Introduction to Counseling- What is it?

As accepted by the American Counseling Association in 1997, Counseling is the application of mental health, psychological or human development principles, through cognitive, affective, behavioral or systematic interventions, strategies that address wellness, personal growth or career development as well as pathology.

There are some additional attributes to the above give definition:

1. Counseling deals with wellness, personal growth, career and pathological concerns. Counselors work in areas that involve relationships. These areas include intra and interpersonal concerns related to finding meaning and adjustment in such settings such as schools, families and careers.

2. Counseling is conducted with persons who are considered to be functionally well and those who are having more serious problems. Counseling meets the needs of a wide spectrum of people. Clients seen by counselors have developmental or situational concerns that require help in regard to adjustment or remediation. Their problems often require short term intervention, but occasionally treatment may be extended to encompass disorders included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) of American Psychological Association (APA).

3. Counseling is theory based. Counselors draw from a number of theoretical approaches, including those that are cognitive, affective, behavioral and systemic. These theories may be applied to individuals, groups and families.

4. Counseling is a process that may be developmental or intervening. Counseling focuses on the clients’ goals. Thus, counseling involves both choice and change. In some cases, “counseling is a rehearsal for action.” (Casey 1996)

History of Counseling

The history of counseling is a fascinating evolutionary process, particularly in relation to how the profession developed and how quickly it has evolved through the professionalization process during the past half century. Counseling principally evolved as a profession from the development and maturation of specialty areas of counseling practice (school counseling, rehabilitation counseling, mental health counseling) that shared a common core of professional competencies and foundational concepts. Historical, philosophical, societal trends and public policy have all contributed to the development of various counseling specialties.

The origins of the counseling profession in the United States have generally been attributed to Frank Parsons, “the father of the guidance movement,” who established the first formal career counseling center in Boston in 1909.

This center offered assistance to young people in vocational selection and other work-related issues. The first decade of the 20th century included major events that launched the guidance movement in this country. Industrialization, mass migration to large cities, compulsory education, immigration, the women’s movement, and the emergence of psychometrics led to changes that increased needs for assessment and guidance. Migrant workers and war veterans needed expert guidance to help find suitable occupations in various industries. At the beginning of the century, “visiting teachers” performed social welfare functions to students who showed adjustment problems . Parsons’s book, Choosing a Vocation, published in 1909, was a capstone event in the emerging guidance movement and its corollary process, counseling. Counseling was seen as a helpful tool to accomplish the goals of guidance.

During the 1920s and 1930s, guidance and counseling began a significant shift from a predominantly selection-focused test-and-tell approach to a conceptualization of guidance that was focused primarily on personal adjustment and human developmental issues. There is no question that, in the early stages of the 20th century, the field of counseling was heavily influenced by the vocational guidance movement, the mental health movement, and the study of individual differences, particularly in relation to psychometrics. Furthermore, as Petterson and Nisenholz (1991) succinctly point out, “in large part, counseling developed from a non-medical, non-psychoanalytic point of view”.

Counseling gained considerable autonomy and visibility by the middle of the century.

The debut of Carl Rogers, the great pioneer of humanistic approaches and founder of client-centered counseling, prompted this process of individualization. Rogers’s (1942) book, Counseling and Psychotherapy, revolutionized the counseling profession. The trait-and-factor approach was gradually replaced or at least supplemented by a nondirective, humanistic approach to counseling. Rogers brought the client-centered orientation into the fields of psychotherapy and counseling. The client-centered approach (now termed person-centered), founded on humanistic principles, became known as the third force in psychology and counseling, next to psychoanalysis and behaviorism.

History of Counseling in India

The origin of the counseling movement in India should be naturally traced to the beginnings of psychology in India. It was at the Mysore University in south India that the first Chair in psychology was endowed. Perhaps less than a year or so before this, the Calcutta University started a department of psychology with a lecturer as the in charge Head of the Department. For more than two decades since then psychology did not make much headway at the other universities in India. During the mid 1940’s Patna University, started a department of psychology, closely followed by one started at the Banaras Hindu University, the Lucknow University and the others. However, much of the progress manifested in the opening of new departments came about during the 1960’s. The various departments have since been preparing students for post graduate degrees in psychology with its emphasis on experimental approach. The applied psychology section of Calcutta University was established in 1938 and the department of psychological services at Patna University in 1945.

Counseling was recognized as an important service in India as early as 1938 when the Acharya Narendra Dev committee underlined the importance of counseling and guidance in education. The same vigor was not seen in the 1980’sand 1990’s and interest in guidance and counseling diminished.

Counseling was also identified as an essential service by the national framework curriculum in 2005 by the NCERT (National Council for Educational Research and Training).

Counseling Psychology

According to the American Psychological Association, Counseling Psychology is a general practice and health service provider specialty in professional psychology. It focuses on how people function both personally and in their relationships at all ages. This field addresses the emotional, social, work, school, and physical health concerns people may have at different stages of their life, focusing on typical life stresses and more severe issues people may suffer as individuals and as a part of families, groups and organizations. Counseling psychologists help people with physical, emotional and mental health issues and improve their sense of well being, alleviate feelings of distress and resolve crises. They also provide assessment, diagnosis and treatment of more severe psychological symptoms.

