The nature of counselling: An investigation of counselling activity inselected countries

The purpose of this study was to investigatecounselling as a process. It was conducted toexplore whether counselling is available invarious countries, even if it is known byanother name. This study examined the kinds ofhelp available to people with specificdifficulties. It sought to discern whether theways of helping include activities that mightbe thought of as counselling. As a way todiscover what forms of help might be availableto people in a given country, a series ofstressful incidents confronting one family ofaverage income living in a large town weredeveloped into a questionnaire format. Theseincidents were designed to stimulate thinkingand focus attention on possible help-givingsources. Data were collected from sources infifteen countries through interviews atinternational counselling conferences and withselected embassy officials in Washington, D.C.Interviews were also conducted in the UnitedKingdom, the United States, Costa Rica, andMalaysia. In addition, questionnaires were sentto experts knowledgeable about social welfareissues in a number of countries. The findingsfrom this investigation suggest thatcounselling as an activity or a process may betaking place under different names in differentcultures.