self-protection

Background Helping professionals face elevated risks of compassion fatigue and burnout, yet the daily processes through which emotional transformation occurs during therapeutic interventions remain poorly understood. This study examined how participants’ daily reflections shifted across the Emotion-Focused Training for Helping Professions (EFT-HP), analyzed through three complementary theoretical frameworks: Emotion-Focused Therapy's inner dialogue model (self-criticism, self-compassion, self-protection), Compassion-Focused Therapy's three-systems framework (threat, drive, soothing), and Ekman's basic emotion theory (primary emotions). Method Two hundred twenty-five helping professionals (88.0% female; M age = 38.7 years) from healthcare, social work, psychology, and education began the 14-day online EFT-HP intervention. Primary analyses focused on the 146 participants who completed at least 9 of the 14 days (completers), whose daily written reflections yielded 7,307 coded reflection units. Reflections were analyzed with directed content analysis and frequency quantification, applying non-exclusive, AI-assisted coding within three theoretical frameworks—EFT inner-dialogue categories, CFT emotion-regulation systems, and Ekman's discrete emotions—with a verbatim textual evidence excerpt retained for every assigned code. Results Across the intervention, participants’ reflections shifted from threat- and self-criticism-related content toward soothing and self-compassion. Within the EFT inner-dialogue framework, Self-Compassion was the most frequent category (17.9% of units) and was sustained throughout (Day-13 peak 30.8%), while Self-Criticism fell from 14.3% on Day 1 to 3.9% on Day 14 (73% relative decrease) and Self-Protection peaked on Day 6 (11.3%). Within the CFT emotion-regulation framework, the soothing system was the most frequently coded system overall (31.8% of units), followed by drive (20.4%); over the 14 days the threat system declined from 35.4% on Day 1 to 7.0% on Day 14 (80% relative decrease). Within Ekman's discrete-emotion framework, specific emotions were named less frequently: Fear declined from 2.7% to 0.8%, Anger peaked on Day 6 (15.0%), Joy rose to a Day-13 peak (14.8%), and Love was comparatively prominent (11.9% overall, Day-5 peak). Conclusions Across the 14-day intervention, participants’ daily reflections showed substantial shifts in emotional content, characterized by marked self-criticism and threat reduction alongside sustained self-compassion and soothing activation. Triangulated findings across three analytical frameworks: EFT inner dialogue, CFT emotion systems, and Ekman's primary emotions, are consistent with the emotional-transformation processes proposed by EFT-HP and with findings from previous controlled trials. Because the three frameworks were applied to the same reflection data, their convergence reflects analytic (theoretical) triangulation rather than independent confirmation.

This study explores how senior high school students make meaning of underachievement through the lens of growth mindset. Underachievement is often reduced to laziness, while students' subjective experiences remain underexplored. A qualitative design with interpretative phenomenological analysis was used. Five students identified as underachieving were selected purposively, and a counseling teacher and a classroom teacher served as supporting informants. Data were gathered through in-depth semi-structured interviews, observation during interviews, and relevant documentation, then analyzed through repeated reading, initial noting, theme development, and cross-case analysis. Six themes emerged: feeling academically not good enough, fear of failure and environmental expectations, the conflict between potential and performance, avoidance of academic challenges, self-reflection on failure, and the emergence of growth mindset as a reinterpretation of ability. Underachievement was lived as a threat to academic identity sustained by fixed beliefs about ability, and avoidance functioned as self-protection that limited development. Growth mindset appeared not as a ready-made trait but as a gradual process triggered by reflection and supportive relationships, coexisting with lingering doubt. School counseling should therefore address how students interpret failure, not only their academic performance.

این پژوهش به بررسی چگونگی معنابخشی دانش‌آموزان دبیرستانی به عملکرد پایین از منظر ذهنیت رشد می‌پردازد. عملکرد پایین اغلب به تنبلی تقلیل داده می‌شود، در حالی که تجارب ذهنی دانش‌آموزان کمتر مورد توجه قرار گرفته است. این مطالعه با رویکرد کیفی و تحلیل پدیدارشناختی تفسیری انجام شده است. پنج دانش‌آموز که به عنوان دارای عملکرد پایین شناسایی شدند به صورت هدفمند انتخاب شدند و یک مشاور مدرسه و یک معلم کلاس به عنوان مطلعان پشتیبان حضور داشتند. داده‌ها از طریق مصاحبه‌های عمیق نیمه‌ساختاریافته، مشاهده در حین مصاحبه و اسناد مرتبط گردآوری و از طریق خوانش مکرر، یادداشت‌برداری اولیه، توسعه مضامین و تحلیل بین‌موردی تحلیل شدند. شش مضمون استخراج شد: احساس ناکافی بودن از نظر تحصیلی، ترس از شکست و انتظارات محیطی، تعارض بین توان بالقوه و عملکرد، اجتناب از چالش‌های تحصیلی، تأمل بر شکست و ظهور ذهنیت رشد به عنوان بازتفسیر توانایی. عملکرد پایین به عنوان تهدیدی برای هویت تحصیلی تجربه می‌شد که با باورهای ثابت درباره توانایی تداوم می‌یافت و اجتناب، نقش محافظت از خود را ایفا می‌کرد که رشد را محدود می‌ساخت. ذهنیت رشد نه به عنوان یک ویژگی از پیش موجود، بلکه به عنوان فرایندی تدریجی که با تأمل و روابط حمایتی برانگیخته می‌شود و همزمان با تردیدهای باقی‌مانده همزیستی دارد، ظاهر شد. بنابراین، مشاوره مدرسه باید به نحوه تفسیر شکست توسط دانش‌آموزان بپردازد، نه صرفاً عملکرد تحصیلی آنان.