This study explored the essence of the psychological and internal experiences of counselors working with women engaged in prostitution, employing a phenomenological methodology. In-depth interviews were conducted over 15 sessions with four counselors who had practical experience in prostitution counseling, and the data were analyzed based on van Manen’s four existential categories: lived experience of space, lived experience of time, lived experience of relation, and lived experience of body. The counselors experienced existential disruptions and processes of self-reconstruction beyond the traditional counseling framework through deep engagement with the suffering and lives of the women. Counseling emerged as a space that fractured the counselor’s world through structural limitations, repeated violence, emotional exhaustion, and ethical dilemmas, while simultaneously fostering ontological reflection and transformative practice through encounters with the Other. This study demonstrates that prostitution counseling is not merely a form of support but an existential journey that reshapes the being of both counselor and client, and suggests implications for enhancing the psychological protection and institutional support for counselors.
