Course overview

Addressing problematic behaviors through gatekeeping is an ethical responsibility of counselor educators. Counselor educators and supervisors have the responsibilities and roles as gatekeepers, including setting policies and procedures for admission criteria and selection, retention, remediation, and students’ assessments throughout their progress in the counseling program as required by accreditation standards and ACA Code of Ethics (Brown-Rice & Furr, 2016). In recent years, students, faculty, and administrators have faced unprecedented times, including a global pandemic, social and political unrest, and technological advancement that have changed how counselor education programs train and prepare students to be counselors and future counselor educators (Gilbert et al., 2019). Yet, the complexity, subjectivity, and emotional involvement it takes counselor educators to address gatekeeping issues is often challenging and difficult (DeCino et al., 2020). In this presentation, the panel, consisting of a Dean, two program directors, and three counselor educators in which, one of them also serves as a community clinic director, will discuss their experiences and policies and procedures that help them address gatekeeping issues within their counselor education programs. The panelists will also share ideas and practices that can reduce burnout among faculty, reduce liability and emotional vulnerability when serving as gatekeepers, and prevent legal challenges that can negatively impact the faculty, the program, and the university distinctively. The panelists are from various ACES regions and have worked in varied universities across the country. 


Learning Objectives:

  1. Participants will develop an understanding of protocols and policies that can guide their roles and responsibilities as gatekeepers. Current literature on the topic and presenters’ experiences with this matter will be discussed.
  2. Participants will learn strategies that can reduce burnout and emotional vulnerability among various stakeholders in counselor education programs.
  3. Participants will identify and discuss collaborative practices among various entities in higher education that can strengthen the function of gatekeeping and reduce potential legal liabilities. Ethical and social justice implications are highlighted.
  4. Participants will discuss how to create a culture of advocacy, equity, transparency, and feedback in CES programs experiencing difficulties with gatekeeping.

Course curriculum

    1. The Vulnerability of Counselor Educators Navigating the Gatekeeping Process in a New Millennium

About this course

  • Free

Edward Ewe, Ph.D.

Dr. Edward Ewe is an assistant clinic professor and community clinic director at Oregon State University Cascades. He is a licensed professional counselor and a licensed mental health counselor in Washington and Oregon. He is a national certified counselor, approved clinical supervisor, and an approved Washington and Oregon state clinical supervisor. He has a private practice in Bend, Oregon where he works with individuals and couples. His research interests include professional identity development, gatekeeping, grief and loss, and clinical supervision. He has presented in various national and regional conferences for the American Counseling Association (ACA), the Association for Counselor Educators and Supervisors (ACES), the Oklahoma School Counselor Association (OSCA) and the Western Association for Counselor Educators and Supervisors (WACES).

Jeffrey Cook, PhD, LPC

Dr. Jeff Cook is Associate Professor and Program Chair for the Clinical Mental Health Counseling program at Denver Seminary, in Denver Colorado. Dr. Cook earned his doctorate from Oregon State University, and has enjoyed teaching assignments at Saint Mary’s College of California, the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, and Northwest University prior to his arrival at Denver Seminary. He has maintained a private practice since 2006 specializing in couples work, trauma, and emotion regulation, and served as Clinical Director at both the University of Wisconsin and Northwest University. Jeff has published a series of book chapters and articles in the areas of spiritual development, intersubjective systems theory, and emotion regulation.

Thom Field, PhD, LMHC, LPC, NCC, CCMHC, ACS

Thom Field, PhD, is Program Chair and Associate Professor at Oregon State University. He previously worked as a faculty member at Boston University School of Medicine. His research focuses on the integration of neuroscience into counseling practice, and professional and social justice advocacy. During his academic career, he has published more than 30 peer-reviewed articles. He has also authored two books on the topic of neuroscience integration. He has received grant funding from agencies that include the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMSHA). In addition to faculty responsibilities, he has actively helped clients with mental health concerns since 2006. He has provided counseling to more than 1,000 clients during his career and currently maintains a small private practice.

Kaj Kayij-Wint PhD, LMFT

Dr. Kaj Kayij-Wint is an associate professor of counselor education at Missouri Baptist University. She is the current president of the Oregon Counseling Association (ORCA). She is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, an AAMFT Approved Supervisor, and AAMFT Clinical Fellow. Her specialty is in systemic counseling, women’s mental health, child development, marriage and family counseling, trauma, and military-related trauma with a focus on military women and women veterans. Her research interests include professional/counselor identity, military mental health needs, and gatekeeping. She has presented on these topics at various national and regional conferences. Dr. Kayij-Wint is also in private practice where she provides individual and couples counseling, as well as clinical supervision and consultation services. She is a member of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT), the American Counseling Association (ACA), the Oregon Counseling Association (ORCA), the Western Association for Counselor Education and Supervision (WACES), the Southern Association for Counselor Education and Supervision (SACES), and the Association for Counselor Education and Supervision (ACES).

Heidi Morton, PhD, NCC, ESA

Dr. Heidi Morton is Program Director and Assistant Professor at University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington. She worked as a school counselor for over 20 years before transitioning to higher education in 2018. Dr. Morton helped redesign her program’s student evaluation and remediation protocols so they are more systematic and holistic. Her research focuses on professional identity development, school counseling collaboration and consultation, social-emotional learning in schools, and math anxiety and stereotype threat.

Susan Gardner, PhD

Dean

Susan K. Gardner, Ph.D. (she/her) is Dean of the College of Education at Oregon State University and professor of Adult and Higher Education. She began her faculty career at Louisiana State University during 2005-2007 and moved to UMaine in 2007. There, she earned early tenure in 2010 and was promoted to professor in 2015. In her career she has served as Director of a $3.3M National Science Foundation ADVANCE grant on faculty recruitment, retention, and advancement; Director of UMaine’s Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program; Director of the Rising Tide Center focused on equity and inclusion; Associate Dean of Accreditation and Graduate Affairs and Interim Dean in the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Maine. Susan comes to the field of education with a wide variety of experiences. As a first-generation college student, she graduated with her bachelor’s degree in education and Spanish from Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1996. She then worked as a high school Spanish teacher in Wisconsin while earning her master’s degree part-time in education from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. In 2001, she moved to Washington to begin work as a student affairs administrator at Washington State University, where she simultaneously completed her Ph.D. in Higher Education in 2005. In all of these experiences, Susan maintained a strong focus on equity and inclusion in education. Dr. Gardner’s scholarship focuses on the intersections of individual success within organizational environments of higher education institutions. To date, this focus has lent itself to over 60 peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, and books on doctoral student socialization and development, interdisciplinarity, as well as on the topic of the retention and advancement of women faculty. In these areas, Susan has also served as PI, Co-PI, and major personnel on grants from the National Science Foundation and the Sloan Foundation totaling nearly $24 million. Susan lives with her partner, two daughters, their poorly behaved dog, and their extremely patient cat in Corvallis, Oregon.