Counselling Psychology in India

INTRODUCTION:

Counselling is a psychotherapeutic relationship in which the individual

receives direct help from the counsellor or finds an opportunity to release
negative feelings and thus clear the way for positive personal growth.
In simple words, Counselling means consultation, mutual interchange of
opinion, deliberating together.

Counselling needs in the Indian context are emerging against the

backdrop of tremendous societal change. Moreover, the last decade of
economic reform has increased the pace of these changes and further
changed lifestyles.

Counselling services are poorly defined and can currently be offered by

anyone with little or no education. Counselling as a specialised service
offered by a trained professional did not exist in India until very recently.

This does not mean that counselling was not available. All that is termed
as “counselling” today was embedded within a complex support system
of social relationships.The ancient guru–shishya (teacher–disciple)
parampara (tradition) epitomises this relationship within which the guru
(or elder) carried the responsibility of “forming” and “shaping”the lives of
students.

Over the centuries the central position of this venerable institution has
gradually been eroded and lost. Today, elder and young people, parents
and children, teachers and students are equally at a loss when faced
with the bewildering changes that have swept across this ancient land.

For e.g., The most widely acknowledged counselling situation in the

epics is that of the dialogue between Krishna and Arjuna in the
battlefield of Kurukshetra.
MANO VIDYA : TRADITIONAL INDIAN PSYCHOLOGY

Psychology is not new to Indian thought and ancient Indian writings in

both Vedic and Buddhist literature are full of sophisticated psychological
concepts and systems that provide clear evidence for the existence of
traditional Indian psychology or Mano (mind) Vidya (knowledge).

Many of these psychological concepts and intervention techniques bear

a striking resemblance to the ideas advanced by modern Western
psychology, yet predate these efforts by two millennia. Below are
illustrations of ancient Indian psychological concepts that have a direct
bearing on counselling.

For example, some of the earliest ideas regarding developmental stages

are described by the ashram system. This ancient life-span description
provides guidelines for fulfilling specific responsibilities and job roles as
one progresses through the stages of life.

A key point to note is that these activities are described as activities

belonging to a particular stage in the course of an individual's growth
and development. The preoccupation with personal gain and personal
enjoyment is expected to subside after serving its purpose.

The Triguna theory, described in 600 BC, can be well described as a

three-factor description of personality types, according to which the
human personality includes three gunas or qualities – sattwa, rajas and
tamas. This created the basis for guiding young people into professional
roles for which they were suited, equivalent to what we would call career
guidance today (Arulmani & Nag-Arulmani, 2004).

Written around 200 BC, the Bhagavad Gita is central to the Hindu
scriptures. Describing the interaction between the confused and anxious
warlord Arjuna and his spiritual mentor Lord Krishna, this writing
provides perhaps one of the first illustrations of the influence of cognition
on emotion and behaviour, and then describes how counselling could
reorient one to effectively solve life's tasks (Kuppuswamy, 1985 ).
Characteristics of Counselling;
● It is a process usually for normal people with problems.
● It is a dynamic interaction between the counsellor and the client.
● The client is expected to be straightforward and frank in his/her
approach.
● The Counsellor is to show warmth and sympathy while listening to the
client’s problems.
● Counsellor is expected to be non judgmental and non critical.
● The relationship between the client and the counsellor is expected to be
genuine.
● Counselling usually works at the level of rapport and not at the level of
transference.
● Client’s conscious motives are explored rather than the unconscious
motives.

Origin of Counselling Movement in India:

Guidance as an organised professional activity is more than four decades old

in our country. While in America the guidance movement started as an
attempt to fulfil the practical needs of employers and teachers, in India it
began as an academic discipline.
Calcutta University enjoys the privilege of being the first Indian university to
introduce guidance as a section of its Department of Applied Psychology in
1938.
The main aim of the section was to conduct research in the field of
educational and vocational guidance. Later, the Department also started the
work on occupational information.

Certain occupations were analysed and major occupations were classified into
four categories according to the level of intelligence and the type of abilities
required filling these jobs.
Bombay did not lag behind in initiating a programme of guidance. In 1941,
Baltiboi, a retired accountant working in Calcutta, realised the implications of
guidance.
With the help of a psychologist—Mr. Mukerjee from Calcutta University,
Baltiboi set up the Batliboi Vocational Guidance Bureau in Bombay with the
sole purpose of providing guidance services to the community.

The Guidance movement received another push forward when Trustees of the
Parsi Panchayat Funds and Properties in Bombay decided to establish a
guidance services bureau, Parsi Panchayat Vocational Guidance bureau-for
the Parsi community in Bombay.
This bureau worked on meagre resources and scanty staff but with the help of
devoted workers it was able to do a great deal of useful pioneering work in
guidance.
It was this bureau which organised a career conference for the first time to
disseminate occupational information. It was also the first institution to
organise a course for career masters.
The bureau also started publishing the Journal of Educational and Vocational
Guidance which provided the guidance workers with a professional organ of
communication and interchange of ideas and information regarding research
and practice in the field. Another step forward was taken by the Government
of Uttar Pradesh, when it gave official recognition to the movement by setting
up a Bureau of Psychology at Allahabad in 1947.

