Archetypal Identity Development, Meaning in Life, and Life Satisfaction: Differences Among Clinical Mental Health Counselors, School Counselors, and Counselor Educators

Adultspan Journal Adultspan Journal

Volume 14 Issue 1 Article 5

4-1-2015

Archetypal Identity Development, Meaning in Life, and Life Archetypal Identity Development, Meaning in Life, and Life

Satisfaction: Differences Among Clinical Mental Health Satisfaction: Differences Among Clinical Mental Health

Counselors, School Counselors, and Counselor Educators Counselors, School Counselors, and Counselor Educators

Suzanne Degges-White

Kevin Stoltz

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Recommended Citation Recommended Citation

Degges-White, Suzanne and Stoltz, Kevin (2015) "Archetypal Identity Development, Meaning in Life, and

Life Satisfaction: Differences Among Clinical Mental Health Counselors, School Counselors, and

Counselor Educators,"

Adultspan Journal

: Vol. 14: Iss. 1, Article 5.

Available at: https://mds.marshall.edu/adsp/vol14/iss1/5

This Research Article is brought to you for free and open access by Marshall Digital Scholar. It has been accepted

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Archetypal Identity Development, Meaning in Life, and Life Satisfaction: Archetypal Identity Development, Meaning in Life, and Life Satisfaction:

Differences Among Clinical Mental Health Counselors, School Counselors, and Differences Among Clinical Mental Health Counselors, School Counselors, and

Counselor Educators Counselor Educators

Keywords Keywords

professional counselor identity, archetypes, meaning in life, life satisfaction

This research article is available in Adultspan Journal: https://mds.marshall.edu/adsp/vol14/iss1/5

ADULTSPAN Journal April 2015 Vol. 14 No. 1 49

Received 10/21/14

Revised —

Accepted 10/22/14

DOI: 10.1002/j.2161-0029.2015.00036.x

Archetypal Identity Development,

Meaning in Life, and

Life Satisfaction:

Differences Among Clinical

Mental Health Counselors, School

Counselors, and Counselor Educators

Suzanne Degges-White and Kevin Stoltz

Adults pursuing careers in counselor education, clinical mental health counsel-

ing, and counselor education (N = 256) participated in a study that examined

relationships among archetypal identity development, meaning in life, and

life satisfaction. Signiﬁcant differences between groups existed for 5 archetypal

identities, and meaning in life was signiﬁcantly related to life satisfaction.

Keywords: professional counselor identity, archetypes, meaning in life,

life satisfaction

Counseling professionals are frequently drawn to the ﬁeld because they want

to “help people.” Motivated by altruism, counselors are in a unique position

in which they fulﬁll their own professional desires through the provision of

service to others. The professional identity development process counselors

experience is dynamic by nature, but in this study we explore whether there

are core identity differences among clinical mental health counselors, school

counselors, and counselor educators.

The identity development process of counselors has been referred to as

an individuation process (Auxier, Hughes, & Kline, 2003; Bruss & Kopala,

1993; Skovholt & Ronnestad, 1992) in which counselors must relinquish

their reliance on external experts and develop a sense of personal mastery and

capability regarding the profession. According to Borders and Usher (1992),

counselor identity development is continuous and lifelong, and it reﬂects a

Suzanne Degges-White, Department of Leadership and Counseling, University of Mississippi; Kevin

Stoltz, Department of Leadership Studies, University of Central Arkansas. Suzanne Degges-White is now

at Department of Counseling, Adult and Higher Education, Northern Illinois University. Correspondence

concerning this article should be addressed to Suzanne Degges-White, Department of Counseling, Adult

and Higher Education, Northern Illinois University, 300 Normal Road, 200 Gabel Building, DeKalb, IL

60115 (e-mail: sdeggeswhite@niu.edu).

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deeper shift in personal identity, awareness, and behavior than other careers.

Moss, Gibson, and Dollarhide (2014) noted that counselors’ professional

identity development actually reﬂects an integration of the personal self and

professional self that results in a unique, personalized professional identity.

Thus, the individual identity initially brought to the profession by a counselor

may potentially exert a signiﬁcant and continuing inﬂuence on professional

accomplishments and experiences. As the core conditions of counseling in-

clude an emphasis on the practitioner’s genuineness and congruence (Rogers,

1957), the initial personal identity of the counselor holds extreme signiﬁcance

in the shaping of the professional identity over the course of development

(Gibson, Dollarhide, & Moss, 2010). Thus, a closer examination of personal

identity may be valuable.

