Current Issues: Incorporating Counseling Into Graduate Education

Abstract

Counseling is considered a critical component of effective clinical practice. As such, speech-language pathologists and audiologists should receive explicit preparation in counseling as part of their graduate education. However, counseling is often a neglected area of instruction in many graduate programs. A research study was designed to assess perceptions of the effectiveness of a set of counseling strategies (i.e., nonverbal approaches) that have been described in the literature. Interestingly, preliminary data suggest that individuals may have differing opinions on effective counseling approaches. In part, these differences may be based on experiences and education. Implications for improving counseling skills of professionals and service delivery effectiveness are discussed.