40-5 A Study on the Awareness of Counseling Relationship and the Process of Reaction for Counseling Psychology Interns
The purpose of this study was to explore the awareness and reaction process of counseling relationships for counseling psychology interns. According to the phenomenology research approach, the data was collected by semi-structured interviews from five interviewees. In the initial stage of counseling, five themes were identified, (a) interns feel emotionally disturbed due to no clear counseling goals and directions, (b) unstable therapeutic relationships cause unclear boundaries between interns and their clients, (c) establishing therapeutic relationships require efforts and energies, (d) relationship closeness depends on genuineness, and (e) interns feel comfortable to interact with their clients when it's easy to establish the therapeutic relationship. In the middle stage of counseling, six themes were identified, (a) interns remain calm and consistent while holding negative emotional arousal during counseling sessions, (b) interns flexibly deal with therapeutic relationship and make clear their professional boundary with clients, (c) therapeutic relationships reflect clients enacting their interpersonal patterns toward interns, (d) interns increase their awareness of their client's interpersonal patterns through understanding more about their clients' issues during and between sessions, (e) interns who feel stuck in therapeutic relationships experience an increase in their negative emotions, and (f) examining their therapeutic relationship and putting emphasis on the positive character of client make their therapeutic relationship free and easy. In the final stage of counseling, interns had different aspects regarding the meaning and influences of termination. That is, (a) interns feel a sense of personal growth and broaden their perspectives toward people and things and (b) interns explore and learn from this process and become inspired to become a professional helper in the future.
Keywords
awareness ； counseling psychology interns ； the process of reaction ； therapeutic relationship
Download