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 disadvantaged clients: A status dynamics orientation

Counselling is usually conceptualized as a psychological activity closely resembling psychotherapy. This paper presents an alternate orientation, showing how counselling can be viewed as a social practice organized around the social concept of status. Thirteen counselling policies are described.Paper presented at the IRTAC International Consultation on Counselling for the Integration of the Handicapped in Society, Florence, Montecatini-Terme, Italy, April 1981.     

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.     

Remembering Hans: His Ongoing Legacy for Guidance and Counselling

Dr. Hans Hoxter played a central role in facilitating the development of guidance and counselling in many parts of the world. This retrospective focuses on Hans' work that led to the creation and development of the International Association for Educational and Vocational Guidance and the International Round Table for the Advancement of Counselling. The article also includes perspectives that he shared in an interview conducted with him in late 2001.     

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.     

The role of the family in vocational development

The impact of the family on the vocational development of youth is critically and systematically examined in this paper. First, the relevant empirical and theoretical literature is identified together with the limitations of that literature, particularly with its failure to consider, a) the ecological influences on career development, b) female career development, and c) the developmental aspects of career choice, entry and maintenance. Second, the paper examines the following family variables in career development; socio-economic status, family process variables, socialization and sex differences, family interactions and family structure. Finally, some implications for guidance and counselling following an individual/environmental perspective are identified.Paper presented at the Eleventh International Round Table for the Advancement of Counselling, University of Aarhus, Denmark, 5–9 August, 1984.     

Indigenous counselling techniques among the Yoruba and Igala people of Nigeria

Guidance and counselling are now making a good beginning in Africa. This paper attempts to trace the historical foundations of Yoruba and Igala counselling in Africa and examines what makes for success in traditional therapy—the words, phrases and aphorisms used, the climate set and the personality of the professional. Furthermore, since recent studies show that the training and methods of indigenous practitioners are sound and that their philosophy and practice have much in common with Western approaches, the paper also attempts to introduce their skills for fusion with Western mental health.Paper presented at the International Round Table for the Advancement of Counselling, Thessaloniki (Greece), April 1980.     

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.     

Career counselling issues in Canadian counsellor education

The purpose of this project was to examine the preparation of counsellors, with particular concern for the development of competencies in career guidance. It used a structured interview to survey faculty members involved in counsellor education in faculties of education offering graduate programs. It found increased awareness of career development in terms of increase in the number of graduate courses offered. It also found emphasis upon the consullative role for counsellors, vocational theories of Super and Holland, and continued interest in the development of career counselling competencies.Submitted to the Ninth International Round Table for the Advancement of Counselling,Submitted to the Ninth International Round Table for the Advancement of Counselling,     

Adult learners in three countries: Models for counselling services

One of the more pervasive and important innovations of adult education practice in the seventies can be seen in full blossom in the educational guidance and information centre, a service which specializes in counselling adults about learning opportunities. While most visible in the United States with some 300 centres, similar organizations now exist in many other countries; one European centre in fact predates the seventies and may have pioneered the concept. In 1978 and 1979, the author visited various communities in North America and Europe in search of models for counselling adults about new careers, education options and life goals. This paper describes four centres and discusses how they exemplify aspects of a variety of models for organizing counselling services.Paper presented at Ninth International Round Table for the Advancement of Counselling, Thessaloniki, Greece, April 1980.     

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.     

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 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.     

Beyond the classroom: the inclusion of young people with learning disabilities in UK mainstream counselling services

Counselling is increasingly seen as a way of addressing the psychological needs of young people with emotional, behavioural and academic problems. This paper explores the existing counselling landscape regarding inclusion of young people with learning disabilities in counselling. The research findings are based on data collected from an empirical study (n = 396) and a series of interviews (n = 15) with counsellors. Findings identify inclusion in counselling as a process and highlight inclusive strategies, namely: creative counselling approaches, non‐verbal forms of communication and the use of simple adapted language. The most inclusive counsellors were highly qualified with greater knowledge and experience of this group of young people; awareness of disability issues; eclectic in practice; imaginative and creative; open‐minded, reflective, pragmatic; and proactive in promoting their services. Inclusive counselling practices adopt a person‐centred, psychodynamic or integrative therapeutic approach; take referrals through teachers, parents, carers, care managers and family doctors; have a welcoming attitude towards the young people, their parents and carers; are flexible regarding times and appointments.     

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.     

The Career Myths Scale: its validity and applicability

The Career Myths Scale (CMS) was developed to assess the extent to which students subscribe to irrational beliefs regarding careers. The CMS was administered to a sample of university students (n=153) and a principal components analysis of the CMS identified the following components: Test Myths, Self-Esteem Myths, Misconceptions of Exactitude, and Career Anxiety Myths. The usefulness of the CMS in counselling students is discussed.A preliminary version of this article was presented at the International Round Table for the Advancement of Counselling Conference, Porto, Portugal, 2–6 April, 1991.     

Differential use by male and female students of the Counselling Service of an Australian tertiary college: Implications for service design and counselling models

Conclusion In conclusion, the operation of systematic data gathering procedure in the RMIT Counselling Service has provided a body of data from a number of years, enabling analysis of sex differentials in utilization of the Service. Some differentials have been indicated and further lines of research suggested to ensure that the advertising strategies and counselling models employed by the Service are better matched to the gender characteristics of its client population.     

Counselling women: Information from diverse ethnic cultures

The bulk of the literature on counselling women relates to the North American context. Recognizing the inherent limitation and bias in this relatively narrow perspective, the paper was an attempt to expand the boundaries of our knowledge on issues in counselling women beyond the North American scene.Paper presented at the Eleventh International Round Table for the Advancement of Counselling, Aarhus, Denmark, August 1984. I would like to thank my colleagues who authored portions of this paper, as will be duly noted. For information about particular aspects of the paper, readers are encouraged to write to the individual authors.     

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.     

School counsellors' perceptual sex role differences in Dutch secondary education

In a pilot study two Dutch secondary schools have been investigated with respect to four characteristics of school counselling as perceived by the school counsellors and students: (1) What counselling in the school should or should not be; (2) What are the reasons for starting a counselling activity; (3) What are the outcomes of school counselling; and (4) What are the necessities for school counselling.As a total group both males and females disagree with students on the practice of counselling within the context of the school, while both groups agree with students on the person oriented aims of counselling. Males and females perceive different reasons why counselling in the school is necessary and they perceive different kinds of outcomes. Female counsellors perceive markedly less reasons for counselling in school achievements of students than males, while they report more reasons for counselling than males where the prevention of conflicts between students in the classroom are concerned. Apart from discrepancies between male and female school counsellors, the students perceive more counselling outcomes than both groups of counsellors in terms of coping behaviour and conflict management. Students and counsellors disagree on several necessities for counselling, such as the amount of commitment required for counselling duties and the prerequisites of cooperation and support between counsellors.Paper presented at the XIIth International Round Table for the Advancement of Counselling, 22–26 June 1986, University of Lund, Lund, Sweden