117 The Professional Counselor | Volume 13, Issue 2 The objectives of the course were to (a) explore the five SEL competencies, (b) explore the mindfulness-based self-care and SEL interventions for counseling and personal growth, (c) understand the effectiveness of the SEL tools and practice mindfulness in daily life, and (d) create a workshop that serves the community the student hopes to serve. The instructor’s role was to create a supportive and safe environment in which students could share their personal narratives and experiences, including their strengths, cultural assets, resilience, privilege, discrimination, and oppression. Throughout the course, various mindfulness practices were utilized, such as collective breathing, body scan, mindful walking, mindful eating, mindful speaking, journaling, storytelling, visualization, and meditation. Individual Interviews After the summer session was over, Choi’s counselor education department gave permission to announce the research project via email. Those who showed interest in participating were given a research packet containing details of the study, informed consent, and a demographic sheet, as well as contact information for further inquiries. At every stage of the recruitment and research process, it was emphasized that participation or non-participation in the study would not affect the participants’ course credit or final grade. To be eligible for the study, participants had to meet the following criteria: (a) enrolled in the counselor education program, (b) completed the summer seminar, (c) successfully finished the entire course, and (d) willing to participate in a voluntary lengthy interview. Once students agreed to participate in the study and submitted their informed consent, contact information, and demographic questionnaire (including a pseudonym, gender, age, self-identified ethnicity, and specialization), they were individually interviewed by Hyun through Zoom. The interviews lasted for approximately an hour and followed a semi-structured format consisting of 16 open-ended questions asked in a consistent order (see Appendix A). The interviews were recorded in their entirety and then transcribed by a graduate student who was not affiliated with the study. After being reviewed by the participants and analyzed by the researchers, the audio recordings were deleted. To maintain the confidentiality of the participants, only pseudonyms were used in all written materials. Data Analysis The research methodology employed by the team was transcendental phenomenology (Moustakas, 1994), aimed at uncovering the fundamental nature of human experience (Moerer-Urdahl & Creswell, 2004). NVivo12, a qualitative data analysis software by QSR International (2018), was utilized for data storage, coding, and retrieval. To analyze the data, we followed Moustakas’s (1994) steps for data analysis, which involved the following process: (a) the researchers reflected on and recorded their own experiences of self-care, mindfulness, and critical consciousness before, during, and after data collection; (b) the transcripts were imported into NVivo12, and key statements that provided insight into the participants’ experiences of self-care were highlighted (horizontalization); (c) themes were formed by summarizing these significant statements (cluster of meanings); (d) the significant statements and themes were used to describe the participants’ experiences as a collective whole (textural description); (e) the context that influenced the participants’ experiences of self-care was described using the significant statements and themes (imaginative variation/structural description); and (f) a synthesis of the meanings and essence of the experience was provided by integrating all of the textual and structural descriptions into a universal description. Reflexivity Statement Choi is a professor and holds a master’s degree in school counseling and international relations, as well as a doctorate in counselor education and supervision. She has been teaching at the master’s level for over a decade and has received extensive training in mindfulness, yoga, and SEL.
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