A phenomenological study examining the lived experiences of counseling professionals working with individuals living with HIV

Abstract

Although there are 50,000 cases of new HIV diagnoses each year in the U.S., people are living longer with HIV/AIDS (CDC, 2016). Due to the paucity of literature containing current experiences of counseling professionals who have actively or are currently working with people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA), this research explored the counseling professionals' role and significance in HIV/AIDS mental health care services and prevention for treating PLWHA. The purpose of this phenomenological research study is to examine the life experiences of counseling professionals who are actively working with clients who are living with HIV/AIDS to answer this study's research question "what are the lived experience of counseling professionals is working with clients with HIV?" vi PUBLIC ABSTRACT Although there are 50,000 cases of new HIV diagnoses each year in the U.S., people are living longer with HIV/AIDS (CDC, 2016). This research explored the counseling professionals' role and significance in HIV/AIDS mental health care services and prevention, for treating PLWHA. The purpose of this phenomenological research study is to examine the life experiences of counseling professionals who are actively working with clients who are living with HIV/AIDS to answer this study's research question "what are the lived experience of counseling professionals is working with clients with HIV?" Counselors and allied professionals in this study described the limitation, implications and experiences of providing services to PLWHA. This resulted in the emergence of 6 major themes from the interviews. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES .