A Qualitative Study of College Counseling Center Clients’ Experiences with Dropout

This study aimed to find out what factors led to the dropout of college counseling center clients and the impact of dropout on the clients. In-depth interviews were conducted with 11 clients who experienced dropout before the 10th session at the university counseling center, and the data were analyzed using Braun and Clarke's Thematic Analysis method. Four themes, 10 sub-themes, and 26 units of meaning emerged from the data analysis. The themes were 'distrust and anxiety about counseling', 'inappropriate behavior of counselors', 'low counseling competence of counselors', and 'negative perceptions of counseling'. In the dropout experience of university counseling center clients, inappropriate counselor behavior and low counselor competence were found to be the main factors that led to dropout. In addition, the consequences of dropout include rejection of counseling and negative perception changes. The significance of this study is that it discussed the problems and development plans for college counseling centers through the experiences of dropout of college counseling center clients, and presented basic data on them. This will provide a basis for the development of effective counseling and training in the practice of college counseling. Finally, limitations of this study and suggestions for further research were discussed.