Turkish Psychological Counseling and Guidance Journal, vol.11, no.60, pp.13-36, 2021 (Peer-Reviewed Journal)
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-toone 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.