Dulay, Vince Frederick E.

Counseling Psychology
BS Psychology 3-1 Prof. Aimee Rose A. Manda

HISTORY OF COUNSELING

The history of counseling field, though relatively new, is rich. It is important to note the influence of
the broad field of psychology, and though much of the history of each is unique, counseling and
psychology are branches of the same mental health tree. The counseling field developed from the
guidance movement in response to recognition of a need for mental health and guidance counseling
for individuals facing developmental milestones. This article provides a historical context for the
development of the counseling profession, the key contributors to the profession, and the
development of organizations providing professional context and accountability. An overview focuses
on three threads: societal changes that influenced the profession in response to human need, changes
in psychological theory, and educational reform.

Counseling in Early 20th Century

The counseling profession developed in many ways from responses to changes in society. In the early
20th century, when counseling was first emerging, humanistic reform, with an increased emphasis on
the value of all human beings, was also emerging. Human qualities such as choice, creativity, self-
realization, and ultimately the value of all people became the focus of human change and intervention.
During this period of humanistic reform, society saw changes in conditions of prisons, asylums, and
factories based on the humanistic principles noted above. The focus was toward treating all clients,
regardless of circumstance, in a way that regarded and supported their potential for success and
remediation. Concurrently, the school system was taking a lead in this transformation through its
focus on humanistic education, including student-centered learning with the teacher as a facilitator,
development of the self-actualized student, and student cooperation. Humanistic reform led to a new
way of viewing the individual and the facilitation of human well-being.

Also during this time, America was in the midst of the Industrial Revolution, a time of great change
resulting in a shift in human need. One of the primary consequences of the dramatic changes
occurring in American society was the movement from farms to the city. As a great influx of people
moved to cities to work in industry and in the factories, people were severely overcrowded, which
ultimately resulted in an increase in disease and the beginning of slums and poverty. An additional
consequence was the disorganization of the family. Before the industrial revolution, families lived
close to one another, worked together, and relied on one another for support. Once families moved to
the cities to work in the factories, the family structure changed, and the human population became
increasingly isolated. These changes created new needs for the individual and the family.

In education, this time period saw the ongoing development of progressive education led by John
Dewey. The focus of this movement was child learning through real-world experience and an
emphasis on schools reflecting the overall life of society. Also part of this movement was respect for
the child and the implementation of a curriculum that allowed for children to develop personal
interests; this curriculum included agricultural education, industrial education, and social education
with an emphasis on the acculturation of immigrants. Progressive education coupled with the
humanistic movement shed light on the growing need to attend to the overall well-being of children,
beyond the walls of the school. Another key figure in the change of American schools was Horace
Mann, who is often referred to as the father of American education. Mann believed in the development
of a system of common schools: universal, free, and nonsectarian education.

These early forerunners (Dewey and Mann) were focused on training and advice, in particular
education and vocational guidance, and on interpersonal relationships. To this point in history, the
helping professions were dominated by mental health giants such as Sigmund Freud, Alfred Adler, and
Viktor Frankl. Freud’s psychoanalytic theory had, and continues to have, a profound impact on
counseling and psychotherapy.

The early 1900s saw the beginning of political support for compulsory education. Compulsory
education allowed for education for all and is based on the fundamental principle that education is a
basic human right. Specifically, compulsory education requires by law that children receive education
and that government provide education to all. Educating children decreased the number of children in
the labor force and was a primary force in the change of society.

During this time in France, Alfred Binet was part of a commission concerned with retardation in
school children. Binet rejected some original tenets of intelligence testing and worked on the
development of intelligence scales. With the changes in the educational system driven by education
reform in a response to urbanization and industrialization, schools needed assistance to handle
diverse learning capabilities. Binet developed a scale to differentiate children struggling to learn from
those more capable of school demands. Binet collaborated with Theodore Simon, a physician, and
together they developed a measure of intelligence. The primary intent of this 1905 intelligence scale
was to discriminate between slightly “retarded” children and the normal school population.

