A Counselor's Guide to the Dissertation Process: Where to Start & How to Finish

Brandé Flamez, PhD, LPC, NCC, is a licensed professional counselor and clinical professor in the Department of Counseling and Special Populations at Lamar University. Dr. Flamez is also the CEO and founder of the nonprofit SALTworld (Serving and Learning Together), which provides donations and volunteer services to developing countries. Her clinical background includes working with children, adolescents, and families in community-based and private counseling settings. In addition, she helped design an outpatient program for court-referred adolescents. Dr. Flamez is active in the counseling profession. She has served on the American Counseling Association (ACA) Governing Council for the International Association of Marriage and Family Counselors (IAMFC), ACA Finance Committee, and ACA Investment Committee, and she has chaired the ACA Publications Committee. She is also the past president of the Association for Humanistic Counselors (AHC) and currently serves as the president of IAMFC, cochairs the AHC Bylaws/Ethics Committee, and is the secretary for AHC.  

Dr. Flamez is on the editorial board for The Family Journal. She has presented nationally and internationally and coauthored several book chapters and articles. Dr. Flamez is the coauthor of the assessment textbook Counseling Assessment and Evaluation: Fundamentals of Applied Practice and the coeditor for Diagnosing Children and Adolescents: A Guide for Mental Health Practitioners and the forthcoming book Practical Approaches to Clinical Supervision Across Settings. She is the recipient of numerous national awards, including ACA’s 2012 Gilbert and Kathleen Wrenn Award for a Caring and Humanitarian Person, IAMFC’s 2012 Distinguished Mentor Award, ACA’s 2014 Kitty Cole Human Rights Award, ACA’s 2015 Counselor Educator Advocacy Award, and ACA’s 2017 Dr. Judy Lewis Counselors for Social Justice Award. 

A. Stephen Lenz, PhD, LPC, is an associate professor and clinical mental health counseling program coordinator at Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi. His counseling background has been working with children, adolescents, and families in community-based, university, and private counseling settings. His research interests include community-based program evaluation, counseling outcome research, single-case research, instrument development, and holistic approaches to counseling, counselor education, and supervision.  

Dr. Lenz is the past president of the Association for Assessment and Research in Counseling (AARC). He is also an associate editor for research with the Journal of College Counseling, and he served as the editor for the special issue Single-Case Research Design for the Journal of Counseling & Development. He currently serves as an editorial board member for Counseling Outcome Research and Evaluation and is a past editorial board member for the Journal of Professional Counseling and Journal for Creativity in Mental Health. Dr. Lenz has authored several peer-review publications and has served on dissertation committees for a number of counseling and counselor education students. He is a recipient of the AARC’s 2013 Exemplary Practices Award and ACA’s 2014 Best Practice Award for his program evaluation activities within community-based counseling settings.  

Richard S. Balkin, PhD, LPC, is a professor and doctoral program coordinator in the Department of Counseling and Human Development at the University of Louisville and a fellow of the ACA. He is the editor for the Journal of Counseling & Development, ACA’s flagship journal, and past president for the AARC. His primary research interests include counseling outcomes, research methods, counseling adolescents, and cultural differences in counseling. He is a past recipient of the Association for Counselor Education and Supervision’s 2011 Counseling Vision and Innovation Award and ACA’s 2012 Best Practices Research Award. 

Dr. Balkin has published more than 70 peer-reviewed articles, books, and book chapters, with the majority being quantitative in nature. He is the author of The Theory and Practice of Assessment in Counseling, Counseling Research: A Practitioner-Scholar Approach, and Relationships in Counseling and the Counselor’s Life, and has authored book chapters and articles on research methods. 

Robert L. Smith, PhD, NCC, CFT, FPPR, is coordinator of the doctoral program in counselor education and supervision at Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi. He has chaired close to 100 doctoral dissertations at three universities. He is also the chair of the Department of Counseling and Educational Psychology at Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi. His scholarly record includes more than 100 refereed publications and eight textbooks. 

Dr. Smith is an international leader who served as the 63rd president of ACA and past president of IAMFC and the National Career Development Association. He currently serves as executive director of IAMFC. For several years, he taught courses and supervised research in Venezuela and has presented internationally in Nicaragua, England, Ireland, Canada, Malesia, and Singapore. His research emphasis includes theory and practice of addictions counseling, achievement motivation measurement and training, predicting achievement, and an increasing interest in STEM studies.