Silence in Metaverse Counseling

Duckhyun Jo; Jieun Kang; Sunghee An; Seongah Im; Sang Min Lee

doi:10.1007/s10447-025-09598-z

Silence in Metaverse Counseling

Duckhyun Jo
, Jieun Kang
, Sunghee An
, Seongah Im
, Sang Min Lee^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Department of Education

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The primary objective of this study was to investigate the role of silence in metaverse counseling. We analyzed data from 159 counseling sessions conducted in a metaverse setting, which included 26 clients from a Korean community sample. The findings revealed that the most common type of silence was productive silence, with obstructive silence being the least frequent. Additionally, there was a high occurrence of productive silence and a low occurrence of obstructive silence in metaverse counseling. Furthermore, obstructive silence, particularly disengaged silence, had a significant impact on the counselor–client relationship (working alliance) and the outcomes of the counseling sessions (session satisfaction). By contrast, productive silence did not have a significant impact on these factors. The practical and theoretical implications of this study are discussed.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	329-350
Number of pages	22
Journal	International Journal for the Advancement of Counselling
Volume	47
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s10447-025-09598-z
Publication status	Published - 2025 Jun

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2025.

Keywords

Metaverse counseling
Session satisfaction
Silence
Virtual reality
Working alliance

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Education
Applied Psychology
Psychology (miscellaneous)

Access to Document

10.1007/s10447-025-09598-z

Cite this

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title = "Silence in Metaverse Counseling",

abstract = "The primary objective of this study was to investigate the role of silence in metaverse counseling. We analyzed data from 159 counseling sessions conducted in a metaverse setting, which included 26 clients from a Korean community sample. The findings revealed that the most common type of silence was productive silence, with obstructive silence being the least frequent. Additionally, there was a high occurrence of productive silence and a low occurrence of obstructive silence in metaverse counseling. Furthermore, obstructive silence, particularly disengaged silence, had a significant impact on the counselor–client relationship (working alliance) and the outcomes of the counseling sessions (session satisfaction). By contrast, productive silence did not have a significant impact on these factors. The practical and theoretical implications of this study are discussed.",

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author = "Duckhyun Jo and Jieun Kang and Sunghee An and Seongah Im and Lee, \{Sang Min\}",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2025.",

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T1 - Silence in Metaverse Counseling

AU - Jo, Duckhyun

AU - Kang, Jieun

AU - An, Sunghee

AU - Im, Seongah

AU - Lee, Sang Min

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2025.

PY - 2025/6

Y1 - 2025/6

N2 - The primary objective of this study was to investigate the role of silence in metaverse counseling. We analyzed data from 159 counseling sessions conducted in a metaverse setting, which included 26 clients from a Korean community sample. The findings revealed that the most common type of silence was productive silence, with obstructive silence being the least frequent. Additionally, there was a high occurrence of productive silence and a low occurrence of obstructive silence in metaverse counseling. Furthermore, obstructive silence, particularly disengaged silence, had a significant impact on the counselor–client relationship (working alliance) and the outcomes of the counseling sessions (session satisfaction). By contrast, productive silence did not have a significant impact on these factors. The practical and theoretical implications of this study are discussed.

AB - The primary objective of this study was to investigate the role of silence in metaverse counseling. We analyzed data from 159 counseling sessions conducted in a metaverse setting, which included 26 clients from a Korean community sample. The findings revealed that the most common type of silence was productive silence, with obstructive silence being the least frequent. Additionally, there was a high occurrence of productive silence and a low occurrence of obstructive silence in metaverse counseling. Furthermore, obstructive silence, particularly disengaged silence, had a significant impact on the counselor–client relationship (working alliance) and the outcomes of the counseling sessions (session satisfaction). By contrast, productive silence did not have a significant impact on these factors. The practical and theoretical implications of this study are discussed.

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KW - Session satisfaction

KW - Silence

KW - Virtual reality

KW - Working alliance

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M3 - Article

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JF - International Journal for the Advancement of Counselling

IS - 2

ER -

Silence in Metaverse Counseling

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Access to Document

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