Client and therapists’ subjective understanding of an ideal therapy room: A divergent reflection of experience, for publication in the European Journal of Counselling Psychology

Abstract

An abundance of studies showed that the room/space where therapy takes place could significantly impact the engagement, process, and how people experience therapy. The need to balance the comfort of the room with its fundamental functionality to clients is essential. Nevertheless, studies that report on the perception of therapists and clients about an ideal therapy room are scarce. This study, therefore, aimed to explore the subjective understanding of what makes an ideal therapy room from the perspective of clients and therapists. The study utilised a qualitative descriptive research design. Eight participants (three therapists and five clients) volunteered to participate in the study. The participants were purposively recruited for the study and participated in individual semi-structured interviews. Data obtained were transcribed verbatim and subjected to thematic analysis. Results showed divergent views among the participants about what constitutes an ideal therapy room. Confidentiality, spatial environment, contextual awareness, and privacy were the key emergent themes. Several subthemes pointed to comfortability, brightness, colour, nice viewing, and focus points as recurrent issues determining how ideal the participants perceive a therapy room. Conclusion The results align with Rapoport’s (1992) meaning of the built environment, which emphasises the variability of peoples’ reactions to the environment in terms of its meanings. Implication The study implicates the need for therapists working with clients in therapy rooms to consider what the room means to their clients and tailor the environment to suit their clients’ preferences as much as possible or make this an object of exploration at the start of the session. The built environment designers will also benefit from considering these points perceived as significant.