A Qualitative Study on Mental Health Social Workers' Experiences in Providing Counseling Therapy to Clients with Immigrant Backgrounds : Utilizing Glaser's Grounded Theory Method

This study qualitatively explores the experiences of mental health social workers in providing counseling therapy to clients with immigration backgrounds, using Glaser's grounded theory method(1992). For this purpose, a theoretical sampling method of maximum diversity sampling was employed to select 12 mental health social workers who have provided mental health services to clients with immigration backgrounds at least four times. Data was collected through in-depth interviews conducted over a four-month period from December 1, 2023, to March 30, 2024. The analysis revealed that the experiences of providing mental health services to clients with immigration backgrounds were categorized into five core categories and fourteen subcategories:‘Lighting the Lamp in a Familiar Way,’ ‘Language Barriers that Make Lighting the Lamp Difficult,’ ‘Facing Between the Lamp and the Shadows,’ ‘Awareness of the Surroundings Illuminated by the Lamp,’ and ‘Navigate around the Lamp.’ The findings suggest that while mental health social workers are eager to understand and flexibly intervene in the mental health issues of clients with immigration backgrounds, they are uncertain about how to achieve this flexibility. Based on these results, specific recommendations are made to enhance the cultural competence of mental health social workers.