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To understand the history of counselling, we begin with the realisation that human beings find a good deal of comfort in sharing their problems. Carl Jung, the father of analytical psychology, put it another way,
"We are all in some way or other kept asunder by our secrets"[1],
meaning that by keeping secrets, especially painful ones, we separate ourselves from others and create problems for ourselves.
There is an old saying that exists in many languages, ‘a problem shared is a problem halved'. It demonstrates a truth that we all fundamentally understand; that we are social creatures and when we are suffering we will naturally seek out someone who can hear our story. There was a roman philosopher, Seneca, who lived around the time of Jesus Christ who stated, "One of the most beautiful qualities of true friendship is to understand and to be understood.”[2] We may not all have perfect friendships, but we all need to have our problems heard and for them to be understood.
Although counselling as a profession and discipline is a product of the 19th and 20th centuries, the underlying principles of counselling are as old as human problems. Tribal communities would gather together and talk, tell stories and share dreams. As our society has become more complex, roles have become more formalised, and as Jung observed, the origins of psychotherapy lie in the confessional, where priests would act as the listener and advisor for the troubled individual and still do.
Given this basic human need, counselling as a discipline has evolved from several other disciplines, including but not limited to, guidance, teaching, law, social reform and psychotherapy. It is the study of the last that has developed the intellectual framework for counselling.
In the 1890's, German neurologist Sigmund Freud developed a method called psychoanalysis, which allowed individuals to tell their problems to a ‘psychoanalyst,' an individual trained in interpreting the hidden aspects of the psyche, known as the unconscious. Freud theorised that we are although we are unaware of our unconscious, its' nature can profoundly influence our lives. The work of Freud and his students, such as Alfred Adler and Carl Jung established psychotherapy as a treatment for numerous mental health conditions. The work of these thinkers was based on the relationship between the conscious, unconscious and the external world - psychodynamics.
As a reaction to the emphasis on the unconscious, some psychologists, such as John B. Watson, Ivan Pavlov and B.F. Skinner, developed the Behavioural approach. They rejected the unobservable unconscious in favour of a system that believed our behaviour is the direct response to external stimuli. Actions followed by reinforcement or reward increase, while actions that are followed by punishment decrease.
Counselling as a method was really as a result of the work of Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow. The term "counselling" was coined by Carl Rogers, who, lacking a medical qualification was prevented from calling his work psychotherapy[3]. Rogers and Maslow developed a new person-centred or humanistic approach. They believed in the innate desire of people to 'self-actualise' and proposed that everyone has an inbuilt tendency to self-fulfilment and growth[4]. The counsellor's role is to provide an empathic and facilitative environment in which the client can discover their own answers.
Counselling took off after the Second World War, and Carl Rogers was invited to set up a counselling centre at the University of Chicago in 1945. The US Veterans Administration funded the training of counsellors and psychologists by offering paid internships for graduate study[5].
Counselling psychology programmes began to proliferate first in the USA and then throughout the world. The therapeutic disciplines have continued to evolve and develop beyond the three schools of psychoanalytical, behaviourist, and humanistic, including cognitive, gestalt, transactional analysis and others.
There have been many developments in counselling since the 1950's. A lot of research has taken place and is still taking place. Alongside the development of counselling techniques, we have also expanded our knowledge of the biology of the brain and the ways in which it works. We have a growing understanding of heritable or genetic components of mental makeup, although we are still a long way from a comprehensive understanding.
References:
- Jung, Carl (1933). Modern Man in Search of a Soul. 2nd edition Routledge.
- Toni Bernhard J.D. (Jun 26, 2014). Surprisingly Modern Wisdom From Ancient Greeks and Romans. Retrieved from www.psychologytoday.com
- Woolfe, Ray, et al.(2003). Counselling Psychology in Context. Handbook of Counselling Psychology, 2nd ed., Sage Publications.
- Rogers, C.R. (1995). A Way of Being. Pub. Houghton Mifflin Co.
- Gladding, S.T. (1996). Counseling: A Comprehensive Profession. Merrill.