Current Trends of counselling

Current Trends counselling
The field of counselling is undergoing major transitions which are reflected in its preparation programs. A triennial national survey (Hollis and Wantz 1980) provide some indication of the current situation and trends. The survey highlights the following:

(a) the primary focus of study is counselling with individuals in a"3ne-to one context; next is counselling with groups; and (a distant ) third is counseling.with families;

(b) five course areas account for about 50 percent of the new course being established marriage and family counselling, consultation, geronto logical counselling, consultation, career life planning, and women's studies

(c) the study of organizational and institutional contexts, particularly of education and consequence of which is that the necessity of prior teaching experience has become a moot point

(d) doctoral students gain their experience most often in university counselling centres, second in community mental health centres, and their in schools

(e) master's degree (and sixty-year) candidates have their supervised practice mostly in schools, secondly in community mental health centres, and thirdly in rehabilitation centres;

(f) the initial employment of doctoral graduates is predominantly in universities and colleges. Next in community mental health agencies and third in community and junior colleges;

(g) The initia employment of master's (and sixth year graduates) is predominantly in junior and senior high schools, second in elementary/middle schools and community mental health centres;

(h) there is a marked trend toward private practice for all graduates.

The education and training of professional counsellors is more advanced and complex in the United States than in any other country, with Canada a distant second. The complexity is increasing. Where university training programs were originally exclusively concerned with schools and the educational process diversified employment opportunities which have resulted from varied constituencies of counselling in the larger community have in turn led increasingly to programme specializations. The demands
of the marketplace, together with the inability of counselling to establish a primary integral position in schools, have transformed the structure and content of training programs. Most importantly, the professional practice of counselling has become intertwined, if not confounded with the practice of psychology and mental health concerns. Increasingly counsellors are viewed, and view themselves, as human services delivery specialists and health service providers but not as educators.

Until 1979, most doctoral programs in counselling maintained a dual identity with education and psychology. Pressures from applied practitioners, predominantly clinical psychologists, have influenced the APA to require primary identification with psychology as a condition for doctoral programme accreditation. The consequences for the involvement of many influential doctoral programs in counselling with educational concerns would appear to be far reaching. One consequence may be relegated to master's and sixth year degree programs.