Areas of Interest
My long-term research goal is to develop and implement a stigma-free advocacy support model for all first aid agencies, including individuals and their families across the country. The application of the understanding that the first respondent is experiencing physical and emotional stress at work and his family lives with emotional stress at work influences the creation of this model. Although my research program will not be implemented for several years, I plan to study all community, first-aid groups, documenting and learning from the knowledge and applications that I use from each research to the next. After completing the research across all groups, I plan to add to the profession an inner perspective and a comprehensive first responder community of all its sub-communities that currently do little or no research related to them.
Acquiring the knowledge and skills that will allow growing not only as a consultant but also to become a teacher-consultant at the doctoral level requires immense commitment and sacrifice from the student. As dedicated as a doctoral student, the most significant benefit comes from the compassion, and investment instructors provide to each student as mentors who pass on their knowledge and experience. I plan to continue to mentor the cohorts that came after me to set a personal example. I will also use the education and training I have received in research, supervision, teaching, leadership, and counseling to mentor my prospective students as a teaching consultant and create a healthy and safe environment for students and my prospective clients to apply learning skills. Being a well-rounded educational consultant promotes the growth and development of the profession and helps to strengthen the identity of the counselor.
Research Questions and Goals
This study focuses on the real-life experiences of law enforcement officers providing first aid in an international pandemic and on describing the cognitive experience and use of self-help. For this, the researcher collects basic information. Comparable data collected for this study is targeted at us. Although studies of this population are few, the importance of conducting this study begins with a study by Klimley et al. (2018), who determined that emergency responders were at high risk of developing PTSD symptoms but did not seek help and did not receive a confirmed diagnosis.
This exploratory study on Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) will use critical theory as a research paradigm to explore participants’ life experiences to understand and realize awareness of change in areas where social constraints may exist. The study will offer information on political and social themes that will uncover the deeper realities of these life experiences – those first-hand experiences that fit the needs of the research participants. Thus, the research questions include: what is the life experience during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic; what was the life experience of a law enforcement officer providing first aid in the fight against public opinion in 2020; what is the life experience of managing personal mental health during a pandemic; and what is the life experience of personal safety as the first responder of law enforcement.
Future Directions
A deeper understanding of what life is like for law enforcement officials helps mental health professionals better understand the importance of this phenomenon as the first look at this research topic. Incorporating aspects of CIT training and applying phenomenological experiences can enable us to create a workable training program that will help improve and, over the long term, support the supported mental health needs of law enforcement first responders in a non-stigmatized environment.
In conducting this study, we hope to begin bridging the gaps in previous surface-level research regarding understanding police culture and the stigmatism associated with workplace injuries (Ingram et al., 2018 & Fleischman et al., 2018). The findings from this qualitative study provide a starting point for initiating research that will be expanded to future quantitative research that could lead to an effective counseling development program that supports the needs of the law enforcement first responder profession in emerging and non-emerging situations—emerging mental disorders.
Leadership and Advocacy
Leadership is a necessary skill set in many professions, not excluding counseling. Identity defines leadership and other dimensions such as culture, discipline, and context (Peters & Vereen, 2020). The profession also includes serving those in need in a holistic, successful, and ethical way (McKibben et al., 2017). In the leadership category, researchers aim to find unique leadership behaviors in the counseling profession. My work experience specializing in high-risk and trauma clients and marriage and divorce will allow me to look at trauma in my research work from a different perspective. Very little research to date has focused on personal injuries on the professionalism of emergency services (Chaverri et al., 2018). Several practices are based on the American Counseling Association (ACA) but still require more qualitative and quantitative research (Sommer, 2008). Another issue that requires advocacy is stigma.
People with mental illness face discrimination and prejudice in the workplace and other social scenarios and access mental health services. Researchers argue that the best times to tackle stigma opportunities are during counselor training (Overton & Medina, 2008). Therefore, I single out as separate tasks the identification of possible personal prejudices and opportunities for discrimination in the dialogues of teachers and doctoral students. In addition, there is a stigma among emergency services professionals that discourage them from seeking help and counseling.
