Counselor Anxiety During a Counseling Interview

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Abstract
Physiological and subjective measures of counselor anxiety were compared to determine if counselors experienced greater anxiety during a counseling interview than during a conversation, Twenty experienced rehabilitation counselors in a graduate‐level practicum course volunteered to participate in a 10‐minute conversation and counseling session. Anxiety was assessed by self‐report skin conductance and heart‐rate measures.Results indicated that there were no significant treatment, period, or interaction effects for heart‐rate data; however, there was a significant period effect for conductance data. There were no significant differences for participants' self‐report evaluations of the two situations. Baseline autonomic data were highly related to autonomic data during the anticipation and stimulus periods, and preexperimental self‐report data were moderately related to postexperimental self‐report data. Conclusions were that counselors experiencecomparable anxiety during counseling and conversing, that expectation accounts for most of the counselors' anxiety, and that baseline physiological and self‐report data may prove useful in identifying counselors who would experience anxiety during an interview.

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