The Professional Counselor | Volume 14, Issue 3 300 interviews were grounded in emerging adulthood theory and asked specifically about the five features of emerging adulthood. These questions may have influenced participants’ thoughts and feelings about their experiences with this population and affected the overall findings of the study. Finally, some members of our research team were master’s students who did not have doctoral-level research design and qualitative research classes or training. To combat this limitation, several steps were taken to assure the research team members were appropriately trained for their participation in this study, such as online trainings, training from Nice, reflexivity journals, and numerous research team meetings between interviews. The findings from the present study suggest future investigation concerning the practices for counseling emerging adults is warranted. Whereas this study provides a distinct contribution to the professional counseling and emerging adulthood literature, studies can use these findings to explore future methods for counseling emerging adults. Given that the present study is a phenomenological examination of counselors’ experiences of counseling emerging adults, future studies should use a grounded theory methodology to generate the best practices for working with emerging adults in therapy. Interviews from both professional counselors and emerging adults currently in counseling would assist in providing a complete perspective of the needs for emerging adults in therapy. Quantitatively, the four themes from this study can be examined in relation to stress, anxiety, wellness, and life satisfaction in order to understand the levels of distress these factors have on the mental health of emerging adults. For example, survey research seeking to understand emerging adults’ levels of stress and wellness can include the Revised Dyadic Adjustment Scale (Busby et al., 1995) and the Short Version of the Individuation Test for Emerging Adults (Komidar et al., 2016) to examine dating and attachment (i.e., Theme 4) and parental relationships and pressures (i.e., Theme 1) in relation to stress and wellness scales. Conclusion Counseling with emerging adult clients presents professional counselors with a unique task that includes important developmental implications to address. Consistent with emerging adulthood theory (Arnett, 2000, 2004), counselors experienced their emerging adult clients demonstrating high levels of stress and anxiety from developmental phenomena exclusive to this age range. Specifically, counselors experienced their emerging adults consistently bringing issues to counseling sessions related to parental pressures, self-discovery, transitions, and dating and attachment. Applying these insights derived from professional counselors’ experiences of counseling emerging adult clients in clinical settings and counselor education training programs can support counselors to better serve the specific needs of this frequently served population and, consequently, better address the mental health of emerging adults in therapy. Conflict of Interest and Funding Disclosure The authors reported no conflict of interest or funding contributions for the development of this manuscript.
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