The Treatment Planning of Experienced Counsellors: A Qualitative Examination

This article explores the treatment planning of experienced counsellors using a qualitative approach. It discusses the theories used, the qualitative theory of phenomenology, participant selection, trustworthiness, theme identification, and the relevance of the paper to the field. The study provides valuable insights into how counsellors make clinical decisions and develop treatment plans.

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Article Name: The Treatment Planning of Experienced Counsellors: A Qualitative
Examination
Theories used to develop method of inquiry
The article has been performed by using two separate methods, firstly existing studies
have been reviewed to generate suitable insight regarding the existing treatment planning of
experienced counsellors. Likewise, the study uses qualitative approach to investigate
counsellor experience about the treatment planning. Considering the qualitative approach,
exploratory method has been used to address the research questions. As put forward by
Creswell and Creswell (2017), exploratory research merely explore the research questions
and does not intend to provide final as well as conclusive solutions to the existing problems.
However, in the article, the authors have used this method to understand the nature of the
problem which has not been properly defined yet with respect to counsellor experiences’
about the treatment.
Describing the qualitative theory
Even though there is vast categories of theories under qualitative method,
phenomenology is one such theory, which helps to explain how individuals give meaning to
or consider the social phenomenon in their regular life. As mentioned by Škodlar et al.
(2013), the fundamental role of phenomenology is to explore the essence of consciousness as
the experienced from the first-person individual point of view. In the given article,
phenomenology was used by researcher to approach the counsellors and develop interaction
with them so that it is learnt how counsellors have made sense of their dynamic treatment
planning.

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How the participants were purposely selected
As the study used primary method of data collection, engagement of respondents was
first requirement of the data collection process. The article used the Consensual Qualitative
Research method; thereby, open-ended questions have been used to interview the counsellors.
In order to select the participants for the interview, authors of the article has used a purpose
sampling method which includes the range of 8 to 15 participants. Nonetheless, on the basis
of the requirement, almost 9 professional counsellors have been selected which is aligned
with the criteria as follows i) participant having a minimum of 10 years of experience, ii)
Incensed the professional counsellor, iii) still see clients, iv) have experience of teaching as
counselling intern. Nonetheless, authors of the article did not force any individual to take part
in the interview process; before engaging them in the interview process, authors took
participants’ consent. Authors sent a consent form to the respondents and then the process of
interview was carried out.
Extent to which trustworthiness addressed
In order to address the trustworthiness, authors of the article have performed a pilot
test of the interview questions and protocol and furthermore, authors have independently
coded each transcript and finally worked as the group to find the consensus. Authors have
bracketing exercise to monitor bias as well as the power of dynamics of the group. In addition
to this, authors have also used the criteria of coherence of findings which further follow
certain methods make sure the inference made with the data to make a logical sense to
outside reader
Describing the process used to identify themes
Given the article, each member of the team independently coded each transcript by
using a final list of domains as the guide. Eventually, the authors have performed a cross-

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analysis of the codes to make sure that the same ideas were represented across all transcripts
by reducing and collapsing all transcript required. Likewise, the theme was developed with
categories like general indicates that if the theme is discovered in at least half cases, and then
variant which indicates if the theme is there in less than a half but at least two cases.
Explaining the relevance of the paper to the field
The article is an important contribution to the understanding about how counsellors in
the contemporary time period tend to make clinical decisions. This article helps to understand
such decisions help to make a treatment plan which is unexplored.
Overall evaluation of the article and the quality of design
It can be mentioned that the study has developed a suitable understanding about how
clinical decisions are made by the contemporary counsellors. As the study has used suitable
consensual qualitative research method along with high degree of trustworthiness, outcome
gained from the study is highly relevant. Outcome generated from the study is
comprehensible because the authors have categorized the outcome in four different domain
such as assessment steps, clinical impression, treatment factors as well as treatment
strategies. Thus each domain provides a unique insight and when all the domains are put
together a reader can understand how the entire treatment planning is done.

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References
Creswell, J. W., & Creswell, J. D. (2017). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and
mixed methods approaches. Sage publications.
Gutierrez, D., Fox, J., Jones, K., & Fallon, E. (2018). The Treatment Planning of Experienced
Counselors: A Qualitative Examination. Journal of Counseling &
Development, 96(1), 86-96.
Škodlar, B., Henriksen, M. G., Sass, L. A., Nelson, B., & Parnas, J. (2013). Cognitive-
behavioral therapy for schizophrenia: a critical evaluation of its theoretical framework
from a clinical-phenomenological perspective. Psychopathology, 46(4), 249-265.