TPC Journal V7, Issue 3 - FULL ISSUE

268 The Professional Counselor | Volume 7, Issue 3 are led by counselors who understand their psychosocial concerns are needed. Taylor et al. (2013) reviewed four existentially based group counseling models for adult cancer survivors that counselors may consider based on their young adult clients’ needs: (a) cognitive-existential group therapy, (b) self-transcendence group therapy (c) meaning-centered group psychotherapy, and (d) supportive- expressive group therapy. Participants’ lack of interest in the family counseling modality is an interesting result of this study. This result is supported by MacCormack et al.’s (2001) finding that many adults with cancer try to protect their friends and families by not sharing all of their emotional experiences with them. Rather than make general recommendations for clients who are young adults with cancer to participate in family counseling, counselors may want to make such recommendations on an individualized basis after thoroughly exploring clients’ psychosocial needs and preferences. Young adults with cancer are in a developmental period in which they are striving to live as independent adults (Arnett, 2000). A counselor suggesting that a young adult client with cancer participate in family counseling may be perceived as a suggestion that the client is unsuccessfully navigating this developmental period. For young adults who are interested in family counseling, a biopsychosocial approach guided by a medical family therapy framework (McDaniel, Hepworth, & Doherty, 1992) may be worth considering. This study can aid counselors in formulating hypotheses for what young adults with cancer may perceive as beneficial in different counseling modalities, as well as what types of counseling these clients would find helpful. Implications for Future Research Utilizing qualitative research methods may be especially helpful for future researchers (Kent et al., 2012) in continuing to explore young adults’ preferences for counseling topics in different counseling modalities. Researchers could incorporate the counseling topics included in this study in their interview questions to further explore these psychosocial areas, as well as to discover additional helpful counseling topics. Inquiring about the results of the counseling modality preferences in a qualitative study also could lead to further understanding about the contexts behind selecting one modality over another. Additionally, research exploring how counseling can increase quality of life for young adults with cancer would be a significant contribution to the literature. Quinn, Gonçalves, Sehovic, Bowman, and Reed’s (2015) systematic review of the literature revealed a dearth of evidence-based approaches to enhance quality of life for adolescents and young adults with cancer. Because an experimental or quasi- experimental research design would be necessary to interpret whether counseling leads to an increase in quality of life, conducting such a research study would be complex and costly. But, a research study following up on these results to examine whether discussion of certain topics, participation in different counseling modalities, or particular counseling models can increase quality of life for young adults with cancer would greatly benefit the development of evidence-based psychosocial services for young adults with cancer. Limitations Mono-method bias was an inherent limitation to this study because of the sole use of self-report for data collection. Additional limitations include the use of a convenience sample, as well as lack of diversity among the participant characteristics of gender and race. Furthermore, the possibility exists that there are other counseling topics that young adults with cancer would find helpful to discuss in counseling that were not included on this study’s counseling needs assessment tool. Finally, if participants had never experienced one or more of the included counseling modalities, they may have been unsure about their perception of how helpful topics would be to discuss in those modalities or how they would rate their modality preferences.