Philippine E-Journals

Filipino School Counselors’ Explicit Theory of Counseling: An Examination of Salience

Laramie R. Tolentino

Discipline: Psychology

 

Abstract:

In line with the central aim of promoting an in-depth understanding of counselor application of theory to practice, this qualitative study described school counselors’ articulation and use of personal explicit theories of counseling. Ten registered and practicing Filipino school counselors were interviewed and requested to analyze a vignette using their reported theoretical orientation/s as a guiding framework. Each interview transcript and written case analysis was carefully analyzed using Bordens and Abott’s (2005) content analysis method and Hill et al.’s (2005) consensual cross analysis method. Results showed an evident general valuing for an explicit theory of counseling. Moreover, the school counselors predominantly preferred a combined orientation approach when applying their personal counseling theory. However, comparison of the self-report ratings and external consensual ratings of the vignette-based case analysis exposed disparities between the verbalized personal theory and its actual use in counseling. The findings were discussed in relation to the existing literature on counselor theoretical orientations and implications for counseling practice and research were suggested.