Counseling psychology focuses on:

1. Healthy aspects and strengths of clients.

2. Environmental or situational influences.

3. Issues of diversity and social justice.

4. The role of career and work in people’s lives.

The difference between Counseling Psychology and Clinical Psychology

Counseling Psychology is the general practice within the broader field of psychology that focuses on how patients function, both individually and in their relationships with family, friends, work and broader community. It comes from the Latin word “consulere” meaning advising.

Clinical Psychology is the specialty within the field of psychology that is geared more towards the populations with diagnosable mental disorders and serious psychopathologies which is the study of mental disorders. Diagnostic tests and inventories are used to identify psychological conditions, including emotional and behavioral disorders. It also focuses on pathology, diagnosis and prognosis. It comes from the Greek word “Kline” which means bed.

Earlier, clinical psychology was associated with studying disturbances in mental health while counseling psychologists’ earliest role was to provide vocational guidance and advice.

Today, the lines of both of these terms have been blurred, overlapped and intertwined. The lines have become complicated and difficult to pinpoint. However, there are still differences in the population focus, theories used and the research methods.

Counseling Psychology has a stronger focus on healthy individuals, who have fewer pathological mental problems. Clinical Psychology will mainly focus on those with a psychosis (serious mental health illness that affects personality) or other serious mental health issues.

People who work in clinical psychology tend to work with patients who have more diagnosable mental conditions compared to those who work in counseling psychology.

Counseling psychologists have frequently stressed the field’s historical focus on a normal client population; the research conducted and published in the professional literature is oriented towards people without serious or persistent mental illness. The Georgia Conference (1987) reaffirmed counseling psychology’s reliance on a developmental perspective to focus on the strengths and adaptive strategies of an individual across the life span.

There are also differences in theories used since clinical psychology focuses mostly on psychoanalytic persuasions and behavioral issues whereas in counseling, humanist and client-centered approaches where directly dealing with behavioral problems can be resolved in the community are used.

Clinical psychology leans towards psychodynamic research whereas counseling psychology leans towards cognitive behavior.

The research methods also differ since clinical psychologists prefer psychopathological conditions whereas counseling prefers vocational assessment and minority or cross cultural psychology.

When the difference between the two were explored, psychologists mentioned the same faculty research areas. The difference lies in the frequency with which the disciples participated in the programs.

The difference between Counselling and Psychotherapy

It is very common to misunderstand as counseling and psychotherapy being synonymous with each other and hence are often used interchangeably. While they may be similar in a lot of aspects and are closely related, they differ in many ways.

The basic difference is that counseling refers to short-term consultation whereas psychotherapy refers to long-term treatment.

Counseling deals with present issues that are resolved on a conscious level whereas psychotherapy intensively and extensively examines a person’s psychological history and helps a person understand his/her life in a profound and reflective manner.

Counseling is more concerned with practical or immediate issues and thus helps a client process powerful emotions such as grief or anger, deal with immediate cause of stress and anxiety, claridy values and identify options while making important personal or professional decisions, manage conflicts within relationships, develop better interpersonal and communication skills or initially change unproductive thoughts and behavior.

Psychotherapy is an evolutionary process that helps a person look at long-standing attitudes, thoughts and behaviors and goes much deeper to uncover root causes of problems, resulting in more dramatic changes in perspective regarding oneself, one’s life, experience and the world in general.

Counseling is used to denote a relatively brief treatment and is focused primarily on behavior. It targets a particular symptom or a problematic situation. Psychotherapy addresses a root cause and core issues of current problems so that lasting change and personal growth may occur.

Hence, we can say that counseling is concerned with circumscribed difficulty arising from an identified precipitating cause whereas psychotherapy is concerned with more fundamental and inherent difficulties of longer duration and with less easily identifiable causes. However, both of these use similar techniques and theories.

References

1. https://www.apa.org/ed/graduate/specialize/counseling

2. https://www.patnauniversity.ac.in/e-content/social_sciences/psychology/MAPsychology67.pdf

3. https://www.patnauniversity.ac.in/e-content/social_sciences/psychology/MAPsychology67.pdf

4. https://connect.springerpub.com/content/book/978-0-8261-7182-5/section/seca/chapter/ch01

5. https://www.div17.org/about-cp/counseling-vs-clinical-psychology/

6. https://mastersinpsychologyguide.com/articles/5-core-differences-between-clinical-psychology-and-counseling-psychology/

7. https://www.northeastern.edu/graduate/blog/clinical-vs-counseling-psychology/

8. https://www.verywellmind.com/counselor-or-psychotherapist-1067401

9. https://www.australiacounselling.com.au/whats-difference-between-counselling-and-psychotherapy/

10. http://www.thecounsellorsguide.co.uk/difference-between-counselling-psychotherapy.html