Counseling, like many fi elds of professional work, draws its principles of practice from a number of disciplines. In the early decades of the present century, the ebullient enthusiasm, which marked the counseling movement, tended to emphasize the need for appropriate methods from a pragmatic standpoint, to the neglect of the development of conceptual models, which could form a sound theoretical basis for practice. The counseling movement grew out of the vocational guidance movement, which explains why it did not have a clear theoretical bias. Therefore, it largely tended to be technique-oriented and was less concerned with theory building.
It is being increasingly recognized in any professional fi eld that entrants have to be carefully selected. It is not suffi cient to only take into account the intellectual factors or the professed interest in the service to the client. A number of studies have shown that personality characteristics have great signifi cance. Further, the effectiveness of counselors is said to depend on the goals which they may be trying to achieve. No useful purpose is served by listing a string of personality traits which
would supposedly characterize a successful counselor. A more suitable criterion would be for a counselor to evince interest in helping people. He should be sensitive to the situation around him and the needs of the people and above all he should be sincere and genuine.
In the past, attention was focused on helping the client, without understanding the integrated nature of the human organism and the dynamics of problem appraisal.
The resolution of the problem from a psychological point of view did not receive suffi cient attention.
This relatively unsophisticated approach to counseling has undergone several decisive changes over the years leading to the emergence of counseling as a professional service.
Individuals who are engaged in professional activities have to face three basic issues concerning (1) the procedures of selection and the training of prospective entrants, (2) academic preparation to reach a level of professional standing with regard to the necessary knowledge and the understanding of the principles and dynamics of human growth, motivation, adjustment and coping mechanisms, and (3) methods of analysis and synthesis and the appropriate application of the acquired skills.
The fi rst and foremost of the professional considerations, therefore, consists of equipping prospective counselors with necessary skills and adequate knowledge.
With the progressive growth of knowledge and an increasing understanding of natural phenomena, what is known and acclaimed as the latest is likely to become obsolete as soon as new knowledge and techniques are known. Professional training and skills by their very nature are in need of constant revision and updating.
This brings home the related issue, namely, the question of differential service or different kinds of services to be provided to clients who differ in age, sex, experience occupation, etc. Similarly, clients could differ with regard to the type of problems they have and the kind of service they apparently require. Consideration of these issues suggests that training should not be of an omnibus type. Perhaps there could be different levels of training:
1. A basic or general type of training.
2. Training for different specializations depending on the areas or groups or situations in which the trainees will be called upon to serve.
Counselors vary in the quality of help they can provide. Those who are highly competent and skilled are able to produce better results. Therefore, it is the primary obligation of the profession to provide the expertise to produce desirable results in the clients.
All professional fi elds attach considerable importance to the selection of suitable persons to be trained to become members of a profession, for example, medicine, engineering, etc. For proper criteria to be laid out it is necessary for the different functions of counselors to be identifi ed. Primarily counseling is a helping function.
Therefore, it is closely related to the needs and characteristics of the social system
in which it is to function and operate, and also to the resources; personnel and material; available to the system. For example, counseling services are comparatively highly developed in the United States. They are almost nonexistent in India. With rapid industrialization and urbanization, the traditional modes of functioning and the characteristics of the Indian society are fast breaking down, necessitating the increasing provision for counseling services. Demographic growth, income distribution, and educational access among others, determine the nature of services required by the society.
In the developing countries, the following limitations have prevented and sometimes distorted the development of counseling:
1. Lack of proper understanding of what counseling is, leading to confusion and false expectations.
2. Lack of fi nancial support owing to the general poverty of the developing countries.
3. ∑ Introduction of unrealistic models of functioning. For instance, imitation and emulation of the kind of services available on the campuses of US universities, such as student personnel services, by the Indian universities. Such services are too expensive to be of value in the Indian context.
∑ Emphasis on models of help unsuited to the milieu. For example, the average Indian, or for that matter the average oriental, is largely conventional in his outlook, while in the West, and more especially in United States, people are unconventional and individualistic.
4. Lack of proper coordination between the available agencies of assistance leading to wastefulness and duplication of effort.
5. Absence of educational and employment avenues to serve as the primary source for counseling activity.
6. Social and economic means of a large part of the population falling below the poverty line, making counseling an unrealistic exercise.
Most social systems are committed to achieving human well-being. The leaders of such systems recognize the need for counseling but do not give it the kind of priority it deserves owing to lack of personnel and material resources. More often than not there exists an attitude that we can solve our problems ourselves. We do not need a third party solution. We know more about the issues related to our problem than a stranger. But we fail to understand that standing outside the problem can lend a clarity that being in the problem situation cannot.
Now people are beginning to value and therefore seek counselors for their institutions and organizations. But I feel that this is more out of the fact that people in authority feel that they do not have time for problem-solving, rather than confessing an inability to problem solve. However, counselors are being sought after, and this
is good news. With the growth and recognition of the profession, the ethical code will also be standardized in India. Then, all counselors will be made responsible and held accountable for their professional behavior.