Affiliative Intersubjectivity and Mindfulness in Counselor-Clients Collaborative Discourses

• In Event: School Counseling and Counselor Education Research

Abstract

Counseling sessions (52) of counseling-student dyads with clients are analyzed for mindful aspects of language-use, empathy, intersubjective affinity, and their development over a semester-long metacognitively-rich counseling-techniques instruction. Analyses of pre/post (meta)discursive repertoires with sentiments and complex relationships between counselor- and client-talk indicate positive trends in collaborative discursive endeavors. Counselors-in-training patterns suggest refraining from prompting/prodding and overly emphatic intonation. Instead, counselor-talk featured better justification of arguments, affiliative affective disclosures, attention to client feelings/well-being, among others. Clients’ trends suggest decreased uncertainty, reduced restrain in formulating opinions w/affective values, and their “opening-up”. Client trends suggest gains from mindful counselors-in-training commitment to establishing affinity, intersubjectivity/“camaraderie”, and “empathic-communion” with clients, while all – from mindfully-metacognitive instruction. The study offers implications for counseling pedagogy and/or therapeutic interventions

Authors

• Beata M Latawiec, Wichita State University

• Jody Fiorini

• Kali Dorey, Wichita State University