ARCHETYPE THEORY

Carl Jung (1875–1961) is credited with the development of archetype theory,

which provides a framework for understanding one’s own seemingly innate behav-

ioral patterns as well as one’s responses to others’ behavior (Jung, 1964, 1968). In

essence, archetypes are the internal prototypes, or models, that people hold of a

basic character, as in a story, that elicit speciﬁc emotional responses. For instance,

the Jester is an archetype that may play out the role of keeping others entertained

and, perhaps, distracted from unpleasant events at hand (Pearson & Marr, 2002).

In other milieus, such as an alcoholic household, the Jester may be the mascot,

cheerleader, or clown (Wegscheider, 1981). Archetypal patterns are assumed to

reﬂect the unconscious, and they resonate at deep emotional levels with others.

As Jung (1964) ﬁrst developed his initial archetype theory, he framed these

types as residing within the collective unconscious. The collective unconscious

refers to that knowledge held by an individual that has not been gained through

the personal experiences of that individual. Jung (1936/1959) proposed that

the collective unconscious is hereditary in nature and that it holds the patterns

of instinctual behavior that are virtually universal across cultures. It is these

primordial behavior patterns that are activated to give life to archetypal personi-

ﬁcation. As Jung (1967) noted, “An image can be considered archetypal when

it can be shown to exist in the records of human history, in identical form and

with the same meaning” (p. 273).

Faber and Mayer (2009) explored neo-archetypal theory, which purports

that individuals can identify and categorize people, characters, and experiences

within an archetypal framework. This theory aligns with that of researchers and

theorists (Campbell, 1949; Pearson & Marr, 2002) who presented a description

of archetypes as being “key elements in a common language” (Faber & Mayer,

2009, p. 307). Sharing an awareness of the various players in culture allows

one to enjoy the plays of Shakespeare as well as the latest thriller or celebrity

drama. Furthermore, one’s own personal archetypal identity of the moment may

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actually inﬂuence how one responds to a cultural archetype or to an individual

displaying what might be termed archetypal behavior.

Another area of exploration of archetypes and personalities was addressed by

McPeek (2008). McPeek explored the relationship between archetype identities

as measured by the Pearson-Marr Archetype Indicator (PMAI), personality types

as measured by the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), and self-reported

global stress levels. McPeek found predictable relationships between many of

the variables (e.g., high-scoring Jesters experienced signiﬁcantly less stress than

low-scoring Jesters) supporting the concepts and validity of the PMAI. The

current study extends, in some ways, these earlier studies as it explores career

choice and its relationship, if any, to archetypal identity.

THE WOUNDED HEALER

Although the Wounded Healer is not an archetype included among the 12 ar-

chetypes in the PMAI, it is often referenced in literature related to the helping

professions, including counseling (Hartwig Moorhead, Gill, Barrio Minton,

& Myers, 2012; Kern, 2014; Meekums, 2008; Moodley, 2010; Trusty, Ng, &

Watts, 2005). Woundedness refers to damage that may have been inﬂicted on an

individual in any number of ways, including emotionally, spiritually, physically,

intellectually, and sexually. Wounded Healers refer to helping professionals who

have wrestled with and, ideally, overcome past experiences in which they were

wounded themselves. It has been suggested that the experience of having been

wounded in the past may enhance an individual’s ability to offer empathy and

compassion for others (Bennet, 1979; Stone, 2008).

The literature on the Wounded Healer construct is mixed in terms of the

value and inﬂuence of woundedness for healers. Some studies have suggested

that having experienced and integrated personal emotional wounds from the

past has a positive effect on skill development and performance (e.g., Trusty et

al., 2005). These experiences are seen as contributing to counselor effective-

ness. Other studies (e.g., Hartwig Moorhead et al., 2012) have suggested that

woundedness, for some counselors-in-training, may need to be an area of focus

in terms of how it inﬂuences both professional development and effectiveness.

We designed the current study to assess whether the Wounded Healer construct

resonates personally for participants from each of three areas of professional focus:

clinical mental health counseling, school counseling, and counselor education.

