A Global Portrait of Counselling Psychology

Rodney K. Goodyear, James W. Lichtenberg, Rodney K. Goodyear, James W. Lichtenberg

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• eBook ISBN: 9781351758901
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Mental Health in Psychology
• Index: Psychology

The official birth of counselling psychology is said to have occurred in 1951, when key United States leaders in what was then called the field of guidance and counselling formally adopted the terms 'counselling psychologist' and 'counselling psychology' to describe their profession. In the 65 years that have followed, counselling psychology has thrived, as reflected in the fact that it now is a recognized applied psychology specialty in a number of countries worldwide. The form and expression of counselling psychology differs across countries and yet the specialty retains certain recognizable features wherever it is practiced.

Drawing on data collected through a survey of professionals in eight different countries, this volume considers both ways in which the specialty is distinctive within each of the eight countries, as well as that which is characteristic of counselling psychology across them all. This survey of the international character of counselling psychology examines the emergence and the history of the field; the training, preparation and credentialing of professionals; and the practices and practice settings of counselling psychologists. This book was originally published as a special issue of Counselling Psychology Quarterly.

A global portrait of counselling psychologists’ characteristics, perspectives, and professional behaviors

Rod Goodyear^a, James Lichtenberg^b, Heidi Hutman^c, Emily Overland^d, Robinder Bedi^e, Kayla Christiani^f, Michael Di Mattia^g, Elizabeth du Preez^h, Bill Farrellⁱ, Jacqueline Feather^h, Jan Grant^j, Young-joo Han^k, Young Ju^k, Dong-gwi Lee^l, Hyejin Lee^m, Helen Nicholasⁿ, Jessica Jones Nielsen^o, Ada L. Sinacore^p, Sufen Tu^q and Charles Young^r

^aGraduate Department of Leadership and Counseling, University of Redlands, Redlands, CA, USA; ^bDepartment of Psychology & Research in Education, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, USA; ^cDivision of Counseling Psychology, University at Albany, Albany, NY, USA; ^dDepartment of Psychology & Research in Education, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, USA; ^eDepartment of Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada; ^fDepartment of Psychology, Western Washington University, Bellingham, USA; ^gCounselling and Psychological Services, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia; ^hDepartment of Psychology, Auckland University of Technology, Aukland, New Zealand; ⁱPrivate Practice, Private Practice, Titirangi, New Zealand; ^jSchool of Psychology and Speech Pathology, Curtin University, Perth, Australia; ^kDepartment of Counseling, Korea Counseling Graduate University, Seoul, Republic of Korea; ^lDepartment of Psychology, Yonsei University, Seoul, Republic of Korea; ^mNdyneINC Corp, Seoul, Republic of Korea; ⁿInstitute of Health & Society, University of Worchester, Henwick Grove, UK; ^oDepartment of Psychology, City University London, London, UK; ^pDepartment of Educational and Counselling Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, Canada; ^qGraduate School of Education, Chung Yuan Christian University, Taoyuan City, Taiwan; ^rDepartment of Psychology, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa

Counseling psychologists in eight countries (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, South Korea, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and the United States) responded to survey questions that focused on their demographics as well as their professional identities, roles, settings, and activities. As well, they were asked about satisfaction with the specialty and the extent to which they endorsed 10 core counseling psychology values. This article reports those results, focusing both on areas in which there were between-country similarities as well as on those for which there were differences. These data provide a snapshot of counseling psychology globally and establish a foundation for the other articles in this special issue of the journal.

Super (1955) reported the official birth of counseling psychology (CP) to have occurred in 1951, when key United States (US) leaders, in what was then called the field of guidance and counseling, voted to adopt the terms “counseling psychologist” and “counseling psychology.” During the 65 years that have followed, CP has thrived to the extent that it now is a recognized applied psychology specialty in a number of countries worldwide. The form and expression of CP differs across countries and yet, it is also reasonable to assume that the specialty retains certain recognizable features wherever it is practiced. One indicator of a common identity is the International Association of Applied Psychology’s Division of Counselling Psychology (DCoP), which was formed in 2002 (Leong & Savickas, 2007).

This issue of the Counselling Psychology Quarterly considers both (a) ways in which the specialty is distinctive within each of the eight participating countries, as well as (b) that which is characteristic of CP across them. The issue builds on an existing literature base that in some cases has described CP as a global specialty (Leong, Savickas, & Leach, 2011), in some cases has described counseling psychology within a particular country to other psychologists in that country (see e.g. Bedi et al., 2011; Fitzgerald & Osipow, 1986; Grant, Mullings, & Denham, 2008; Leach, Akhurst, & Basson, 2003; Scherman & Feather, 2013; Young, 2013), and in other cases, has described CP in a particular country to a broader, international, audience (e.g. Seo, Kim, & Kim, 2007; Wang, Kwan, & Huang, 2011; Young, 2013). The 2004 issue of this journal (see Lalande, 2004; Munley, Duncan, Mcdonnell, & Sauer, 2004; Pelling, 2004; Walsh, Frankland, & Cross, 2004) served that latter purpose. But that issue was published over decade ago and focused only on CP in Western countries (Pelling, 2004). This issue includes recent data from multiple countries and regions to provide a cross-national snapshot of the specialty. A particularly unique and significant aspect of this issue is that it is grounded in survey data from the eight represented countries. Narrative accounts about CP in particular countries are important, but are enriched considerably by the availability of data like that which we report here.

