LESSON 2

History of the Guidance Movement

TOPICS
1. History and Origin of Guidance and Counseling in the United States
2. Emergence of Guidance in the Philippines
3. Early Pioneers of Counseling

LEARNING OUTCOMES
At the end of the lesson, you should be able to:
1. Trace the roots of the helping profession at focus in the US and the
Philippines.
2. Familiarize yourself with the important personalities behind counseling.

TOPIC 1: HISTORY OF THE GUIDANCE MOVEMENT

History and Origin of Guidance and Counselling in the United States

History is a continuum and any kind of division imposed on it is more or less arbitrary.
Guidance and Counselling as a discipline has an abundant evidence to show that it originated
from America at the beginning of the 20th Century because of the society’s emphasis on
individual development. This could be seen from several historical events that took place in the
United States. These historical events are (Ojo & Rotimi, 2006):

1. Vocational Guidance Movement

2. Standardized Testing Movement
3. Mental Health Movement
4. Pro-counseling Legislative Acts.

YEAR EVENT/S
1907 Jesse B. Davis, superintendent of the Grand Rapids school
 system, was first to implement a systematized guidance program
in public schools.
Frank Parsons, the “Father of Guidance”, founded Boston’s
Vocational Bureau, a major step in the institutionalization of
vocational guidance. Parsons worked with young people who
were in the process of making career decisions. He theorized that
choosing a vocation was a matter of relating three factors:
knowledge of work, knowledge of self, and matching of the two.
1908 Clifford Beers, a former Yale student, was hospitalized for mental
illness several times during his life. He found conditions in mental
institutions deplorable and exposed them in a book, A Mind That
Found Itself. Beers advocated for better mental health facilities
and reform in the treatment of the mentally ill. Beers was the
impetus for the mental health movement in the United States,
and his work was the forerunner of mental health counseling.
1913 National Vocational Guidance Association was founded.
Publishing of literature started and professionals were united for
the first time.
Smith-Hughes Act provided funding for public schools to
support vocational education. This act was aimed to provide
vocational training in schools for agricultural, industrial,
commerce or home economics. Schools were required to submit
their educational plans to the newly-created Federal Board for
1917 Vocational Education, thus providing a level of control and
accountability.
In World War I, the U.S. Army began using numerous
psychological instruments to screen soldiers, which were utilized
in civilian populations after the war and became the basis for the
popular movement called psychometrics.
The first certification of counselors took place in New York and
1925
Boston in the mid-1920s.
Abraham and Hannah Stone were the first to establish a
1929
marriage and family counseling center in New York City.
E.G. Williamson of the Universtiy of Minnesota modified
Parsons’ theories and used them to work with students and the
1930
unemployed, emphasizing the teaching, mentoring, and
influencing skills of the counselor.
Edmund Brewer published Education as Guidance, which
proposed that every teacher be a counselor and that guidance be
1932
incorporated into curricula as a way to better prepare students
for life outside of school.
1939 U.S. Employment Service published the first edition of the
Dictionary of Occupational Titles and became a major source of
 career information for guidance specialists working with students
and the unemployed.
Carl Rogers published Counseling and Psychotherapy which
challenged counselor-centered approaches as well as major
tenants of Freudian psychoanalysis, placing responsibility on the
client for their own growth. The book was widely criticized but
also widely accepted. Rogers changed the emphasis from
statistics and testing to techniques and research. Rogers’
revolution had a huge impact on counseling and psychology.
1942 The U.S government needed counselors and psychologists to
help select specialists for the military and industry. Many women
worked outside the home for the first time and traditional sex
roles were challenged.
The Veteran’s Administration funded the training of counselors
and psychologists by granting stipends and paid internships for
graduate students. VA rewrote the specifications for vocational
counselors and coined the term “counseling psychologist”.
American Personnel and Guidance Association was founded.
This organization formally brought together groups interested in
guidance, counseling, and personal matters.
