A survey of counselling training and practises among United States speech-language pathologists working in adult rehabilitation contexts

Counselling is one of the eight pillars of clinical practice for speech-language pathologists, but training varies across programmes and practising speech-language pathologists feel unprepared to deliver counselling in clinical practice. This study examined the perspectives of speech-language pathologists working in rehabilitation contexts within the US. An online survey was distributed to speech-language pathologists working in rehabilitation contexts, eliciting 93 respondents. Quantitative data were characterised using descriptive statistics. Only 47% of respondents had taken a counselling course as a graduate student of which 82% were within a speech-language pathology graduate program and 19% were outside of their graduate training program. Forty-two percent who had not taken a course indicated that counselling was embedded in other graduate coursework. Sixty-six percent of respondents had not taken continuing education or additional training in counselling as a practising speech-language pathologists. Across all training, 75% of respondents had no hands-on training or practise in counselling. Most respondents had no training in specific counselling techniques. Because only half of rehabilitation speech-language pathologists report taking coursework in counselling within their graduate training, their readiness for implementing counselling in practice is suspect. Limited access to professional development training in counselling further limits this capacity. More consistent counselling training within graduate programmes and continuing education is necessary.