Introduction to Counselling and Its History

Introduction to Counselling

• Counselling is both a science and an art.
• It's a science because it uses techniques and procedures to help people understand their situations and find solutions for life changes.
• It's an art because it allows therapists to utilize their unique personalities and experiences to help clients.
• Counselling is a professional relationship between a trained counsellor and a client to clarify perspectives on life and resolve problems of an emotional or interpersonal nature.
• Counselling applies mental health, psychological, or human development principles. This involves cognitive, affective, behavioral, or systematic intervention.

History of Counselling in India

• Counselling is not a new concept.
• Lord Krishna is considered the first counsellor in India, embodying counselling principles through the Bhagavad Gita.
• The Gita helped Arjuna overcome conflict through self-understanding and self-realisation.
• This conflict, described as "mine and thine," referred to the concept of Sva and Para.

Evolution of Counselling in India

• Self-realisation in the context of the Gita is distinct from modern Western understandings.
• It involves achieving oneness with the ultimate through understanding one's spirituality, overcoming the illusion of difference between the Atman and the Paramatma.
• Freedom in modern India is less about philosophy and more about material choices and actions, unlike the traditional understanding.
• The Vedic approach lost significance during the colonial period, with youth becoming dependent on adults for decisions.
• Contemporary Indian society has a broader range of choices and opportunities, compared to 19th-century Western society.

Origin of Counselling Movement in India

• The first formal chair of psychology was established at Mysore University.
• This was followed by psychology departments at Calcutta University and later at Patna, Banaras Hindu University, Lucknow University, and Bombay.
• Voluntary private guidance agencies in Calcutta and Bombay provided guidance.
• The psychology department in Calcutta was closely related with the David Hare Training College.
• Applied psychology became an independent department or section within psychology departments.

Counselling in Current Time

• Counselling was recognised as an essential service by the NCERT in 2005.
• The need for counselling in India is increasing due to social change and rapid economic growth.
• Rapid globalisation has led to the influence of free markets impacting Indian counselling practices.
• Societal challenges, such as women's empowerment and challenges with age-old values, influence counselling needs.
• Work-related stress, including competition for jobs and career choices, is an increasing concern.
• Aggression and violence, fueled by resentment, is a rising issue in modern India.

Terms Associated with Counselling

• Guidance: The process of helping people make important life decisions.
• Psychotherapy: Focused on addressing serious problems related to intra-psychic conflicts.
• Psychology: The scientific study of behavior and experiences.
• Helping: The service of assisting clients in managing problems.
• Motivation: The ability to stimulate a person to act or behave in a particular manner.
• Intervention: An agent between a client and their issue, such as issues that need to be addressed.
• Coaching: A training and assimilation process to confront and solve issues.
• Mediation: A system that can resolve disputes.

Guidance vs Counselling

• Guidance focuses on helping individuals choose what they value, while counselling focuses on helping to make changes.
• Guidance deals with intellectual aspects, while counselling deals with emotional aspects.

Counselling vs Psychotherapy

• Counselling is used with normal individuals and is often educational and informational, while psychotherapy is used with severely disturbed individuals.
• Counselling is associated with educational and social work settings, while psychotherapy is associated with medical or psychiatric settings.
• Counselling aims at promoting personal growth, whereas Psychotherapy aims at causing change (e.g. curing mental disorders).
• Both counselling and psychotherapy utilize similar aspects to support healthier lives.

Helping vs Counselling

• Helping involves informal and non-scientific assistance.
• Counselling involves a formal support system along with technical and scientific skills.
• Counselling is done by trained professionals.

Motivation vs Counselling

• Motivation uses external influences (e.g., rewards) to stimulate action.
• Counselling empowers individuals through internal reflection and reasoning.
• Counselling is initiated by the individual, while intervention is initiated by others.
• Counselling helps through personal/internal processes and reasoning while intervention uses external pressures.

Coaching vs Counselling

• Coaching focuses on proactively addressing future events through planning.
• Counselling targets immediate and present coping mechanisms.
• Coaching assists in forecasting future circumstances, while counselling focuses on developing current skills.

Motive for Counselling

• Actions are driven by basic human desires and needs.
• These include basic needs, love, acceptance, companionship, identity, and direction.
• Other motives also include stress, anger, loneliness, threat, effect of issues/problems on a person's life, view of oneself and others, choices, and responses to situations.