A Qualitative Narrative Study of 21st Century Counsellor's Skills and the Sustainable Development Goals: Towards a Psychology of Sustainability

Abstract

This study aimed to identify the concept of the counselor skills from participants' point of view, and to reveal their perceptions about counseling aims and the skills needed by a counselor in the 21st century, using the narrative qualitative design on a purposive sample consisting of ( 22) psychological counselors, whose ages ranged from (31-46 years), with a mean age of 37.86 years and a standard deviation of 4.622. Data was collected from participants through stories, individual experiences using the semi-structured in-depth interview, counseling work reports, focus groups, and narrative framework. The results of the thematic analysis using the MAXQDA program revealed that the counselor's skills are defined as "professional mechanisms that include personal soft traits and technical hard skills on which the counselor relies to achieve the best results in his professional practices and bring about a voluntary change in the counselor's personality, behavior and performance in life, and help him to solve his problems, overcoming obstacles, creating opportunities for his personal growth, and reaching the maximum level of mental health, wellbeing, quality of life, and personal effectiveness by gaining and maintaining the client's trust. The results also found several skills that the counselor must possess in the 21st century, including: effective verbal and nonverbal communication; technique, thinking and innovation; problem solving; active citizenship; technical; stress of counseling work administrative; ask smart questions; motivating, encouraging and reassuring the client; maintain confidentiality of information; remembering and others. The results also indicated that counseling in the 21st century seeks to achieve various aims, including: for the individual to live a happy life full of achievement and work, making important decisions, personal development, planning for his future, making a voluntary change in his personality and behavior,