"Leaning in" and "leaning back": Exploring the spatiality of telephone counselling

This paper explores telephone counsellors' experiences of the spatial dimensions of their work. Henri Lefebvre's spatial triad is applied to explore how counsellors conceive, perceive, and experience the spaces and places of this work. Three key findings are outlined: 1) the purpose built telephone counselling space is experienced as noisy and distracting; 2) counsellors engage in spatial practices to manage their depth of caller interaction; and 3) counsellors construct a mental place to foster intimacy with callers. These findings contribute to a novel conceptualisation of telephone counselling, raising implications for how it is performed and understood.