Appropriate Supervisor--Graduate Student Relationships

Counselor Education Doctoral Students' Experiences With Multiple Roles and Relationships

“…The failure of counseling programs to provide adequate instruction on identifying and navigating multiple roles and relationships has additional implications for doctoral programs, as counselor education doctoral students represent the new generation of counselor educators. A number of researchers (Barnett, 2008;Kitchener, 1988;Sullivan & Ogloff 1998) have noted the potential for future counselor educators to succumb to the slippery slope phenomenon after participating in multiple relationships while enrolled as doctoral students. For example, Blevins-Knabe (1992) described the mentoring effect and how it relates to professors who participated in multiple relationships while they were students and subsequently participated in multiple relationships with their own students.…”

“…The impetus for the proposed dissertation study is best supported by a key point made in Sullivan and Ogloff's (1998) findings: "existing ethical guidelines do not provide enough guidance in this area where students are in a position of diminished power " (p. 229). Findings from previous studies scrutinizing faculty and student opinions about boundary issues have emphasized the need for future studies to explore the effects of engaging in multiple relationships; a need that is strengthened by the potential modeling effect and slippery slope phenomenon .…”

“…Although boundary issues initially were studied as they pertained to counselor-client dual relationships, they often occur in a variety of other settings, such as college counseling centers (Dallesasse, 2010;Malley et al, 1992, as cited in Pearson & Piazza, 1997), ministerial relationships between clergy and parishioners (Haug, 1999), and higher education (Barnett, 2008;Biaggio et al, 1997;Blevins-Knabe, 1992;Bowman & Hatley, 1995;Holmes et al, 2000;Kolbert et al, 2002;Oberlander & Barnett, 2005;Schwab & Neukrug, 1994;Sullivan & Ogloff, 1998;Welfare & Sackett, 2011) where power differentials between two parties exist. Although dual relationships in therapeutic relationships were acknowledged, the ethics surrounding faculty-student relationships were widely neglected in the literature and ethics codes (Blevins-Knabe, 1992).…”

“…Those in the decreased-power position, clients and students, both experience "fear of negative consequences of noncompliance; " including fear of termination of the counseling relationship for the client, and fear of potential unfavorable ramifications for the student (Sullivan & Ogloff, 1998). …”

“…Faculty-student dual relationships have been discussed in supervision literature (Glaser & Thorpe, 1986;Kolbert et al, 2002;Schwab & Neukrug, 1994;Sullivan & Ogloff, 1998). Student supervisees have limited autonomy to give informed consent in the relationship, as supervision is a required component of counselor education programs (Bowman & Hatley, 1995;Sullivan & Ogloff, 1998). Sullivan and Ogloff (1998) examined the ethical dilemmas that arise in supervisorgraduate student relationships, such as authorship, favoritism or inequitable treatment of students, and sexual relationships.…”