Domestic Counseling Student Viewpoints On Their Relationships With International Classmates: A Q Methodology Study
Abstract
Despite the increased number of international students in various disciplines including counseling and other helping professions, little is known to date about the cross-cultural interactions between domestic students and their international counterparts. When international students have strong relationships with peers from their host countries, they are better prepared for acculturative stress, cultural adjustment, and social isolation. To gain a deeper understanding of this phenomenon, the current study explores domestic counseling students' relationships with international classmates. We used Q methodology to gather the perspectives of 22 domestic counseling students from a representative public institution in the USA. The participants exhibited three divergent perspectives: (a) counselor experiencing professional growth, (b) counselor experiencing personal growth, and (c) counselor struggling with personal growth. We discuss the detailed findings of the study and implications for counselor education.