Premium
Teaching Genetic Counseling Skills: Incorporating a Genetic Counseling Adaptation Continuum Model to Address Psychosocial Complexity
Author(s) -
Shugar Andrea
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
journal of genetic counseling
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.867
H-Index - 52
eISSN - 1573-3599
pISSN - 1059-7700
DOI - 10.1007/s10897-016-0042-y
Subject(s) - genetic counseling , psychosocial , clarity , harm , psychology , adaptation (eye) , medicine , social skills , medical education , applied psychology , clinical psychology , psychotherapist , social psychology , biochemistry , chemistry , genetics , neuroscience , biology
Genetic counselors are trained health care professionals who effectively integrate both psychosocial counseling and information‐giving into their practice. Preparing genetic counseling students for clinical practice is a challenging task, particularly when helping them develop effective and active counseling skills. Resistance to incorporating these skills may stem from decreased confidence, fear of causing harm or a lack of clarity of psycho‐social goals. The author reflects on the personal challenges experienced in teaching genetic counselling students to work with psychological and social complexity, and proposes a Genetic Counseling Adaptation Continuum model and methodology to guide students in the use of advanced counseling skills.