MEANING IN LIFE AND LIFE SATISFACTION

Archetypal identity has been explored in relation to other global personality

traits in the past. McPeek (2008) sought to determine whether personality

type (as measured by the MBTI) predicted archetypal identity, as measured

by the PMAI. He included stress as a variable to determine if an individual’s

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archetypal identity could predict stress level, based on the described nature of an

archetype. In the current study, measures of meaning in life and life satisfaction

were explored to determine whether relationships existed between these global

assessments, archetypal identity, and career choice in the counseling profession.

A study by Bonebright, Clay, and Ankenmann (2000) exploring life satisfac-

tion among workaholics and nonworkaholics found that workaholics who were

enthusiastic about their careers had higher life satisfaction than nonworkaholics.

This ﬁnding suggests that doing something one enjoys and about which one

feels passionate, regardless of how taxing one might perceive it to be, can lead

to signiﬁcant satisfaction overall. In terms of passion and commitment to pro-

fessional pursuits, many counseling professionals enter the ﬁeld to fulﬁll what

they believe to be a vocational calling (Hall, Burkholder, & Sterner, 2013). A

calling to a profession implies that a person’s desire to follow a particular career

is inﬂuenced by some force that is perceived as transcendent. This adds a sense

of greater meaning and purpose to the pursuit of a career.

Stoltz, Barclay, Reysen, and Degges-White (2013) discussed occupational

images as a variable in counselor career adjustment. They posited that coun-

selors come to the profession with a speciﬁc vision or image that may conﬂict

with actual work requirements or environments. This can be conceptualized as

the images of the archetype acting in the work environment. Understanding

archetypal images that align with the work responsibilities and tasks should

increase meaning and adjustment to the professional work environment.

Many individuals look to their careers to provide a sense of meaning in their

lives, and Steger and Dik (2009) found that individuals who were seeking meaning

in life exhibited higher levels of global satisfaction if they found meaning in their

careers. In addition, individuals who viewed their careers as a vocational calling,

not just a job, experienced higher levels of meaning in life and life satisfaction

(Steger & Dik, 2009). Duffy and Sedlacek (2010) found that the presence of a

calling in life was correlated with both life satisfaction and meaning in life and that

the search for meaning and the desire for a calling were negatively correlated with

life satisfaction and meaning in life. In this study, we explored the relationships

among meaning in life, life satisfaction, and archetype self-identities.

THE CURRENT STUDY

This study explored archetypal self-identity, meaning in life, and life satisfaction

for individuals within the counseling ﬁeld. Speciﬁcally, we developed the study

to determine if there are differences in these variables between those pursuing

careers in clinical mental health counseling, school counseling, and counselor

education. The following four hypotheses were examined:

Hypothesis 1: The level of identiﬁcation with the 12 archetypes will signiﬁcantly

differ between the three professional groups.

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Hypothesis 2: There is a relationship between meaning in life and life satisfac-

tion for counseling professionals.

Hypothesis 3: There will be a signiﬁcant difference in identiﬁcation with the

Wounded Healer identity between the groups.

Hypothesis 4: There will be a signiﬁcant relationship between life satisfaction

and archetype identity within groups.

METHOD

Participants and Procedure

Prior to the collection of data, we received approval for the research from the in-

stitutional review board. A diverse group of adult men and women was recruited

via electronic mailing list announcements that targeted professional counselors,

counselors-in-training, and counselor educators. The survey was completed

electronically using Qualtrics survey software. Of the 313 completed surveys,

256 (82%) respondents qualiﬁed as belonging to one of the three categories

under study: clinical mental health counselors (n = 168), school counselors (n

= 35), or counselor educators (n = 53).

The participants were a heterogeneous group in terms of age, ethnicity,

marital status, sexual orientation, religion, and geographical location. Of the

sample, 78.6% were women and 21.4% were men. Approximately a third

(34.5%) of the respondents were in their 20s, 26.1% in their 30s, 17.7% in

their 40s, 12% in their 50s, and 9.6% were 60 or over. The majority (80.3%)

of the respondents were European American, 7.5% were African American,

4.3% were Hispanic, 3.9% were Asian or Paciﬁc Islander, 2.0% were Native

American, and the remaining 2.7% marked “other” as their race. (Percentages

may not total 100 because of rounding.)

