Adapting School Counselling to Digital Practice: Arab Women Counsellors’ Experiences of Technology, Gender, and Cultural Boundaries

This study explores the experiences of 35 Arab school counsellors in Israel who provided emotional support to students via digital platforms during the COVID-19 period of enforced social distancing. Using a qualitative methodology based on in-depth interviews, the research identifies five themes: (1) digital counselling as an accessible and supportive relational space in times of crisis, (2) gendered exposure and boundary management in online counselling, (3) technological mediation as a constraint on counselling practice, (4) cultural and familial boundary tensions arising from home-based digital counselling, and (5) adaptive professional agency: strategies for boundary work and technological negotiation. The findings, which reveal the complex interplay between gender, technology, culture, and professional identity, challenge assumptions about the universality of digital counselling models. The study demonstrates how digital tools, while enabling continuity of care, also evoke ethical, relational, and cultural tensions that are often overlooked in counselling literature. The research contributes to a more nuanced understanding of school counselling in marginalised communities and underscores the need for culturally responsive training, policy development, and infrastructure support to enable equitable and effective online counselling practices in diverse school contexts.