The construction of counselling psychology in Britain: A discourse analysis of counselling psychology texts

Counselling psychology is a relatively recent arrival on the professional psychological scene in Britain. This paper examines the ways in which this new branch of professional psychology has been constructed by the counselling psychology community. Articles which embodied this construction process from the 1990 and 1996 volumes of the journal Counselling Psychology Review were subjected to discourse analysis. The main themes of the 1990 articles concerned the construction of identity and legitimation, achieved largely through representations of similarity with and difference from related professions at a general level, whereas in the 1996 articles, the emphasis was on more fine-grained constructions of similarity and difference. Implications for the future construction of counselling psychology are considered.     

The development of counselling psychology in a clinical psychology service

This paper will describe one Clinical Psychology department's efforts to incorporate Counselling Psychology into the service. It is written from the experience of the Chartered Counselling Psychologist.     

Counselling psychology in South Africa

The origin and development of counselling psychology in South Africa has been profoundly influenced by the country’s sociopolitical history and the impact of apartheid. As a result of this, counselling psychologists in the country face a number of challenges and opportunities for the future. In this paper we provide a portrait of counselling psychology in South Africa by describing the current character of the specialty and the context in which South African psychologists work. We critically discuss the challenges that the specialty faces to meet the country’s mental health care needs, contest the current Scope of Practice; affirm multiculturalism without essentialising or reifying race and ethnicity, and build an evidence base for community interventions in the country. We also consider how, in the future, counselling psychologists in South Africa may make a more meaningful contribution within public health and the country’s health care and education systems.     

Counselling psychology in South Korea

Counselling psychology (CP) in South Korea has grown tremendously as it establishes its unique niche in the mental health profession. Diverse practice under the roof of CP is a strength as well as a weakness. In this paper, we describe the characteristics of CP in South Korea in terms of history, credentialing, the service delivery system, organizations, training, distinctive features from other adjacent areas, core values, and the profession’s unique challenges and future directions. Future tasks include the establishment of clear professional identity, achievement of a governmental licensure system, a nationwide accreditation system, development of Korean-specific ways of counselling, protocols for trauma, and increased accessibility.     

Counselling psychology in New Zealand

This article offers a brief overview of the history of counselling psychology in New Zealand. It describes current postgraduate study options and registration pathways as well as the institutions and organisations that provide legislative and professional membership and support to counselling psychologists in New Zealand. Data collected from a national survey in 2014 provide insight into the demographics of the profession in New Zealand, the theoretical frameworks that are utilised and employment opportunities that exist for counselling psychologists. The article also highlights the uniqueness of a cultural and contextual approach that aligns itself with New Zealand’s founding document, the Treaty of Waitangi/te Tiriti o Waitangi which is based on the principles of partnership, participation and protection. It concludes with the challenges the profession face as a new scope of practice. These challenges include establishing a professional identity in the mental health delivery system in New Zealand and responding to an ever increasing multicultural society.     

Color psychology: a critical review

A review of the field commonly referred to as color psychology poses a number of organizational problems stemming from the size and diversity of the literature, the range of issues investigated, and the different degrees of experimental rigor exercised. As a selective approach is both inevitable and desirable, the focus of this review is on those laboratory studies involving an "evaluative" response to color patches or chips. Numerically, this research represents the main body of work in color psychology and in experimental aesthetics generally.     

Counselling effectiveness: A critical discussion

Studies of counselling effectiveness are examined critically with respect to the measures they use, their methodological weaknesses, and problems of interpretation. The deficiencies of various measuring devices — including unstructured accounts, structured questionnaires, pre- and post-counselling ratings, physiological indicators, experimental investigations, and social actions effects — are discussed. Many of the experiments are criticised for poor design and over-interpretation of findings. Fundamental methodological problems are also discussed, including the extent to which the effectiveness of counselling can appropriately be examined by existing scientific methods. More knowledge of counselling processes is required before there can be any satisfactory measurement of counselling effects.     

Counselling psychology in the United Kingdom

Counselling psychology within the UK has grown over the last three decades, adapting to many changes in the field of applied psychology, whilst remaining true to its core values and humanistic origins. The identity of counselling psychology is strongly rooted in a relational stance and applied psychology, where attention to psychological formulation is given to improve psychological functioning and well-being. This article outlines a brief history of counselling psychology in the UK, the training process, credentialing and looks at some important challenges and future directions for counselling psychology in the UK. A proportion of the members from the British Psychological Society’s division of counselling psychology (DCoP, N = 148) took part in the study. Participants provided demographic, training, employment, workplace and career pathway information obtained through an online questionnaire distributed to all DCoP members. On the whole, DCoP members are working in a variety of areas within the UK and the findings of this article contribute to the international study comparing counselling psychology across the globe.     

