PSY | Every Election a Nightmare: Caught Between Counselling and Bureaucracy
Research project examines emotional strain in women’s counselling services
How do staff members in women’s counselling services experience their everyday work amid shifting political and funding frameworks and growing bureaucratic demands? This question lies at the heart of a new research project, funded by the City of Vienna, and based at the Faculty of Psychology.
The project focuses on the emotional strain that emerges at the intersection of counselling work and administrative requirements under volatile political conditions. The research team – Sara Paloni and Anoel Alshuth, led by Nora Ruck (all from the Faculty of Psychology), together with practitioner-researchers from the counselling centres Frauen* beraten Frauen* and Peregrina – examines how these frameworks shape daily work routines and what challenges arise from them, including the emotional demands involved.
The project follows a participatory action research approach: women counsellors are actively involved and contribute their professional experience to the research process. Based on the findings, the team aims to develop concrete impulses that feed back into practice – for example through guidelines on handling bureaucratic requirements, workshops with counselling centres and funding bodies, and targeted public outreach.
5 February 2026