Clients' Lived Experiences of Psychological Counseling During Major Personal Life Transitions: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.61194/psychology.v3i4.1130Keywords:
Psychological Counseling, Life Transitions, Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, Lived Experiences, Identity Reconstruction, Meaning-Making, Psychological Resilience.Abstract
Major personal life transitions often present substantial psychological challenges affecting emotional well-being, daily functioning, and personal identity. Although psychological counseling is widely recognized as effective for emotional distress, limited qualitative research has explored clients' experiences of counseling during major life transitions. This study aimed to explore the lived experiences of clients who underwent psychological counseling while navigating major life transitions and to understand how counseling contributed to their psychological adjustment and meaning reconstruction. A qualitative phenomenological design was employed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). Semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted with adults who had experienced major life transitions—including bereavement, divorce, unemployment, chronic illness, relocation, retirement, career change, marriage, and parenthood—and who had participated in psychological counseling. Data were analyzed iteratively following IPA procedures to identify recurring patterns while preserving each participant's unique experience. The analysis generated six interconnected themes: emotional disruption during life transitions, disruption of daily functioning and identity, entering counseling, development of the therapeutic relationship, psychological change through counseling, and meaning reconstruction with renewed life direction. Counseling was experienced as a gradual, collaborative process in which empathy, trust, and psychological safety enabled participants to explore difficult emotions. Through the therapeutic relationship, participants developed greater emotional awareness, adaptive coping strategies, improved emotional regulation, reconstructed self-identities, and more coherent life narratives. This study concludes that psychological counseling is a transformative process extending beyond symptom reduction by fostering identity reconstruction, meaning-making, and resilience during major life transitions, offering practical implications for counselors through person-centered, meaning-oriented, relationship-focused interventions.
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