Attachment Style of Volunteer Counselors in Telephone Emergency Services Predicts Counseling Process

Frontiers in Psychology

article

Ulrike Dinger¹  Isabelle Rek¹ 

[1] Department of General Internal Medicine and Psychosomatics, University Hospital Heidelberg

关键词: attachment;    helpline;    telephone emergency service;    paraprofessional volunteers;    counseling;    therapeutic alliance;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01936

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

Telephone emergency services (TES) provide emotional support and aim to prevent suicide. The current study examines a potential change of volunteer counselors’ attachment characteristics during TES training and investigates the predictive influence of counselor attachment for their competence and working alliance with callers. We recruited 261 volunteers enrolled in training for paraprofessional counseling in the German Telephone Emergency Service ( TelefonSeelsorge ). Participants were assessed three times during their training (mean training duration 13.3 months) and responded to questionnaires on adult attachment (Experience in Close Relationships-Revised) and their counseling competence (adapted Development of Psychotherapists Common Core Questionnaire). In addition, they indicated the quality of the working alliance (adapted Working Alliance Inventory – Short, Revised) with their client callers upon training completion. Results showed that attachment anxiety, but not attachment avoidance, significantly decreased during training. Lower attachment avoidance predicted better working alliances with callers as well as better general skillfulness. Implications for the training of volunteer telephone counselors are discussed.

【 授权许可】

CC BY