상담의 효과는 상담자 자신의 건강한 심리적 상태가 유지될 때 최적의 효과를 나타낼 수 있다. 본 연구는 한국의 상담 실무자들이(N=115) 경험하는 심리적 소진의 정도가 어느 정도이며, 심리적 소진을 유발하는데 기여하는 요인과 줄이는데 기여하는 요인들이 무엇인지에 대하여 알아보았다. 한국 상담자들이 주로 경험하는 심리적 소진의 유형은 정서적 고갈이었으며, 반면 개인적인 성취수준이 떨어지지는 않는 것으로 보고되었다. 심리적 소진에 영향을 미치는 요인들로 상담환경의 위험요소들과 사회적 지지의 영향력을 위계적 중다회귀분석으로 분석하였다. 분석결과에 따르면 상담환경에서 상담자들이 역할갈등과 도전감의 상실을 경험할 때 심리적 소진의 정도가 의미있게 높아지는 것으로 나타났으며, 반면 동료 및 가족들로부터 사회적 지지를 받는다고 지각할 때 소진은 의미있게 감소되었다. 서구연구 결과와 달리 수퍼바이저의 지지가 상담자 소진의 문제를 해결하는데 의미있는 영향을 주지 못하는 점들이 지적되었으며, 상담자들의 심리적 소진을 예방하기 위해 상담자들의 자기관리를 도울 수 있는 방안들이 논의되었다.

Burnout is one form of emotional strain that has been studied extensively in diverse occupational settings, particularly those in people-oriented, human service occupations, helping professions, or high touch fields. In the present study, we examined how occupational stress and perceived social support influence on the level of burnout in professional counselors in Korea. Research participants were 115 counselors working either in community or in university counseling centers. The level of burnout was assessed by the Maslach Burnout Inventory (Maslach & Jackson, 1986). Occupational stress was measured by the questionnaire developed by Jayaratne and Jackson (1981), and perceived social support from supervisors, colleagues, and family was assessed by the questionnaire developed by Caplan, Cobb, French, Harrison & Pinneau (1980), The level of burnout was predicted through a hierarchical multiple regression analysis, Within each block entered, a stepwise selection was utilized to obtain the most efficient model. Overall, occupational stress explained 25% of the variance of burnout, Specifically, "confusion in roles", and "lack of challenge" were found to be the most powerful contributors to the variance of burnout in counselors, Step 2 involved the entry of perceived social support from supervisors, colleagues, and family into the regression model as a group of predictors for the level of burnout, Perceived social support from family was found significant to explain an additional 6% of variance and from colleagues an additional 3% of variance, The result indicated that social support significantly buffers the negative impact of work-related on burnout in counselors in Korea, However, contrary to the results of previous studies in burnout conducted in western cultures, supervisor support has no significant influence on burnout with the current Korean sample, It probably reflects the fact that we have limited resource of supervision in Korea. The implication for future studies and for counseling practices were discussed.