The Process Used and a History of Counseling Practices - Essay Example

Abstract

The paper examines different types of counseling, the process used, and a history of counseling practices. The findings indicate that counseling began in the pre 1900s and up to 1930s, the practice focused on vocational guidance and skill identification. From 1930s, counseling expanded to cover several issues related to mental illness, behavioral sciences, and to treat stress disorders. WWII and the subsequent changes in consumption and lifestyle, changes in society, greater freedom for women and disadvantaged people, helped to recognize counseling as a profession. Counselors now find employment in hospitals, schools, correctional facilities, prisons, offices, and other areas, where they help people to adjust to their lives.

1. Introduction

Counselors are trained and experienced professionals who listen to problems that their clients or customer face, and offer optimum advice. Counseling takes many forms and it is a wide field. A marriage counselor offers advice on handling marriage related issues while an insurance advisor gives counseling on the best insurance options. Similarly, a psychologist take up behavioral counseling to help patients overcome fear, persecution complex, addiction, anxiety, and so on. A certain amount of trust should be formed between a counselor and the client. If the client feels that the counselor is disparaging, deceitful, rude, inconsiderate, then the relationship will not give positive result (Baron, 2003). In the late 1800s, counseling was used for vocational training and it gradually expanded to cover many social ills and individual problems. This paper briefly examines various types of counseling and examines the history of counseling.

1.1 Types of counseling

It is essential to understand the types of counseling available, since this information will help to understand the history of counseling. Professional counselors need to have certifications such as a bachelors or a Masters in psychology. In addition, they must complete an internship and work as an assistant with a psychologist. Counselors can set up their own practice or they can work in hospitals, child and adult correctional facilities, schools, prisons, rehabilitation centers for substance abuse, and so on. A counselor needs to have some amount of specialization since each category involves handling patients with different set of problems. Some distinction is drawn in the type of counseling, and these are non mental problems and mental illness counselors (Bacal and Carlton, 2011).

Non mental problems include counseling for marriage and family, education and career, rehabilitation due to illness and accidents, substance abuse, child development, eating disorder, grief, etc. Mental illness counseling is much more serious and counselors need to be qualified psychologists. Some of the mental disorders are panic disorder, suicidal and murderous tendency, post trauma stress, manic depressive, schizophrenia, attention deficit disorder, bipolarity, depression, borderline personality, and so on (Gelso and Hayes, 1998).

1.2 Methods of counseling

A brief review of the process and methods used in counseling will help to understand the history of counseling. Counseling is an outcome based approach where counselors ask a series of question or ask clients to answer written questions to diagnose the problem. Counseling outcomes are reduction in symptoms, change in behavior, and improvement in quality of life of the client and the family members (Hohenshil, 2013). A number of variables affect the outcome and these are therapist variables, client variables, counseling relation, counseling variables, and counseling ethics (Gelso, Williams and Fretz, 2014).

2. History of counseling

Pre 1900 era: Organized and structured counseling, as per scientific principles, developed from the late 1900s. Prior to this period, the pastor or the family elders offered advice. During the late 1800's, a large number of people were adversely affected by the industrial revolution. A large number of immigrants from Asia, Europe, and Africa, further complicated the problems. The social welfare reform movement, increase in public education, emergence of new skills, guided the role of counselors. Understanding of counseling and mental problems were rudimentary and the 'sign was separated from the symptom', meaning that the object of the problem was not considered as a part of the person, the symptom did not have any voice and it was only the sign that revealed the problem (Hohenshil, 2013).

What the patient said was not important since it was presumed that the patient did not have adequate mental abilities. The signs that the doctor saw and interpreted were important. There was very little communication between doctors and patients and physical examination was vital. Patients were usually held down and interrogated and the doctored examined the patient. Patients were considered stupid and malingering and were not expected to talk coherently or to tell the truth. Leading questions were asked and responses from the patient were often held against him. In many cases, mentally ill patients showed acute signs of distress after the sessions, than they had before (Hohenshil, 2013).

1900s era: Development from 1900-1909, saw the recognition of counseling as a separate profession. Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud researched and developed a body of work on psychiatry. However, these works cannot be considered as counseling since they focused on psychoanalysis, libido, interpretation of dreams, psychosexual development, etc. Frank Parsons in 1905 developed work on growth and prevention and set the foundation of modern counseling. Parson was a lawyer, engineer, teacher and a social reformer, and worked with youth. He set up the Boston Vocational Bureau to institutionalize guidance for vocation. His consultation and guidance was based on social justice, core values, rationality and he argued the selecting a vocation had to be don as per three factors, knowledge of self, work and matching the two with true reasoning. He developed methods for people to learn about themselves and work, and he used questionnaires on experiences, preferences, and morals (Imel and Wampold, 2008).

Jesse Davis set up a structured guidance program in 1907 in public schools to build character and prevent problems. These are first instances of school and career guidance. Another important counselor was Clifford Beers who underwent treatment for depression in his youth. Aghast at the condition in mental hospitals, he wrote a book in 1908, 'A Mind That Found Itself ' that laid the framework for treatment of the mentally ill. He obtained funds from Ford and Rockefeller and developed methods to understand mentally ill patients and set up the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill and the National Mental Health Association (Imel and Wampold, 2008).

