Relationship between Counseling Students' Mindfulness and Stress When Controlling for Rumination: A Pilot Study

The literature indicates that the graduate counseling students experience high level of stress including different types of stresses in their counseling programs. One of the stresses is due to high expectations from them to excel in their academic courses. The other stress is in their field placement, which is due to the additional pressure on them to fulfill the requirement of getting involved with their client care. The concept of mindfulness has been promoted as one of the ways that can be introduced in the counseling programs to reduce students' stress level. The current study will determine if a series of mindfulness interventions is associated with decreased levels of perceived stress among graduate counseling students. Furthermore, literature describes rumination as one of the leading factors for stress, anxiety, depression, and other forms of psychopathology. Thus, the current study will specifically determine if there is any statistically significant correlation between mindfulness level and stress level of the graduate counseling students, when rumination is controlled for in the field placement as well as in the counseling program excluding field placement. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]