What Is So Special About Student Counselling? A Foucauldian Analysis of Discourses Shaping Practice in UK Embedded University Counselling Services

Background

An extensive theory-based clinical literature related to the UK student counselling sector belies a deficiency of empirical research investigating UK Embedded University Counselling Services (EUCS). Although research attention has recently been re-focused on the sector, its concern with standardised outcome measurement, while important in justifying the value of such services, may fail to elucidate any unique features of counselling practice in this setting.

Aims

This research aimed to provide a framework for understanding the influence of the HE institutional context on counselling practices and investigate how practitioners construct the role and functions of their work in an EUCS setting.

Method

Semi-structured interviews were undertaken with six student counsellors working across different UK EUCS, and the transcripts were analysed using Foucauldian Discourse Analysis (FDA).

Analysis

The study identified four dominant discourses: academic achievement, life-stage, mental health crisis and professional counselling practice, which were seen to influence the counsellor role as they manifested through a series of subdiscourses, such as the precedence of educational attainment, loco-parentis, risk vulnerability and flexible practice subdiscourses.

Conclusion

The analysis suggests that student counselling is broadly constructed as a time-limited psychosocial intervention which aims to facilitate academic engagement while attending to the perceived developmental needs of student–clients in a highly flexible manner. This may contrast with the expectations of student–clients themselves as well as other stakeholders, especially at a time of perceived mental health crisis within the student population. Implications for practice, supervision and training are discussed.