A qualitative study of counselors' experiences working with ex-offenders and families

This study was conducted to examine the counseling experiences of professional counselors who participated in the Family Psychological Support Project conducted by the Gyeonggi Branch of the Korea Legal Protection and Welfare Corporation from 2022 to 2023, and to explore improvements and complementary points of the project from the perspective of professional counselors. The study was conducted among six counselors, five of whom were affiliated with Gyeonggi National University, and aimed to help provide more suitable and efficient programs and practical institutional support for criminal offenders and their families. The research method used a phenomenological research method that can reflectively analyze participants' experiences in terms of structure and subjectivity, and in the data analysis, iterative comparative analysis was applied to deeply explore the inner experience and define the meaning of a total of 633 consultations in 28 cases from 2022 to 2023. As a result of the research analysis, 57 semantic units were derived, which were grouped into 12 components, which were further categorized into 5 categories. Category 1. 'Feelings before participating in counseling' consisted of two components, 'Worry and curiosity about clients with special needs' and 'Challenging new types of clients', with three and two semantic units, respectively. Category 2. 'Difficulties and obstacles' consisted of four components: 'Limitations faced in the counseling process', 'Clients' insincere attitude to participate in counseling', 'Lack of family cooperation and support', and 'Difficulties due to the situation faced by the client', with seven, three, five, and three meaning units respectively. Category 3. 'Emotions felt while participating in the project' consisted of three components: 'Emotions felt in the counseling scene', 'Gratitude and regret for institutional support', and 'Activeness of support from the industrial complex', with 9, 2, and 4 meaning units, respectively. Category 4. 'Positive outcomes' consisted of two components, 'Positive changes in clients through counseling' and 'Capacity enhancement of counselors', with 7 and 3 meaning units, respectively. Category 5. 'Effective improvement direction of business' is 'business and counseling support area', which has a total of 1 component and 7 meaning units. Based on these findings, we discussed the improvements and deficiencies of the Family Psychological Support Project and made recommendations to provide more suitable and efficient programmes and practical institutional support for criminal offenders and their families.