Quarterly Bulletin

Although in African societies, formal counselling sessions are not taken seriously and sometimes scorned, most people treasure seeking advice from elders, friends and relatives with the view of seeking some counselling for their problems or indecision. Anesu Manyere, a student in counselling in the USA, stresses that counselling is a practical approach to solving many problems of persons and communities. As such, counselling is a tool for social justice.

This article explains the link between counselling and social justice. Counselling offers a positive and a practical approach to resolving a diverse range of problems that people encounter on a daily basis. Counselling in many ways is concerned with issues of community justice and wellness. It seeks to promote active participation in public life, and empower people to make meaningful contributions to communities.

Counsellors encourage people to be sensitive to the feelings of others, their culture, and backgrounds; to take an active part in public life by focusing on the common good; to be aware of others’ equal rights and opportunities; and to interact in their communities. Counsellors and psychotherapists strive to help people maximize their presence of supportive systems and people and let go of destructive ones. In short, counsellors and psychotherapists are concerned with understanding and improving human functioning.

CONSIDERATIONS OF COMMUNITY IN COUNSELLING HISTORY

Individuals who initiated the development of counselling were influenced by the desire for social change. They were passionate about issues of social justice and community bonding. Getting involved in civic responsibilities has been viewed as one way of promoting social justice. People get involved in issues of change as either concerned citizens, professional activists or simply as volunteers. Regardless of how they get involved, one thing is clear, they want change or an improvement of their given situation. Counselling grew as a profession through the works of individuals who were passionate about change in their situations. These people believed that counselling cannot be divorced from social issues. To help people,   they   contended  they had to confront the situations that inhibited individuals to fully realise themselves. As a result of the need for change, there were social reform movements in mental health, education and criminal justice. Frank Parsons founded the Boston Vocational Bureau, while Clifford Beers focused on mental health reforms, and Jesse B. Davis introduced a systematized guidance programme in schools. In the years that followed, counselling developed into a formidable social reform instrument. Individuals like John Brewer, Carl Rogers, Gilbert Wrenn, Leona Tyler, Carol Gilligan and others continued to sharpen and broaden the horizon of the counselling profession.

These individuals advocated for their profession and got the government to fund and recognize it. As a result, counselling services were found to be indispensable in dealing with social problems that stemmed from the effects of World War I and II, the Great Depression and other social ills. The desire to improve the society influenced the counselling field to become professional. Over the years an association, APGA now ACA, was established to set standards, provide guidance, research literature, and expert knowledge in counselling. Through the publication of papers and articles in books and journals, ACA has become a hallmark for counselling.  The association provides a more structured, standardized way of professional training and helping people.

Counselling involves a deeper sense of connection with the “human system” (Bellah, R.N., Madsen, R., & others. 2008. Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life.  Berkeley: University of California Press). Counsellors do not work in isolation; rather they work in systems and settings. In these settings, they become preventive agents of change and they incorporate interactive combinations of their systems and other domains such as family, school, work, and communities in which they live. They seek to explore significant problems that affect people and they pay attention to the dynamics that operate within systems (Conyne, R.K., 2004. Preventive counselling (2nd ed.): Helping people to become empowered in systems and settings. New York: Brunner-Routledge). Counselling and psychiatry focus on the pain, difficulty and struggles of human existence. In that process they help individuals find within themselves the energy for constructive personal and social living. In other words, individuals get help to move from a pathological dependence to a life-giving independence.

HOW CAN COUNSELLING RESPOND TO COMMUNITY CONCERNS

There are many ways in which counselling can promote community concerns. One of the ways in which counselling can promote community concerns is through the use of various techniques and skills to bring the individual to recognition of self. This is not promoting narcissism, but a practical application of what is positive. In their work, counsellors help individuals to overcome self defeating notions, to accomplish worthwhile values in life and overcome some of life’s confounding circumstances. Individuals are encouraged and empowered to have a sense of civic responsibility, be cognizant of social justice issues and be actively involved in community issues. Counsellors use preventive counselling methods, develop strategies for promoting wellness that enable them to help individuals by focusing on what Conyne calls “streams of influence.” Counsellors find ways of integrating prevention methods, understand prevention as a way of life, empower people in systems and focus on person-centred best practices (Conyne, 2004, p. 53). This preventive approach seeks to alter, first, people’s environments by offering developmental and preventive services as well as examine the people’s pattern of interactive characteristics. Conyne describes prevention as “…a goal for both everyday life and for service delivery through which people become empowered to interact effectively and appropriately within  varying  levels  of systems (micro, meso, exo, and macro) and in settings (individual, family, school, community, work)” (Conyne, 2004, p.25). Counsellors aim at helping people help themselves through an emphasis on education, and growth. They work with people in a variety of settings that include individuals, groups, families, and organisations.

