Title: Lived Experiences of Licensed Professional Counselors with Mandated Reporting Abuse and Neglect

Abbreviated Abstract: Licensed professional counselors (LPCs) are legally and ethically obliged to report suspected abuse and neglect, yet the emotional, relational, and interpretive scopes of this responsibility remain underexplored in the counseling literature. The purpose of this Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) study was to explore the lived experiences of LPCs with mandatory reporting abuse and neglect. Five practicing LPCs in Connecticut, each with direct experience filing mandatory reports, participated in semi-structured interviews. Data were analyzed following Smith, Flowers, and Larkin’s (2022) IPA framework, resulting in three group experiential themes. Professional Responsibility captured participants’ shared duty to protect vulnerable clients alongside the ongoing negotiation of professional accountability. The Weight of Reporting reflected the emotional burden, relational and professional consequences, and the uncertainty participants experienced when deciding whether a situation warranted a report. The Significance of Supervision illustrated the protective role of consultation and peer support counselors receive when navigating reporting decisions without carrying that responsibility alone. Findings suggest that mandated reporting is experienced not as an isolated legal act but as an ongoing process of meaning-making that shapes counselors’ professional identity, ethical decision making, and therapeutic relationships. Implications include strengthening counselor education, supervision, and organizational support to address the emotional, relational, and interpretive complexity or mandated reporting alongside legal and procedural requirements. The findings should be understood within the context of the study’s Connecticut based sample and the phenomenological and interpretive nature of IPA.