Virtual School Counseling during COVID-19: Perspectives from School Counselors and Interns

Although virtual school counseling (VSC) has been present since the early 2000s, the COVID-19 pandemic conditions caused mandatory implementation of this modality in K-12 schools. Many school counselor supervisors (SCSs) and school counselors in training (SCITs) had no experience in VSC. Therefore, this interpretative phenomenological analysis research is developed to explore the lived experiences of SCSs and SCITs in VSC during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data collection was completed using interviews with data analyzed through manual coding and thematic analysis. Three themes emerged showing the challenges and outcomes of VSC. Implications to counselor education, school as a system, professional identity and policies, limitations and future recommendations are discussed. Keywords: virtual school counseling, school counselors, school counselor in training, COVID-19, qualitative research DOI: 10.7176/JEP/14-27-08 Publication date: September 30 th 2023