Scholarship & Publications
Dr. Ausloos is a dedicated counselor, educator, and researcher who deeply values leadership, advocacy, and social justice, with a particular emphasis on supporting non-dominant, historically marginalized, and oppressed individuals, especially those from the LGBTGEQIAP+ communities. Through purposeful research, Dr. Ausloos endeavors to empower and champion ethical and affirming training and practices within counselor education programs and both clinical and school environments. For Dr. Ausloos, visibility, empowerment, and resilience are essential tenets in research, often shaping the core of the research inquiries.
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Dr. Ausloos's research interests can be broadly categorized into:
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Preparation of counselors to work adeptly with diverse, underserved, and marginalized clients and students, encompassing affective and gender diversity, social class, poverty, and people with disabilities.
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Issues within LGBTGEQIAP+ populations in school and clinical counseling settings.
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Ecologically-oriented strategies to strengthen relationships with schools, communities, and families.
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Dr. Ausloos also seves on the editorial review boards for:
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Dr. Ausloos also serves as the chairperson on the Association for Assessment and Research in Counseling (AARC) Standards and Statements Committee, which recently published the:
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A sample of Dr. Ausloos' scholarship, including direct links and access to the articles can be found below.
Stress and Resilience Among Professional Counselors During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Stacey Diane Arañez Litam, Clark D. Ausloos, John J. S. Harrichand
This study used a national sample of professional counselors (N = 161) providing services during the COVID-19 pandemic to examine the extent to which perceived stress, coping response, resilience, and posttraumatic stress predict burnout, secondary traumatic stress, and compassion satisfaction. The results of a multiple regression analysis indicated that resilience had a strong positive relationship with compassion fatigue and a strong negative relationship with burnout. Perceived stress was also strongly positively related to burnout. Implications and strategies for counsel-ors to mitigate the effects of perceived stress during the COVID-19 pandemic by engaging in self-care practices and cultivating resilience are provided.
Infusing Self-Care and Wellness into CACREP Curricula: Pedagogical Recommendations for Counselor Educators and Counselors during COVID-19
John J.S. Harrichand, Stacey Diane Arañez Litam, Clark D Ausloos
Although self-care and wellness practices are important in counselor education, they have yet to be mapped and incorporated into the CACREP curriculum. Counselor educators are called to teach and model these practices for counselors in training (CIT) in a post-pandemic reality. The authors provide specific recommendations for integrating self-care and wellness practices across the CACREP curriculum in counselor education training programs, as well as pragmatic approaches for professional counselors, to address the paucity of literature.
Lena Salpietro, Clark Ausloos, Madeline Clark
Despite incessant discrimination that often leads to increased health disparities, trans* individuals are often hesitant to seek out mental health services due to fear of discrimination by professionals who lack essential training and knowledge. Authors interviewed 12 cisgender professional counselors about their experiences working with trans* clients. Participants’ responses were grouped into four themes: challenges in treatment, cisgender counselor learning experiences, essential knowledge, and counselor skills. This study has implications for counselor education, practice, and supervision including a need for comprehensive training.
Madeline Clark, Clark Ausloos, Colleen Delaney, Linda Waters,
Lena Salpietro, Hannah Tippett
Poverty is a pressing sociopolitical issue in the United States and worldwide. Poverty experiences have a significant effect on one’s mental health and overall wellness. Therefore, the ability to effectively serve clients experiencing poverty is critically important to professional counselors. However, there are no empirical models for counseling clients experiencing poverty. The authors present the results of a constructivist grounded theory study in which 21 professional counselors who work with clients experiencing poverty were interviewed to identify best practices for working with this population. Five major best practices are identified: (a) awareness, (b) training, (c) knowledge, (d) skills, and (e) advocacy. Implications for professional counseling are included.
Lena Salpietro, Madeline Clark, Tanesha Walker, Clark Ausloos, Elizabeth A. Prosek
Despite evidence that remediation is effective, little is known about counselor educators’ experience with remediation. In this consensual qualitative study, authors interviewed counselor educators (N=11) to better understand remedial practices and identify effective strategies. Findings have implications for the remediation of master’s-level students in counselor education.
Clark D. Ausloos, Madeline Clark, Hansori Jang,
Tahani Dari, Stacey Diane Arañez Litam
Trans youth experience discrimination and marginalization in their homes, communities, and schools. Professional school counselors (PSCs) are positioned to support and advocate for trans youth as dictated by professional standards. However, an extensive review of literature revealed a lack of confidence and competence in counselors working with trans youth and their families. Further, there is a dearth of literature that addresses factors leading to increased school counselor competence with trans students. The current study uses a cross-sectional survey design to contribute to the extant literature and explore how PSCs in the United States work with students in the K–12 public school system. Results from multiple regression analyses indicate that PSCs who have had postgraduate training and report personal and professional experiences with trans students are more competent in working with trans students. Implications for PSCs and school counselor education programs are discussed.