Measures

Participants completed three assessments online via Qualtrics. These included

the Meaning in Life Questionnaire (MLQ; Steger, Frazier, Oishi, & Kaler,

2006), the Satisfaction With Life Survey (SWLS; Diener, Emmons, Larsen, &

Grifﬁn, 1985), and the Archetype Self-Identity Questionnaire (ASIQ) based on

the 12 archetype descriptions developed by Faber and Mayer (2009). They also

completed a brief demographic questionnaire that included a single question

that assessed participant identity with the Wounded Healer construct.

MLQ. The MLQ (Steger et al., 2006) was designed to measure two aspects

of meaning in an individual’s life: search for meaning in life and the presence

of meaning in life. The MLQ is composed of 10 items (e.g., “I understand my

life’s meaning,” “I am always looking to ﬁnd my life’s purpose”), which are rated

on a 7-point scale ranging from 1 = absolutely untrue to 7 = absolutely true. Five

of the 10 items make up the Search for Meaning subscale (MLQ-Search) and

the remaining ﬁve the Presence of Meaning (MLQ-Presence) subscale. Internal

consistency of the instrument has been supported by alpha coefﬁcients from

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.84 to .92 (Steger et al., 2006). The 1-month test–retest stability coefﬁcient

for the MLQ for a sample of undergraduate students was .73. In a review of

the MLQ and similar instruments, Fjelland, Barron, and Foxall (2008) noted

that this measure had both convergent and discriminant validity support. The

two-factor structure of the assessment has also been supported by recent re-

search (Temane, Khumalo, & Wissing, 2014). The Cronbach’s alpha was .70

for the current sample.

SWLS. The SWLS (Diener et al., 1985) was designed to measure individuals’

overall or global satisfaction with their lives. The SWLS is composed of ﬁve items

(e.g., “In most ways my life is close to my ideal”), which are rated on a 7-point

scale from 1 = strongly disagree to 7 = strongly agree. The assessment provides a single

measure of global life satisfaction. Internal consistency of the ﬁve-item instrument

has been supported by reported alpha coefﬁcients that consistently exceed .80

(Pavot & Diener, 1993). The test–retest reliability for a group of 76 students was

.82 for a 2-month interval (Pavot & Diener, 1993). Pavot and Diener (1993)

also explored the convergent and discriminant validity of the SWLS and found

support for each. Speciﬁcally, the SWLS was positively correlated with assessments

of well-being and negatively correlated with assessments of psychological distress.

The Cronbach’s alpha calculated for the SWLS was .88 in the current study.

ASIQ. Using the 12 distinct archetypes explored and described by Pearson

and Marr (2002) and Faber and Mayer (2009), we presented to participants a

brief narrative description of each archetype. The archetypes were Caregiver,

Creator, Everyman/Everywoman, Explorer, Hero, Innocent, Jester, Lover,

Magician, Outlaw, Ruler, and Sage. The descriptions presented to participants

did not include these labels. Participants were asked to indicate their level of

identiﬁcation with the archetypes’ descriptions on a 5-point scale ranging from

1 = not at all like me to 5 = very much like me. Each item is a discrete measure

of an individual’s self-perceived similarity to a speciﬁc, individual type. Owing

to the nature of this instrument, each item is a unique measure in itself.

Data Analyses

Data were analyzed using SPSS 21.1, and an alpha of .05 was set for determining

statistical signiﬁcance. Descriptive statistics were calculated for all demographic variables

and for scales of the instruments. Pearson product–moment correlation coefﬁcients

and analyses of variance (ANOVAs) were used to examine the research questions.

RESULTS

In Table 1, the means; standard deviations; minimum and maximum values

for chronological age and subjective age; and scores on the MLQ, SWLS, and

ASIQ are presented. Participants were divided into three groups on the basis

of their professional path: clinical mental health counselors, school counselors,

and counselor educators.

