and the delivery of empirically driven intervention strategies.
This exploratory quantitative study employs a 4-page Religion/Spirituality and Social Work Questionnaire that focuses on the beliefs and perceptions of 324 undergraduate social work students in 7 Council on Social Work Education-accredited schools of social work in the state of Texas about the role of religion and spirituality in social work practice and education. The vast majority of students in this sample (80.6%) are practicing Christians who have strong personal religious/spiritual beliefs and are relatively open to incorporating at least some religious/spiritual content into their practice with clients. More than 82% indicate that they want their social work courses to include content on religious/spiritual diversity, and 87.6% indicate interest in content on how to effectively deal with religious/spiritual issues in practice. Copyright © 2007, Council on Social Work Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
Combining a life course perspective with recent theorizing on motivationally related agendas for social behavior, this study investigated the purposes, expectations, and outcomes of adult hospice volunteers of varying ages. Specifically, support was found for the hypothesis that younger volunteers tend to be motivated by and to achieve outcomes related to interpersonal relationships, whereas older volunteers tend to be motivated to a greater extent by service or community obligation concerns. Furthermore, in hierarchical regression analyses predicting overall satisfaction, benefits relative to costs, commitment, and changes in self-esteem over 6 months of volunteer service, relationship-related variables demonstrated greater and significant predictive power for younger relative to older volunteers. Service-oriented variables, hypothesized to be more influential in predicting the outcomes of older volunteers, tended to be inconsistently related to these same outcomes. Discussion focuses on the theoretical significance of the findings for contemporary approaches to motivation and research on volunteerism and aging, as well as the practical implications of the results for volunteer recruitment, satisfaction, and retention.