Theories and approaches to family counselling

This article examines from a historical perspective the theories and approaches to family counselling. Having been planted in the 1940's, the family counselling movement continues to develop into a major counselling perspective with considerable theoretical and professional influence. Major schools of family counselling theory and practice are examined. Future directions are identified, such as social constructionism, gender issues, normative bias, counsellor as expert and integration of individual and systemic theory.Paper presented at the 1994 International Round Table for the Advancement of Counselling (IRTAC) conference in Munich, Germany.     

Counselling and the Global Agenda to Eradicate Poverty: What Framework to Apply for Multicultural Understanding and Interpretation?

Counselling has a place in shaping responses to the international mandate for poverty eradication. Counselling can influence categories of actors directly, or indirectly through the counselling posture; help explicate the cultural context, perception and basis for eradication of poverty; and serve to motivate and inform normative responses to global poverty. Two major frameworks for poverty eradication can be viewed from a counselling perspective. Social development underscores the normative approach to poverty reduction, accounting for cultural specificity. The human rights perspective underscores universal aspects of poverty eradication goals. Social development leads to an uneven spread of social development objectives and human rights to their levelling across countries and cultures.     

A comparison of Thai and American counselling students perceptions of counselling

The expectancies that people of different cultures bring to counselling affect the outcomes of counselling. It was the purpose of this study to examine the ways that counselling students in two different countries, Thailand and the United States, perceived Counselling. The evaluative and potency scales of the Semantic Differential were used to compare the attitudes of these students related to Counselling, Counsellors, and Group Counselling. No significant difference were found in the ratings of the two groups of students on the evaluative scale for Counselling, Counsellors, or Group Counselling, but the American students rated the potency scales for these three variables significantly higher than the Thai students. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

Social support: Implications for counselling

Drawing on contemporary theory and research related to social support, the author provides a rationale for incorporating work on social support into existing models of counselling. Some informal methods of assessing social support are described, and a number of implications for intervening in the client's psychosocial world are outlined.Plenary address to the XIIth International Round Table for the Advancement of Counselling, June 1986, Lund, Sweden.     

Humor: A preventive health strategy

Some functions of humor in the counselling process are presented as a preface to a discussion of the role that a humorous life attitude can play in mental health. The author suggests that facilitating the development of client humor constitutes a preventive health strategy in promoting coping behaviours and developing social support systems.Paper presented at the XIIIth International Round Table for the Advancement of Counselling.     

Assessing the counselling needs of high school students in Kenya

The Student Counselling Needs Scale (SCNS) was administered to 867 participants recruited from high schools in Kenya. The data were analyzed using exploratory factor analysis yielding five factors: human relationships, career development, self development, social values, and learning skills were assessed. The findings highlighted the importance of using assessment instruments to identify students’ counselling needs in Kenya.     

Systemic cognitive-developmental therapy: A counselling model and an integrative classification schema for working with partners and families

Systemic Cognitive-Developmental Therapy (SCDT) represents a holistic, non-pathological, and integrative approach to partner and family counselling. The model directly links developmental constructs to the counselling process and offers specific assessment and treatment strategies that can be easily learned and applied in the immediacy of the counselling encounter. Additionally, it offers a classification schema that clinicians can use to organize familiar counselling and therapy approaches into a developmental framework. This article introduces the theory and practice of SCDT, illustrates the techniques and strategies specific to the model, and provides illustrative partner, family, and client examples for clarification.Paper presented in April, 1994 at the International Conference on Counselling in the Family in München, Germany, sponsored by the International Round Table for the Advancement of Counselling.     

Student counselling in Turkish universities

This article presents general information about the history, relevant laws and legislation, present status and anticipated future development in Turkish Universities, as well as the student counselling services within these institutions. Special emphasis is placed upon the perceived understanding of counselling as commonly accepted by the society, students and counsellors. While discussing the present status of Turkish University Counselling Centers, the proposed models, research findings and problems of the centers are documented. As a more specific example, the Middle East Technical University Counselling Center is described with a discussion of some of the drawbacks and recommended changes for the advancement of the center. Finally, suggestions for a culturally relevant model in terms of the nature, components and organisational structure of the system are discussed.     

A look at the present — A step to the future: An analysis of career and employment counselling in Canada

This paper reports the findings from a major survey of career and employment counselling in Canada. It describes the current state of career and employment counselling in Canada and outlines several emerging issues for future consideration.Canadian Guidance and Counselling Foundation     

The role of counselling in developing countries: A reply to Soliman

Counselling, and in particular school counselling, is evolving very slowly in developing countries because of failure to place it in the mainstream of the school curriculum. If counselling is to perform any role in the social and economic development of these nations it must be able to influence the goals and priorities of schooling as well as suggest new methods of teaching. In this way, counselling would lead to adoption of school curriculum promoting not only intellectual development but also personal and psychological development. By so doing all the perceived obstacles to counselling's growth would disappear.     

Assessment of Greek University Students’ Counselling Needs and Attitudes: An Exploratory Study

The present study is concerned with an exploration of counselling needs of students at two Greek universities as well as their attitudes to utilizing a university counselling centre. The sample consisted of 312 students who completed a Greek version of the Rutgers Needs Assessment Questionnaire as well as a subscale on Attitudes towards the Counselling Centre. The analysis of the data indicated that issues about relationships, goal setting and problem-solving were the main concerns of the participants. It was also found that students, especially those who faced some kind of psychological difficulties, held a negative attitude towards visiting a university counselling centre.     

