A qualitative study on spiritual counseling services in the Turkish armed forces

Military spiritual counseling is an ongoing structure in the organizational cadres of the world's armies in religiously supported institutional areas. Today, these services, which are referred to as spiritual counseling and guidance services, continue their activities in many countries, especially in the USA, Canada, France, England and Switzerland. Spiritual counseling, also referred to as pastoral counseling, has been practiced by those working in the field of spiritual counseling in the army for many years. When the past periods of the Turkish state are examined, it is seen that spiritual counseling in the army has a deep-rooted history. It is seen in historical documents that army imams, also known as military imams, who carried out their activities as a systematic structure in the Ottoman Empire. Today, it appears as a new field of service as a Religious Affairs and Morale Officer in the Turkish Armed Forces. In this research, the studies on spiritual counseling services in the Turkish Armed Forces are examined. For this purpose, the importance, history, scope, limitations and aspects that need to be developed were tried to be addressed. In this respect, the study aims to contribute to the development of spiritual counseling activities applied in the military in our country. The research examined the works, academic theses, articles and news written on military spiritual counseling in various countries and interviewed people who received spiritual counseling services during their military service. This study was conducted with a phenomenological design, one of the qualitative research methods, and semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 male participants who received MDR services within the Turkish Armed Forces. The data obtained were analyzed using thematic analysis method. As a result of the research, it is seen that the institution of religious officer has an important place for the army. In line with the evaluations of all participants, it was seen that Spiritual Counseling and Guidance (SCG) services made significant contributions to the military service process, especially in terms of increasing psychological resilience, strengthening spirituality and supporting social cohesion. Participants stated that MDR creates individual awareness, plays a unifying role around common values, and that it should gain a more professional, systematic and universal structure over time.