This study is to explore the sources of anxiety experienced by college counselors in higher institutions in China and seek to understand the impact of anxiety, as well as the coping strategies and resources that college counselors use to manage their anxiety. Fourteen interviewees were recruited from universities of various tiers from different regions of China. Content analysis and thematic analysis approaches were used based on the text mining software-KH Coder 3 and the descriptive coding in Nvivo 12 to analyze the transcribed and translated texts. The findings revealed high levels of anxiety among Chinese college counselors and identified four main sources causing anxiety among counselors, including work-related issues, self-imposed pressure, societal pressures, and school culture. Anxiety has various impacts on college counselors, including personal impacts such as emotional burnout, lack of focus, and emotional fatigue; professional impacts affecting the quality and effectiveness of their work; and interpersonal impacts like communication breakdown and personal emotional transmission. College counselors employ a range of anxiety coping strategies to effectively manage their own well-being such as social strategies, meta-cognitive strategies and cognitive strategies. The findings illuminate the well-being of college counselors and may provide insights into strategies employed to manage their anxiety. © The Author(s) 2024.
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