Counselor Educators' Wellness Levels' Impact on How They Promote Wellness

If wellness facilitates the “optimal state of health and well-being that each individual is capable of achieving” (Myers et al., 2000, p. 252), then counselor wellness is of great significance in research, counselor training, and practice. Counselors-in-training (CITs) need opportunities to develop awareness, knowledge, and skills to improve personal wellness in order to practice ethically and reduce levels of impairment. Counselor educators (CEs) have a responsibility to assess, evaluate, and promote personal growth for counselor trainees. Because of the isomorphic relationship between both counselor and client, and CIT and CEs, questions persist as to how counselor wellness is promoted and maintained. If well counselors produce well clients then well CEs produce well CITs. Therefore, this quantitative study focused on wellness and mindful present moment awareness in CEs and how these variables impact wellness promotion behaviors. The results of the analyses concluded that wellness is associated with wellness promotion, though not directly aligned with each wellness and wellness promotion subscale. Positive relationships were found between each of these three variables in correlation; however, mindful present moment awareness did not have a predictive relationship with wellness promotion behaviors. Furthermore, the creative self wellness scores are predictive for overall wellness promotion behaviors. The connections to wellness theory provide further evidence for continued work on CE wellness to support the development of future counselors. Caution should be used with addressing the predictive relationship of the variables and future research should focus on the variables that impact wellness promotion. Further research into the understanding of wellness and wellness promotion should focus on the factors that contribute to wellness and classroom philosophy. Finally, CEs should work to practice awareness to maintain their wellness, and question how they incorporate wellness into CIT training.