Date of Award
5-2017
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
College/School
College of Education and Human Services
Department/Program
Counseling and Educational Leadership
Thesis Sponsor/Dissertation Chair/Project Chair
Dana Heller Levitt
Committee Member
Harriet Glosoff
Committee Member
Leslie Kooyman
Committee Member
Kathryn Herr
Abstract
This was a qualitative study exploring the experiences of counselors working with clients who are coping with an advanced illness and approaching end of life. The study focused on the risks and benefits of fostering relationships with end of life clients, with an emphasis on how these practitioners process their experiences. While supporting clients at end of life, these professionals often were impacted by the deaths of people who they had worked with for varying lengths of time.
The findings suggest that these counselors experienced many of the same issues that have been documented by other helping professions, and that they developed a means of sustaining themselves through emotionally turbulent times. The participants in this study leveraged their spirituality, connections and boundaries to meet their need for psychological safety, while using the experience to cultivate the unexpected gifts of the work. In the final analysis it was determined that a combination of psychological safety and unexpected gifts created a cycle of sustainability.
Recommended Citation
Ducaine, Connie S., "Understanding the Counselor Experience When Working with End of Life Clients" (2017). Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects. 40.
https://digitalcommons.montclair.edu/etd/40