A Delphi Study on the Challenges Perceived by Psychological Counseling Practitioners and Strategies for Improvement

Objectives This study aims to identify the challenges perceived by counselors working at counseling organizations and explore potential solutions for improvement. Methods A Delphi survey was conducted to gather opinions from 17 expert panelists, consisting of counselors with more than three years of experience working in counseling organizations in Gyeonggi Province. The process included open-ended written interviews for the initial development of the Delphi questionnaire, followed by two rounds of the Delphi survey. Through this process, content validity ratio (CVR), convergence, agreement levels, and mean scores for each item were calculated. The survey resulted in a consensus on the challenges faced by counselors and the areas requiring improvement. Results The challenges perceived by counselors included issues such as ‘poor working conditions compared to the qualifications required for counseling professionals’, ‘lack of public understanding regarding counseling expertise’, ‘difficulty in securing qualified counseling personnel’. The critical Section identified were ‘Improvement of working conditions and environments in alignment with qualification requirements.’,‘Enhancing public awareness of counseling expertise.’,‘Securing professional counseling personnel through continuous education and training.’,‘Standardizing business operations and reporting systems.’,‘Establishing comprehensive evaluation systems for counseling services.’,‘Simplifying administrative tasks and ensuring professional and stable operations through legal frameworks’.The urgent section included the majority of issues, except for ‘awareness of professionalism in the field of counseling’ and ‘ongoing education,’ which were agreed upon as critical section. Conclusions This study explored the challenges faced by counseling professionals in their work area, focusing on the importance and urgency of necessary improvements. Based on these findings, it is hoped that the results will aid in the development and enhancement of training programs aimed at improving the working conditions, treatment, and professional competence of counselors working in counseling institutions. Furthermore, by sharing the research findings, the study aims to contribute to the improvement and advancement of the quality of public psychological counseling services.