“What do I Share?” Personal and Private Experiences in Educational Psychological Counselling

Abstract

The aim of the study is to explore and develop knowledge about how educational psychological counsellors' personal and private experiences appear in their counselling practice. We conducted four focus group interviews with twelve counsellors from Educational Psychological Counselling Service. Through Thematic Analysis four themes emerged. The first is that counsellors' personal and private experiences functioned as a backdrop for their counselling practice. The second theme is the counsellors' use of different types of stories. The third theme deals with how the counsellors were holding back relevant stories. Finally, the fourth theme comprises the purposes of counsellors' self-disclosure. The conclusion is that personal experiences form a backdrop for counselling practice and are relevant for how a counsellor makes sense of and understands a situation or a problem. Self-disclosure is in some situations used explicitly in the counselling setting. On the other side the counsellors sometimes consciously hold their experiences back.

Counsellors perceptions of the phenomenon of concentration difficulties

“…Counsellors in Norway working at the Educational and Psychological Counselling Service (EPCS) are mandated to perform assessments through testing, mapping and observations. They also give the advice to help schools develop inclusive environments (Mjelve et al ., 2018). The counsellors often use the term ‘concentration difficulties’ to describe disruptive behaviour but there has been less focus on investigating how the counsellors describe this term (Stray, 2013; Münchhausen, 2016).…”

“…The principal task of the counsellors is to carry out expert assessments based on medical and psychological knowledge (Pihl, 2010; Mjelve et al ., 2018; Nordahl et al ., 2018; Tveitnes, 2018). Stenberg (2006) argues that the work methods in different EPCS centres will lead to differing educational‐psychological cultures, even though the EPCS itself has largely retained its psychological/therapeutic character (Tveitnes, 2018).…”