본 연구는 4년제 대학의 대학상담자가 진로상담을 수행하며 적응하는 과정에서 어떤 경험을 하는지 탐색하고자 수행하였다. 이를 위해 학내 일반심리상담소인 대학상담센터에서 근무하는 상담자 12명을 심층면담하고 근거이론 접근(Strauss & Corbin, 1990; 1998)으로 분석하였다. 첫째, 개방코딩으로 176개 개념, 62개 하위범주, 22개 범주가 도출되었다. 둘째, 축코딩으로 대학상담자의 진로상담 수행 적응과정에 대한 패러다임 모형이 도출되었다. 그 결과, 중심현상은 ‘진로상담 역량에 대한 막연한 두려움과 한계를 느낌’, 인과적 조건은 ‘역할의 혼란을 느낌’, ‘진로상담을 못한다는 수행 불안’, ‘진로상담 영역 전문성 부족’, 맥락적 조건은 ‘대학상담센터 업무의 독특성’, ‘진로상담에 대한 편견’, ‘진로상담 수행에 대한 훈련 부족’, ‘진로상담 교육을 받은 경험’, ‘상담자가 진로상담을 받아 진로확신을 갖게 됨’으로 나타났다. 중재적 조건은 ‘대학상담의 환경적 매력’, ‘자신과 내담자 이해의 확장’, ‘진로 정보력을 가짐’, ‘진로문제 해결에 확신을 가짐’, ‘든든한 수퍼바이저와 동료들’이었고, 작용/상호작용은 ‘업무에 혼란을 느끼며 적응함’, ‘진로상담 능력을 갖추려 노력함’, ‘취업기관 연계 및 활용함’, ‘진로상담 구조화로 책임한계를 명료화함’, ‘직업정보 탐색역량 개발 힘씀’, ‘진로상담 수행 자신감이 쌓임’ 등이었다. 결과는 ‘진로상담자 정체성을 이해하고 성장’, ‘상담 전문성 향상을 위한 욕구와 노력’, ‘진로상담 교육에 대한 요구와 기대’ 등으로 나타났다. 셋째, 선택코딩으로 핵심범주는 ‘진로상담 역량의 한계를 이해하고 자신의 전문 영역을 선택하여 상담 전문가로 성장해 나감’으로 도출하였다. 넷째, 과정분석으로 도출된 적응과정은 ‘혼란기’, ‘적응기’, ‘확장기’, ‘안정기’ 등 4단계였다. 연구결과는 입문 대학상담자나 진로상담 전문성을 향상하려는 대학상담자들을 위한 상담자교육에 적용해 볼 수 있을 것으로 기대된다.
This study was conducted to explore the experiences of college counselors at four-year universities in the process of conducting and coping the career counseling. To this end, 12 counselors working at the university counseling centers were interviewed in depth and analyzed based on the grounded theory approach (Strauss & Corbin, 1990; 1998). First, 176 concepts, 62 subcategories, and 23 categories were derived through open coding. Second, the axial coding derived a paradigm model about the process of career counseling adjustment of college counselors. As the study results, the central phenomenon was ‘uncertain fear and feeling of limit in career counseling’, and the causal conditions were ‘feeling the confusion of the role’, ‘the performance anxiety of not being able to consult the career well’, and ‘lack of expertise in the career counseling area’, and the contextual conditions were ‘special characteristics of works in the college counseling center’, ‘prejudice about career counseling’, ‘lack of training in career counseling’, ‘experiences in career counseling education’, and ‘getting confidence at career by career counseling as client’. It was also found that intervening conditions were ‘environmental attractiveness of college counseling’, ‘extension of the understanding of self and client’, ‘being equipped with career information’, ‘being confident in solving career problems’, ‘strong supervisors and colleagues’, and the action/interaction were ‘trying to be adapted being confused by work’, ‘making efforts to equip career counseling ability’, ‘linking and utilizing employment agencies’, ‘clarifying the limit of accountability through structured career counseling’, ‘making efforts to develop job information search capability’, ‘having confidence in conducting career counseling’. The consequences after the adapting process were shown as ‘understanding the identity of the career counselor and keep growing’, ‘needs and efforts to improve counseling expertise’, and ‘requirements and expectations for career counseling education’ Third, by using selective coding the core category was derived as ‘understanding the limitations of career counseling competencies, choosing the specialty area, and growing to be a counseling expert’. Fourth, the adaptation stages derived through process analysis were four stages: ‘confused stage’, ‘adapted stage’, ‘extended stage’ and ‘stable stage’. The study results are expected to be applied to counselor education for novice college counselors or college counselors who want to improve career counseling expertise.