Toward promoting generative cultures of intentional mentoring within academic settings

Developmental figures: an attempt at conceptualization and classification

The subject of this paper deals with the theoretical area of personality psychology and life-span psychology. This paper presents a novel approach to the social context of personal development, as a certain terminological gap regarding the category of the developmental figure has been observed. I propose that the developmental figure be defined, analogically to the attachment figure or the transition figure, as an individual who has significant meaning to another person's psychosocial development. Developmental figures can be categorized on the basis of various criteria; for example, based on the type of implications for development we can identify progressive and regressive figures; based on the strength of the influence we identify primary and secondary figures; based on the type of social relation we can identify direct and indirect figures; and based on the duration of the influence we can identify sporadic and frequent interactions.

A Conceptual Framework for Incorporating Mentoring in the Clinical Supervision of International Counseling Students

There has been an increased number of international students attending universities in the United States, which has resulted in a growing number of international students in counseling programs. Cultural differences necessitate culturally appropriate supervision models for counselors and supervisors to utilize when working with international students. The authors identify and delineate the challenges and unique supervision needs of international counseling students and highlight the importance of mentoring as a culturally appropriate complementary supervision technique when supervising international counseling students. The authors propose the inclusion of mentoring with Bernard’s discrimination model of supervision as a strategy to enhance the counseling skills of international students.

Relational mentoring in clinical supervision: the transformational supervisor

Effective clinical supervision naturally incorporates many elements of mentoring. In this article, we us the Mentoring Relationship Continuum (MRC) model to frame a discussion of transformational supervision. We define transformational supervision as a rich developmental relationship characterized by increasing relational reciprocity, a greater range of career and psychosocial mentoring functions, and a strong sense of collegiality. As a strong supervisory relationship approaches the transformational end of the MRC, the supervisor offers increasing levels of support, empowerment, authenticity, and reciprocity; over time, the relationship has a more interdependent, egalitarian, and communitarian character. We employ a case example to illustrate excellent transformational supervision.