The Clinical Intuition Exploration Guide: A Decision-Making Tool for Counselors and Supervisors

Clinical intuition is a common experience among counselors, yet many do not know what to do with intuition when it occurs. This article reviews the role intuition plays in clinical work and presents the research-based Clinical Intuition Exploration Guide to help counselors navigate the decision-making process. The guide consists of self-reflection questions to assist counselors in developing self-awareness, interpreting intuition,making ethical decisions, and evaluating the process of intuition. A case illustration demonstrates how counselors can employ the Clinical Intuition Exploration Guide. Implications for clinical work and supervision are discussed. Keywords clinical intuition, decision-making A common challenge encountered by many counselors is the experience of having a gut-level feeling about a client and yet not knowing what to do with that experience. Intuition has been described as a unique way of knowing where one comes to some knowledge without evident rational thought or inference (Carson, 1999). Others have articulated that it is a ‘‘feeling of knowing with certitude on the basis of inadequate informatio