A Study on Counselors' Experiences on Metaverse Counseling for Adult with Social Anxiety

This study explores the experiences of counselors who have experienced metaverse psychological counseling.Four female skilled counselors in their 40s and 50s who experienced metaverse psychological counseling in 16 to 24 sessions participated in a focus group interview within one week after completing the sessions as a result of analyzing the interview data using a thematic analysis method, resulted in 5 domains, 16 categories, and 37 subcategories.In the "Counselor adaptation process to metaverse counseling" domain, categories such as "Having concerns," "Holding expectations," and "Reduced anxiety after experience" were identified.In the "Experiencing a counseling process and relationship different from traditional counseling" domain, categories included "Feeling comfortable due to lack of disclosure," "Formation of a counselor-client relationship differing from traditional counseling," "Reduction of prejudices towards clients," "Experiencing difficulties due to technical issues of the platform," "Difficulties in counseling due to the inability to see the client," and "High energy consumption during counseling."In the "Experience of the effectiveness of metaverse counseling" domain, categories such as "Experiencing metaverse elements as therapeutic factors" and "Experiencing effects similar to face-to-face counseling" were derived.In the "Prospects for utilizing metaverse counseling" domain, categories included "Certain clients suitable for metaverse counseling," "Accessibility to counseling will improve," and "Expecting for the expansion of metaverse counseling."Finally, in the "Counselor's tasks for metaverse counseling" domain, categories such as "Specific competencies for metaverse counseling" and "Counselors' dilemmas" were extracted.