Counselling in Modern India:

As a part of the economic and social changes in India due to rapid

industrialization and urbanisation for the last decade, people are experiencing
significant multiple stressors in their lives, caused by social and cultural
upheaval.
Some of these stressors are causing some very serious mental health
concerns including clinical depression, anxiety, mental stress, marital
discords, domestic violence, and serious alcoholism and substance abuse
problems.
Naturally, several psychosomatic and physical health problems develop such
as hypertension, cirrhosis of the liver, heart problems, and psycho-social
phobias.

This in turn has given counselling a new look. The effect of rapid globalisation
of the world, which is increasingly coming under the control of a free market
economy, has also arrived at the doorsteps of Indian counsellors.
Economically empowered women for instance, no longer need to silently
accept abuse and disregard. Age old values are being questioned. The belief
that marriage is a lifetime commitment, for better or for worse is no longer
unshakable as it was before. The marital discord is on the increase, as are
divorce rates.

The Indian middle class student is typically required to put in almost 16

hours of study a day to bear the competition and win a seat in the course
leading to a degree in engineering or medicine. Counsellors are repeatedly
presented with young people who are forced to choose careers that are
popular and “in demand” but who soon discover that their real interests and
talents lay elsewhere. Increasing number of young workers show wavering
motivation and want a career shift within the first year of working. Aggression
and violence being fed by resentment are increasingly obtained in Indian
society. These are all complexities a counsellor practising in India is seeing
and facing these days.

Implications for Counselling:

Cultural preparedness

Religion and spirituality: Religion and spirituality is the foremost

representation of cultural preparedness in the Indian context. The first step for
which the Indian culturally is to seek, in times of distress, the emotional ties
offered through religion and representatives of religion. The implications of this
aspect of cultural preparedness are profound for the development of a
relevant counselling strategy.The common western understanding that these
traditional approaches are primitive and unscientific reflects a suspicion of
methods that are culturally alien.The loyalty of the masses to these methods
has been routinely attributed to ignorance and lack of knowledge.

Holistic conception of life: Traditional Indian approaches of healing focus on

the person as a whole. This would include the physical being as well as the
individual’s mind, emotions, beliefs, spiritual inclinations, occupational status
and all other aspects of his or her existence. Ayurveda, the ancient traditional
Indian medicine, provides detailed descriptions of how emotions are linked to
physical illnesses and how health is the function of maintaining the correct
balance between the individual's self and the aspects of his or her social
interactions.

Determinism: The philosophic constructs of Karma and Samsara are often

described as a fatalistic approach to life. The proposition is that the present is
determined by past actions could evoke a sense of inevitability. The concept
of Karma and Samsara do not negate the concept of free will.

Future of counselling:
A number of challenges face the provision of mental health services in India:
 ● Raising awareness levels in the general public about mental health
issues and services. The complexity in terms of educational, religious,
and socioeconomic backgrounds of such a diverse population needs to
be considered.

● With the support from World Health Organisation and USAID each
district Hospital (serves approximately 600,000 individuals) is hiring one
counsellor for prevention and counselling of HIV/AIDS. Further
resources are needed to ensure the even geographical distribution of
mental health professionals, particularly for people living in remote and
rural settings.

● Reducing the brain drain and attracting the Indian diaspora to help
increase the number of professionals.

● Setting licensing/certification boards and defining the scope of practice

for professionals.

● Evaluating and expanding the professional and educational training

needs to continue to meet the needs of the profession in the country.

● Improving clinical and applied research by establishing on-campus

counsellor training clinics.

References:
Jain, S., & Sandhu, D., (2015). “Counselling in India.” Counselling Around the World (pp.87-
96) DOI: 10.1002/9781119222736.ch10.

Arulmani, G. (2007). ‘Counselling psychology in India: At the confluence of two

traditions.’ Applied Psychology, 56, 69-82.

Bhola, P., Kumaria, S., & Orlinsky, D. E. (2012, July 5). ‘Looking within:
Self-perceived professional strengths and weaknesses among psychotherapists
in India,’ Asia Pacific Journal of Counselling and Psychotherapy, 1-14.

Hill, C., & Corbett, M. (1993). ‘A perspective on the history of process and
outcome research in counselling psychology’. Journal of Counselling Psychology,
40(1), 3-24.

Arulmani, G., (2007). ‘Counselling Psychology in India: At the Confluence of Two Traditions.’
Applied Psychology. 56. 69 - 82. DOI: 10.1111/j.1464-0597.2007.00276.x.