Three key figures influenced the early roots of the counseling profession, specifically Jesse B. Davis,
Frank Parsons, and Clifford Beers. A front-runner in the response to educational reform, Jesse B.
Davis, was the first person to develop public school counseling and guidance programs. As a principal,
Davis required his students to write about their vocational interests on a weekly basis. Davis believed
that character development was central to preventing behavioral problems and to creating good
relationships with other students. Davis was strongly influenced by Mann and Dewey and believed
that if children were given proper guidance, the challenges of an increasingly industrialized society
could be met. Therefore he advocated for the infusion of vocational development into traditional
curriculum. The goals of the vocational focus were to assist students in understanding their character
and in becoming socially responsible workers.

Parsons, often called the father of guidance, founded Boston’s Vocational Bureau in 1908. Parsons
believed the more people understood themselves and the career choices available to them—
specifically their aptitudes, interests, and resources, the more capable they were of making informed
and reasonable occupational choices. In 1909 Parsons wrote Choosing a Vocation, a highly influential
book that called for the designation of school teachers as vocational counselors. Other schools took
Parsons’s example and began implementing their own vocational guidance programs.

During this same time Beers, author of A Mind That Found Itself in 1908, was the impetus for the
mental health movement. This book was an autobiographical account of his experience with
institutionalization following a suicide attempt. After discovering the condition of these facilities and
finding the treatment of mental illness ineffective, Beers committed himself to changing the treatment
of the mentally ill. In this book, he exposed the conditions of mental health facilities and eventually
prompted national reform in the treatment of persons with mental illness. His work was the
forerunner of mental health counseling.

The above professional forces were working toward the development of the counseling profession.
Early changes across three professional movements— guidance counseling and educational reform,
mental health reform, and the psychometrics movement— came together to create the foundation of
the counseling profession.

As the 1900s progressed, several events occurred that impacted the profession. The first event was
the founding of the National Vocational Guidance Association (NVGA) in 1913. In 1915, the NVGA
published the first National Vocational Guidance Bulletin, and by 1921 it was publishing it regularly.
In 1924, the title was changed to the National Vocational Guidance Magazine. The publication evolved
over the years to eventually become the Journal of Counseling and Development, the publication’s
current title. The development of the NCGA signified the first effort toward unifying those invested in
the pursuit of scholarly information related to vocational guidance. Also during this time, the Smith
Hughes Act of 1917 was passed by Congress. This act provided funding for public schools to provide
vocational guidance programs and allowed schools to separate their vocational guidance programs
from standard curriculum courses.

The beginning of World War I brought many new challenges to the United States and other countries
involved in the war. The U.S. Army, in response to one of their challenges, commissioned the
development of the Army Alpha and Army Beta intelligence tests. During this time, counseling became
increasingly recognized as the army implemented these instruments to assist in selection, placement,
and training practices for army personnel. After the war ended, these instruments were used with the
civilian population; this marked the beginning of the psycho-metrics movement, one of the
professional origins on which the counseling field was largely based.

Counseling in The 1920s

The 1920s saw the emergence of an even greater influence of school guidance. During this time, the
profession was becoming increasingly focused, and vocational guidance became the primary focus of
training programs, starting with Harvard University. The major influences on the profession at this
time were theories of education and governmental support of guidance service for war veterans.
Recognition of the importance of vocational assessment and guidance continued to pull the counseling
field into more solid development and recognition of the need for increased professionalism. In
response to this pull came the development of the first standards for occupational inventories and
guidelines for their development and evaluation, providing further impetus for psychometric
evaluation. The primary orientation during this time was the medical model and testing.

With the standards for development and evaluation of psychological instruments came an increase in
the publication of these materials, most notably the Strong Vocational Interest Blank (SVIB), created
and published by Edward Strong in 1927 (now called the Strong Interest Inventory). The Strong
Vocational Interest Blank was developed based on the assumption that patterns of individual interests
indicate likely occupational choices. The inventory indicated the occupations in which a person will be
more likely to be satisfied and perhaps even continue with long-term employment.

