Assessment Talks

Rick Balkin, Ph.D., LPC, NCC is a Professor, Interim Department Chair of Leadership and Counselor Education, and Coordinator of Educational Research and Design in the School of Education at the University of Mississippi. He currently serves as Editor-in-Chief for the International Journal for the Advancement of Counselling. Dr. Balkin was the editor for the Journal of Counseling & Development, the flagship journal for the American Counseling Association; an ACA Fellow; and past-president for the Association for Assessment and Research in Counseling. Rick began practice as a professional counselor in 1993 and has worked in academe since 2003. Rick has over 100 publications, which include text books on assessment in counseling, research, and the counseling relationship, published tests and technical manuals, peer-reviewed manuscripts, book chapters, and conference proceedings. His counseling experience with at-risk youth was formative to his research agenda, which includes understanding the role of counseling and relevant goals for adolescents in crisis and counseling outcomes. This led to numerous published articles and a published measure, the Crisis Stabilization Scale, through Mindgarden, Inc. related to assessing and counseling at-risk youth. He co-authored a measure on life balance for adults and adolescents, the Life Balance Inventory. He has published in the area of religious diversity and forgiveness and developed a model and measure for counseling clients through issues of forgiveness and conflict, The Forgiveness Reconciliation Inventory. He is the author of Practicing Forgiveness: A Path Toward Healing, published by Oxford University Press.

Discussion Questions: 

• How might a process assessment be used differently in practice than an evaluative assessment?
• What are the advantages and disadvantages of a process assessment?
• How do you see your role as the counselor in forgiveness reconciliation?

Dr. Jasmine L. Garland McKinney, Ph.D, LMHCA, NCC (she/her) earned a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Sociology from North Carolina State University and a Master of Science (MS) in Counselor Education from East Carolina University – where she also earned a graduate certificate in Substance Abuse Counseling. Most recently, Dr. Garland McKinney earned a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Counseling and Counselor Education from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG). Dr. Garland McKinney is a Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor Associate (NC), Professional School Counselor (NC), and Nationally Certified Counselor. Dr. Garland McKinney’s clinical and scholarly efforts center on Black women’s experiences with maternal mental health, intergenerational trauma, and the relationship between Black mothers and daughters – her work has been supported by organizations including Reproductive Health Impact (formerly the National Birth Equity Collaborative), the Association for Counselor Education and Supervision, and the National Board for Certified Counselors. Dr. Garland McKinney will begin her career in the fall 2023 semester as a postdoctoral associate in the College of Information Studies at the University of Maryland. There, she will work within the Community, Equity, Data, and Information (CEDI) Lab to expand research on Black women’s maternal health experiences. Dr. Garland McKinney is a proud wife and mother of two girls, Blake and Cooper.

Discussion Questions:

1. How might the experiences of Black women’s maternal health impact the counseling relationship?

2. Dr. Garland Mckinney stated “We should not separate medical and mental health so much. ” How does the separation and medical and mental health impacts clients, specifi

3. What is the purpose of the PP-FERRPS and when might it be appropriate to utilize?

4. In what ways might open-ended responses during the initial validation process inform item reduction and factor analysis?

Devika Dibya Choudhuri is a Professor and the Program Coordinator of Counseling Programs at Eastern Michigan University. A Professional Counselor (MI/CT), Board-Certified Clinical Mental Health Counselor, Approved Clinical Supervisor, and Certified EMDR Therapist, she has 20 years of clinical experience with refugees, immigrant and multicultural populations, as well as trauma survivors on violence, sexuality, grief and loss. She uses narrative, somatic, and EMDR informed approaches in working with trauma. Her scholarship focuses on DEIJ issues in counseling, supervision and pedagogy, as well as cultural competency in trauma counseling, group work, and ethics. She served on the National Board of Certified Counselors from 2009-2015, the Minority Fellowship Advisory Council from 2015-2018 and as President of the Association for Specialists in Group Work in 2020. She is an Editorial Board member of the Journal of LGBT Issues in Counseling; a Reviewer for Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology and has served on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Multicultural Counseling & Development. Currently, she is validating an instrument to measure historic trauma across diverse clients, explore multigenerational effects of trauma due to racism and colonization and develop community-based interventions.

