Document Type

Dissertation

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy

Major

Education, Counseling

Date of Defense

4-9-2025

Graduate Advisor

Phil Waalkes, Ph.D.

Committee

Phil Waalkes, Ph.D.

Emily Oliveira, Ph.D.

Emily Brown, Ph.D.

Daniel DeCino, Ph.D

Abstract

Gatekeeping is a challenging ethical and legal obligation for counselor educators and supervisors. Many counseling students demonstrate some sort of problem of professional competence in their counseling programs, and it is critical that counselor educators utilize gatekeeping practices to prevent gateslipping (Brown-Rice & Furr, 2016a; Gaubatz & Vera, 2002; Kimball et al, 2019). According to The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA, 2023), there is an increasing need to address trauma as a critical element of providing effective mental health services. Trauma-informed care and trauma-informed principles began to appear in the mental health literature in 2001, and the prevalence of trauma has increased since the COVID-19 pandemic (Knight, 2018; Rajkumar, 2020). There are currently developmental gatekeeping models (Gaubatz & Vera, 2002), remediation-focused models (Henderson & Dufrene, 2017), decision-making models for PPCs (Kress & Protivnak, 2009), and constructivist gatekeeper development models (Ziomek-Daigle & Christensen, 2010). However, none of these models emphasize the presence of trauma in students and in counselor education and supervision. This study focuses on interpretations of how counselor educators employ trauma-informed gatekeeping in counselor education and supervision with an interpretative phenomenological analysis (Creswell, 2013; Smith et al., 2022). The findings from this study aim to help develop a definition of trauma-informed gatekeeping and to expand its framework and application. Changes are needed in how counselor educators and supervisors assess, conceptualize, evaluate, and remediate counselors-in-training due to the prevalence of trauma in counselors in counseling programs. The findings of this study have significant implications for gatekeeping generally as well as defining what trauma-informed gatekeeping is in CES through the interconnected themes of humanism, alliance building, assuming trauma is present, dialectics, and the necessity of self-care. The findings of this study could be utilized in not only shaping courses to highlight the prevalence and exposure to triggering material for CITs, but also their safe exposure to utilizing their skills and knowledge during each of their courses.

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