The confidence gained through leadership skills is a powerful asset in advocating and defending the profession. In the rapidly changing context of psychology and mental health, the concepts of leadership and protection must be based on the values and solid foundations of the profession. Researchers include advocacy ability before core leadership qualities (Shullman, 2017). One of the goals or implications of my research is to increase clarity in the role of counseling educators and the ethical obligations of a counseling educator offering additional opportunities to doctoral students. The model of transformational leadership is closely related to the terms of pedagogy. Consequently, advocacy emerges as a consequence of leadership by protecting students and doctoral students from discrimination.
The transformational leadership model not only responds to my preference for person-centered approaches but also promotes advocacy. While the stigma associated with social anxiety and mistrust still affects attitudes toward this model, they are generally getting better (Jacob et al., 2017). In addition, research data can and should be used in the education and training of consultants. Conscientiousness, benevolence, extraversion, and openness to experience are determinants of transformational leadership that have been proven beneficial in the profession (Lopez-Perry, 2020). Moreover, psychological capital and perceived stress as a consequence of stigma can be reduced with the right, and carefully calibrated transformational leadership approaches, the correlation between which has been proven by a hierarchical regression model (Williams, 2019). Hence, applying transformational leadership with an advocacy dimension does indeed positively impact the counseling profession. As a result, the application of this model needs to be explored empirically and non-empirically in my research on trauma and stigma against emergency workers. In the research process, advocacy will be exposed not only to the professional skills of the consultant but also to the ethical norms and values of the profession (Woo et al., 2017). The success of these studies will allow them to be used in education, at which discrimination most often arises in the profession of a consultant.
References
Chaverri, J., Praetorius, R. T., & Ruiz, E. (2018). Counselor happiness: Effects of therapy work with similar trauma. Social Work in Mental Health, 16(4), 419-435.
Fleischmann, M. H., Strode, P., Broussard, B., & Compton, M. T. (2016). Law enforcement officers’ perceptions of and responses to traumatic events: a survey of officers completing Crisis Intervention Team training. Policing and Society, 28(2), 149–156. Web.
Ingram, J. R., Terrill, W., & Paoline, E. A. (2018). Police Culture and Officer Behavior: Application of a Multilevel Framework. Criminology, 56(4), 780–811. Web.
Jacob, C. J., Stoler, J., & Roth, G. (2017). A pilot study of transformational leadership and college counseling outcomes. Journal of Creativity in Mental Health, 12(2), 180-191.
Klimley, K. E., Van Hasselt, V. B., & Stripling, A. M. (2018). Posttraumatic stress disorder in police, firefighters, and emergency dispatchers. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 43, 33–44. Web.
Lopez-Perry, C. (2020). Transformational leadership and the big five personality traits of counselor educators. Journal of Counselor Leadership and Advocacy, 7(2), 132-146.
McKibben, W. B., Umstead, L. K., & Borders, L. D. (2017). Identifying dynamics of counseling leadership: A content analysis study. Journal of Counseling & Development, 95(2), 192-202.
Overton, S. L., & Medina, S. L. (2008). The stigma of mental illness. Journal of Counseling & Development, 86(2), 143-151.
Peters, H. C., & Vereen, L. G. (2020). Counseling leadership and professional counselor identity: A phenomenological study. Journal of Counselor Leadership and Advocacy, 7(2), 99-117.
Shullman, S. L. (2017). Leadership and counseling psychology: Dilemmas, ambiguities, and possibilities. The Counseling Psychologist, 45(7), 910-926.
Sommer, C. A. (2008). Vicarious traumatization, trauma‐sensitive supervision, and counselor preparation. Counselor Education and Supervision, 48(1), 61-71.
Williams, B. R. (2019). Counselors as Leaders: The Mediating Role of Stress in the Relationship Between Psychological Capital and Transformational Leadership (Doctoral dissertation, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro).
Woo, H., Lu, J., Harris, C., & Cauley, B. (2017). Professional identity development in counseling professionals. Counseling Outcome Research and Evaluation, 8(1), 15-30.