Youth counsellors' experiences of telephone counselling: a qualitative exploration

Abstract

Telephone counselling is a well established medium of non-face-to-face mental health service delivery. Research to date has focussed on the delivery and effectiveness of therapy over the telephone. However, there has been little exploration of counsellor’s experience of this work. The limited body of research about telephone counsellors’ experiences portrays this work as challenging, exhausting and possibility traumatic for counsellors to perform. This is of significance considering the impact these factors can have on counsellors’ subjective wellbeing, job satisfaction and turnover intentions. Research suggests that work related factors play a greater part than individual characteristics in shaping the experiences of telephone counsellors. However, there is limited understanding of the various types of work related factors that may shape these experiences. To address this gap in the extant literature this thesis explores youth counsellors’ experiences of telephone counselling, and the range of work related factors that foster them. It examines telephone counsellors’ general experiences of this work and those in relation to the work related factors of work environment, interpersonal relationships and specific aspects of the work. Unlike previous research, particular attention is paid to the spatial aspects of this work, such as the physical workplace environment and the mental space. To gain an in-depth understanding of telephone counsellors’ experiences this research employed an instrumental case study approach and focused on youth counsellors in one telephone counselling service in New Zealand. Ten counsellors with 18 months to 9 years telephone counselling experience participated in this study, with the majority concurrently studying a human service related course at university. A multi-method design was adopted, including observations, in-depth interviews and reflective journals. To explore counsellors’ experiences and how they are influenced by work related factors, both social constructionist and organisational theoretical lenses were adopted. The findings in this thesis indicate that overall counsellors enjoyed the work of telephone counselling despite its challenges. They experienced discrete aspects of their work as challenging, yet enjoyed their interactions with callers and the quality of relationships they had with colleagues and supervisors. Whilst counsellors experienced elements of the physical environment to be distracting and uncomfortable, they were able to exert some influence over the impact of these features by locating themselves in a preferred counselling booth. Counsellors were found to enter into a distinct mental place when joining with their callers. Within this mental place they experienced a higher degree of proximity in counselling calls and greater distance in testing calls. The counsellors were able to manage the degree of closeness within their calls by their physical movement of leaning into counselling calls and leaning back from testing calls. This thesis makes a contribution to the telephone counselling literature by identifying the role organisations play in shaping counsellors’ experiences of this work in terms of subjective wellbeing and highlighting the spatial and physical dimensions of this work. Implications are raised for telephone counselling service delivery in relation to: the design and layout of these services; the importance of accessible supervision; and providing the opportunity for counsellors to engage in self-care practices whilst on shift. On a conceptual level, this thesis makes a further contribution by illuminating the distinct nature of telephone counselling and how it operates as a form of spatial practice.