Discussion Questions:

1. What do you think Dr. Choudhuri means when she mentions we cannot “hang up our identities with our coats?” How do our identities impact the counseling relationship and the counseling space?

2. In the middle of the episode, there is conversation regarding the importance of managing triggers in the counseling space? How can you, as the counselor, implement coping skills or counseling skills to deal with countertransference you may experience in the counseling space?

3. What is the purpose of the HTRI and when may it be appropriate to utilize?

4. What do you consider to be some strengths and limitations of the HTRI?

Adriana C. Labarta, Ph.D., LMHC, NCC, ACS, is an Assistant Professor at Florida Atlantic University's (FAU) Counselor Education Program. She has served clients with diverse identities across various settings, including residential, partial hospitalization, intensive outpatient, and college counseling settings. Her primary research and clinical interests include eating disorders, body image, and multicultural/social justice issues. Dr. Labarta’s dissertation research focused on developing and validating the Multidimensional Eating and Body Image Screening for LGBTGEQIAP+ Individuals, an assessment tool that considers risk and protective factors using a culturally-informed framework. She has co-authored several peer-reviewed articles and presented on related topics at national and regional counseling conferences. She is currently an Emerging Leader for the Association for Assessment and Research in Counseling (AARC) for 2023-2024. Dr. Labarta is also a member of several counseling organizations, including ACA, AARC, ACES, SACES, and SAIGE.

Fighting Eating Disorders in Underrepresented Populations (FEDUP): https://fedupcollective.org/

The National Alliance for Eating Disorders:

• Find eating disorder treatment: https://findedhelp.com/

• Support groups (virtual and in-person options): https://www.allianceforeatingdisorders.com/groups/

Recent Research Articles:

• Burke, N. L., Schaefer, L. M., Hazzard, V. M., & Rodgers, R. F. (2020). Where identities converge: The importance of intersectionality in eating disorders research. The International Journal of Eating Disorders, 53(10), 1605–1609. https://doi.org/10.1002/eat.23371

• Hartman-Munick, S. M., Silverstein, S., Guss, C. E., Lopez, E., Calzo, J. P., & Gordon, A. R. (2021). Eating disorder screening and treatment experiences in transgender and gender diverse young adults. Eating Behaviors : an International Journal, 41, 101517–101517. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eatbeh.2021.101517

• Mensinger, J. L., Granche, J. L., Cox, S. A., & Henretty, J. R. (2020). Sexual and gender minority individuals report higher rates of abuse and more severe eating disorder symptoms than cisgender heterosexual individuals at admission to eating disorder treatment. The International Journal of Eating Disorders, 53(4), 541–554. https://doi.org/10.1002/eat.23257

• Parker, L. L., & Harriger, J. A. (2020). Eating disorders and disordered eating behaviors in the LGBT population: a review of the literature. Journal of Eating Disorders, 8(1), 51–51. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40337-020-00327-y

• The Trevor Project (2022). Research Brief: Eating Disorders among LGBTQ Youth. https://www.thetrevorproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Embargoed_Feb-2022-Research-Brief.pdf

Discussion Questions:

• In what ways might counselors engage in inclusive and culturally responsive treatment with LGBTQ+ clients struggling with body image or eating disorders?

• How might gender and sexual or affectionate identities impact body image?

• Why might obtaining expert feedback from scholars be important to inform item development? Practitioners? Members of the population?

Jack D. Simons is an Associate Professor with tenure at Mercy College in New York. He earned his PhD from the University of Missouri - St. Louis in 2015. As a counselor educator, he and his students study factors that influence sexual and gender minority individuals including identity, school and counseling experiences, resilience, and health. Dr. Simons is the director of Transgender Resilience Project, a cross-national strengths-based study of transgender people across the lifespan. The Project allows community members, organizations, researchers, and allies to participate in the initiative by contributing to the decision-making process and educating others.

