Face-to-face and online counseling: Client problems and satisfaction

Abstract

Alongside technological developments, online counseling has started becoming widespread since last decade. The purpose of this study is to investigate face-to-face and online counseling in terms of client problems and satisfaction. This qualitative study used a phenomenology research design and consisted of 12 female and 9 male, twenty-one volunteer clients. Fifteen participants were given face-to-face, whereas six participants, online counseling. Clients received face-to-face and online counseling from seven volunteer senior students in the undergraduate program of Counseling and Guidance. A content analysis is used for data interpretation. The results of the study suggest that the problems and satisfaction are quite similar in face-to-face and online clients. Personal problems were the most common problem among the clients. Respectively, career development concerns, academic problems, and relationship issues with a partner and family follow personal problems. All the participants were satisfied with the counseling process and satisfaction of face-to-face counseling and online counseling participants were remarkably similar.