Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Üçok S. B. (Yürütücü), Yeler Z., Yıldız H. S., Erden Başaran Ö., Uğurel Kamışlı M.
Yükseköğretim Kurumları Destekli Proje, 2022 - 2023
The COVID-19 pandemic has been regarded as an evolutionary catalyst in the online counseling field. Regulations like social and physical distancing, and working and studying from home have made online counseling an ideal way of providing mental healthcare services. The rapid increase in the need for online counseling and psychotherapy left therapists with no choice but to adapt. This adaptation required getting acquainted with the difficulties, ethical issues, and discovering possible solution proposals for online counseling. The main difficulties in online counseling have been mentioned in the literature as the lack of face-to-face communication and concerns about the efficacy of online counseling. Moreover, this counseling approach has been subject to ethical criticism and concerns, and it has raised some questions among professionals on how to establish therapeutic relationships with the clients, handle emergency situations, maintain confidentiality and professional competence, and how to follow the technological updates to ease the process of online counseling. Taking into account the youth’s excessive use of technology in every domain of their lives, online counseling was reported to be preferable among this population. Moreover, considering the increased use of online counseling, especially since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemics indicates that online counseling will be an inevitable part of the counseling profession. Hence, taking the opinions of prospective counselors on the difficulties, ethical issues, and solution suggestions regarding online counseling carries an important role in their future professional competency as well. In this regard, this study aims to get the opinions of the junior and senior psychological counseling and guidance (PCG) department students about online psychological counseling. In order to reach this aim, the tricky topics method will be utilized and the Threshold Concepts, such as obstacles, ethical issues, and possible solution proposals, that psychological counselor candidates may or may not encounter during the online counseling process will be obtained. The content analyses of the mind-maps, voice recordings, and behavioral observations will be done. The results will be discussed in relation to the previous research findings.