MICHAEL SCHEEL, PhD
Associate Professor
Department of Educational Psychology
114 Teachers College Hall
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Lincoln, Nebraska 68588-0345
(402) 472-0573

Biography

Michael Scheel's background includes a teaching degree in Math Education, a Masters degree in School Counseling, and a Doctorate in Counseling Psychology. He spent the first 15 years after college as a teacher and a school counselor. He received his PhD in 1993 and spent the first 7 years of his academic career at the University of Utah . He was then hired by UNL to direct the Counseling Psychology program that includes Masters and PhD degrees.

Dr. Scheel has developed a specialty in couple and family counseling. He is very interested in the process of change through relationship oriented counseling. He views the link between practice and research to be essential. He directs the Center for Couple and Family Counseling in the Counseling Clinic located in Teachers College Hall. Through the Center, they provide services to families, training to graduate students in systemically oriented therapeutic methods, and research about family counseling processes. Dr. Scheel's research interests include the study of client responses to therapy. He has particularly focused on factors that promote client treatment acceptability, and the action stage of counseling in which clients are asked to perform out-of-session tasks (homework). Starting in 2004, he embarked on a new line of research, broadly termed counseling psychology in schools. He is currently developing a counseling intervention model for high school students who lack academic motivation.

Recent Publications

Journal Articles

Scheel, M. J., & Gonzalez, J. (in press). An investigation of a model of academic motivation for school counseling. Professional School Counseling.

Scheel, M. J., Hanson, W. E., & Razzhavaikina, T. I. (2004). The process of recommending homework in psychotherapy: A review of therapist delivery methods, client acceptability, and factors that affect compliance. Psychotherapy: Theory/Research/Practice/Training, 41, 38-55.

Scheel, M. J., Forsythe, N., Kristjansson, S., Pranata, H., Packard, T., & Packard, K. (2000). Marital enrichment: Linking research to practice. The Family Psychologist, 16, 6-10.

Ivey, D. C., & Scheel, M. J. (1999). A contextual perspective of clinical judgment in couples and family therapy: Is the bridge too far? Journal of Family Therapy, 21, 339-359.

Ivey, D. C., & Scheel, M. J. (1999). Relational diagnosis: Potential advantages and drawbacks associated with a universal system for the classification of couple and family difficulties. The Family Journal, 7, 335-342.

Scheel, M. J., Seaman, S., Roach, K., Mullin, T., & Blackwell Mahoney, K. (1999). Client implementation of therapist recommendations: Predicted by client perception of fit, difficulty of implementation, and therapist influence. The Journal of Counseling Psychology, 46, 308-316.

Book Chapters

Scheel, M .J. (2002). Integrating marital enrichment treatment in couple psychotherapy. In L. VandeCreek (Ed.), Innovations in clinical practice: A source book. Sarasota, FL: Professional Psychology Press.

Research Projects