Qualitative interviews with 15 successful Native American college students who grew up on reservations identified the following themes related to their persistence in college: (a) family support, (b) structured social support, (c) faculty/staff warmth, (d) exposure to college and vocations, (e) developing independence and assertiveness, (f) reliance on spiritual resources, (g) dealing with racism, (h) nonlinear path, and (i) paradoxical cultural pressure. The results indicated a need for stable mentoring relationships and programmatic support.

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The authors articulate the need for a Counseling Psychology Model Training Values Statement Addressing Diversity (henceforth “Values Statement”). They discuss the historic unwillingness of the field to address values in a sophisticated or complex way and highlight the increasingly common training scenario in which trainees state that certain professional requirements are in conflict with their personal values. The authors explain that the Values Statement grew out of trainers' expressed need for guidance in dealing with these complex and often emotionally charged value clashes in training. They explain how the Values Statement can assist training programs to (a) clearly articulate the profession's diversity-related values, (b) connect individual and professional values to societal value structures that either reinforce or challenge systems of oppression, and (c) help students to develop the philosophical sophistication to reconcile their personal values and the profession's values. Overall, the authors explicate that the Values Statement is needed to assists trainees to comprehend and perform required diversity-related professional behaviors.

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Although distinctions between theory-driven and naive empirical approaches to research are recognized as valuable, the distinction Strong (1991) makes between them is questionable. An argument is made that the more relevant debate is between qualitative and quantitative approaches to counseling research. Some of the differences between the two approaches, as they relate to Strong's ideas, are presented. A proposal is set forth stating that until a more accurate account of events in counseling is achieved, research that is driven by formal theory is of no greater scientific value than less theoretical approaches.

Patterns of educational achievement and employment indicate that Native American students face considerable barriers to career development. This is particularly true for those who live on reservations. This study used a hermeneutic analysis of qualitative interview data to identify and describe these barriers from the perspective of 29 Native American students in reservation secondary schools. Themes related to the barriers faced by these students are described and discussed.

This study explored the experience of 26 married mothers who had developed family-friendly careers. Family-friendly careers were defined as careers that required less than 30 hours per week and were structured to allow the participants to spend "significant" amounts of time with their families. Guided interviews were used to obtain in-depth descriptions of the participants' experiences. The interviews were transcribed and interpreted using a synthesis of qualitative methods. The themes extracted were partner/family decision making, creative pioneering, work satisfaction, pleasant stress, ambiguous preparation, peaceful trade-offs, surprise feelings, and partner career flexibility. The findings suggest how counselors can support their clients in considering alternative approaches to blending work and family life.

This article has two purposes. The first is to describe the hermeneutic approach to counseling research. This description includes a basic rationale for the use of the hermeneutic method in the study of values and counseling as well as a description of the philosophical and procedural framework that undergirds the hermeneutic approach. The second purpose of the article is to illustrate hermeneutic analysis through an example of this type of research. The phenomenon of study is the language of counselors as it relates to the values of free will and determinism. The analysis indicates that counselors' language differs from their professed beliefs. Also, counselors use free will language to support clients and build the relationship and they use deterministic language to encourage a focus on insight.