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faculty profile
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| As coordinator of the nationally
accredited master’s program in community counseling,
Georgia Calhoun emphasizes a scientist–practitioner
model that includes rigorous practicum requirements
and opportunities for research. (Photo by Dot Paul) |
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Professor gets a ‘fix’ on training students to become
counselors |
By Michael Childs
mchilds@coe.uga.edu |
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| FACTS |
| GEORGIA B. CALHOUN |
| Associate Professor of Counseling
and Human Development |
Ph.D., Counseling Psychology,
University of Georgia, 1993
M.Ed., Guidance Counseling, University
of Georgia, 1985
B.M., Music Education, Furman
University, 1975 |
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Georgia Calhoun sees many students enter a counseling
program with the notion that they’re going to go out and
“fix” people.
“Oftentimes they’re surprised at the degree to which
we invite them to look inside themselves,” she says. “Self-awareness
and the ability to understand one’s assumptive world are
key qualities for future counseling professionals, because
only when you become aware of yourself can you start to
understand the way in which other people are coming at
things, often from a different perspective.”
Calhoun should know. She has spent the past decade preparing
hundreds of UGA students to become professional counselors
in a wide range of community settings.
She teaches five classes a week in the College of Education’s
graduate programs in community counseling and counseling
psychology—programs that rank among the best in the nation.
As coordinator of the nationally accredited master’s program
in community counseling, Calhoun emphasizes a scientist–practitioner
model that includes rigorous practicum requirements and
opportunities for research.
Students praise her ability to blend theory, research
and clinical expertise into the classroom. She provides
them with clinical experience through her research projects,
mentors them in how to prepare research for presentation
and publication, and allows them to join her as active
participants.
“Mentoring and supervising students in their development
as counselors or psychologists is woven into every aspect
of my work,” says Calhoun.
Supervising the beginning master’s student’s attempts
to understand the “I–Thou” relationship so
crucial to healthy therapeutic movement, guiding doctoral students
through the anxious moments of their first classroom teaching
duties, helping a counselor in training as she handles
her first suicide crisis or first testimony in court,
helping students prepare for presentations at national
conferences—Calhoun’s involvement with her students is
a critical feature of her career as a psychologist and
counselor educator.
Calhoun’s research on juvenile offenders, and on the intervention
programs created specifically for that population, has
benefited both her students and the Athens–Clarke County
community.
A decade ago, she and colleague Brian Glaser, also a professor
of counseling, created the Juvenile Counseling and Assessment
Program to study and address the psychological, emotional
and educational needs of court-referred youth and their
families. JCAP was a collaborative partnership among the
local juvenile court, the state Department of Juvenile
Justice, a regional youth detention center, the department
of counseling at UGA and the Athens–Clarke County community.
“We created the JCAP as a way to train graduate students,
research this particular population and, at the same time,
provide a service to a really under-served population,”
says Calhoun. “There are not a lot of people
standing in line to work with juvenile offenders.”
Each year, JCAP provides about 120 juvenile offenders
with therapeutic services. These youth represent diverse
racial-ethnic backgrounds and varying socioeconomic statuses.
They range in age from 9 to 17 and attend one of the public,
private or alternative schools in the community. JCAP
clients may also be detained at the Regional Youth Detention
Center. Their offenses range from status offenses (i.e.,
truancy, runaway, underage consumption of alcohol) to
felonies (i.e., aggravated child molestation, burglary, aggravated
assault).
Calhoun still co-directs JCAP, but she is now focusing
her research on a new topic: How students are supervised
in counseling-preparation programs. It’s an issue that
has always concerned her. |
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