Growth in counselling : counsellor perspectives and implications for practice

Abstract

Growth in the counselling process is leveraged metaphorically through images and words. Its prominence and prevalence vary over time and across professional and cultural contexts. The individual and cultural understandings that counsellors develop of the concept of growth shape their identity as individuals and professionals. This qualitative study aimed to explore how counsellors in Malta understand the concept of growth, what factors shaped this understanding, and the role that this understanding plays in their work to support clients in achieving increased wellbeing. Five warranted counsellors in Malta with at least three years of experience were interviewed. The semi-structured interviews used visual and linguistic stimuli to support and enhance the typical interlocution process behind semi-structured interviews. Findings were analysed using thematic network analysis and reflexive thematic analysis. Participants effected a process of personal growth navigating intrapsychic and external factors engaging in a cycle of discovery, with active self-direction through adverse circumstances shaping their mobilisation of personal agency. Participants identified the important relationship between their experiences of growth through their counselling and their clients’ potential and possible outcomes. Participants’ individual experience of growth could support their work with clients by providing a reference point to make sense of their clients’ experiences. This could also pose potential dangers to their work by obscuring clients’ experiences and journeys with their own. Recommendations include more stress on growth in training courses, international collaboration between organisations and institutes to reach common understandings of growth, and more research across different cultures and countries.