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Archetype Identity and Professional Focus

We conducted a one-way ANOVA to test the ﬁrst hypothesis that the level

of identiﬁcation with a speciﬁc archetype varied on the basis of professional

focus. The mean archetype identity scores are presented in Table 1. Signiﬁcant

relationships at the p < .05 level were found for ﬁve of the 12 archetypes. Prior

to further calculations, we ran Levene’s test of homogeneity of variances to de-

termine if any signiﬁcant differences in variance between groups existed. Two

archetype scales, the Magician and the Sage, were revealed to have signiﬁcant

differences in variances between groups; therefore, Dunnet’s C rather than

Tukey’s honestly signiﬁcant difference (HSD) was calculated to explore the

group differences. For the Magician archetype, the Dunnet’s C indicated that

counselor educators had signiﬁcantly higher scores than either clinical mental

health counselors or school counselors. For the Sage archetype, the Dunnet’s

C indicated that counselor educators had signiﬁcantly higher scores than

school counselors, but there was no signiﬁcant difference between counselor

educators and clinical mental health counselors. Although the mean score for

clinical mental health counselors fell between counselor educators and school

TABLE 1

Means and Standard Deviation Scores for

Assessments and Participant Groups

Scale and

Subscale

MLQ

MLQ-P

MLQ-S

SWLS

ASIQ

Caregiver

Creator

E/E

Explorer

Hero

Innocent

Jester

Lover

Magician

Outlaw

Ruler

Sage

16.00

10.00

5.00

Total

(N = 256)

Note. CMH = clinical mental health; Couns. Ed. = counselor education; Min. = minimum; Max. =

maximum; MLQ = Meaning in Life Questionnaire; MLQ-P = MLQ Presence of Meaning subscale;

MLQ-S=MLQSearchforMeaningsubscale;SWLS=SatisfactionWithLifeSurvey;ASIQ=

ArchetypeSelf-IdentityQuestionnaire;E/E=Everyman/Everywoman;WH=WoundedHealer.

M SD M SD M SD

Min. Max.

70.00

35.00

CMH

(n = 168)

School

(n = 35)

Couns. Ed.

(n = 53)

Professional Focus

53.08

28.63

24.45

25.11

4.58

3.65

3.12

3.75

3.09

3.15

2.69

3.39

3.55

2.75

2.91

3.84

3.09

8.11

4.81

7.13

6.12

0.68

1.14

1.22

1.10

1.22

1.16

1.22

1.25

1.40

1.22

0.99

0.91

53.40

28.92

24.49

25.10

4.60

3.73

3.11

3.81

3.15

3.25

2.66

3.40

3.47

2.74

2.86

3.87

3.21

8.30

4.71

7.44

6.16

0.69

1.12

1.18

1.09

1.27

1.23

1.18

1.24

1.31

1.37

1.20

0.98

0.89

51.89

27.40

24.49

24.14

4.60

3.11

3.26

3.60

3.00

3.26

3.18

3.50

3.29

2.40

3.17

3.37

2.94

6.83

4.54

7.01

6.20

0.74

1.18

1.29

1.14

1.20

1.17

1.16

1.29

1.46

1.29

1.14

0.94

52.83

28.53

24.30

25.75

4.53

3.75

3.06

3.62

2.96

2.77

2.49

3.28

3.96

3.02

2.89

4.06

2.79

8.31

5.23

6.30

5.98

0.58

1.13

1.30

1.10

1.11

1.15

1.01

1.21

0.94

1.42

1.25

0.82

0.91

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counselors, there were no signiﬁcant differences between clinical mental health

counselors and either of the other two groups.

Tukey’s HSD post hoc calculations were run for the remaining three arche-

types. For the Creator archetype, F(2, 252) = 4.61, p = .011; post hoc compari-

sons using Tukey’s HSD test indicated that the mean scores for clinical mental

health counselors and for counselor educators were each signiﬁcantly higher

than for school counselors, but scores for clinical mental health counselors and

counselor educators were not signiﬁcantly different. For the Innocent archetype,

F(2, 253) = 3.27, p = .040; Tukey’s HSD test indicated that there was a signiﬁ-

cant difference only between clinical mental health counselors and counselor

educators, with counselor educators having the lower score. For the Jester ar-

chetype, F(2, 252) = 3.91, p = .21; Tukey’s HSD test indicated that there was

a signiﬁcant difference in mean scores between school counselors and clinical

mental health counselors as well as school counselors and counselor educators.

School counselors had the highest mean score among the three groups. These

results partially support the ﬁrst hypothesis that signiﬁcant differences would

exist based on professional focus.