Clark D. Ausloos, Zachary Bloom, Kristopher M. Goodrich, K. Michelle Hunnicutt Hollenbaugh, John Taylor, Caitlyn Bennett, Ashley Blount, Jennifer Gerlach, Katy Schroeder
The Standards of Care for Research in Group Work were developed in partnership between the Association for Assessment in Research in Counseling (AARC) and the Association for Specialists in Group Work (ASGW). The purpose of these standards is to highlight empirically validated and literature-supported practices for conducting research in group work, as there are methodological and design considerations that are unique to group work research. These include, but are not limited to, small sample sizes that are often inherent in group work, the dependence of variables when measured in a group setting, historical lack of empirical rigor in group work research, and the need for theoretical and methodological congruence in qualitative research. During the development of this document, the committee used extant research standards to guide and center our efforts, and it was our intent for these standards to be used in conjunction with other established research standards. We also recognized the need to emphasize quantitative and qualitative research guidelines to encompass the importance of both types of research in the counseling field; and to highlight the importance of recognition and attention to concerns related to conducting group work research with participants from diverse and underrepresented backgrounds.
Caitlyn Bennett, Ashley Blount, Jennifer Gerlach, Katy Schroeder, Clark D. Ausloos, Zachary Bloom, Kristopher M. Goodrich, K. Michelle Hunnicutt Hollenbaugh, John Taylor
Trans youth experience discrimination and marginalization in their homes, communities, and schools. Professional school counselors (PSCs) are positioned to support and advocate for trans youth as dictated by professional standards. However, an extensive review of literature revealed a lack of confidence and competence in counselors working with trans youth and their families. Further, there is a dearth of literature that addresses factors leading to increased school counselor competence with trans students. The current study uses a cross-sectional survey design to contribute to the extant literature and explore how PSCs in the United States work with students in the K–12 public school system. Results from multiple regression analyses indicate that PSCs who have had postgraduate training and report personal and professional experiences with trans students are more competent in working with trans students. Implications for PSCs and school counselor education programs are discussed.
We engaged in this study to better understand how counselors cope with and process client suicide. A researcher who also experienced a client suicide conducted interviews with licensed professional counselors (N = 7). Using interpretive phenomenological analysis, we identified eight superordinate themes: (a) professional counseling culture, (b) intense emotional reaction, (c) processing loss, (d) supports,
(e) barriers, (f) impairment, (g) disillusionment, and (h) finding meaning. Findings have implications for the counseling profession, counselor educators, agencies and supervisors, counselors, and counselors-in-training.
There is a growing interest in the utility of complementary health approaches (CHAs) to promote wellness and health in the United States. Research from medical, allied health, and mental health fields reflect this expanding interest; however, very little research focuses on counselors and the integration of CHAs within practice or referral of counseling clients to Complementary Health Practitioners (CHPs). The current study expanded this research using transcendental phenomenology to explore the experiences, perspectives, and processes in use by current independently licensed professional counselors referring to complementary health practitioners (CHPs). The authors discuss and mexplore implications of these findings.
There is a growing interest in the utility of complementary health approaches (CHAs) to promote wellness and health in the United States. Research from medical, allied health, and mental health fields reflect this expanding interest; however, very little research focuses on counselors and the integration of CHAs within practice or referral of counseling clients to Complementary Health Practitioners (CHPs). The current study expanded this research using transcendental phenomenology to explore the experiences, perspectives, and processes in use by current independently licensed professional counselors referring to complementary health practitioners (CHPs). The authors discuss and mexplore implications of these findings.
We engaged in this study to better understand how counselors cope with and process client suicide. A researcher who also experienced a client suicide conducted interviews with licensed professional counselors (N = 7). Using interpretive phenomenological analysis, we identified eight superordinate themes: (a) professional counseling culture, (b) intense emotional reaction, (c) processing loss, (d) supports,
(e) barriers, (f) impairment, (g) disillusionment, and (h) finding meaning. Findings have implications for the counseling profession, counselor educators, agencies and supervisors, counselors, and counselors-in-training.
Editors: Shannon B. Dermer, Jahaan R. Abdullah
Contributer: Clark Ausloos
Since the late 1970s, there has been an increase in the study of diversity, inclusion, race, and ethnicity within the field of counseling. The SAGE Encyclopedia of Multicultural Counseling, Social Justice, and Advocacy will comprehensively synthesize a wide range of terms, concepts, ideologies, groups, and organizations through a diverse lens. This encyclopedia will include entries on a wide range of topics relative to multicultural counseling, social justice and advocacy, and the experiences of diverse groups. The encyclopedia will consist of approximately 600 signed entries, arranged alphabetically within four volumes.