295 The Professional Counselor | Volume 14, Issue 3 counseling emerging adult clients involved working on their clients’ relationship with their parents. Within this theme, participants expressed that their clients struggle with meeting their parents’ expectations, criticisms, standards, and imposed beliefs. Sarah shared: A lot of people, whether they had good or bad relationships with their families, are learning how that looks now in their adulthood, like how they incorporate their family. So like creating more boundaries and what not, boundaries is a huge thing for this. Mark asserted: “Parents are always into the stuff [emerging adult clients] are doing and criticizing it, saying ‘no, do this or that instead.’ I think it pushes them into feeling like they are still this adolescent or kid.” Additionally, Stephen mentioned: “Clients might be going through, let’s say, gender identity. There’s this rejection of themselves from their parents when they were younger, and they struggle exploring who they want to be, because they were never fully accepted by their parents.” Participants largely expressed that although their emerging adult clients are adults, their parents still have a profound effect on them and what they bring to counseling sessions. Counselors experiencing their clients navigating their parental relationships is likely due to the individuation process (Youniss & Smollar, 1985). Individuation is an age-normative co-constructed process occurring in emerging adulthood in which young adults redefine their relationship with their parents after transitioning into emerging adulthood (Zupančič & Kavčič, 2014). This process often involves young adults’ fear of disappointing, seeking approval, and navigating parent intrusiveness (Nice & Joseph, 2023). Theme 2: Self-Discovery The theme self-discovery refers to counselors’ experiences of assisting emerging adult clients in finding who they are, how they fit into society, and their exploration of being an adult. Judy expressed: I just recognize that there’s a really great impact for folks during these [emerging adult] years to explore themselves and really get to know who they are, but in a space that feels comfortable and accepting. And, hey, however, you want to show up to session, you know that the counselor there has got your back. Similarly, Emily stated: “You know [emerging adult clients] are trying these identities possibilities on for size, you know, I could be this! What would that feel like? What would that be like?” Claire also had similar experiences working with emerging adult clients. She expressed: Finding who they are is probably the biggest type of stress that I see [as a professional counselor]. What does it mean to be by myself? What does it mean to be outside of a family? What does it mean to be alone and not alone? But you know just kind of out there in the world. This theme likely speaks to the features of emerging adulthood, namely identity exploration and instability (Arnett, 2000, 2004). Exploring identities can be a stressful time for young adults, especially when some identities are marginalized (Pender et al., 2023). Participants expressed the importance of being a stable and safe place for clients as they explore who they are, who they want to be, and their place in society.
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