Dyson College of Arts and Sciences

Counseling with Clients with Strong Avoidance Tendencies: A Grounded Theory Presenter Michael Tursi, PhD, LMHC Pace University Dyson College of Arts & Sciences Mental Health Counseling Key Concepts • Openness to and experiencing of emotion are important for successful counseling. • Experiential Avoidance is the unwillingnesss to contact internal experiences such as aversive emotion. • Given the salience of emotion in counseling, experiential avoidance is viewed as a client characteristic that will affect engagement in the counseling process. Participants • Eight counseling clients: Three White women, four White men and one Latino • Six counselors, all women Method • This was a qualitative study. A grounded theory was constructed. • Client participants were identified with the Multidimensional Experiential Avoidance Questionnaire. • Counseling sessions were video recorded. • Clients were interviewed about the counseling sessions while viewing the video. • Audio recordings of the sessions became data for analysis. Goal The purpose of this study was to gain a better understanding of the in-session experiences of clients who tend to avoid aversive emotional experiences. • Specifically, the study focused on 1) moments of emotional arousal and 2) moments immediately before and after emotional arousal. • Changes that clients reported as a result of accepting previously avoided emotions were examined. • Clients' experiences of counseling, in general, as well as their preferences for counselors' strategies, were examined. Findings • Counseling was seen as threatening and possibly harmful. Participants viewed counselors as potential adversaries (at first). • A strong fear of judgment was reported. • The participants viewed counseling as helpful when the counselors provided a nonjudgmental environment. Discussion & Recommendations • Counselors should focus on providing a safe and genuine therapeutic relationship. • To mediate the effects of fear of judgment, counselors may help clients attend to sensorimotor and in-session emotional experiences, as opposed to focusing on disclosure of past behavior or other guarded issues. • The findings are discussed within the framework of Symbolic interactionism. Clients' efforts are viewed as ways to protect themselves from a diminished identity.

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