Counselling Through the Unknown: How the professional and personal lives of counsellors in Aotearoa, New Zealand, were hijacked by COVID-19

Abstract

Since the early 2020s, COVID-19 has swept through the world, affecting everyone, including counsellors and their practice. The impacts on counsellors and their clients are still being brought to light. This study set out to explore how counsellors in Aotearoa, New Zealand, experienced and thus understood COVID-19, what informed their views and how they made meaning of it. The lived experiences of eight counsellors who worked before and during the pandemic were gathered using semi-structured interviews. The data was then analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Four interrelated themes were constructed, with an overarching theme of COVID-19 being a hijacker disrupting the counsellor's personal and professional lives. This shared trauma was experienced collectively and individually. The counsellors reflexively used previous life experiences together with their individual experiences of the hijacking to create meaning and work with clients during the pandemic and potentially after. This study has made further research and recommendations for further questioning the idea of counsellor neutrality and counsellors' and employers' responsibility to acknowledge the impact of disasters or pandemics on mental health professionals. Instead, it recommends acknowledging counsellor positionality and embracing it in their practice.