Early career mental health professionals are likely to encounter individuals who have survived sex trafficking in private practices and community agencies (Ide & Mather, 2019). Yet limited information and guidance is available for preparing them to work with survivors of sex trafficking (Koegler et al., 2020). Multiple factors influence the preparedness of practitioners to work effectively with client-specific populations. Convenience sampling was used to answer the research question: To what extent does stage of practice, professional exposure to sex trafficking, personal exposure to sex trafficking, counselor self-efficacy, client-specific counselor self-efficacy, and positive attitudes toward survivors of sex trafficking predict preparedness of early career mental health professionals to provide services to individuals who have survived sex trafficking? Participants consisted of 112 mental health professionals who were in-training, pre-licensed, and licensed for five years or less from diverse specialty areas across the country. Findings focus on: 1) the predictor variables that seem to influence preparedness, 2) fostering the development of client-specific counselor self-efficacy and positive attitudes toward survivors of sex trafficking, and 3) how lack of information may impact preparedness of early career mental health professionals to work with this population. Results indicate that our prediction model was significantly associated with preparedness; however, client-specific counselor self-efficacy and positive attitudes toward survivors of sex trafficking were the only two significant unique predictors of variance in preparedness. This presentation concludes with implications and recommendations from the study, limitations of the study, and direction for future research.
Cheri Mays has provided pro bono counseling to survivors of sex trafficking. She is a licensed professional counselor and counselor educator with a background in treating child and adult trauma for over 20 years.