Implications for professional quality of life and wellness-based supervision

A dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR of PHILOSOPHY in COUNSELOR EDUCATION from Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi in Corpus Christi, Texas.Supervision of counselors-in-training (CITs) is the signature pedagogy within counselor preparation programs that moderates and regulates personal and professional development. There are few empirical studies demonstrating causal relationships between wellness-based supervision and the effects on CITs professional quality of life. This dissertation evaluated the efficacy of the Wellness Model of Supervision (WELMS; Lenz & Smith, 2010) for promoting desired change across CITs perception of their professional quality of life across three variables: secondary traumatic stress, compassion satisfaction, and burnout. A small series A-B single-case research design (SCRD) with multiple baselines was implemented to evaluate the degree of efficacy for the WELMS to promote professional quality of life characteristics among CITs over time. This design was selected based on practicality for estimating functional relationships associated with an intervention and target outcomes. Three women who identified as Caucasian (n = 1) and Hispanic (n = 2) and were enrolled in Internship at a Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) accredited program participated in the study. Results indicated that the WELMS may be efficacious across client-CIT interactions, and CITs who receive the WELMS are likely to show improvement in the secondary traumatic stress and burnout subscales of the ProQOL. These results are consistent with previous studies utilizing the WELMS with CITs and provided several recommendations for future researchers regarding implementing the WELMS while considering unique student characteristics. Wellness-based approaches within supervisory relationships can inspire CITs to improve their personal wellness and professional quality of life while enhancing skill development and career sustaining behaviors.Counseling & Educational PsychologyCollege of Education and Human Developmen