Abstract
Objectives This study was conducted with the purpose of understanding the doctoral academic experience of middle-aged counselors. Specifically, we sought to explore the motivation for entering the doctoral program, the academic experiences and dilemmas of the doctoral program, and the experience of life change through study from the perspective of a student currently pursuing his or her studies.
 Methods The experiences of five research participants were studied using the autobiographical narrative inquiry method of Clandinin & Connelly (2000/2007). The research process was conducted in five stages: being in the field, moving from the field to field text, composing field text, from field text to research text, and writing research text. Based on the story reported by one person as a research participant, four other researchers synthesized the meaning and repeated this process in a circular manner to present the research results.
 Results The meaning of the experiences of ‘middle-aged’, ‘counselor’, and ‘doctoral student’ to the research participants is as follows. First, they overcame the ‘midlife’ crisis, demonstrated flexibility and adaptability and experienced a life transition. Second, as a middle-aged ‘counselor’, I faced economic problems such as my family's livelihood, and experienced my family's support and cooperation in the process of solving the problem. Third, as counselors, we seek to develop through academic experience in the doctoral program and discover our calling within our own lives.
 Conclusions The conclusions drawn from the three results are as follows. Research participants who are middle-aged, counselors, and doctoral students have lived lives of growth, are maintaining those lives, and are preparing for their future lives. In other words, it was confirmed that the researchers and research participants of this study formed a research group, maintained a doctoral program, sought self-growth through self-healing through mutual assistance, and grew together by repeating this process.
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