Exploring the life experiences of disaster responders in the context of emotional labor

Disasters are events that affect societies economically, socially, demographically and psychologically. Disasters have devastating effects in the context of both natural and unnatural causes. Among the types of disasters, earthquakes are among the most physically destructive ones. Individuals who experience especially severe earthquakes can be the subject of social and psychological destruction as well as physical destruction. The earthquakes that took place in Turkey on February 6, 2023 are among the most destructive earthquakes in the country's history. Providing psychosocial support services to disaster victims is among the most important coping strategies after severe earthquakes in Turkey. Generally, psychosocial support teams are among the first intervention teams to arrive in the earthquake zone. From this point of view, it is seen that psychosocial intervention teams experience the chaotic environment in the first times of the earthquake together with the earthquake victims and often experience the same difficulties with them. These difficulties experienced by psychosocial intervention teams can affect their professional and social lives in the following processes. This thesis aims to reveal the situations experienced by psychosocial support teams in the earthquake region in the context of emotional labor approach. As a professional responsibility, psychosocial support teams should not reflect their own intense emotions such as shock, fear, anxiety, pain, etc. to the service recipients and should be able to remain emotionally strong while providing services to earthquake victims. In this thesis, the professional reactions of psychosocial support teams who are professionally assigned to the earthquake region while providing services are evaluated in the context of emotional labor. In other words, how psychosocial intervention teams make sense of these professional reactions is the main argument of this thesis. Thematic analysis technique, one of the qualitative research methods, was used in this thesis study. In line with the purpose of the research, semi-structured interviews were used as one of the data collection techniques. The statements of the participants were analyzed by content analysis method and sub-themes and codes were reached as a result of the analysis. In the light of the findings obtained, it is seen that the first deployment processes of psychosocial support teams to the earthquake zone are physically and psychologically challenging, the events they experience affect both their personal and professional lives, and the emotions they feel while providing services and the emotions they display are incompatible. It was also found that professionals had to provide services outside their professional responsibilities in some cases and developed some strategies to overcome the difficulties they experienced in the earthquake zone. Keywords: Disaster, Disaster Management, Psychosocial Intervention, February 6 2023 Earthquakes, Emotional Labor.