Counseling is an American occupation that grew out of the country's promise to its citizens. The late 1800s, a period of gross materialism and blatant political corruption, is often called the Gilded Age. Although it sounds glamorous, beyond the millionaires, debutantes, and mansions in this period and the following decades was the reality of the muckrakers and social reformers such as Ida Tarbell and Jacob Riis. Waves of immigrants from Europe and migrants from American farms were flooding the cities. The newcomers looked for hope and opportunity but found disease and destitution. The country was not ready to accept such conditions, however, a series of reform movements providing for settlement houses, improved sanitation, better housing, and access to education helped relieve some of the worst conditions. One of those movements led to the counseling profession that exists today.
Early Programs
“Guidance” as counseling was called previously, has no official founder, but one person, Frank Parsons, is often called its father; he established the Vocational Bureau in Boston in 1908. Even earlier, George Merril had started a vocational guidance program in San Francisco, and Jessie B. Davis had devoted classroom time to guidance activities, in Detroit. In 1907, as principal of Central High in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Davis made character development and vocational information part of the curriculum. At this same period, similar programs began in Cincinnati, Chicago, Illinois, Denver, Nebraska, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York City, Oakland, Omaha, Rhode Island, Salt Lake City, and Seattle. Even earlier, books such as The Book of Trades or Library of Useful Arts had appeared to help people learn about occupations.
The early programs all focused on vocational information, but they were also concerned with discovering how to match individuals with the occupations that would suit them best so that they could fully develop their potential. Parsons, in particular, is credited with making such matching a systematic activity. In Choosing a Vocation, he writes that a person must take three steps before selecting a field of work: First, develop a clear understanding of yourself—your aptitudes, abilities, interests, resources, limitations, and other qualities. Second, gain knowledge of the requirements and conditions of success, advantages and disadvantages, compensations, opportunities, and prospects in different lines of work. Third, achieve true reasoning on the relation of these two groups of facts.
Progress In Counseling
The years that followed saw rapid progress. Counselors organized the National Vocational Guidance Association in 1913. Other organizations followed, many of which merged to form the American Personnel and Guidance Association in 1952. It became the American Association for Counseling and Development in 1984, and it is now known as the American Counseling Association (ACA).
Developments Of Tests
The work of Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, and Clifford Beers, who launched the mental hygiene movement, fueled improvements in the treatment of mental illness and initiated programs to identify mental illness early. The development of the intelligence test by Alfred Binet led to great interest in testing and measurement on the part of the army as well as educators. World War I brought about mass testing of individuals for the first time. Improvements in the validity of various tests were made, and even more extensive testing occurred during World War II.
Carl Rogers
Besides testing, the 1940s are important for the publication of Counseling and Psychotherapy by Carl Rogers. Rogers stressed the importance of the counseling relationship; his work thus acted as a counterweight to the diagnostic/testing developments of the war. The importance of the clients' or students' own perceptions of their needs was reemphasized.
Government Support
The Great Depression and World War II increased the federal government's support for guidance activity in many ways. This support included funds for research on vocations and training programs for counselors as well as the employment of counselors. The government encouraged counseling in a great many areas; veterans, the unemployed, and elementary school children were added to those with access to counselors. The National Defense Education Act of 1958 was especially significant in regard to federal involvement in counseling. One writer, Verne Faust, points to passage of this law as the ''beginning of the modern elementary school counseling of any considerable dimension." Its impact is seen in the growing number of school counselors of all types. From 1958 to 1961 their numbers doubled, and the ratio of students to counselors fell dramatically.
The 1960s also saw significant changes in our society's approach to mental health. Successful attempts were made to reduce the number of patients in long-term hospitals. Many factors contributed to this reduction, including the discovery of new drugs that controlled the symptoms of some variations of mental illness. Part of the change was also the result of an increased emphasis on comprehensive care, which stressed preventive measures. Counselors played an important part in these programs.
Rehabilitation Services
Rehabilitation became a more important function of counselors after World War II, although earlier efforts had been made. More than 600,000 World War II veterans received rehabilitation services by the end of 1953. Over the years, the number of people eligible for rehabilitation services grew to include the physically disabled, emotionally handicapped, mentally retarded, and recovering substance abusers. The late 1970s saw the inclusion of rehabilitation as a mandatory part of worker's compensation in state laws, beginning with California. The employment of rehabilitation counselors in the private sector has increased significantly as other states have followed suit.
Corporations have also contributed to the growth of the counseling professions. Besides their obvious use of testing and job analysis, they have employed counselors to assist workers with a great many concerns ranging from alcoholism to retirement.
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