Experiences of School Psychological Counsellors Working with High School Students Experiencing Traumatic Mourning: A Focus Group Study Report

Abstract

This study aims to identify experiences of school psychological counsellors working with high school students who experience traumatic mourning, through a focus group study. This study, through the focus group study method, presents experiences of school psychological counsellors working with high school students experiencing traumatic mourning. The sample of this study is comprised of 11 school psychological counsellors who worked in high schools in Bingöl city, Turkey, during the 2017-2018 school year and is conducted psychological Experiences of School psychological counsellors Working with High School Students who Experience Traumatic Mourning: A Focus Group Study Report counselling with traumatic mourning students in their professional lives. Data was obtained through the focus group discussion method. In the analysis of the data obtained from the research, content analysis was obtained from qualitative analysis methods. Findings indicate that the ways in which individuals experience traumatic mourning access the psychological counsellor in the following ways; student identification forms (f=23), or by notification of class teachers (f=21). Psychological counsellors describe the symptoms of individuals with traumatic mourning as inability to imagine (f=18), increased sense of guilt (f=16), academic failure (f=14), substance abuse (f=11), and a state of being depressed (f=6), respectively. Moreover, it is found that when working with individuals who experience traumatic mourning, the most difficult part for school psychological counsellors is one-to-one study (f=32) whereas, the easiest aspects for psychological counsellors are referring (f=19) and working with the family (f=5). When working with individuals who experience traumatic mourning psychological counsellors indicate their special procedures as using religious concepts (f=41), post-traumatic stress disorder treatment protocols (f=17), a trauma and crisis intervention route map (f=25), and providing social support. It was found that psychological counsellors are in need of knowledge and experience in intervening in adolescents with traumatic mourning.

Keywords

• Traumatic Mourning
• Adolescence
• High School
• Psychological Counselor

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