However, counsellors can choose to ignore contexts and systems in which individuals live and spend their lives. Failure to identify capacities of local individuals’ communities and failure to develop community based competencies and skills that connect community assets to people can lead counsellors to ignore community concerns. In addition, there is danger of paternalism that should be balanced by paying attention to issues of culture and diversity within communities. Lastly, counsellors can fail to address community concerns by ignoring to engage spirituality and religious traditions and resources into their work.  In order to overcome this problem, counsellors need to integrate personal and community flourishing.

THEORIES THAT ALLOW COUNSELLORS TO INTEGRATE PERSONAL AND COMMUNITY FLOURISHING

There are many approaches that counsellors can use to integrate personal and community flourishing. They can utilise, among many others, social-cognitive approaches that focus on bringing about change in the individual or the person-centred approaches that strive for unconditional positive regard for the individual. The person-centred approach can be used in a variety of settings such as counselling couples and dealing with international conflicts to promote peace. Another approach that is useful is the existential approach. With this approach, counsellors help individuals to develop a positive attitude toward life. Existential therapy is a way of being that counsellors can use to initiate interaction with oneself, others and the environment. Individuals can be helped to view relationships in a non-manipulative way whether they are in a family, school, community or work environment (Conyne, p.56).

These theories help counsellors to draw on extensive research, expertise and experiences of people and employ several diverse action oriented activities that can be used by people of all walks of life; children, adolescents and adults. Some of the engaging activities and strategies in counselling are designed to stimulate learning, promote social and emotional development, cultivate skills, generate opportunities for individual change, and encourage constructive relationships and teamwork. There are also books on counselling and psychotherapy that offer fresh ideas for establishing rapport and improving negative moods, on how to modify maladaptive behaviours, on education as well as homelessness, substance abuse, dysfunctional family dynamics, low-self esteem, mood disorders, teen sexuality and many other issues.

EMERGING TRENDS WITHIN PROFESSIONAL COUNSELLING

Counselling programmes in graduate schools are now incorporating preventive and/or ecological courses in their curricula. There is a growing emphasis on training, ongoing supervision, development of diversity and advocacy competences for the counselling professional (Conyne, R. K. and Cook, E. P., 2004).  In some graduate schools like Loyola College in Maryland, there have been additions or improvements of existing masters level programmes in order to accommodate and facilitate more research in the area of preventive counselling (ibid.).  As new needs arise, counselling and psychotherapy are also rising to meet the challenges by way of integrating and incorporating other professions and related disciplines into ecological counselling. To this effect, communities, families, schools, companies, religious organisations, governmental and non-governmental organisations are all getting involved in order to make meaningful change in societies.

In Africa, the situation is very different. Some universities and higher institutes of learning are struggling to have counselling courses and even research. In my view, counselling is a need and a priority. Unless individuals and governments begin to work together for common goals, Africa will remain behind in promoting issues of social justice. The political arena is not the only place where social justice issues can be discussed and resolved. There is need to open up other avenues in which healthy ways can be found so people can regain their civic responsibility; discuss and forge ways that help them deal with pathologies that confound them  on  a  daily basis. One of the theories in counselling advocates for an unconditional positive regard for the people who come for counselling.  This idea is very Ignatian too. In the Spiritual Exercises, St. Ignatius counsels us to have a positive interpretation of what others say or do. In my view, the non-judgmental approach to others can be applied in many settings in Africa. This approach may help resolve some of the conflicts we witness on a daily basis. This approach will in the long run help socities to respect each other, and learn from each other thereby promoting human growth that goes beyond political differences and boundaries. 

CONCLUSION

Counselling is an emerging field that is making inroads in promoting people’s health by focusing on their contexts and systems. Counselling competences and skills aim at dispelling notions and tendencies that incline towards narcissism. Counsellors and psychotherapists empower individuals to develop a sense of civic responsibility; and focus on social justice issues that link them to their communities. The practice of counselling makes use of other competences and individuals to achieve their goal – human wellness. Counselling is more than just a profession. It is about having courage and the will to stand by life and meaning – making values such as truth and justice. Counsellors become intrinsically and radically new and a transformative force when engaging in counselling services.

Anesu D. Manyere, S.J.
Zimbabwe

References

Bellah, R. N., Madsen, R., & others. 2008. Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life.  Berkeley: University of California Press.

Conyne, R. K., 2004. Preventive counselling (2nd ed.): Helping People to Become Empowered in Systems and Settings. New York: Brunner-Routledge.

Conyne, R. K. & Cook, E. P., 2004. Ecological Counselling: An Innovative Approach to Conceptualizing Person-environment Interaction. Alexandria: American Counselling     Association.

Gottlieb, K., & Robinson, G. (Eds.). (2002). A Practical Guide for Integrating Civic Responsibility into the Curriculum. Washington, DC: Community College Press.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/community

http://www.fgcu.edu/ADP/CivicEngagement.html

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-social-justice.htm

Lasch, C. (1991). The culture of narcissism: American Life in an Age of Diminishing Expectations (rev. ed.). New York: Norton.