Abstract:

The history of psychological counseling in Turkey dates back to the 1950s. Psychological guidance and counseling, that is mostly takes place in a clinical setting, as well as education, justice, industry, social services, religious services, which spreads up day by day. In the future, people will need more psychological support, because of the changes experienced in the cultural codes, which are caused by globalization, multiculturalism, changing family and social structure, modern lifestyle, rapidly evolving technology. The efforts to keep pace with this rapid change in society increase the need for psychological supprt services. The psychological support is professionally supplied by psychiatrists, therapists, psychotherapists, psychologists, clinical psychologists, educators, consultants, guidance, counselors, and social workers in Turkey. Among these, the pastoral guidance and counseling, that is a recent study of field, need more academic attention in Turkey. The pastoral guidance and counseling issues, that arose in the context of the more religious services, have begun to be addressed by the master level studies, articles, the symposiums and workshop papers. The aim of this study is to answer the following questions: What are the major areas of psychological supprt, that is increasingly needed in the community? In the context of psychological guidance and counseling, the academic studies in Turkey, are at which stage? This study, tries to draw attention to the pastoral guidance and counseling, and its relations to other psychological support services. So that, it also aims to contribute to the process of enhancement of pastoral guidance and counseling in Turkey.

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