Nurturing Students Mental Health through Islamic Counseling Guidance in Pesantren Musthafawiyah, North Sumatra 1 st Lahmuddin Lubis Postgraduate Program Universitas Islam Negeri Sumatera Utara Medan, Indonesia lahmuddinlubis@uinsu.ac.id 4 rd Rahmah Fithriani Faculty of Tarbiyah And Teachers Training Universitas Islam Negeri Sumatera Utara Medan, Indonesia rahmahfithriani@uinsu.ac.id 2 nd Saiful Akhyar Lubis Postgraduate Program Universitas Islam Negeri Sumatera Utara Medan, Indonesia saifulakhyar@uinsu.ac.id 5 rd Dahlia Lubis Faculty of Ushuluddin And Islamic Studies universitas islam negeri sumatera utara Medan, Indonesia dahlialubis@uinsu.ac.id 3 rd Nefi Darmayanti Faculty of Public Health Universitas Islam Negeri Sumatera Utara Medan, Indonesia nefidarmayanti@uinsu.ac.id 6 rd M. Syukri Azwar Lubis Postgraduate Program Universitas Islam Negeri Sumatera Utara Medan, Indonesia Abstract—This study discusses students’ mental health care through Islamic counseling guidance in Pesantren Musthafawiyah (an Islamic boarding school in North Sumatra). Islamic counseling guidance in this study focuses on the treatments done by applying the Al-Qur’an and Al-Hadith approach. This research has three goals; (1) to analyze the mental health care technique used by the Ustadz (teacher) in Pesantren Musthafawiyah ; (2) to analyze the aspects of the treatments given in Pesantren Musthafawiyah ; and (3) to analyze the nurturing mental efforts made by the Ustadz in Pesantren Musthafawiyah . The qualitative approach using three instruments of data collection, namely; observation, interview, and documentation was applied in this research. The findings of this research show that the Islamic counseling technique used by the Ustadz was done through group organization or group guidance approach, while Islamic approach was used as the aspect of the treatments given. The mental nurturing efforts are based on Islamic Pillars, the Six Articles of Faith, and Ihsan (perfection) with the major priority of akhlakul karimah (the practice of virtue, morality, and manners). This study suggests that mental health care as done in Pesantren Musthafawiyah could be implemented in any other Islamic boarding schools by using the Islamic Counseling Guidance as its approach. Keywords-Mental health care, Santri, Islamic Counseling Guidance, Pesantren. I. INTRODUCTION Every human being faces problems in her life and those problems need to be solved, otherwise it will hinder the possibility of someone in achieving her goals. Psychological approaches in the form of psychotherapy, guidance, and counseling are some general alternatives used by experts to help people face their life problems [1]. The concept of counseling was proposed by Frank Parson in Boston, 1908 and it has been developed as a major service of guidance in education [2]. Today, counseling is growing rapidly in line with the problems of human life (physical, psychological, family matters, social life, and religious beliefs) which ask for solutions. Islamic counseling is the development of the concept of counseling, and it aims to anticipate the trends for complex problems which relate to the unhealthy mental development in society. Islamic counseling emphasizes humans as unique creatures, not similar in which it is called as “khalqan akhyar” (the special creature) in Al-Qur’an [3]. Musnamar [4] defines Islamic guidance as a process of providing assistance to individuals so that they can live in harmony in accordance with the provisions and instructions from Allah SWT, and achieve happiness of living in this world and the hereafter. Saiful Akhyar states that the Islamic counseling has actually been reflected in Indonesia since a long time, especially in Pesantren (Islamic boarding school). Kyai (Islamic teachers) become the problem solver or the questions and various problems faced by the community that lives in the surrounding of Pesantren [1]. The problems may be about economic, inner anxiety, family disputes, children’s education, and mental health disorders. This phenomenon shows that Pesantren doesn’t only play its role as an institution that provides Islamic education, but also becomes the traditional form of guidance and counseling institution. Based on this facts, the researchers are interested in conducting a research related to Mental Health Care technique used by the Ustadz (teacher) in Pesantren Musthafawiyah, the aspects of the treatments given in Pesantren Musthafawiyah , and the mental nurturing efforts made by the Ustadz in Pesantren Musthafawiyah, North Sumatra Indonesia. II. THE RESEARCH METHOD This study is a field study with a naturalistic qualitative approach. In this study, the researchers act as instruments, and gain the data. The primary data are the techniques, aspects, and the efforts used by Kyai (Islamic teachers) in nurturing students’ mental health in Pesantren Musthafawiyah including the information from the students which were obtained through interviews. The secondary data 285 Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research (ASSEHR), volume 208 1st International Conference on Social Sciences and Interdisciplinary Studies (ICSSIS 2018) Copyright © 2019, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).