National Certified Counselor NCE-ABE Release Date

The term “outsider witness groups” comes specifically from narrative therapy. In this approach, clients tell and re-author their stories, and selected others (outsider witnesses) listen to these stories and then respond by sharing what moved or resonated with them. This process:

Brings in social resources and supportive witnesses.

Strengthens the client’s preferred identity and alternative story.

Helps the client feel seen and supported in a broader community context.

Thus, option D. Narrative therapy is correct.

Adlerian therapy (A) uses family constellation, early recollections, and encouragement, but not outsider witness groups as a standard technique.

Gestalt therapy (B) emphasizes experiential awareness, here-and-now work, and empty-chair techniques.

Community psychology (C) incorporates social systems and resources but does not specifically use “outsider witness groups” as conceptualized in narrative therapy.

NBCC Counselor Work Behaviors expect counselors to know the distinctive concepts and methods of major counseling theories, including narrative therapy’s use of outsider witnesses to support client change.

Kohlberg’s theory states that young children (preschool age) typically operate at the preconventional level of moral development. At this level, moral judgments are based mainly on the consequences of actions, especially punishment and reward. Children see behaviors as “good” or “bad” depending on what happens afterward, not based on internalized values or concern for relationships.

Option B reflects this: decisions based on the outcomes of specific acts (e.g., “If I do this, will I get in trouble or get a reward?”).

Options A, C, and D reflect more advanced moral reasoning: peer influence, concern for relationships, and ethical principles—all of which appear later in Kohlberg’s stages. Understanding developmental theories like Kohlberg’s helps counselors conceptualize client behavior across the lifespan, which fits within Areas of Clinical Focus in the NBCC Counselor Work Behavior framework.

Family counseling is grounded in systems theory, which views the family as an interconnected unit where each member’s behavior affects the entire system. When a counselor helps one member become more assertive, they operate from the assumption that a change in one part of the system will influence changes in other parts of the system.

Therefore, option B is correct: changing one family member’s behavior will change the behavior of other family members. It does not mean everyone will necessarily become more assertive (so A is too specific and inaccurate), nor does it assume assertiveness is purely individual and unreachable through family work (C). It also does not require that all family members agree to the change before it can occur (D).

NBCC-aligned work behaviors expect counselors to understand systemic dynamics and recognize that interventions aimed at a single family member can ripple through the entire family system.

In clinical work, counselors must understand how definitions of “normal” and “abnormal” can vary across cultures and theoretical perspectives.

Cultural relativism holds that:

There is no single universal standard of normality.

Behavior is understood in the context of the values, norms, and expectations of a particular culture or context.

What is considered healthy or deviant depends on culturally shaped value systems.

Thus, “normal” under cultural relativism is best captured by:

D. Adherence to contextual values – that is, behavior is normal when it fits the values and norms of the specific cultural context in which the person lives.

Why the others are not correct under cultural relativism:

A. Conformity to social expectations – close, but too general; it doesn’t explicitly reference the cultural-contextual framework that relativism emphasizes.

B. Ideal state of self-actualization – reflects more of a humanistic view, not cultural relativism.

C. Incongruence between behaviors and ideals – describes distress or conflict, not a definition of normality.

Counselors are expected to incorporate this understanding when assessing behavior and distress across diverse populations, avoiding imposing one culture’s standards on another.