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Following university research board ethical approval, SPCs were contacted via email toorganize individual face-to-face interviews.

Interviews were organized at a time and location suitable to each participant and were conducted by the first author who had been trained in qualitative research methodology.

Interviews ranged in duration from 60 min to 90 min.

Each interview was audio-recorded with the participant’s written consent.

The interviews were later transcribed verbatim by the primary researcher yielding 322 pages of data.

Verbatim interview transcripts along with the researcher’s preliminary interpretations were then sent to each participant for member checking.

Data Analysis Thematic content analysis was employed to inductively search for categories that emerged from the 13 SPC interview data (Weber, 1990).

Specifically, following initialmember checking processes for each interview transcript, a four-stage free flowing analytical process took place.

The first stage utilized an open coding method, where the data was fractured, conceptualized and integrated to formconcepts and categories (Strauss&Corbin, 1988).

Thiswas followed closely by the second stage with careful line-by-line coding (Robson, 2002; Weber, 1990).

These coding methods allowed the researcher to interact with the data to produce meaningful pieces of information to produce a set of concepts and novel relationships which adequately represented what SPCs believed to be essential to consulting effectiveness (Corbin & Strauss, 2008).

Throughout the course of these coding procedures categories, sub-categories and concepts emerged to describe and explainwhat SPCs believed essential for both consulting effectiveness and the consulting relationship.

Progression through the entire data collection and analysis was aided by the researcher continually memo writing.

This process was intended to help spark thinking and encouraged the researcher to examine the data and codes in new and different ways.

Following the completion of the line-by-line coding process, the third stage involved a constant comparative method, whereby categories were judged by their similarities, so that data within each category is similar to each other yet distinct from other emergent categories.

Theoretical saturation was achieved once the analysis of new data fit adequately into existing categories without creating new concepts and categories (Corbin & Strauss, 2008).

In the final stage, axial coding followed, whereby the process of reconstructing data that had been broken down during the open coding process began by relating the emergent categories to their subcategories to form more precise and complete explanations (Strauss & Corbin, 1998).