In this article we present data about what CPs do and who they are in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, South Korea, Taiwan, the United Kingdom (UK), and the United States (US). Each of the eight short articles that follow is structured using a common framework to discuss CP in those countries. The issue concludes with an integrative article that synthesizes the findings across countries and consolidates this global portrait of CP.

The survey

Surveys in all the participating countries contained a common set of questions. Those questions concerned respondents’ personal characteristics (gender, age, level and type of training), work settings, professional roles and activities, and theoretical orientations. Other questions pertained to respondents’ satisfaction with the specialty and the extent to which they endorsed 10 values as being characteristic of the specialty. The prototype for this survey was one that Kelly (1961) developed for clinical psychologists, which Garfield and Kurtz (1974) subsequently refined, and which Norcross and his colleagues have since used multiple times (for two examples, see Norcross & Karpiak, 2012; Norcross & Prochaska, 1982). Watkins, Lopez, Campbell, and Himmell (1986) adapted that survey to obtain information about the work, beliefs, and attitudes of CPs in the U.S., and that study since has been replicated by Goodyear et al. (2008) and then, Lichtenberg, Goodyear, Overland, and Hutman (2014). In conducting the third survey in that sequence, Lichtenberg et al. realized the potential value of collaborating with colleagues in other countries who could use that survey in their respective national contexts and in so doing, make a global examination of CP possible. This issue of CPQ is the result of that collaboration.

Employing common questions across versions of the survey in the US has made it possible to track within-specialty changes across time. For example, together, the Watkins et al. (1986), Goodyear et al. (2008), and Lichtenberg et al. (2014) surveys document three decades of both stability and change in CP in the US. Similarly, a common set of questions permits the between-country comparisons of CP that we report here.

The purpose of this article is to present the results of the surveys that were administered in the eight countries. These results provide foundational material for the remaining articles in this journal issue.

Method

Space limitations have constrained the length of all the articles in this issue. One means of keeping this article brief is to report only the procedures that each country employed to obtain data. Information about the participants, as well as specific information about the survey questions, are provided in the Results section.

Australia

Participants were drawn from the Australian Psychological Society’s College of Counselling Psychologists, the largest professional organization of counseling psychologists in Australia. An email invitation was sent to full members of the college (N = 880), describing the nature and purpose of the research and requesting participation. The email included a URL link to complete the survey online and the survey was open for 3 months, with a further two reminder emails sent, the first a month after the survey opened, and the second two weeks before the survey closed. The total response rate was 28% (253 of 880), with 230 providing sufficiently complete data.

Canada

The Canadian sample was obtained through the Canadian Psychological Association’s (CPA) Section for CP’s list-serve. Two hundred twenty section members were each sent an email briefly describing the survey and requesting their participation on the online survey. Additionally, paper versions were offered at the CPA’s annual convention in June 2014. The sample included 78 completed online surveys and three paper versions, for a 35.5% return rate. Reminder emails were sent once a month for four months.

New Zealand

The New Zealand sample was obtained by the New Zealand Psychological Society Membership Committee, as well as the Department of Psychology at Auckland University of Technology (AUT). Members of the Institute of Counseling Psychology, as well as graduates from the AUT postgraduate program in CP, were emailed with a request for participation which included a brief description of the survey, an invitation to participate, and a URL link to the online survey.

South Africa

Because no complete list of counseling psychologists’ email addresses exists and because a postal survey is impractical in South Africa, a snowball sampling method was used. An initial email that contained a URL link to the online survey was sent to members of four informal networks of counseling psyc...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Citation Information
• Notes on Contributors
• 1. A global portrait of counselling psychologists’ characteristics, perspectives, and professional behaviors
• 2. Counselling Psychology in Australia: History, status and challenges
• 3. Counselling Psychology in Canada
• 4. Counselling psychology in New Zealand
• 5. Counselling psychology in South Africa
• 6. Counselling psychology in South Korea
• 7. Development and current status of counselling psychology in Taiwan
• 8. Counselling psychology in the United Kingdom
• 9. Counselling psychology in the United States
• 10. Counselling psychology’s genotypic and phenotypic features across national boundaries
• Index