Teaching Gatekeeping to Doctoral Students: A Qualitative Study of a Developmental Experiential Approach

Abstract

In addition to developing teaching, clinical supervision, and research skills, new entrants into the counselor education workplace will also face the challenging responsibility of gatekeeping. Gatekeeping can be both anxiety-provoking and time-intensive for new faculty members. To enhance the confidence and competence of new entrants into counselor education faculty positions, strong doctoral preparation in gatekeeping is critical. In this article, the authors describe a developmental experiential model to infuse gatekeeping instruction into counselor education and supervision doctoral courses. The model includes six experiential gatekeeping modules designed for instruction at three developmental levels. A phenomenological qualitative study of the model was conducted, leading to the discovery of four themes: importance of gatekeeping, behind the curtain, understandings vary by developmental level, and uneven responses to experiential learning. Developmental, pedagogical, and administrative implications for counselor educators are discussed.

Trainee confidentiality: The hidden challenge of competence problems.

“…On the other hand, TPPC scholars have argued that addressing PPC is a professional competency that requires faculty to be knowledgeable about PPC scholarship, develop skills for addressing TPPC (Forrest et al, 2013;Jacobs et al, 2011;Kerl & Eichler, 2005), and establish TC policies (Forrest et al, 2022) to support professional communications about competence standards. Others believe that programs should include the topic of PPC in the curriculum, and trainees should intentionally develop PPC competencies (Foster & McAdams, 2009;Freeman et al, 2020), including knowledge about TC consequences.…”

“…Educating trainees toward competency in addressing TC when dealing with PPC-theirs or others-requires curricular material to be introduced at developmentally appropriate competence levels (e.g., Freeman et al, 2020), just like other competencies. Educating trainees about TC as part of PPC can be threaded into the program's existing training that addresses the professionalism competency and added to existing courses (e.g., professional issues, ethics, and supervision courses).…”

Gatekeeper identity development: An application of bioecological systems theory

“…Conceptually, a few researchers have advocated for doctoral training programs to teach gatekeeping practices and foster gatekeeper identity development in doctoral students (Corley et al., 2020; DeDiego & Burgin, 2016; Rapp et al., 2018). Empirically, qualitative researchers have found doctoral students reported varying understanding of their roles with gatekeeping based on their developmental level, exposure to experiential learning activities, and awareness of gatekeeping responsibilities (Corley et al., 2020; Freeman et al., 2020). Taken together, meaningful and repeated training experiences for doctoral students may help develop their gatekeeper identities.…”

Infertility Among Counselor Education and Supervision Doctoral Students: Expectations, Experiences, and Knowledge

“…With advanced maternal age (formerly geriatric pregnancy) starting at age 35, this subject is important to both counseling students seeking advanced degrees, and the clients they counsel (Collict et al, 2018). Though demographic data related to the average age of CES doctoral students is elusive, the University of Nevada puts the average age of their CACREP-accredited doctoral students at 31.7 years old (Freeman et al, 2019). To put this age in the context of the risk of infertility, a healthy 30-year-old female has a 20% chance per cycle of becoming pregnant, and a healthy 40-year-old has a 5% chance per cycle of getting pregnant (ASRM, 2019).…”