Counseling in The 1930s

The Great Depression in the 1930s had a profound influence on both researchers and practitioners;
specifically there was an increased need for helping processes and counseling for employment
placement. During this time period, E. G. Williamson developed the trait-factor theory based on
modifications of Parson’s theory. Williamson’s theory was direct and focused on the counselor’s
direction, primarily through teaching and mentoring. The focus of trait-factor counseling was to
define behavior by traits such as aptitudes, achievements, personalities, and interest, and based on
these and a variety of factors, statistically evaluate them to assist an individual toward becoming an
effective and successful individual. Williamson’s theory was most popular in the 1930s and 1940s
when it was used by the military in World War II for selection.

In addition to the influence of the economic climate, the greatest influence on the counseling
profession during this time may have been the government’s interest in supporting guidance and
counseling efforts. In 1936, the George-Deen Act was approved by Congress; this act allowed for the
creation of the Vocational Education Division of the U.S. Office of Education. An extension of this act
was the introduction of the position of state supervisor of guidance in state departments of education.
The George-Deen Act represented the first time funds were directly allocated for vocational guidance
counseling, and guidance counselors saw an increase in support for their work.
Also during this time, the U.S. government instituted the U.S. Employment Service, which published
the first edition of the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT). The DOT was the first publication to
define jobs of all types. The DOT continues to serve individuals seeking employment to this day.

Despite great strides in the counseling profession during this time, some professionals in the fields of
education and psychology were criticizing the narrow focus on the guidance movement. In particular,
Edward Thorndike felt that the focus of the guidance movement was too narrow.

Counseling in The 1940s

The 1940s represented another decade of increased recognition for counseling and the ongoing
development and definition of the profession. One of the most significant events was World War II.
During the war, the U.S. government employed counselors and psychologists to assist in selection and
training of specialists for both the military and industry. The war also brought with it a necessary
increase in the number of women in the workforce. With so many men fighting in the military, women
were needed to fill the vacant positions. The role of women in the workplace during such an
important time for the United States radically changed the traditional sex roles formerly dominating
the workforce.

Another significant event for the field of counseling that occurred during the 1940s was a growing
interest in psychotherapy. There was an emergence of diverse theories—Carl Rogers’s client-centered
and nondirective theory in particular. Rogers grew in popularity after the publication of his book
Counseling and Psychotherapy. He challenged Williamson’s directive way of working with clients and
focused on the clients’ responsibility for their own growth. As is evident from the history to this point,
the focus of counseling and guidance prior to Rogers was on testing, assessment, and vocations.
Through Rogers’s influence, the focus of counseling shifted to relationship dynamics, counseling
technique, training of counselors, and refinement of the goals of the counseling relationship. Rogers’s
theory came to the forefront of counseling and psychology theories, but new counseling theories
emerged as well.

Following the war, several events occurred that further promoted the counseling profession. The
George Barden Act of 1946 was passed, which allocated vocational education funds for counselor
training programs: This included funding for counselor educators, research, state program
supervision, local guidance supervisors, and school counselors. Also during this time, the U.S.
Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) gave grants for counselors and psychologists and paid for
internships for graduate students. With the combination of the George Barden Act and support from
the VA, graduate training programs began defining their curriculum more clearly.

Counseling in The 1950s

Building on the major changes that occurred during the 1940s, the 1950s saw great changes and the
professionalization of counseling. As mentioned previously, the counseling profession developed in
the context of historical events. The 1950s were a time of great change with such historical events as
the launch of Sputnik, the baby boom, the women’s rights movement, and the civil rights movement.
While these events were drastically changing the country, additional simultaneous events were
occurring that changed the counseling profession. Specifically, these events were the passing of the
National Defense Education Act (NDEA), professional developments, the introduction of new guidance
and counseling theories, and the emergence of diverse marriage and family counseling theories.

