Professional International School Counsellors (PISCs) experience a range of well-being challenges that are specific to the dynamics of their role. There is a scarcity of empirical research seeking to gain a better understanding of such challenges, along with coping strategies. Therefore, the primary objective of this study was to investigate how…

Although career construction theory is relevant to today's vocational climate, empirical research into it is scarce. Accordingly, we explored this theory by investigating the concepts, structures and processes that UK-based millennial career changers use to construct narratives allowing for continuity of plot and discontinuity of career direction.…

Career guidance has been criticised for focusing on individual agency, complying with discourses that "responsibilise" individuals to manage their careers. A social justice approach argues for a more nuanced recognition of the interplay of structure and agency, which raises questions about how to do this in practice? In this paper we…

Through a qualitative hermeneutic phenomenological study, I examined the intersection of document analysis, sensemaking and policy implementation, that revealed rich descriptions of situated policy contexts and nested working practices where policy actors from Ontario, Canada, and England, UK, translated and used career guidance policy documents.…

There is a dearth of research on counsellor self-care in times of personal stress. Working therapeutically with clients whilst facing personal difficulties may lead to stress and burnout for counsellors if adequate self-care is not implemented. This small-scale (n=3) in-depth qualitative study explored counsellor self-care in times of personal…

According to the theory of predictive processing, understanding in the present involves non-consciously representing the immediate future, based on probabilistic inference shaped by learning from the past. This paper suggests links between this neuroscientific theory and the psychoanalytic concept of reverie -- an empathic, containing attentional…

This small-scale pilot study analysed the input of two university teachers regarding their approaches, attitudes and understanding regarding counselling referrals for students in a university setting in Singapore. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews. Using interpretative phenomenological analysis, four main categories of themes…

This qualitative study explores how emotions are experienced and handled during international service-learning (ISL) initiatives. It involved one focus group discussion and in-depth, semi-structured interviews with six college students engaged in a 10-day ISL project in Burkina Faso. Their accounts were analysed using interpretative…

This article explores Levinas's [1961/1969. "Totality and infinity." (A. Lingis, Trans.). Pittsburgh, PA: Duquesne University Press; 1981/1997. "Otherwise than being or beyond essence." (A. Lingis, Trans.). Pittsburgh, PA: Duquesne University Press] ideas on relational proximity in the face of the Other and, through meeting,…

Within the major therapeutic paradigms, observational instruments have been developed to assess orientation-specific interventions or processes. However, to date, no such instrument exists to assess existential practices. Recent research indicates the key practices of existential therapists, and forms an empirical basis on which to develop an…

The experience of practising psychotherapy as a clinical psychologist was explored through a small number of in-depth interviews. Using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, three main themes were identified: "Feeling there's something missing", "Being able to get in there emotionally" and "Needing somewhere to go for…

The paper presents a personal view of some issues around therapeutic conversations involving difference and minority experience. Language, discourse and mother-tongue are explored from different theoretical standpoints and considered alongside concepts of difference, otherness and the unvoiced. Intercultural counselling offers a framework for…

Through analysing data collected from interviews with 12 students and 7 teachers, observations, students' journals and other documents at a US high school, this qualitative study examines the sociocultural adaptation of "parachute kids" from mainland China. Emerging themes revealed adjustments to be made at three levels, namely,…

The psychotherapy experiences of a sample of Iraqi refugee men, in later stages of exile, were explored with the aim of shedding some light on how this client group can experience therapy. Ten adult male Iraqi refugees--who had lived in Sweden for at least five years and had been psychotherapy clients at some point during that time--were recruited…

This paper uses the cultural preparedness approach to analyse the interface between the aspirations of immigrants and their engagement with systems of the host country. It draws upon interviews with 84 immigrants from 35 developing countries living in 9 high-income countries. Based upon Edmund Husserl's hermeneutical phenomenology, two studies are…