Scholarship and Service

As a professional counselor and researcher, I endeavor to advocate for the field and my community through service and scholarly work. I am serving as past-president for Chi Sigma Iota International, having previously served as Secretary (2013-2016). I am a co-advisor for our local chapter, Upsilon Chi Chi, at The University of Cincinnati. I hope to continue to serve a variety of national, regional, and state-level professional organizations throughout my career. Currently, I am the assistant editor for the Counselor Education & Supervision journal and serve as an editorial board member for four professional journals including the Journal of Counseling and Development. I was recently elected as the incoming AARC Member-at-Large for Publications.

Some of my previous service includes: acting as a member of the ACA publications committee; chair of the Chi Sigma Iota awards committee; editor of the Association for Assessment and Research in Counseling NewsNotes quarterly newsletter and I served as the AARC MAL-Awards elected EC member from 2012-2015. I was a co-editor of the Southern Association for Counselor Education and Supervision newsletter. I have also previously served as an associate editor for the Counseling and Values Journal in addition to my services on many editorial boards for professional counseling journals.

My activities within the various professional counseling organizations are geared toward promoting the counseling philosophy, as I think our field serves an important and necessary role within our respective communities and, indeed, within the mental health fields.

In this section, you will find links to some of my recent publications and presentations. As of 2018, I have co-authored 29 peer-reviewed articles and presented 58 national or international presentations. My research interests include adolescent non-suicidal self-injury and family crisis, professional identity development, integrated/collaborative care, and applications of feminist and Adlerian theory in clinical and educational settings. I am adept at implementing mixed-methods research processes, as well as primarily qualitative (grounded theory/phenomenology) or quantitative designs (single-case/survey-based/quasi-experimental). I have served as a statistical consultant for businesses and individuals, with specialty knowledge concerning regression analysis, HLM, and factor analysis. My clinical expertise includes offering family, couples, and group counseling with a specialty in adolescent development and mental health issues (specifically, non-suicidal self-injury).

Selected Publications

La Guardia, A., Nelson, J. & Letora, I. M. (2014). (2014). The impact of father absence on daughter sexual development and behaviors: Implications for professional counselors. The Family Journal, 22(3), 339-346. doi: 10.1177/1066480714529887 [PDF]

La Guardia, A., & Banner, A. (2012). The goal of reunification: An Adlerian approach to working for therapeutic change within the foster care system. The Family Journal, 20(4), 361-368. doi: 10.1177/0123456789123456 [PDF]

Healey, A., & Hays, D. (2012). A discriminant analysis of gender and counselor professional identity development. Journal of Counseling and Development, 90(1), 55-62. doi: 10.1111/j.1556-6676.2012.00008.x [PDF]

Craigen, L., Healey, A., Walley, C., Byrd, R., & Schuster, J. (2010). Assessment and self-injury: Implications for mental health professionals. Measurement and Evaluation in Counseling and Development, 43(1). doi: 10.1177/0748175610362237 [PDF]

Healey, A., Trepal, H., & Emelianchik-Key, K. (2010). Non-suicidal self-injury: Examining the relationship between diagnosis and gender. Invited Article for the Journal of Mental Health Counseling, 32(4), 324-341. [PDF]

Bluestein, D., Healey, A., & Rutledge, C. (2010). Psychosocial correlates of insomnia severity in primary care. Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine. [PDF]

Hays, D.G., Craigen, L., Harris, J., Healey, A., & Sikes, A. (2009). Duty to warn and protect against self-destructive behaviors and interpersonal violence. Journal of School Counseling, 7(11). [PDF]

Selected Grant

Healey, A. (2009). Female perspectives of professional identity and success in the counseling field. CSI Excellence in Counseling Research Grant. ($500)
[PDF] [Details]

Selected Presentation

La Guardia, A. (February, 2015). Brief counseling interventions: Systemic work with parents and children. Three-hour invited workshop presented for Permian Basin Counseling Association, Midland, TX. [PDF]

Ongoing Research

Non-Suicidal Self-Injury (NSSI): Evaluation of a college data set for two potential articles:

  • Cramer, R., La Guardia, A. C., & Wright-Berryman, J. (in progress). Assessment of the implementation of a suicide prevention training program. Funded by the Ohio Suicide Prevention Foundation.
  • La Guardia, A. C., & Brubaker, M. (in progress). Evaluation of an interprofessional counselor training program effectiveness for work with at-risk youth. Funded by HRSA BHWET grant.
  • Emelianchik-Key, K., & La Guardia, A. C. (in progress). Clinical handbook for treatment of non-suicidal self-injury across the lifespan. Routledge. 

Counselor-Training Professional Identity Development: Evaluation of a practicum data set collected in an on-campus clinic over two semesters

  • Sullivan, J., La Guardia, A. C., & Nelson, J. (in progress). Counselors-in-training: Single-case analysis of professional identity development and self-efficacy in a university clinic. Intended for Counselor Education and Supervision.
  • La Guardia, A. C. (in progress). The Professional Orientation and Development Scale (PODS; previously the PIVS): Initial development and validation study. Intended for the journal of Measurement and Evaluation in Counseling and Development. [the results of several data collections with different populations]
  • Brubaker, M., & La Guardia, A. C. (in progress). Evaluation of SAFE-C training program on counselor development and self-efficacy. Funded by HRSA BHWET grant.

Completion of a book and video series on technical integration and theoretical consistency in practice.

  • La Guardia, A. C., & Watts, R. E., Bitter, J. R. (completed). Counseling techniques: A guide for the integrationist. [Book & Video Series].

Selected Awards

  • AARC Exemplary Practices Award
  • ACA Best Practices Research Award
  • Texas Association for Counselor Education & Supervision Outstanding Counselor Educator
  • Southern Association for Counselor Education & Supervision President’s Special Merit Award
  • Association for Counselor Education & Supervision Outstanding Dissertation Award
  • Counselors for Social Justice 'Ohana Award, [More Information]
  • Chi Sigma Iota Outstanding Doctoral Level Student Award [Details]
  • Chi Sigma Iota Fellowship, Chi Sigma Iota International [$600]
  • ACA Glen E. Hubele National Graduate Student Award [$450] [Details]
  • ACES Outstanding Graduate Student Leadership Award
  • AMCD Daya & Mrs. Usha K. Sandhu Student Research Award [$300]