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(Meeting ID: 954 6339 9964  |  Passcode: 787769)

The Physiology of the Work: Chronic Stress, Allostatic Load, and Faculty Wellness in Counselor Education

 

 

Counselor educators embody multifaceted professional roles across teaching, supervision, research, leadership, and service, exerting a profound influence on the formation of counselors and the ongoing development of the profession (CACREP, 2024; Calley & Hawley, 2008). While wellness is recognized as a core professional value in counseling (ACA, 2014), research has focused almost exclusively on emotional and psychological dimensions, leaving the physiological consequences of chronic stress largely underexplored (Bovee, 2024; Faheem et al., 2025; Lewis et al., 2022). In neighboring fields, such as public health and medicine, chronic stress has been linked to dysregulation in cardiovascular, neuroendocrine, immune-inflammatory, and metabolic systems (Evans et al., 2025; McEwen, 1998). Understanding how counselor educators experience and perceive physiological stress is critical to fully appreciating how wellness is both embodied and modeled within the profession.

 

This study sought to explore how counselor educators experience and perceive the impact of chronic stress on their physiological wellness using a qualitative multiple case study design informed by Merriam’s (1998) approach. Five full-time counselor educators at CACREP-accredited institutions across multiple regions of the United States participated in semi-structured interviews. Additional data sources included an analysis of CACREP Standards and a demographic questionnaire. Analysis was guided by allostatic load theory (McEwen, 1998) and the Indivisible Self wellness model (Myers & Sweeney, 2005).

 

Results from this study identified five themes: (a) structural production of chronic stress through institutional and accreditation demands; (b) amplification of stress through role overload and internalized expectations; (c) relational dynamics and professional vulnerability; (d) physiological embodiment of stress over time; and (e) adaptive wellness practices within ongoing conditions of stress. Participants described chronic stress as cumulative, systemic, and deeply embodied, with physiological disruption often serving as the primary indicator that stress had become unsustainable.

 

Findings suggest that chronic stress in counselor education is not solely an individual experience but reflects a structurally embedded condition sustained by institutional demands, accreditation requirements, and a professional culture that espouses wellness without consistently supporting it. These findings have implications for CACREP, institutional policy and practice, and the broader counseling profession, and offer direction for future research to extend understanding of counselor educator wellness. 

Judith Wambui Preston, Ph.D., Counseling and Human Services (Committee Co-Chair)

Brittany G. Suggs, Ph.D., Counseling and Human Services (Committee Co-Chair)

Shuntay Z. Tarver, Ph.D., Counseling and Human Services (Methodologist)

LaConda G. Ambrose Fanning, Psy.D., EVMS Department of Medicine (Member)