Care for the Carers: Counselors’ Coping Strategies in the New Normal

Abstract

The impact of the global pandemic demanded a lot from various sectors, including the
country's mental health workers, one of whom are the Guidance Counselors. This study aims to
identify counselors' coping strategies on managing work stress during the pandemic, as well as
their perceived relationship between how they cope and their profession. Using a descriptive
design, the study made use of the Brief-COPE inventory to determine which coping style from
either problem, emotion, and dysfunctional focused coping do the counselors regularly use. A
question was also added to determine the perceived connection of coping strategies to their work.
The findings show that while counselors generally use a problem-focused coping style, they also
utilize a combination of emotion and problem-focused coping strategies, with dysfunctional
coping strategies being the least used. Moreover, the counselors perceive that their work has
some influence on the way they cope, which is through their: experiences and encounters from
work and students/clients and application of skills from being a counselor; while it was also
indicated by some counselors that their strategies can also be situation-specific. The results will
serve as a basis to implement a wellness program that is aligned to the predominant coping
strategies of the counselors that will not only encourage but also improve their abilities to cope.