Premature termination of conselling at a university Counselling Centre

This study investigated premature termination of counselling at a university Counselling Centre. Twenty (20) premature terminators reported on their experience of counselling by completing a mailed questionnaire containing open- and close-ended items. The following results were obtained: Premature termination was not the result of a negative experience of counselling by the client; nor was premature termination the manifestation of a failed interpersonal relationship between the client and the counsellor; clients who terminated prematurely are likely to seek counselling again at a later stage in their lives; premature terminators would be likely to refer someone for counselling and premature terminators did not consider their participation in the study as violating the counsellor-client confidentiality. Limited support was established for the hypothesis that premature terminators will consider their expectations of counselling as not having been met.     

Recent developments and directions in counselling in New Zealand

Two reviews of counselling-related literature originating in New Zealand during the 1970s and 1980s and a content analysis of theNew Zealand Counselling and Guidance Association Journal were used to identify recent developments in counsellor training, counselling practices and research on counselling. Social, cultural and political influences on counselling practices and professional organisations were also discussed.Paper presented at the IRTAC International Conference, Counselling Disabled People within their Social Environment, 12–16 April 1992, Semmelweiss University, Budapest, Hungary.     

School guidance and counselling in Kuwait: Background,prospects and limitations

Counselling in Kuwait is a recent development and is relatively unexplored. This paper aims at giving a brief overview of the current status of school guidance and counselling. It also attempts to critically examine the prospects and limitations of counselling programs in course credit secondary schools. It concludes by shedding some light on efforts exerted in the direction of promoting counselling in the country, and specific challenges and problems with which it is faced.     

Counselling in the Faculty of Education of Ahmadu Bello University: Progress report 1980

Summary Many teachers in our secondary schools, colleges and universities are aware of the developmental needs and concerns of the students. But they are unable to assist the students adequately in meeting their emotional, social, physical and educational needs because they are pre-occupied with teaching the academic school subjects for as many as five or six classes, each composed of thirty to fourty or more students. There is a great need for secondary schools colleges, and universities in Nigeria to run a genuinely comprehensive counselling service with qualified and responsible personnel. The needs, concerns of the students in particular, the changes in the institutions of learning, and the needs and concerns of our developing nation in general should be vitally considered when developing, extending and managing such a service. A functional school-, college- or university-wide counselling unit, with appropriate support from the administration, staff, students and the communities will help the individual student feel more competent to deal with his or her educational, vocational, social, personal and emotional concerns.Ahmadu Bello UniversityPaper presented at the Ninth International Round Table for the Advancement of Counselling. Thessaloniki, Greece, April 1980.     

Educational and psychological counselling in Slovakia: Keeping continuity

The Slovak counselling system playedan important role in the development of Europeancounselling, especially in the Central Europeanregion. This article presentsa short excursion on the history of the creation ofthe educational counselling system.The author presents the latest information on thecontemporary development of educational andpsychological counselling in Slovakia. The resultsof a study made recently by the Research Institute onChild Psychology and Patopsychology describing changesin working conditions of the Counsellors inEducational and Psychological Counselling Centres arealso discussed.     

Making Every Child Matter: A Model for Good Practice in Counselling Children and Young People with Learning Disabilities

This paper is set against the backdrop of new policies and legislation regarding the health, welfare and education of children and young people in England. In response to these policies, the Department for Education and Skills has developed an increasing number of strategies to support the psychological health and well-being of children and young people and thereby signalled greater recognition of the value of improving mental health in relation to children's learning, achievement, attendance and behaviour. Counselling is increasingly seen as an effective strategy for addressing the psychological needs of children and young people with social, emotional, behavioural and academic problems. The aim of this paper is to explore the inclusion of children and young people with learning disabilities (13–19 years) in mainstream counselling services. The nature of learning disabilities is examined in relation to accessing counselling services and a model for inclusive counselling practice is developed from the research findings. Findings are based on data collected from a quantitative survey ( n =396) of 3000 counsellors and analysed using SPSS, along with qualitative data from the survey, which was analysed using a thematic approach.     

Increasing tolerance and respect of clients through the use of solution-focused counselling

The values and goals of two counselling approaches, planned brief counselling, and more particularly solution-focused counselling, are discussed in relation to the conference theme,Counselling and Tolerance. The promotion of tolerance in clients, it is argued, can be enhanced by using counselling approaches that arepolitically centered in the client, that is, approaches that are tolerant and respectful of an individual client's values, capabilities, circumstances and culture.Because all of the terms, counselling and counsellors, therapy and therapists, have been used by authors cited, all of them appear in this paper as well. Although the terms counselling and counsellors are preferred and have been used whenever possible, all the terms are intended to refer to the same activity.     

Practise What you Preach: Counsellors’ Experience of Practising Buddhist Counselling in Thailand

This qualitative study considers Thai counsellors’ experience of practising Buddhist Counselling in Thailand, exploring how Buddhist philosophy is integrated into the counsellors’ personal lives and then brought into their therapeutic practice. The study involved a focus group and in-depth, semi-structured interviews with five practising Buddhist counsellors, with their accounts being analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). Findings indicated that the participants considered their personal qualities as being key in generating therapeutic effectiveness within their Buddhist Counselling, and they believed that they fostered these personal qualities by internalising Buddhist ideas into their personal lives and by observing Buddhist practices. Implications for counselling practice, training, and research are discussed.