1910s era: The 1910's saw many important events such as the founding of National Vocational Guidance Association in 1913, Smith-Hughes Act of 1917 for funding of public schools, and WW1. The war saw development of instruments for psychological training and development such as the Army Alpha and Army Beta intelligence tests and psychometrics. Counselors also faced soldiers, many seriously disabled in the war and who suffered from mental illness such as depression, anxiety, stress, suicidal tendencies, and other problems. Counseling was not yet developed well enough to understand the root causes of the problems and the nature of the illness (Lees, 2010).

1920s era: The 1920's called the 'roaring twenties', brought a new set of challenges and needs. Harvard University had started education courses for counselors and the study was expanded to include personal relations, and work related behavior. Certification for counselors was granted in the 1920s, and Edward Strong published the Strong Vocational Interest Inventory, 1927. With the crash of the markets in 1930s, psychiatric and psychological counseling was provided for a large number of people, affected by the Great Depression. Moving away from vocational training, counseling now included guidance for personality development, depression, and poverty related problems. E. G. Williamson developed theories on counseling and brought up methods such as direct counselor-centered approach, trait-factor counseling, Minnesota point of view and others. Counselors were required to demonstrate mentoring, teaching, and influencing skills. Williamson proposed that people had different personalities, aptitudes, interests and these gave a person his identity and outlook (McLeod, 2013).

Counseling focused on helping individuals to reduce non productive thinking and become effective decision makers. Counselors were expected to identify the deficiency and propose a process to rectify the problem. Edward Thorndike questioned the overt focus of counseling on vocation and insisted that counseling should be broadened to cover other concern. John Brewer wrote 'Education as Guidance’, in 1932 and proposed that teachers should be moral counselors and guidance should be a part of the school curriculum. In 1938, the George-Dean Act was passed and this act established the Vocational Education Division and the Occupational Information and Guidance Service. School counseling became a part of the school teaching and counselors advised on a number of topics (McLeod, 2013).

1940s era: The 1940s saw three major events that changed the practice of counseling, Carl Rogers, WWII, and the government concern for soldiers. In 1942, Carl Rogers wrote a book where Williamsons and Freud’s theories were challenged. He proposed a nondirective approach to counseling. Rogers argues that people should be given the opportunity to be responsible for their growth. If patients had an opportunity to speak, then they would learn about their self and readily accept ideas. At the same time, the counselor had to be non judgmental, he should act like a mirror and display the emotions of the patient. In WWII, the government needed counselors and psychologists to select and train experts. Women worked the jobs in factories where men traditionally worked, and traditional gender based roles were not acceptable. The George-Barden Act of 1947 and Veterans Administration helped to set up counselor training institutes. Counselors were now qualified as counseling psychologists. Counseling gradually shifted away from vocational guidance (Moodley and Wu, 2013).

1950s era: The 1950s saw development of American Psychological Association, American School Counselor Association, along with new guidance and counseling theories. Clinical psychology and counseling psychology were recognized as separate streams. Important theories were developed such as applied behavioral theories, cognitive theories, learning theory, rational-emotive therapy, transactional analysis, cognitive therapy, systematic desensitization, and others. These theories expanded counseling to cover diverse area such as human behavior, mentally ill patients, the manner in which people learned, etc (Pedersen, Draguns, Lonner and Trimble 2008).

1960s era: The 1960s saw further development and in 1962, Gilbert Wrenn developed the Counselor in a Changing World. Three key event shaped counseling and these are the Vietnam War, civil rights movement, and the women's movement. The events brought up several issues that focused on developing special needs. Several theories were developed such as humanistic counseling theories of Maslow, and the growth of small group interactions rather than one-on-one sessions. The Community Mental Health Centers Act of 1963 allowed development of community mental health centers. These centers offered counseling for drug abuse, domestic violence, marriage and family counseling, and addressed the growing divorce rate. The ERIC Clearinghouse on Counseling and Personnel Services, founded in 1966 showed the interest of government in development counseling. At the same, Vietnam War veterans returned with severe physical and mental trauma and they had to face the wrath of protestors who wanted the war to stop. Special program were set up to provide post traumatic care and counseling (Baron, 2003).

1970s era: The 1970's saw counseling for working women, single women, diversity and anti discrimination mentoring, counseling for people with disabilities, and groups. Community counselors became multi disciplinary and worked in hospitals, substance abuse centers, juvenile delinquency programs, prisons, hospitals, employee assistance program, psychiatric hospitals, and other places. The American Mental Health Counseling Association was formed to create a network of counselors. Professional counselor licensure law was implemented and the term ‘therapist’ was defined, and a Masters degree in counseling was offered. By 1980s, counseling had become a well established profession with standardized training methods. Emphasis was given on human growth and development, and the Erik Erikson’s first five stages of life development were implemented. By 1990's counseling was recognized as a primary mental health profession, multicultural counseling competencies and standards were developed, and independent counselors grew (McLeod, 2013).

2000s Era: From 2000 onwards, counseling grew to deal with changing roles of women, violence, crises, trauma, bullying, post-traumatic stress disorder, acute stress disorder, stress and trauma of 9/11 survivors, crisis counseling, managed care, wellness, spirituality, friendship, leisure, and other issues became topics that counselors handled. Technology became an important tool to evaluate cases, for diagnosis and to provide interventions through online and cyber counseling. Terms like social justice and advocacy became important. Counseling is now a well respected profession with adequate pay (Hohenshil, 2013).

3. Conclusions

The paper briefly examined the types of counseling, the processes used, and the history of counseling. Rudimentary practices started in the late 1800s and grew from its use as a tool for skills evaluation for vocational training to cover personal problems such as depression, stress disorder, issues related to sexual orientation, and many other important topics. Counseling is now a well established profession.