Counselling psychology in the United States

Counseling psychology (CP) emerged in the US as the result of the convergence of a number of trends in early applied psychology, a number of social factors, as well as changes in the organizational structure of the American Psychological Association. We offer an overview of the history of counseling psychology in the US, focusing on key events that have helped establish and shape the profession. Struggles over the definition of CP as a specialty and its relations with clinical psychology and professional counseling are discussed, as are matters related to the licensing of CP practitioners, and the profession’s relationships with counseling-related professional organizations. The educational and professional preparation of CPs, the profession’s core values that affect both training in and the practice of counseling psychology, and the settings in which CPs work are briefly described. We close with a discussion of several of the challenges facing CP as it is organized and institutionalized in the US.     

Theory and Practice: Ernest Becker: a vital resource for counselling psychology

In this article we highlight the work of Ernest Becker for counselling psychology professionals and provide a brief overview of Becker's contributions. Several important themes from his writings relevant to counselling psychology are reviewed, including: the uniqueness of man, socialization and self-esteem, culture and heroism, the relativity of heroism, the fear of death, and the dynamics of evil. We also discuss some of the implications of Becker's work for counselling psychology and counselling psychology professionals, including: providing an integrative perspective on human behaviour and development, implications for multicultural counselling, understanding the hero system, the centrality of death in life, and helping people make meaning. We consider Ernest Becker's work a vital resource for counselling psychology.     

Adventure based counselling,individual counselling and object relations: a critical evaluation of a qualitative study

Adventure based counselling is a short-term experiential psychotherapeutic approach, which utilises adventurous activities and being in natural environmental in order to facilitate therapeutic change in clients. The present paper critically appraises the results of a qualitative study that investigated how clients with self-reported anxiety and depression experienced participating in an innovative counselling intervention with combined individual counselling with such an adventurous outdoor transaction. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, as described by Smith and Osborn (2008), was used in order record and analyse the experiences of four male and six female students who were treated at the Teesside's University Counselling Service. Interviewees perceived the counselling sessions as offering a safe therapeutic space within which they could unveil their anxieties and achieve inner healing, whereas the outdoor transaction as providing an experiential venue for achieving personal change. Interviewees felt that without the outdoor transaction the therapeutic significance of the counselling process would not have reached its full potential. Likewise, without the individual counselling, the outdoor transaction would just have an entertaining event and not a venue for personal change. These findings are discussed in relation to object relations theory.     

Counselling psychology in primary health care: A review

This paper reviews the development of counselling psychology within the field of primary health care. Issues discussed include liaison between counselling psychologists and other professionals, evaluation of treatment in primary care, family therapy in general practice and general practitioners’ skills in counselling. The need for training and evaluation of counselling are discussed and suggestions are made for further research.     

Young people generating a repertoire of counselling psychology: Talking theory

This paper is concerned with how young people, who are trained as peer supporters in British secondary schools, construct a counselling repertoire. Issues of identity, boundaries and the dilemma of advice giving are all raised when pupils aged 14-17 talk about their roles in peer support. It becomes evident that young people's constructions of themselves and their schemes reflect the assimilation of both traditional psychological theories and contemporary counselling culture. In essence, their scheme may be marketed as a counselling/advising service, which could lead the young people to take on the role of 'counsellors'. On the other hand, their scheme may be promoted as a listening and/or support service and this will lead to young people questioning their role in the scheme. This paper will introduce these issues. This research is taken from an ongoing PhD project which uses language based research as its methodology.     

Experiences and perceptions of multicultural counselling scholars: a qualitative examination

This study explored the experiences and perceptions of 12 multicultural counselling scholars with regard to the field of multicultural counselling. Based on a qualitative analysis, many of our participants noted that aspects of being a multiculturally competent counsellor included open-mindedness, flexibility, a commitment to the field, active listening, knowledge and awareness of cultural issues, skillfulness in making cultural interventions, commitment to social justice issues, self-awareness, and exposure to broad and diverse life experiences. Most of the participants also stated that a challenge associated with being a multicultural psychologist was colleagues’, institutions’, and others’ resistance toward and lack of support for multicultural counselling issues. Moreover, many participants indicated that the multicultural counselling movement has had good to great impact on the larger field of applied psychology. Future research directions for the area of multicultural counselling are discussed.     

Rational and irrational beliefs in counselling psychology

Rational-emotive therapy (RET) holds that people largely make themselves neurotically anxious, depressed, hostile, and self-denigrating by strongly holding major dogmatic, absolutist, musturbatory beliefs and that they can use several cognitive, emotive and behavioral methods to modify these beliefs and increase their emotional health. This paper presents some evidence supporting this hypothesis and outlines the counseling advantages and disadvantages of active-directive cognitive restructuring.Invited address to British Psychological Association, Leeds, England, April 16, 1988.