Counselor Training: Empirical Findings and Current Approaches

The literature on counselor training has included attention to cognitive and interpersonal skill development and has reported on empirical findings regarding the relationship of training with client outcomes. This article reviews the literature on each of these topics and discusses empirical and theoretical underpinnings of recently developed approaches to counselor training: the Skilled Group Counselor Training Model (M.H. Smaby, C. D. Maddux, E. Torres-Rivera, & R. Zimmick, 1999) and the Skilled Counselor Training Model (S. Urbani et al., 2002). Critique of this literature includes suggestions for further research on the effectiveness of counselor training.