| Recent trends in health care have seen the movement from disease and pathology- oriented practice to a focus on health promotion, wellness, and quality of life. Accordingly, this orientation is increasingly evident in the counselor education profession. Admittedly, increased attention to wellness over the past two decades warrants increased significance of wellness for counselors. An initial premise is the consensus of the counseling profession that increased levels of wellness in counselors will have the corresponding result of decreased levels of impairment. At the same time, a strongly held belief exists that counselors who are unwell are more likely to cause harm to a client or violate an ethical code than are counselors who are well. Counselors are bound by ethical guidelines to be self-aware of threatened wellness and self-care levels. In spite of the importance of wellness for the counseling profession, little scientific information exists regarding the infusion of wellness constructs into counseling programs and, more specifically, into the supervision process. The present study used grounded theory methodology to investigate actual practices of faculty supervisors teaching internship in master level counseling programs regarding wellness and self-care of counselors-in-training. Respondents were 15 faculty supervisors who have taught internship in a CACREP-accredited counseling program within the past two years. Participants answered questions in a semi-structured interview related to incorporating wellness and self-care into clinical supervision of master's level counseling students. From those responses, subcategories were derived from commonalities in responses. Data analysis revealed four themes: design environment, cultivate awareness, personalize meaning, and monitor. The themes represent a theoretical model that describes the process of incorporating wellness and self-care into clinical supervision and an explanation of the process that occurs. Implications for practice were discussed and recommendations for further research were made.;Key terms: wellness, self-care, clinical supervision, counselor-in-training. |
