Promoting Student Cognitive Development in Counselor Preparation: A Proposed Expanded Role for Faculty Advisers

The development of cognitively complex counselors has been identified as an important component of counselor education. However, there are no models to provide direction for programs to systematically promote student cognitive growth over the entire course of their graduate education. In many counseling programs, the faculty adviser is the one professor who has interactions with a student from admission through graduation and, thus, could serve an important role in coordinating efforts to facilitate student cognitive development. Toward that end, the authors propose a structured advising model to assist faculty advisers in facilitating the cognitive growth of their advisees.