The National Defense Education Act (NDEA) was initiated in response to Sputnik, a space satellite
launched by the Soviet Union. The purpose of the NDEA was to promote studies in math, science, and
foreign languages. The NDEA sought to identify children with particular abilities in these academic
areas. Although this was the original intent of NDEA, this act also provided funding for improving
school counseling programs and for training counselors. This decade saw the greatest increase in the
number of school counselors in a decade.

Concurrent to the growing numbers of counselors nationwide, the profession itself was growing and
changing. 1952 saw (1) the establishment of the American Personnel and Guidance Association
(APGA), (2) the establishment of Division 17, the Division of Counseling Psychology of the American
Psychological Association, and (3) the founding of the American School Counselor Association (ASCA).
A year after ASCA was founded, it became a division of the APGA.

Finally, the 1950s saw the emergence of many different theories. Prior to this time there were
essentially four primary theoretical orientations: psychoanalysis, trait-factor theories, client-centered
theories, and behavioral theories. Within these four primary orientations, practitioners worked with
either nondirective or directive counseling, but during this time, new theories emerged, including
cognitive theories, behavioral theories, learning theories, and career theories. Also, marriage and
family therapy emerged to an even greater extent, and major theorists in the marriage and family
therapy field, such as Gregory Bateson, Virginia Satir, Jay Haley, Murray Bowen, Carl Whitaker, and
Salvador Minuchin were solidifying the marriage and family movement.

Counseling in The 1960s

In the 1960s, the baby boomers were growing up, and the conservatism of the 1950s was changing to
reflect a new way of thinking, thus radically changing American culture. The civil rights movement
saw sit-ins, protests, and assassinations. During this time, women were entering the workforce in
greater numbers, and the National Organization of Women was exposing the “glass ceiling.” Also
during this time, crime and drug use were increasing, and the United States was once again at war,
this time in Vietnam. The societal changes of the times contributed to many changes in the counseling
profession, in particular a solidification of the profession and a focus on the needs created by the
societal changes during this time.

In 1963, the Community Mental Health Act was enacted. This act provided federal funding for
community mental health centers and was pivotal in changing the dissemination of services for the
mentally ill. It allowed for individuals who would formerly have been institutionalized to live in the
community and receive mental health support and services. The Community Mental Health Act also
provided funding for building new community mental health centers through the National Institute of
Mental Health, thus providing additional support for the provision of community-based care. In
addition to major developments in the care for the mentally ill, this act provided employment
opportunities for counselors.

This decade also saw increased professionalism in the field of counseling. Specifically, the APGA
published its first code of ethics, providing guidelines for ethical practice and ultimately protecting the
public and increasing professionalism. Also during this time, an APGA report was edited that defined
the role of and the training standards for school counselors. The American Psychological Association,
Division 17, continued to clarify the definition of the counseling psychologist and published its first
professional journal, The Counseling Psychologist.

Another influence of the government on the development of the counseling profession was the 1966
establishment of the Education Resources Information Clearinghouse (ERIC). Specifically related to
the counseling profession was the ERIC section on Counseling and Personnel Services (ERIC/CAPS) at
the University of Michigan. The ERIC was funded by the Office of Educational Research and
Improvement through the U.S. Department of Education. The ERIC/CAPS provided a comprehensive
resource on counseling activities and trends in the United States and internationally. In addition to the
development of the database, conferences on counseling were sponsored, bringing together leaders in
the profession.
In 1962, Gilbert Wrenn wrote a seminal piece that further defined the role of the school counselor.
Specifically, Wrenn wrote that the school counselor should fill four functions: counsel students;
consult with parents, teachers, and administrators; study the changing student population and
interpret this information for administrators and teachers; and coordinate counseling services in the
school and between the school and the community.

