Counseling as a profession has grown over the last 100 years, but you can
find the origins of counseling much earlier. Counseling incorporates many
ideas from the concepts of guidance and psychotherapy; therefore, in order to
understand today's counselor you must understand those concepts as well as
the history of counseling. Samuel Gladding in Counseling: A Comprehensive
Profession (2000) defines guidance as "the process of helping people make
important choices that affect their lives such as choosing a preferred
lifestyle." Although many still use the term guidance counselor when
referring to school counselors, guidance tends to deal more with helping
people make decisions, while counseling tends to assist people in making
changes. School Counselors do both of these. Gladding defines psychotherapy
as a process that "traditionally focuses on serious problems associated with
intrapsychic, internal, and personal issues and conflicts." When
encountering these serious problems, school counselors refer students rather
than treating them. The importance of knowing these factors is that it
allows parents and students to know what to expect from the school
counselor. As a school counselor, I will work with students to guide them
toward making decisions as well as counseling them to make changes that will
increase the likelihood that they will live happy and productive lives. If I
encounter a student with a problem that is outside the scope of my training
and responsibilities, I will refer that student for further assistance rather
than trying to counsel them myself.
