Experiences of mentors working Wwith international doctoral students in CACREP-accredited counselor education programs: A constructivist grounded theory inquiry

The number of international students in counseling programs is increasing (Amparbeng & Pillay, 2021; Ng, 2006; Reid & Dixon, 2012). This growing number calls attention to students' diverse needs and challenges. In addition to the issues their peers in other programs are experiencing, international students in counseling programs face distinctive challenges due to the nature of the counseling training programs and the curricula they utilize (Ng & Smith, 2009; Rasheed, 2015; Reid & Dixon, 2012). International students in counseling programs are experiencing acculturative stress because of their academic, social, cultural, and language needs (Behl et al., 2017; Lertora & Croffie, 2020). Because of the language and cultural barriers, international students do not actively participate in the interactive counseling courses (Behl et al., 2017), and face challenges in terms of communicating, understanding, and using some Western mental health strategies with their clients (Ng & Smith, 2009). Furthermore, international students’ distinct cultural values and norms could influence their communication style and, as a result, their professional relationships with their advisors and peers (Seyeneh, 2018). Mentoring is suggested as one of the most effective ways of mitigating these challenges and struggles (King et al., 2015; Omar et al., 2016; Seyeneh, 2018). However, there is no available mentoring model to utilize while working with international counseling doctoral students. Therefore, this study aimed to establish a mentoring model for mentors to work with international doctoral students completing their CES coursework within CACREP-accredited counselor education programs in the United States. Charmaz’ (2014) constructivist grounded theory was used to establish a mentoring model based on the experiences and perceptions of 19 counselor educators mentoring international doctoral students. Recruitment, elements of mentoring, support systems, and graduation were found as the main themes of the model. The mentoring relationship between counselor educators and ICDSs starts with students’ recruitment, and the most frequently stated channels of recruiting international doctoral students were word of mouth, conferences, well-designed websites, international faculty, and institutional reputation. Utilizing cultural humility, intentionality, connection with resources, individualization, normalized experiences, and sense of trust as the elements of mentoring helps to build and enhance the mentoring relationship as well as increases students’ sense of belonging and supports their adjustment to the new learning and social environments. Among the elements of mentoring in this model, cultural humility and intentionality were valued the most among the participants for addressing academic, social, and cultural needs of international students. The full application of the elements of mentoring lead mentors to create support systems to address the social, emotional, cultural, financial, and administrative needs of international counseling doctoral students. Finally, mentors using the elements of mentoring and helping students to have access to the support systems influence their students’ retention and graduation. Graduated students with positive learning and social experiences contribute to recruiting new international counseling doctoral students. The process and interaction among these themes influence international doctoral students’ outcomes. Implications for counselor educators and counseling programs are discussed.