As the profession grew and training standards became more rigorous, the provision and regulation of
quality services also increased. This decade saw considerable growth in the group movement and a
shift toward small group interaction and interpersonal growth and awareness. Other major influences
on the profession during this time were the emergence of Maslow’s humanistic counseling theory and
of behavioral counseling, which emphasized learning as the root of change.

The counseling profession was paralleling the societal changes of the times. Specifically, counselors
were being employed in more diverse settings, such as mental health centers and community
agencies. Counselor training programs were also increasing in number, meaning that more counselors
were competing for jobs as the programs graduated students. Along with the increased availability of
training and more diverse employment opportunities, counselors were seeking and receiving
specialized training. The term community counselor began to be used, paralleling the diversification
of employment opportunities, with the new title implying a professional with diverse roles and
responsibilities.

A pivotal movement in the counseling profession during this decade was for state and national licen-
sure. Restrictions on counselors’ ability to acquire psychology licensure led to this movement. The
APGA started a task force to address licensure for counselors, and a benchmark for its success was the
passing of successful licensure legislation in Virginia in 1976. Two additional states, Alabama and
Arkansas, also had licensure legislation by the end of the decade.

Counseling in The 1970s

In the 1970s the profession became increasingly strong. Headquarters for the APGA were established
in Alexandria, Virginia, and several strong divisions were chartered, including the Association of
Counselor Education and Supervision (ACES), the American Mental Health Counseling Association
(AMHCA), the Association for Religious and Value Issues in Counseling (now ASERVIC), the
Association for Specialists in Group Work (ASGW), the Association for Non-White Concerns in
Personnel and Guidance (ANWC), and the Public Offender Counselor Association. During this time,
ACES published its first standards for master’s degree programs in counseling, and it approved
guidelines for doctoral education in counseling. As the profession became stronger, the APGA began
questioning professional identity, as the personnel and guidance focus seemed increasingly outdated
and narrow.

Counseling in The 1980s

The 1980s saw divorce rates increasing, violent crime increasing, and prisons overflowing. Drug use
was considered an epidemic with the emergence of crack cocaine, and acquired immunodeficiency
syndrome (AIDS) was claiming lives and demanding attention. The counseling profession continued to
grow and to become a distinct profession, ultimately changing in response to divergent societal needs.

In 1981, the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Education Programs (CACREP) was
formed. CACREP revised the original standards developed by ACES in the 1970s. With those
standards, they standardized counselor training (counselor education) programs for both master’s
and doctoral students in the areas of school, community, mental health, marriage and family
counseling, and personnel services.
At the same time, the National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC) was formed in 1983. The initial
intent of the NBCC was to certify counselors on a national level. A large part of this process included
developing a standardized test covering eight major subject areas: (1) human growth and
development, (2) social and cultural foundations, (3) helping relationships, (4) groups, (5) lifestyle
and career development, (6) appraisal, (7) research and evaluation, and (8) professional orientation.
Passing the exam, meeting experiential and educational requirements, and character references
allowed a person to earn the National Certified Counselor (NCC) credential. Accreditation and
certification standards attracted many to the profession.

A conversation continued from the late 1970s became more prevalent during the 1980s, as leaders in
the APGA recognized that “personnel and guidance” no longer fit in describing the work of the
members. In response, the APGA was changed to the American Association for Counseling and
Development (AACD). Professional identity and commitment was increasingly important to members
of AACD. Representative of this commitment was the formation of Chi Sigma Iota, the academic and
professional honors society for counselors. Chi Sigma Iota was formed by Thomas J. Sweeney to
promote excellence in the counseling profession.

AACD saw an increase in membership and an increase in the number of divisions, highlighting the
diversification in the counseling field. Throughout this decade, the focus on developmental issues
across the life span was led by developmental theorists such as Erik Erikson and Lawrence Kohlberg.
A new division of the AACD, the Association for Multicultural Counseling and Development (AMCD)
represented an increased focus on recognizing the challenges of counseling individuals from diverse
ethnic and cultural backgrounds.