Meaning in Life and Life Satisfaction

A Pearson product–moment correlation calculated to test the second hypoth-

esis indicated that signiﬁcant relationships existed between the MLQ subscale

scores and life satisfaction. Results revealed a signiﬁcant positive relationship

between the MLQ-Presence subscale and life satisfaction (r = .51, R

= .26).

These results indicate that the sense of presence of meaning in life accounts for

approximately a quarter of the variance in life satisfaction with this sample. A

signiﬁcant, negative relationship was found between the MLQ-Search subscale

and life satisfaction (r = –.16, R

= .03), indicating that the stronger the search

for meaning, the lower the life satisfaction score. Thus, the second hypothesis

was supported by these ﬁndings. Post hoc analysis revealed that there were no

signiﬁcant differences in either the MLQ or life satisfaction between respondents

based on career focus.

Wounded Healer Identity and Professional Focus

We conducted an ANOVA to determine if there was a difference in the

level of agreement with the statement, “I consider myself to be a ‘Wounded

Healer’ in that I have faced signiﬁcant personal challenges in my own life.”

The mean scores for agreement with this statement are presented in Table 1

(see row labeled Wounded Healer). Participants responded to this statement

using a 4-point scale ranging from 1 = strongly disagree to 4 = strongly agree.

There was a signiﬁcant relationship at the p < .05 level, F(2, 253) = 4.83, p

= .009; Tukey’s HSD test indicated that a signiﬁcant difference existed be-

tween clinical mental health counselors and counselor educators. The third

hypothesis was partially supported.

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Archetype Identity and Life Satisfaction

We calculated three sets of Pearson product–moment correlations to test the

fourth hypothesis. In the ﬁrst analysis, we explored the clinical mental health

counselors. For this group, life satisfaction was signiﬁcantly positively correlated

with scores for the Innocent archetype (r = .20, p < .05) and signiﬁcantly negatively

correlated with scores for the Outlaw archetype (r = –.25, p < .01). For school

counselors, life satisfaction was signiﬁcantly positively correlated with scores for

the Hero archetype (r = .53, p < .01). For counselor educators, life satisfaction

was signiﬁcantly positively correlated with scores for the Caregiver archetype (r

= .29, p < .05) and signiﬁcantly negatively correlated with scores for the Outlaw

archetype (r = –.39, p < .01). Thus, the fourth hypothesis was supported.

DISCUSSION

This study of 256 adults within the counseling profession was conducted to

explore the relationships between archetype identity, meaning in life, and life

satisfaction. Four hypotheses were put forth, and all four hypotheses were at

least partially supported by the ﬁndings. Archetype identity differed signiﬁcantly

based on respondents’ professional foci for ﬁve of the 12 archetypes: Creator,

Innocent, Jester, Magician, and Sage. Having a higher presence of meaning

score was positively related to levels of life satisfaction. Furthermore, a higher

value for the search for meaning score was negatively related to life satisfaction.

Clinical mental health counselors had the highest level of identiﬁcation with

the Wounded Healer descriptor. Finally, life satisfaction was signiﬁcantly related

to some of the archetypes for each of the professional foci.

Although the presence of a professional calling was not explored in this

study, it is interesting to note that the Caregiver archetype was endorsed as the

most like participants across all three groups. The Caregiver archetype sug-

gests the presence of altruism and compassion, traits that are often associated

with the perception of a vocational calling (Duffy & Sedlacek, 2010). The

ANOVA data, however, suggest that counselor educators differ from school

counselors by scoring lower on the Jester archetype and higher on the Creator

and Magician archetype. Counselor educators differ from clinical mental health

counselors by scoring higher on the Sage and Magician archetype and lower

on the Innocent archetype. Thus, the results indicate that counselor educators

may possess images of being artistic and creative (Creator) while searching for

enlightenment (Sage) and an understanding of how things work (Magician).

This description shows a high consistency with the Artistic and Investigative

codes from the Holland (1997) coding scheme, intimating that counselor

educators may drive their practice of counseling and counselor education with

both research and artistic traits.

School counselors showed signiﬁcantly higher scores on the Jester archetype

and lower scores on the Creator archetype. The Jester lives for fun and amuse-

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ment and is often mischievous and a prankster. In a school setting, focusing on

fun and keeping students positive seem like a good match for this aspect of the

archetype. However, the mischievous prankster may serve as a school counselor’s

outlet for the structure and rules of the school environment.

