Abstract This study tries to present a theory based on an interpretive approach regarding the role of counseling and psychological services in leadership empowering women in universities in a systematic way. This research is focused on the main question that what are the backgrounds, main phenomenon, causal and intervening factors and consequences of women's leadership empowerment using counseling and psychological services in the university? Participants included 22 students, staff, professors and the university managers who were selected purposefully at the University of Kurdistan in Sanandaj and Salah al-Din University in Erbil, Iraq. The data was collected via in-depth interviews and analyzed using a new method and continuous comparative analysis through three-stage theoretical coding. As a result, 300 open codes, 35 central codes and seven selective codes were counted, which were (mental ability, economic ability, political ability, social ability, group ability, physical ability, academic ability). The findings revealed that empowerment is a process, not a product, and until all the people involved in the empowerment process in the university do not have a correct understanding of the requirements and methods of women's empowerment, counseling and psychological service programs cannot be effective and in ultimately, it is probably the women themselves who determine the success of these efforts. As much as empowerment is important in the university, it is also important to create a positive organizational atmosphere and a supportive culture of empowerment in which empowerment originates spontaneously from female students, employees and managers. Second, the establishment of empowerment strengthens the turn towards the independence of universities and the perception of higher education centers as unique entities with a specific culture. Thirdly, the importance of context and situation in the implementation of empowerment and the necessity of avoiding patterns unrelated to cultural contexts were emphasized, and finally, before any effort, university administrators should be personally committed to women’s' leadership empowering.
