”Vems barn vill du att jag väljer bort?” En kvalitativ studie i en kommun i Västra Götaland om fem skolkuratorers upplevelse av stress i arbetet

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine how school counselors in a specific municipality viewed their work situation, if they experienced stress and how they would handle that stress. Five school counselors out of eight in the specific municipality participated in qualitative interviews where they could describe their feelings and thoughts. Their experiences was examined and analyzed with the theories of coping and empowerment. The results showed that there were unhealthy levels of stress in the profession amongst the five counselors. It also showed that the uttermost reason for the experienced unhealthy stress was the feeling of not being able to give as much time and help to the pupils as they want and need. The reason for this was that an increasing number of pupils were, and are, experiencing unhappiness and are in need of seeing the school counselor. Empowerment was used in the analyze of how to handle the work related stress through taking power over the individuals own situation and as a tool for counter-power. The participants in this study had diverse answers to coping strategies with only one in common, physical activity. This was practiced by three out of five counselors. For the individual school counselor it can be of great help to review his or her work situation and use various coping strategies to gain control over the unhealthy stress.