Counseling in The 1990s

The technology boom, low unemployment rates, and highly publicized violence (the Los Angeles riots,
the World Trade Center bombing, the O. J. Simpson trial, the Oklahoma City bombing, and school
shootings) marked the 1990s. During this time the counseling profession was continuing to define
itself professionally, was demanding appropriate supervision in response to the diverse needs of
counseling consumers, and was dealing with restricted funding. Two primary influences in the 1990s,
in addition to advances in technology, were managed care and an increase in accountability.

In 1992, the AACD instituted another name change, this time to the American Counseling Association
(ACA). Also in 1992, counseling was included in the healthcare human resource statistics compiled by
the Center for Mental Health Services and the National Institute of Mental Health, marking counseling
as a primary mental health profession. A final key event that occurred in 1992 was the writing of
multicultural counseling standards and competencies by Derald Wing Sue, Patricia Arredondo, and
Roderick McDavis.

Finally, during this time there was a return to emphasizing counseling the whole person; this meant
counselors took into consideration the importance of societal influences and the context of a client’s
life, such as his or her spirituality, family, and occupation. Organizations established in the 1970s and
1980s such as CACREP, Chi Sigma Iota, and NBCC experienced continued growth during this time,
more states were passing licensure legislation for counselors, and both ACA and APA were publishing
articles and books on counseling.

History of Counseling in the Philippines

Pre–Colonial Philippines was much like neighboring Indonesia and Malaysia, and counseling still
shows vestiges of indigenous help-seeking through (a) superstition; (b) reliance on elders, faith
healers, and fortune tellers; and (c) belief in the supernatural (Bulatao, 1992). In 1521, the Philippines
was rediscovered by Ferdinand Magellan, which began the Spanish
colonization, resulting mainly in religious conquest: 80% of Filipinos are Roman Catholics (CIA, 2011).
The American occupation, from 1898 to 1941 (and military bases into the 1990s) followed Spanish
colonization. From public school to government, the United States has had a strong influence on the
country (NSO, 2010). The language of instruction in the country is English, and greater respect is
given to anything American over anything Filipino. The United States has even had a significant
impact on counseling because Filipino counselors and psychologists often trained there (Salazar-
Clemeña, 2002).

Counseling, as conceived in the United States, began in the Philippines with two colleges in Manila
providing guidance services geared toward identifying professions and employment opportunities
and establishing the first psychological clinic at the University of the Philippines (Salazar-Clemeña,
2002). The growth of guidance and counseling was interrupted by the Japanese occupation from 1941
to 1944. From the 1940s to the 1960s was a period of counselor training (Salazar-Clemeña, 2002), as
Filipinos obtained training and degrees in the United States and established academic counseling
programs when they returned to the country. The birth of the two associations most instrumental in
the regulation ofthe profession—the Psychological Association of the Philippines and the Philippine
Guidance and Counseling Association— happened at this time. From the 1970s to the 1990s, the
movement in counseling was primarily indigenization (e.g., Bulatao, 1992; Enriquez, 1977) of
assessments, constructs, and theories, focusing on the differences between the counseling models
learned in the United States within the context of Philippine culture and the realities of its social
issues. The organizations established then were the Philippine Association for Counselor Education,
Research, and Supervision and the Career Development Association of the Philippines.

There was monumental growth in counseling following the American occupation as the country
struggled through political movements, military coups, and citizen-led revolutions to become an
independent republic. The volatile shifts in governance have contributed to the country’s economic
and socio-political structure and its instability and oppression; butthese shifts have also
demonstrated the power of the people, for example, when thousands of Filipinos demonstrated
peacefully against dictatorship, graft, and corruption. These circumstances continue to shape the field
of counseling in the Philippines, with the necessity for advocacy and a social justice agenda (Tuason,
2008).