1952 The Division of Counseling Psychology was formed by the
American Psychology Association. The impetus came from APA
members who wanted to work with a more “normal” population
than the one seen by clinical psychologists.
National Defense Education Act was passed. Enacted after the
Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the purpose of this act was to
1958
identify scientifically and academically talented students and
promote their development.
Charles Gilbert Wrenn published The Counselor in a Changing
1962 World. Its emphasis was on working with others to resolve
developmental needs.
Community Mental Health Centers Act authorized the
establishment of community mental health centers. These
1963
centers opened up employment opportunities for counselors
outside of educational settings.
1966 The ERIC Clearinghouse on Counseling and Personnel Services
(CAPS) was established at the University of Michigan. Funded by
the Office of Educational Research and Improvement at the U.S.
Department of Education, ERIC would become the largest and
most-used resource on counseling activities and trends in the
United States.
The 1960s also saw the emergence of the humanistic theories
of Albuckle, Maslow, and Jourard as well as the rise of the “group
 movement”, shifting the emphasis from one-to-one encounters
to small group interaction.
The American Mental Health Counselor Association was
founded and quickly became one of the largest divisions in the
American Personnel and Guidance Association (now ACA).
By the mid-1970s, state boards of examiners for psychologists
had become more restrictive. These tensions caused APGA to
move toward state licensure for counselors, with Virginia
becoming the first state to pass a licensure law in 1976.
The 1970s saw the development of helping-skills programs that
concentrated on relationship and communication skills. Created
1976
by Truax, Carkhufl, and Ivey, these programs taught basic
counseling skills to professionals and non-professionals alike.
The rapid growth of counseling outside of educational
institutions began in the 1970s, when mental health centers and
community agencies began employing more counselors.
APGA built its own headquarters in Alexandria, Va. APGA
began the process of changing to ACA when it questions its
professional identification because “guidance” and “personnel”
seemed to no longer define the organization’s emphases.
CACREP (Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related
Educational Programs) was formed as an affiliate organization of
APGA. CACREP standardized counselor education programs for
1981 master’s and doctoral programs in the areas of school,
community/agency, mental health, marriage and family
counseling and therapy, and personnel services for college
students.
National Board of Certified Counselors was formed. It began
certifying counselors on a national level. In 1984, NBCC also set
1983 up standards for certifying career counselors.
After considerable debate, APGA became the American
Association for Counseling and Development (AACD).
Chi Sigma Iota was established as an international academic
and professional honor society for counseling students. It grew to
1985
more than 100 chapters and 5,000 members by the end of the
decade.
1987 CACREP achieved membership in the Council on Postsecondary
Accreditation, bringing it into a position of accreditation power
parallel to such specialty accreditation bodies as APA.
The evolution of counseling as a distinct mental health
profession in the 1980s came as a result of events, issues, and
forces both inside and outside of APGA. APGA members had
experienced a rapid transformation in identity through the
 implementation of policies regarding training, certification, and
standards. Additionally, legislation, especially at the federal level,
recognized mental health providers and actions by other mental
health services organizations. Counselors became even more
diverse in the 80s, and there was an increased emphasis on
human growth and development.
AACD became the American Counseling Association. The new
name better reflected the membership and mission of the
organization, and 16 divisions were organized under the new
structure.
Multiculturism and diversity were among the key issues in
counseling.
National Academy of Clinical Mental Health Counselors
1992
(NACMHC) merged with NBCC to credential more than 22,000
counselors. CACREP and APA-accredited programs in counselor
education and counseling psychology continued to grow on both
the master’s and doctoral levels. An increasing number of
publications by ACA, APA, commercial publishers and ERIC/CASS
(Counseling and Student Services Clearinghouse) cover a variety
of relevant topics in counseling.

