Young people's experiences of setting and monitoring goals in school-based counselling: A thematic analysis.

objectiveTo understand young people's experiences of setting and monitoring goals in the context of school-based counselling.

designQualitative interview study of young people aged 13-16 years old who had undertaken school-based counselling and who had explicitly set and monitored goals.

methodsNineteen young people who were predominantly female (89.5%) and around half of whom were of white/European and/or British ethnicity (52.6%) were recruited from 4 secondary schools in London, UK. A reflexive thematic analysis was undertaken to identify themes.

resultsFourteen themes were identified, which reflected both helpful and unhelpful aspects of working with goals. For some young people, goals were motivating, provided a tangible representation of progress, and focused the therapeutic work. For others, goals could mirror a sense of "stuckness" and elicit negative emotions when not progressed towards in a linear fashion. Assigning a number to goal progress meant that some young people felt it did not fully capture the context of their experience, although some did find this practice helpful. Similarly, not all young people found it helpful to monitor progress at every session.

conclusionsOur findings align with the wider adult literature in that experiences of working with goals are mixed. Recommendations for practice include offering choice in the frequency and way goal progress is monitored, and using clinical judgement when working with goals. This might include noticing when goal setting or monitoring is contributing to young people's feelings of low self-worth  and adjusting practice accordingly.