Free NBCC NCE-ABE Practice Exam with Questions & Answers

Within the Counseling and Helping Relationships core area, counselors are expected to understand and apply a range of evidence-based counseling strategies and interventions, including behavioral and cognitive-behavioral techniques for specific problems such as insomnia.

Paradoxical intention is a technique in which the counselor instructs the client to intentionally engage in, or exaggerate, the very symptom they fear or are trying to avoid (in this case, trying to stay awake instead of trying to fall asleep). This counters performance anxiety and reduces the pressure around the symptom.

Not A (Sleep education): Sleep education focuses on teaching about sleep cycles, sleep hygiene, and lifestyle factors, not instructing clients to do the opposite of their goal.

Not B (Mirroring): Mirroring is reflecting the client’s emotional or verbal content, not giving paradoxical directives.

Not D (Stimulus control): Stimulus control involves modifying environmental and behavioral cues that signal sleep (e.g., using the bed only for sleep), not asking the client to try to stay awake.

Therefore, the intervention described is best understood as paradoxical intention (C).

In the Assessment and Testing core area, CACREP requires that counselors understand:

The use of diagnostic classification systems (such as DSM),

The difference between identity or behavior and a mental disorder, and

The central role of distress or impairment in making a diagnosis.

For gender dysphoria, diagnostic criteria emphasize that:

A person may experience incongruence between their experienced/expressed gender and assigned sex,

However, this incongruence alone is not sufficient for a mental health diagnosis,

A diagnosis is appropriate only when the experience is associated with clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.

Evaluating the options:

A. Considering surgical reassignment – Not required for diagnosis. Many individuals with gender dysphoria may never seek surgery.

B. Strong dislike for their anatomy – This can be one feature, but by itself does not justify a diagnosis without associated distress or impairment.

C. Desire for secondary sexual characteristics of another gender – Again, this can be part of the experience but is not sufficient alone to meet diagnostic criteria.

D. There was clinically significant distress. – This is the essential condition across DSM diagnoses: the symptoms must cause clinically significant distress or impairment. Without that, a formal diagnosis of gender dysphoria should not be made.

Therefore, the counselor would only diagnose gender dysphoria if D (there was clinically significant distress) is present.

In the Counseling and Helping Relationships core area, systemic and family counseling approaches emphasize that:

A family is a system, and problems (such as parental conflict and stepfamily tension) are best understood by observing the entire system interacting.

Early sessions often focus on joining with the whole family, clarifying roles, boundaries, and interaction patterns, especially in blended families where alliances and loyalties can be complex.

Option B, seeing the family as a whole in the first session, allows the counselor to:

Directly observe parent–child and stepparent–stepchild interactions,

Hear each member’s perspective on the arguing and its impact,

Begin to restructure communication and set shared goals collaboratively.

The other options fragment the system:

A (see each child separately) misses the systemic interaction at the heart of the complaint.

C (see parents together) may be useful later but does not initially address how the conflict is affecting the children or the overall family dynamics.

D (each parent with their stepchildren) reinforces existing divisions and alliances rather than treating the family as a single integrated system.

Therefore, B is the most appropriate first-session technique for this blended family issue.

Within the Research and Program Evaluation core area, counselors are expected to understand how different research designs relate to questions of causality. Experimental designs are identified as the primary method for examining cause–effect relationships because they:

Use manipulation of an independent variable

Include control or comparison groups

Often use random assignment to reduce bias

Descriptive and correlational designs can show associations or describe variables but cannot establish causation because they do not control for alternative explanations in the same way. Therefore, consistent with CACREP’s emphasis on understanding experimental methods as the standard for testing causal hypotheses, the correct answer is D. An experimental design.

In the Assessment and Testing core area, counselors are expected to recognize common diagnostic features of mental disorders to inform screening, referral, and conceptualization (not to replace full diagnosis).

For generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), hallmark symptoms include:

Excessive anxiety and worry about a variety of events or activities,

Difficulty controlling the worry,

Physical and cognitive symptoms such as:

Restlessness or feeling keyed up/on edge,

Being easily fatigued,

Difficulty concentrating,

Irritability,

Muscle tension,

Sleep disturbance.

Thus, restlessness (Option B) is a classic symptom associated with GAD.

The other options fit different or nonspecific issues:

A. Lack of hobbies is not a diagnostic criterion; it may relate to lifestyle, depression, or other factors but is not specific to GAD.

C. Rechecking locked doors is more characteristic of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), where compulsive checking behaviors respond to intrusive obsessions.

