Din Görevlilerinin Gözünden Manevi Danışmanlık: Beklentiler, Deneyimler ve İyileştirme Yolları
Spiritual Counseling Through the Eyes of Clergy: Expectations, Experiences, and Paths to Healing

Summary/Abstract: Since 2015, the Presidency of Religious Affairs (PRA) has been providing spiritual counseling services through religious officials in university dormitories and youth centers. Unlike traditional religious service practices, religious officials offer a new form of religious service to young people. These officials are providing spiritual counseling to young people in a new environment, outside of their usual service areas. Success and effectiveness in this new field are closely linked to evaluating studies based on the perspective and recommendations of religious education. In this context, this research focuses on the meaning current spiritual counselors attribute to spiritual counseling, their evaluation of the process, and their approaches and recommendations for more effective spiritual counseling. The study aims to analyze the methods and techniques of religious education and the practice of spiritual counseling in line with the literature. A qualitative research method, phenomenological design, was used in the study. The study group consisted of 26 religious officials providing spiritual counseling in six provinces in the Marmara Region (Balıkesir, Bursa, Edirne, Kocaeli, Tekirdağ, and Yalova). Maximum variation sampling was utilized by selecting 13 male and 13 female spiritual counselors from different socio-economic provinces of the Marmara Region. Furthermore, snowball (chain) sampling was utilized because the study group referred their friends with experience in spiritual counseling to the researchers who would contribute to the study. Data collection was conducted through interviews with religious officials. Interview questions were developed by the researchers in accordance with the research purpose and based on a literature review. Data obtained from the study group's responses to the semi-structured interview questions were evaluated through descriptive analysis. The study group detailed the challenges they faced in spiritual counseling, the strategies they employed to overcome these challenges, and their future perspectives. One of the data analyses used in the study was content analysis. Through content analysis, new meanings were derived by interpreting participant opinions, resulting in themes, categories, and codes within the context of the study. The resulting themes were: perception and interpretation of spiritual counseling, the spiritual counseling process, and the effective spiritual counseling approach. Unlike the literature, spiritual counselors define counseling by the meaning they ascribe to it in their own worlds. Spiritual counselors view counseling as touching hearts and providing sincerity, companionship and guidance, and serving as role models. It has been reported that spiritual counseling provides professional satisfaction for religious officials, bringing them inner peace and spiritual fulfillment while impacting the lives of students. It has been revealed that they undergo role transformations in spiritual counseling to be more effective in this process. It is revealed that religious officials, unlike preaching and guidance services, exhibit a student-focused, psychologically sensitive, and supportive approach. The study highlights the importance of institutional support in spiritual counseling, recommending a fixed-term placement instead of an assignment, and recommending specializations such as youth spiritual counseling. The research results are believed to be important for informing the Presidency of Religious Affairs' criteria for assigning spiritual counselors, its work, and in-service training.

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