Understanding the Lived Experiences of Counselors who Have Been Assaulted by Clients

Understanding the Lived Experiences of Counselors Assaulted by Clients by Cynthia S. Ellison MA, Hampton University, 2008 BS, Norfolk State University 1985 Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Counselor Education and Supervision Walden University May 2019 Abstract Assault of community-based mental health professionals is a worldwide phenomenon, and current extant literature examines the prevalence of client assault on counselors, social workers, and psychiatric personnel. While there is significant quantitative scholarship on the incidence of this phenomenon on social workers and psychiatricAssault of community-based mental health professionals is a worldwide phenomenon, and current extant literature examines the prevalence of client assault on counselors, social workers, and psychiatric personnel. While there is significant quantitative scholarship on the incidence of this phenomenon on social workers and psychiatric personnel, there are limited statistical data on client-perpetrated violence against community-based counselors and no qualitative studies found that examined how these professionals experience this occupation risk. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore how counselors who work in community-based settings make sense of these experiences. Through semi structured interviews, 6 community-based counselors living in the Southeastern region of the U.S. shared their lived experience of client assault. Hermeneutic was used as a methodological and theoretical framework to analyze the data. The following themes emerged from the data study: training as a management strategy, ambivalence as a new way of being, and connections for well-being. The results of this study have training, practice, supervision, and social change implications. Through adding counselors’ voices to the discourse on client assault, the findings of this study can be used to identify experiences and training that will assist counselors in caring for themselves in the aftermath of an assault. Furthermore, understanding these experiences may inform the development of protocols for keeping this vulnerable population safe. Understanding the Lived Experiences of Counselors Assaulted by Clients by Cynthia S. Ellison MA, Hampton University, 2008 BS, Norfolk State University, 1985 Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Counselor Education and Supervision Walden University May 2019 Dedication In the beginning was Simone Lynette Williams. This dissertation was birthed out of her experience of being assaulted. As I observed how this experience affected her, I realized that I was also being affected. I also began to wonder how other communitybased counselors responded to this occupational risk. Simone, your lived experience provided me an opportunity to contribute to the knowledge base for client assault of community-based counselors. On behalf of the counseling profession and the stories of those written on these pages, thank you for being the impetus from which new knowledge was birthed. Acknowledgments Where there is no vision the people perish (Proverbs 29:18). There are two people who carried the vision of me completing a terminal degree before it was conceived in me. First, I want to thank Raymond Ellison. He first called me doctor in 1989. This milestone is bittersweet because he went to his heavenly reward before it was birthed. Secondly, I want to thank my spiritual father, Reverend Sidney Foster, Jr., who has also transcended this earthly realm. He helped me understand that I am an ambassador of the light and that my light is an outward reflection of the divine connection that I have with my eternal source. Hence, my connection to my research design and theoretical framework, hermeneutic phenomenology. Next, I would like to acknowledge my dissertation village. I am eternally grateful to my mother, Evelyn Mahone, who boosted my confidence; my husband, Dwight Powell, for his love, support, and patience; and my son, Christopher; my sisters, Sheila, Candace, and Kimberly; and my brother, Michael, I love you all. To Aunt Dorothy, thank you for your prayers, support, and encouragement. To my proofreaders, Patricia Johnson-Lewis and Fred Jackson, thank you for your time and talents. Thomasina, thank you for your unwavering presence, patience, and prayers. Dr. Spencer Baker, thank you for believing in me. I would also like to acknowledge my dissertation committee members. Dr. Katarzyna Peoples, Chair and Methodologist; Dr. Wynn Dupkoski, Content Specialist; and Dr. Adrian Warren, University Research Reviewer. Each of you have greatly assisted me in finding my scholarly voice. Finally, I thank God for his unfailing love, the fulfillment of the vision, and the price He paid for me.