An Evaluation of the Relationship Between Physician (Doctor) and Patient in a Story in the Mevlana’s Masnawi in Terms of the Principles and Techniques of Psychological Counseling

Abstract

The efforts to understand people who are at the core of psychological assistance services constitute the main base of all psychological counseling approaches. A doctor’s effort trying to understand the negative emotions of his patient and his results after his reflection process have been told as a story in Mevlana’s book entitled as Mesnevi. It can be noticed that the interaction between the doctor and the patient in the story has many similarities with the current psychological counseling principles such as empowerment, empathy, encouragement it was also observed that the style and techniques used by the doctor were in parallel with the current psychological counseling approaches and especially with the Client Centered Approach from Rogers. In addition, concepts such as questioning and effective listening, which are considered as auxiliary techniques in psychological counseling sessions, were used by the doctor in the story. In this study, it was emphasized that it would be beneficial to use culture-specific understanding at the right time and context in the field in conducting the psychological counseling process. © 2023 Turkish Psychological Counseling and Guidance Association. All Rights Reserved.