Counseling Self-Efficacy: Therapist Trainee Reactions to Premature and Mutual Terminations

• In Event: Poster Session 6
  In Poster Session: Understanding Youth Experiences Through School-Based Research

Abstract

The counseling self-efficacy (CSE) of 29 novice therapists who treated 282 clients over the course of three academic years was assessed after clients terminated treatment. Therapist self-esteem, the length of treatment, and therapist experience were also assessed. Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) was used to explore the relationship between therapist-rated self-esteem at the beginning of the clinical year and self-efficacy after each termination, examining differences in this model between therapy cases in which there was a unilateral or mutual termination. Results revealed that therapist self-esteem moderated the effect of terminations on counseling self-efficacy. Therapists’ amount of experience did not directly affect CSE when holding constant therapist self-esteem and length of treatment.

Authors

• Margaux H. Brown, The George Washington University

• Cheri Marmarosh, The George Washington University

• Jaehwa Choi, The George Washington University