Teaching Genetic Counseling Skills: Incorporating a Genetic Counseling Adaptation Continuum Model to Address Psychosocial Complexity

Abstract

Genetic counselors are trained health care professionals who effectively integrate both psychosocial counseling and information-giving into their practice. Preparing genetic counseling students for clinical practice is a challenging task, particularly when helping them develop effective and active counseling skills. Resistance to incorporating these skills may stem from decreased confidence, fear of causing harm or a lack of clarity of psycho-social goals. The author reflects on the personal challenges experienced in teaching genetic counselling students to work with psychological and social complexity, and proposes a Genetic Counseling Adaptation Continuum model and methodology to guide students in the use of advanced counseling skills.

Genetic counseling supervisor strategies: An elaboration of the Reciprocal‐Engagement Model of Supervision

“…The strategy domains identified in this study are consistent with supervisor competencies outlined by Eubanks Higgins et al () and with other training and supervision frameworks (e.g., Shugar, ; Venne & Coleman, ). As such, they may assist genetic counseling programs in developing curricula on genetic counseling supervision.…”

Genetic counselor training for the next generation: Where do we go from here?

“…Consequently, the counseling and communication skills that genetic counselors learn are likely to remain core competencies. In teaching such skills, the proposed Genetic Counseling Adaptation Continuum Model, recognizes the need to formulate distinct goals to facilitate student learning and integration of psychosocial skills (Shugar, ). This model proposes to define goals or desired outcomes of the genetic counseling milieu that expand the genetic counseling student's toolbox and better prepare him or her to facilitate patient adaptation to the genetic condition or risk of a condition.…”

Developing genetic counseling for male BRCA1/2 mutation carriers based on their own experiences

“…[18] Accordingly, genetic counselors have recognized a need for better training to prepare them for encountering counselees' grief and loss, then implementing appropriate GC. [18][19][20] In summary, a number of studies have explored counselees' satisfactions with GC and examined contents of GC session, in terms as sufficiency of medical information for counselees and factors the counselees consider to be important for them. Several studies have focused on hereditary cancer syndromes and female BRCA1/2 mutation carriers.…”