A phenomenological study of counsellors' subjective experiences of client crying
Date
1984
Authors
Samson, Alana Jeannette
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Abstract
This study investigated, from a phenomenological perspective, the experience s of practicing counsellors in response to client crying in the context of counselling sessions. As the review of the literature indicates, the client's emotional experience is central to the process of counselling. Of equal importance is the counsellor's ability to respond effectively to the client's expression of emotion. In spite of this, research examining the relationship between client affect level and helper behaviour has been very limited. Furthermore, the systematic study of counsellors' responses to the particular emotional expression of crying has not been previously attempted.
Previous researchers have indicated that clients displaying high affect levels (not crying) were judged more negatively by untrained university students and counsellor trainees than those displaying lower or neutral affect even when verbal statements were identical. Studies reviewed also indicated that counsellor trainees res ponded less effectively as helpers to high client affect than to neutral affect . The experimental method, used in these previous studies, may have precluded the examination of practicing counsellors' experiences of, and response to the client affect expression of crying. The preser1t study adopted a phenomenological approach in order to explore and describe the meaning and significance of client crying in the context of actual sessions and from the point of view of counsellors themselves.
Counsellors' experiences of client crying were assumed, for the purposes of this study, to include the following aspects: perceptions of the meaning and significance of client crying, subjective (inner) responses to client crying, and overt responses to crying. In this study six participants (all practicing counsellors) were shown a videotape of an actual client session, designed to stimulate recall of previous experiences with the phenomenon. They were then interviewed in depth about these recalled experiences. The questions for these interviews were based directly on the three aspects of counsellors' experiences mentioned above. Resulting transcripts were analyzed and themes were explicated for each participant individually, as well as for the group as a whole. The results indicated that this group of counsellors, for the most part, distinguished among kinds of crying. Authentic crying was seen in a positive way as an immediate expression of intense emotion. It was reacted to with empathy and other facilitative responses, and with feelings of emotional closeness which sometimes led to a somewhat distracting over-identification with the client's feelings. Manipulative or excessive crying was reacted to with negative feelings of irritation, impatience, or detachment and was usually either confronted or ignored. Two of the counsellors experienced a general discomfort with the act or process of crying in general, while the remaining four felt discomfort only in specific contexts.
In the concluding chapter of t his study relationships among the pr e sent findings and those of previous researchers were discussed, applications of the present findings to counsellor training were suggested, and recommendations for future research were made.