Raising Awareness of the Impact of Guilt and Shame on Counselor Education Students

ABSTRACT A purposive sample of 560 counselor education students from 12 CACREP-accredited programs completed the Guilt and Shame Proneness Scale (GASP), an emotional and behavioral assessment of shame and guilt. Results indicated that participants were unlikely to withdraw from others and unlikely to behave in immoral, non-empathic, and socially irresponsible ways. However, students in this study may struggle with low self-esteem, high levels of anxiety, perfectionism, and fear of failure when experiencing shame. Students in this study experiencing guilt were likely to behave ethically, empathically, and use socially responsible behaviors. Counselor education students of different genders, races, ages, and counseling specialties experienced shame and guilt in similar ways. Several recommendations are made to help train counselor education students to understand how shame and guilt can impact counseling outcomes.