Clinical mental health counselors, like counselor educators, scored higher

on the Creator and Sage archetype, but unlike counselor educators, they scored

higher on the Innocent archetype. These results indicate that clinical mental

health counselors may rely more heavily on valuing enlightenment (Sage) and

faith (Innocent) in their counseling, without including the Magician aspects

of research and understanding.

In terms of life satisfaction and meaning in life, it would be expected that

those who ﬁnd meaning would also ﬁnd satisfaction in their lives. The contrary,

that those who are still searching for meaning would be less likely to experience

satisfaction, was also shown to be true for this sample. In post hoc analysis, one

archetype, the Outlaw, was found to have a signiﬁcant negative correlation with

both life satisfaction and the MLQ-Presence subscale but had a signiﬁcant posi-

tive relationship with the MLQ-Search subscale. It would appear that counseling

professionals are uncomfortable seeing themselves as rule breakers or misﬁts. Also

interesting were the signiﬁcant differences between groups regarding identiﬁca-

tion with the Wounded Healer descriptor. It appears that counselor educators

and school counselors are less likely to have experienced, or acknowledge having

experienced, past signiﬁcant personal challenges. This suggests that clinical mental

health counselors may have different needs that are being fulﬁlled by a career in

the counseling profession than counselor educators and school counselors.

The correlations between archetypes and life satisfaction show some signiﬁ-

cant relationships of interest. For clinical mental health counselors, there was a

signiﬁcant positive correlation with the Innocent archetype and life satisfaction,

indicating that clinical mental health counselors may rely more on faith and a

search for simplicity to strive for happiness. They may also use this approach in

applying counseling theory and techniques with clients. For school counselors,

life satisfaction was positively correlated with the Hero archetype. The Hero is

courageous and a crusader. Therefore, school counselor may possess higher life

satisfaction in their role as a protector and encourager of the nation’s youth. The

counselor educator group showed a positive correlation between life satisfaction

and the Caregiver archetype. More satisfaction may be realized by counselor

educations when they have the opportunity to express caring, compassion, and

benevolence as they mentor and guide future practitioners.

In summary, the results of this study provide insights into the unconscious

motivations and attitudes toward helping in the counseling profession. The

career choice and development literature (Holland, 1997; Parsons, 1909; Super,

1990) accentuates the need for individuals to gain self-understanding for ap-

propriate career matching and development. These results provide another way

of helping counselor educators and counselors develop greater personal acumen.

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Implications

These ﬁndings hold speciﬁc implications for the counseling profession and

counselor education. Counselor educators who are supervising counselors may

ﬁnd utility in using the archetype indicators as a descriptive tool to help students

gain personal insights. Understanding and pointing out the differences that may

exist in archetypes across the professions may help students make appropriate

career choices and assist student interns with transference and attraction issues

in counseling sessions. Speciﬁcally, helping clinical mental health counselors-in-

training to understand aspects of their personal wounds may assist these students

to avoid inappropriate personal disclosure and other countertransference issues.

Counselor educators may beneﬁt by reﬂecting on balancing practice with teaching

and supervision to maintain life satisfaction. Finally, as the Magician, counselor

educators may assist both school and clinical mental health counselors in under-

standing the importance of research in the practice of professional counseling.

Limitations and Future Research

A number of potential limitations may affect the internal and external validity

of our ﬁndings. Selection bias is a factor because participants self-selected to

complete the study, and these participants may be different in unknown ways

from other individuals who chose not to complete the study. Although the

participant group was geographically diverse, it was not demographically rep-

resentative of the overall population, nor was it known if the participants were

representative of all individuals in the counseling ﬁeld. Additional limitations

may also exist in terms of unequal group sizes. Lastly, self-report measures create

concerns because they may be inﬂuenced by social desirability, responses bias,

and lack of triangulation with other forms of data collection.

As we look to potential areas for future research, the present ﬁndings suggest that

there are inherent differences between those individuals seeking careers as clinical

mental health counselors, school counselors, and counselor educators. Further research

to better understand the unique educational needs of each group is indicated because

of the unique characteristics of each population. Additional research on the role of

archetypes in career choice and the presence of a calling also warrant further exploration.

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