Background

Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) is a chronic, debilitating psychological condition. To date, there has been no published research exploring brief humanistic counselling as an intervention for OCD. This study presents a case study of an adolescent client with obsessive compulsive difficulties (‘Sunil’) receiving school-based humanistic counselling.

Aims

(a) To test humanistic counselling for an adolescent client experiencing obsessive compulsive difficulties; (b) to help improve brief humanistic counselling in its approach to working with adolescent clients experiencing obsessive compulsive difficulties.

Method

This research used a mixed methods theory-building case study, based on a rich case record.

Results

The brief counselling did not reduce Sunil's obsessive compulsive difficulties. The core conditions were delivered in sessions, and the counselling allowed for the client to share traumatic memories and build peer relationships. However, the counselling did not seem to be directive at targeting Sunil's obsessive compulsive difficulties, and the silence in sessions was experienced by the client as awkward.

Implications

Further research should be conducted investigating the therapeutic and problematic aspects of brief humanistic counselling for OCD. These include an in-depth look at the impact of silence on the young person, integration of process-guiding tools and the counsellor not enabling compulsive in-session rituals.