Citation:
Foster, T. (2010). The Wellness Cube Model: An Adlerian-Based Academic Intervention Model for Promoting Wellness.

Reviewer:
Thomas Foster, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Loyola University, New Orleans

Category:
CD by CSI author

Genre:
Professional

CACREP Core Area:
Professional orientation and ethical practice, Human growth and development

CACREP Specialty Area:
Counselor education and supervision

Subject Headings:
College, Wellness

Review:
Graduate school often presents many academic and personal challenges for students. Sometimes can result in student impairment and burnout. The Wellness Cube Model (WCM), an Adlerian-based academic intervention model, serves to infuse wellness into a master’s-level counseling program. Counseling faculty can use this model to integrate wellness into their course work and encourage students to make healthy life choices that can increase wellness and reduce stress levels and impairment.

The WCM is an interactive model found online; it possesses four dimensions: (a) counseling courses; (b) wellness factors, taken from the IS-Wel model; (c) pre-constructed content assignments and experiential exercises; and (d) Adlerian principles. The WCM can be thought of as a "reservoir" for pre-constructed content assignments and experiential exercises related to wellness; these assignments and exercises are categorized under specific counseling courses and wellness factors, as seen on the model.

Cross marks (X) on the face of the WCM indicate that a wellness assignment or exercise exists for a specific course and wellness factor. For example, on the WCM, the square intersecting the row labeled "Ethics" and the column labeled "Thinking" lies a cross mark, tells the user that an assignment or exercise related to the wellness factor Thinking exists specifically for the Ethics course. By clicking on this, the user will open a file containing relevant assignment and/or exercise options.

Counseling faculty and clinical supervisors may use the WCM to introduce wellness to their students and supervisees. Students who wish to pursue wellness independently may also complete the assignments and exercises. Faculty may apply the WCM to a specific counseling course or to an entire counseling program, depending on the overall interest of the department.

In addition, the WCM is an evolving model. Any faculty member or clinical supervisor who wishes to contribute an Adlerian-based wellness assignment or exercise to the WCM may do so; the author has placed instructions for how to do this within the WCM.

Please note that, as of 2018, the WCM is no longer being updated.

Originally posted on 7/24/2010 at csi-net.org.