Source: http://mym.cdn.laureate-
media.com/2dett4d/Walden/COUN/6100/03/mm/timeline/assets/PDF
%20file/TheHistoryOfCounseling.pdf

TOPIC 2: EMERGENCE OF GUIDANCE IN THE PHILIPPINES

Pre–Colonial Philippines was much like neighboring Indonesia and Malaysia, and
counseling still shows vestiges of indigenous help-seeking through (a) superstition; (b) reliance
on elders, faith healers, and fortune tellers; and (c) belief in the supernatural (Bulatao, 1992). In
1521, the Philippines was rediscovered by Ferdinand Magellan, which began the Spanish
colonization, resulting mainly in religious conquest: 80% of Filipinos are Roman Catholics (CIA,
2011). The American occupation, from 1898 to 1941 (and military bases into the 1990s)
followed Spanish colonization. From public school to government, the United States has had a
strong influence on the country (NSO, 2010). The language of instruction in the country is
English, and greater respect is given to anything American over anything Filipino. The United
States has even had a significant impact on counseling because Filipino counselors and
psychologists often trained there (Salazar-Clemeña, 2002).

YEAR EVENT/S
Dr. Sinforoso Padilla organized the Psychological Clinic at the
1932
University of the Philippines.
1934 Counseling tests were administered to the convicts in Bilibid
 Prision.
Tests were also administered to the inmates detained at
Welfareville.
A dean of boys and a dean of girls in each of the four public
1939
high schools in Manila were chosen to look after the behaviour
and conduct of students who were referred to them by
classroom teachers.
Bureau of Public Schools, the first guidance institute was
opened. It started to send the teachers as pensionados for
observation and study of guidance services abroad. U.N.
specialists in guidance Dr. Roy G. Bone and George H. Bennett
1945 assisted in making Filipino education officials guidance-
conscious. Guidance was introduced by Edward S. Jones and Dr.
Henry B. McDaniel of Stanford University.
The National Teachers College was chosen to be the site of the
first Guidance Institutes.
Congress proposed the establishment of a functional guidance
and counselling program to help students select their course,
1951
activities, occupations, friends, future mates; to guide them in
their work and to help them solve their personality problems.
Division superintendents of schools recommended the
1952
establishment of guidance services in the public schools.
The Philippine Association of Guidance Counselors was
organized in order to study the needs, interests, and
1953
potentialities of our young people, and to establish a Testing
Bureau.

From the 1970s to the 1990s, the movement in counseling was primarily indigenization
(e.g., Bulatao, 1992; Enriquez, 1977) of assessments, constructs, and theories, focusing on the
differences between the counseling models learned in the United States within the context of
Philippine culture and the realities of its social issues. The organizations established then were
the Philippine Association for Counselor Education, Research, and Supervision and the Career
Development Association of the Philippines.

TOPIC 3: THE EARLY PIONEERS OF COUNSELING

1. Frank Parsons – known as the “Father of Guidance”. He

believed that it was better to select a vocation
scientifically than to drift through a variety of vocations
perhaps never finding one that would be best for the
persons and make society a better place in which to live. He
emphasized that counselling was not designed to make

Frank Parsons
 decisions for counselees and instead, tries to help him arrive at a wise, well-founded
conclusions for himself. In 1905, he founded the Breadwinners Institute. To individualize
counselling, he established the Vocational Bureau of Boston in 1908.

2. Lysander S. Richards – published a slim volume entitled “Vocophy” in 1881. This was the
“New Profession, a system enabling a person to name the calling or vocation one is best
suited to follow”. He called his counsellors as “vocophers”. His work has
been dismissed because there is no documented proof that he actually
established the services he advocated.

3. Jesse B. Davis – implemented his ideas

among his students on self-study and the
examination of self in relation to the chosen
occupation throughout the 7th to 12th
grades. Jesse Davis was the founder of the
Lysander Richards
educational guidance.

4. Anna Y. Reed and Eli Weaver – American counsellors who

established counselling services based on Social Darwinian
Jesse B. Davis
concepts. Social Darwinism is an application of Darwin’s
biologic theory of evolution to social organization. Reed came to the need for counselling
services through her study of newsboys, penal institutions, and charity schools. She
emphasized that business people were
the most successful and that counselling
should be designed to help you emulate
them. Weaver believed in working within
the framework of the existing society and
looked upon counselling as a means of
keeping the wheels of the machinery well-
Reed & Weaver oiled.

5. David Spence Hill – organized the first guidance and counselling services in New Orleans.
As Director of Research for the New Orleans Schools, he discovered a need for guidance to
assist youth in assessing their abilities and in learning about the opportunities that would
best help them use those abilities.

6. Carl Rogers - known for client-centered counseling. He stressed that

the individuals had the capacity to explore themselves and to make
decisions without an authoritative judgment from a counselor. Since
there was no given or persuasion used to follow a certain
course, this system was better known as non-directive
counseling.
Carl Rogers
 Clifford Beers

7. Clifford Beers - was hospitalized for mental illness several times during his life. He found
conditions in mental institutions deplorable and exposed them in a very popular book, “A
Mind That Found Itself”. His work has greatly influenced psychologists and psychiatrists
and gave impetus for the start of mental health movement and his work was a forerunner
of mental health counseling.

Sources:
Leaño, R.D. (2006). Principles and Practices of Guidance and Counseling. Mindshapers Co., Inc.
Tuason, M. & Fernandez, K. (2012). Counseling in the Philippines: Past, Present, and Future.
Journal of Counseling and Development.

Task/Activity

Memory Lane: Using your own words, trace and present the beginnings of the Guidance
and Counseling in Occidental Mindoro State College. Include the programs and services it offers
to its clientele as well as the organizational chart of the unit. Use long bond paper and be
creative in presenting your output.