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History of Counselling
History of CounsellingThe guidance movement, to which many authorities have given credit for the origins of counselling, began in the first decade of the 1900s in the United States. During that period, the large industrial centres attracted immigrant, minority, and rural population seeking employment. To decrease the problems that were created during this period, Jesse B. Davis, and administrator, instituted a guidance programme in a high school and frank Parson, a social worker, founded a settlement house for young people already employed or searching for work. The Parsonian model, which involved diagnosis, information, and placement, was widely adopted after his death in 1908.

A psychological basis for the guidance movement, which up to this time was a theoretical, was provided by the psychometric movement. In the early 1900s psychologists in Europe were designing test to measure mental abilities. Testing was adapted to aid in the first step on the Parsonian model-diagnosis of interests. Counselling was introduced into the Parsonian model-to aid in the third step- matching individuals with a suitable job.

The origins of this counselling influence can be traced to the mental hygiene movement, to the French and German concepts of faculty psychology. To Freud and psychoanalysis, and to. the child study movement. At the University of Minnesota, E.G. Williamson utilized counselling and advances in psychometrics to develop an approach to vocational counselling that was to become known as the trait and factor model (Williamson 1956) (See trait factor theory in Counseliing). This approach, which was very counsellor directed and thus matched the societal norms in the United States at that time, dominated counselling from around 1937 to the end of the second world war.

At the end of second world war, there were two significant development in counselling. At this time, there was trend towards increased personal freedom and autonomy. In addition, due to full employment, there was a decreased need for vocational placement. Counselling adapted by expanding its purview from vocational adjustment to all types of adjustment. As personal freedom became a major factor in American life. The directive
approach of trait and factor theory gave way to the client-centered approach of Carl Rogers (1951-1961).

The client-centered approach emphasized the emotional and affective domains. The other important development during this period was the recognition by the Veteran's Administration in the United States that counselling psychology was profession within psychology. It was acknowledged that much of returning veterans dysfunction was due to high levels of stress and not to deep-rooted psychological problems. Thus counselling as opposed to psychotherapy were appropriate and the counselling psychologists was given the role in veterans, Administration hospitals of testing, vocational counselling and personal adjustment counselling.

The 1950s saw the incorporation of many psychological principles-such as developmental psychology, self-concept theory, and learning theory-into counselling. For instance, developmental theory was utilized by Donald super and others to formulate cogent career/vocational choice theories that have become the bases for vocational counselling (Super 1953.) In the United States, counselling in the schools rapidly expanded in 1958 due to large increases in governmental support, the purpose of which was to counterbalance the discrepancy in technology between the United States and the Soviet Union that was highlighted by the launching of Sputnik I.

The 1960s and 1970s saw a proliferation in the types of counselling offered and in the types of population served. Since the demise of trait and factor theory, counselling had no basis that was uniquely counselling and thus borrowed techniques and strategies from clinical psychology, psychiatry, sociology, and learning theory among others. The issue of identity of counselling became so critical that an entire issue of the journal The Counseliing Psychologist (1977, vol. 1 No. 2) was devoted to professional identity.

Although the traditions that have influenced counselling have been multinational counselling is an American product. Counselling as practised in the United States, has been utilized by Western industrialist countries. However, the cultural values of the Third World countries make adoption of the American model difficult, although a great many of these countries have made the attempt to do so.