History Of Counseling Psychology
Even though counseling psychology is a recent addition to the vast and ever growing field of psychology, its actual origin is still unclear, since a lot of what the latter focuses upon has been derived from the main body of Psychological research done in the field over two centuries. In fact, Psychology as a subject of study only got into the main stream in the latter part of the 19th century.
An Overview
The actual foundations for focused counseling and guidance were laid in the 1800’s when Lightner Witmer established the first counseling clinics. Even Sigmund Freud, a prominent psychologist opened his own practice in 1886 with the aim of helping patients confide in him without the feeling of guilt or prejudice, an approach, which he termed as ‘Psychoanalysis’.
Later, Carl Rogers developed a completely different approach to counseling by focusing on the self-conscious state of an individual, which has now come to be known as Humanistic Psychology. Nevertheless, most purists believe that the real work and therefore history of counseling psychology began in the United States during World War II.
The Five Historical Roots Of Counseling Psychology In US
Counseling Psychology as we know it today went through massive evolutionary refinements spanning nearly six decades from the time it first showed up rather suddenly as a new job title in 1951. As such, Whitley offers some answers to the question of where and how counseling psychology started in the U.S. in his 1984 publication. He writes that five distinctive developments in the field of psychological studies in the US contributed to the formation of counseling psychology as a subject of specialization.
They are as follows:
- The Work Of Frank Parsons: This is what primarily led to the maturity of the vocational guidance program. Parsons, known as the father of Vocational Guidance is credited with two important achievements. In 1908, he opened the Vocational Bureau in Boston, aimed at helping European migrants and people in general learn about careers. Then, he went on to publish the book “Choosing A Vocation” outlining the aspects relating to the subject.
- The Mental Hygiene Movement In Early 20th Century: Born out of the social and mental hygiene movement, the American Social Health Association (ASHA) came into existence in 1914. ASHA single-mindedly focused on eliminating the destructive impact of venereal diseases (now known as Sexually Transmitted Diseases or STD) by educating men and women on the subject of healthy sexual and psychological practices.
- Psychometrics and Study of Individual Differences: The desire to study the functioning of the human brain by measuring its attributes like intelligence, function etc. is what psychometrics brought about, thus explaining how different one individual is from the other, in terms of empirical values of cognitive attributes.
- Carl Rogers And The Emergence of Counseling: A student of Alfred Alder, the renowned psychologist, Carl Rogers made the aspect of learner-centered teaching popular. This marked a definitive shift from behavioral psychological theories to humanistic approach.
- World War II And Its Contribution To Counseling Psychology: When public schools and colleges appointed counselors during World War II to motivate students to take up the cause of fighting for the nation by volunteering for vocational placement and training, it led to the actual birth of counseling psychology as a job profile. This later led to the formation of APA Division 17.
