Clients’ and counsellors’ perceptions of helpful and hindering events in outpatient drug addiction counselling

The aim of the study was to compare clients' and counsellors' perceptions of helpful and hindering events in outpatient drug addiction counselling. It attempted to answer the following questions: what do clients and counsellors consider as helpful events in drug addiction counselling? What do clients and counsellors consider as hindrances in counselling? How similar are these perceptions for clients and their counsellors? Comparisons between clients and counsellors in fields other than the addictions, have in general demonstrated differences in perceptions. While clients tend to give more importance to factors related to the counselling relationship and the feeling of relief from problems as a channel for change, counsellors have emphasized the use of techniques and cognitions as important ingredients for change. In the addictions field, studies comparing clients' and counsellors' are lacking. The study set out to undertake this comparison. Seven clients recovering from a drug addiction and their counsellors were interviewed separately within a year of ending their participation in counselling. The Critical Incident Technique, (Flanagan, 1954) and time-line methodology (Chell 1998) were used as a means to identify helpful and hindering incidents in the therapy process. Helpful and hindering incidents were extracted from the transcribed interviews for both clients and their counsellors separately and than compared. General agreement between clients and counsellors was observed in this study. The agreement was explained in terms of the special characteristics of the sample and the successful nature of the counselling experience. Although some interesting differences were uncovered, the general congruence in the comparison between clients and counsellors challenged some developing notions about disparities between the two parties.Education, Faculty ofEducational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department ofGraduat