Discussion Questions:

1. What were your thoughts about how the concept of advocacy impacted the development of the CCGIS?

2. What is the purpose of the CCGIS and when may it be appropriate to utilize?

3. What do you consider to be some strengths and limitations of the CCGIS?

Zori A. Paul (she/her) PhD, LPC (MO), NCC is a clinical assistant professor in the Department of Counselor Education and Counseling Psychology at Marquette University, a psychodynamic trained licensed professional counselor, and a certified provider of Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT). She is also a co-founder of Black in Mental Health (@BlackInMH), an online initiative to highlight and promote Black mental health professionals, students, researchers, and advocates throughout the world.Dr. Paul’s research focuses on three main areas: intersecting marginalized identities, specifically bisexual+ women of color; cross-cultural mentorship in counseling programs; and ethical social media use for mental health professionals. In this episode she discusses recruiting participants, microaffirmations, and validating an existing scale for minoritized populations.

Visit www.blackinmentalhealth.com

Discussion Questions:

1. What are the major lessons of the Black in Mental Health initiative and how can these lessons be applied to research and practice?

2. How can one build trust with research participants? Why is this important?

3. What are your thoughts on the use of social media to build community with potential participants or other researchers?

4. What is the impact microaffirmations on bisexual+ women of color?

5. What makes a scale more useful?

Join our team as we recap our favorite moments, lessons learned, and our hopes for Season Two! That's a wrap!

Danielle Pester completed her Ph.D. in Counselor Education at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. She is a Licensed Professional Counselor (TX) and Registered Play Therapist. Dr. Pester works for the UAB Center for the Study of Community Health [a CDC-designated Prevention Research Center] as a Project Director where she manages federally funded community-based research projects. Her research focuses on the topics of adverse childhood experiences, adverse community environments, and community resilience. Her research has been awarded the Glen E. Hubele National Graduate Student Award for outstanding scholarship related to the counseling profession by the American Counseling Association and the Outstanding Counselor Education and Supervision Article Award by the Association for Counselor Education and Supervision.

Dr. Moh is an Assistant Professor in the Community and Trauma Counseling program at Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Dr. Moh has over 5 years of clinical experience in working with a wide range of individuals and families in vocational, clinical mental health, and community settings, serving the deaf and hard of hearing, transgender individuals, individuals with homelessness, and those who have a mental and/or physical disability. Employing a combination of her educational and experiential background, Dr. Moh’s selective research interests involve chronic or toxic stress on mental illness in family caregivers, culturally responsive research mentoring relationships in counselor education, and an experience among Black Indigenous People of Color when accessing quality mental health care during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, she has been involved in other research projects centered around client death experienced among addiction counselors, complicated grief associated with adversity early in life, and non-death grief and loss in family caregivers.

Danica G. Hays is the Dean of the College of Education at the University of Nevada, Los Vegas. Dr. Hays has lead the field of Counselor Education in assessment and measurement for many years with research expanding to research methodology and program evaluation, leadership development, domestic violence prevention, assessment and diagnosis, and multicultural and social justice issues in community mental health and counselor preparation. Dr. Hays has received national recognition for her work and served extensively in various leadership roles within the Association for Assessment and Research in Counseling (AARC), the Association for Counselor Education and Supervision (ACES), and ACES regional leadership. 

Hannah Bayne is an Assistant Professor at the University of Florida. Dr. Bayne's research interests include understanding others' experiences, including how counselors can effectively work with clients across cultural identities. Dr. Bayne's work includes empathy conceptualization and measurement, assessment, and empathy as a skill development for cultural competency. Dr. Bayne serves in a variety of leadership roles and currently serves on several editorial boards such as Counseling & Values Journal and Counselor Education & Supervision.