Client Reaction to Counselor's Use of Self-Experience

This study sought to determine if counselor use of self-experience may be useful in increasing self-confidence, self-disclosure, perceived genuineness, and empathic understanding. Volunteer graduate students in education interested in participating in a series of group counseling sessions structured to deal with problems of the graduate student were used in this study. 30 graduate students were divided into 6 groups of 5 each. 3 groups were experimental groups and 3 groups were control groups. In the control groups self-experience examples were not used by the counselor, but in the experimental groups they were used extensively. Questionnaires, taped sessions, and post-counseling interviews were used in evaluation of results. The experimental groups perceived the counseling relationship as less genuine than the control groups. The results of the study did not support the use of counselor self-experience examples in group counseling.