The nature of counselling: an investigation of counselling activity in selected countries

The purpose of this study was to investigate counselling as a process. It was conducted to explore whether counselling is available invarious countries, even if it is known by another name. This study examined the kinds of help available to people with specific difficulties. It sought to discern whether the ways of helping include activities that might be thought of as counselling. As a way to discover what forms of help might be available to people in a given country, a series of stressful incidents confronting one family of average income living in a large town were developed into a questionnaire format. These incidents were designed to stimulate thinking and focus attention on possible help-giving sources. Data were collected from sources infifteen countries through interviews at international counselling conferences and with selected embassy officials in Washington, D.C. Interviews were also conducted in the United Kingdom, the United States, Costa Rica, and Malaysia. In addition, questionnaires were sentto experts knowledgeable about social welfare issues in a number of countries. The findings from this investigation suggest that counselling as an activity or a process may betaking place under different names in different cultures.