A Cost‐Effective Training Program for Paraprofessionals at a University Counseling Center

Abstract

Undergraduate paraprofessionals were trained to administer behavioral interventions to university counseling center clients through a costeffective program that stressed skill acquisition and paraprofessional personal growth.T he use of paraprofessionals in university counseling centers has grown recently partly as a result of an increasing appreciation of the clinical potential of client-peer interactions (Brown, 1974; Getz & Miles, 1978; Spiegel, 1976; Zwibelman, 1977). A review of 42 studies of the comparative effectiveness of paraprofessional and professional helpers (Durlak, 1979) indicated that in certain cases paraprofessionals seem to achieve clinical outcomes equal to or even better than those achieved by professional counselors. Although a controversy has ensued about Durlak's interpretation of some of these studies (Nietzel & Fisher, 1981), both Durlak and his critics have indicated that the strongest support for the efficacy of paraprofessionals is found in studies of structured interactions with college students with specified behavioral problems. Paraprofessional programs can also be cost effective: Allen (1974) found that the time paraprofessionals can contribute to the university far exceeds the time necessary to train them.Our university counseling center found the addition of a volunteer paraprofessional program attractive for both of these reasons. Several years ago group therapy emerged as the primary mode of treatment partly as a response to fiscal cutbacks and partly as a means of using the considerable expertise and enthusiasm for group work of the professional staff (Peterson et al., 1981). Frequently a group client needs to learn about and practice such skills as acting assertively, asking someone out for a date, engaging in conversation with classmates, relaxing, or managing stress. Because a growing body of literature, primarily from the cognitive-behavioral school, has addressed the development of these skills (Carney & McMahon, 1977;Coffman & Katz, 1979; Fensterheim & Baer, 1976; Galassi & Galassi, 1977; Lange & Jakubowski, 1979; Liberman, King, DeRisi, & McCann, 1978; Rainwater, 1979; Smith, 1975; Steinmetz, Blankenship, Brown, Hall, & Miller, 1980;Zimbardo & Radl, 1979), we believed that a worthwhile application of the "more with less" philosophy of the center would be to train paraprofessionals for work as behavioral coaches with group clients. Although this behavioral coaching role was deemed central to the program, some brainstorming by the professional staff turned up several other useful paraprofessional roles: model therapy group member, research group member, and audiovisual aide. Program PersonnelDuring the spring semester before the beginning of the program, 12 paraprofessionals were selected. An attempt was made during the selection procedure to obtain a relatively equal balance of men and women and heterogeneity of major field of study.The leadership for the paraprofessional program was provided by a staff counselor, a doctoral intern, and a master's-level graduate st...

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The University Counseling Center: An Agenda for the 1990s

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