When One Size Doesn’t Fit All: Some effects and consequences of short contract student counselling

Abstract

AbstractThis article discusses changes to counselling practice brought about by the widespread policy of routinely offering a standard small number of counselling sessions in student counselling. These changes were explored in a research study using a Foucauldian discourse analytic methodology, which was undertaken in an Irish university counselling service. Thirteen student clients were interviewed who had all received additional sessions beyond the six‐session norm. A focus group was also carried out with counsellors. Some of the effects of the practice of standardised short counselling contracts such as the processes involved in obtaining extra sessions, changes of therapist and dealing with endings were explored. The purpose of this study was not to evaluate or judge the short contract model from a clinical perspective or to comment on how it was experienced by the wider group of clients who attended the service, but rather to explore some of its effects and consequences on a particular group. Counselling was described by the student participants as a goal‐driven activity, in which the emphasis was on the need to recover as rapidly as possible and not to use too much of the scarce resource represented by counselling. For the counsellors, the need to comply with a managerial discourse produced particular consequences such as the need for rapid interventions, to demonstrate speedy progress and their concerns about their own performance in this context.