Investigation of psychological counselor candidates' success in the initial sessions in terms of counselor and client verbal behaviors

The aim of this study was to examine counselor candidates' success in the initial sessions in terms of counselor and client verbal behaviors. Micro level success of counselor candidates were identified using Session Evaluation Scale - Client Form in both sessions but, it was also observed how counselor candidates evaluated sessions. To this end, Session Evaluation Scale - Counselor Form was used. Findings indicated that counselor candidates in both successful and unsuccessful groups showed the most Exploration, Explanation and Empathy behaviors during the sessions. While Empathy and Reformulation behaviors of counselor candidates significantly differed in favor of the successful group, Classification and Interpretation behaviors significantly differed in favor of the unsuccessful group in both sessions. In the first session, it was seen that Clarification, Adressing the Therapeutic Relationship and Remainder Category behaviors of clients significantly differed in favor of the unsuccessful group. In the second session, Resistant Behaviors, Specific Problem, Insight, Resignation and Remainder Category behaviors of clients significantly differed in favor of the unsuccessful group. It was also examined relationship between session evaluation scores of both counselor candidates and clients in this study. In addition, it was investigated which counselor and client behaviors were related those session evaluation scores. According to findings, while there was a moderately positive relationship between Empathy behaviors of counselor candidates and session evaluation scores of clients, there was a moderately negative relationship between Classification behaviors of counselor candidates and clients' session evaluation scores for both sessions. In the first session, Empathy behaviors and session evaluation scores of counselor candidates showed a moderately positive relationship. In the second session, Short Answer behaviors of clients showed a moderately positive relationship with session evaluation scores of both clients and counselor candidates. The findings were discussed and recommendations for the future researches and applications were presented. Keywords: Counseling research, micro process research, initial sessions, counselor candidates, verbal behaviors.