D. Pressured speech is typically associated with mania or hypomania, not GAD.

Therefore, B is the correct symptom associated with generalized anxiety disorder.

In Group Counseling and Group Work, one of the classic group formats covered is the encounter group (closely related to sensitivity or T-groups). Encounter groups typically:

Emphasize personal growth and here-and-now interpersonal awareness,

Aim to decrease inhibitions and increase authenticity and emotional expression,

Often use intensive or “marathon” sessions to facilitate deep exploration of interpersonal issues.

This description matches encounter groups (A) exactly.

Psychoanalytic groups (B) emphasize insight into unconscious processes, using interpretation and transference analysis.

Psychoeducational groups (C) focus on structured teaching of skills or information (e.g., health, coping skills).

Humanistic (D) is a broader theoretical orientation; many encounter groups are humanistic, but the specific term used for this kind of intensive, awareness-focused marathon group is “encounter group.”

In the Counseling and Helping Relationships core area, CACREP includes behavioral and learning theories such as operant conditioning. A foundational principle is that:

Behaviors that are reinforced are more likely to be maintained, and

Behaviors that are no longer reinforced tend to weaken and eventually extinguish.

Option C directly states this assumption: behavior that is not reinforced gradually extinguishes. That is the core explanation for why, in behavior therapy, counselors manipulate reinforcement contingencies to reduce maladaptive behaviors.

A is incorrect because behaviors are not always reinforced on a strict one-to-one (continuous) schedule; intermittent reinforcement can also maintain behavior.

B (shaping) is used to build new complex behaviors, but it is not required for maintaining an already-learned behavior.

D refers to modeling (observational learning), which is associated with social learning theory, not the central assumption about maintenance in basic operant conditioning.

Thus, C is the correct assumption regarding behavior maintenance.

Within the CACREP Core Area of Social and Cultural Diversity, counselors are expected to demonstrate skills that allow them to work effectively with clients from diverse backgrounds. A key competency is the ability to avoid imposing personal values and to maintain an unbiased, respectful stance toward clients’ cultural identities, beliefs, and worldviews.

Ethical Bracketing (Correct Answer)Ethical bracketing refers to a counselor’s intentional process of setting aside personal values, beliefs, or biases in order to provide competent, culturally responsive services.This aligns with ethical expectations that counselors:

Maintain value neutrality,

Avoid personal value imposition, and

Uphold client autonomy, dignity, and cultural uniqueness.Ethical bracketing is specifically encouraged as an important skill when working with diverse populations.

Countertransference (Incorrect)This refers to a counselor’s emotional reactions toward the client, often based on the counselor’s unresolved issues. It is not about intentionally setting aside personal values; instead, it is a internal emotional process that must be managed during therapy.

Acculturation (Incorrect)Acculturation refers to the process of adapting to a dominant or new culture, not the counselor’s act of setting aside personal values during counseling.

Developmental Maturation (Incorrect)This refers to normal growth processes across the lifespan. It has no direct connection to value management in counseling.

Because only ethical bracketing describes consciously setting aside personal values to serve clients without bias, A is the correct answer.

The Human Growth and Development core area covers developmental differences, including work with children who have intellectual disabilities. Children with mild intellectual impairment typically:

Learn best through concrete, hands-on, and highly structured experiences,

Benefit from clear, specific, and immediately relevant examples, especially in social and interpersonal domains.

Option D (“facilitate active and concrete examples of social interaction”) matches these principles. It uses active practice and concrete modeling to teach social skills, which is consistent with developmentally appropriate interventions for mild intellectual impairment.

A (psychoeducation about recognizing others’ emotions) may be useful but is often too abstract if not paired with concrete, experiential methods.

B focuses on academic support rather than counseling techniques or social-emotional intervention.

C (free play) provides unstructured interaction and may not be sufficient for skill building without guided, concrete instruction.

Therefore, D represents the best technique in line with developmental theory and appropriate intervention strategies for children with mild intellectual impairment.

In the Assessment and Testing core area, counselors are expected to recognize major psychological and neuropsychological instruments and what they measure.

The Bender Visual-Motor Gestalt Test (often called Bender-Gestalt) is primarily used to assess visual-motor integration / visual-motor perception—how well a person can perceive visual stimuli and reproduce them through motor responses (drawing).

It can be used as a screening tool for brain dysfunction, developmental issues, or neurological problems, but its core construct is visual-motor perception/integration.

It does not directly measure general intellectual disability (A), pure visual concept formation (B), or motor skills alone (C). Thus, D. Visual-motor perception is the best answer.