SOCIAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL DIMENSIONS IN SCHOOL COUNSELOR TRAINING FOR PERSPECTIVE TAKING AND EMPATHIC UNDERSTANDING

Our unique Master of Science in School Counseling academic program is located in New York City and is rooted in community-based counselor training with a focus on culturally relevant social and philosophical concepts. These concepts translate into skills that are primarily developed through supervised fieldwork experiences. Students are trained to work as part of interdisciplinary teams and engage with local community agencies. A professional development plan was juxtaposed with a rubric for measuring developmental levels of Perspective Taking and Empathic Understanding. Our preliminary finding shows that there is a consensus among course instructors and field supervisors per the need for inter-rater reliability in measuring students' developmental level at the beginning and at the completion of the practical experience. As a result, students will be coached by both course instructors and field supervisors in order to develop a professional counselor disposition that is consistent with the social and philosophical concepts within their overall developmental plan.