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20 Counselling Psychology Review, Vol. 30, No. 2, June 2015
© The British Psychological Society – ISSN 0269-6975
History
T
HE FIRST OFFICIAL REFERENCE to
the term ‘counselling psychology’ by
the Australian Psychological Society
(APS) was in the report of the Rose
Committee which met in the early 1970s to
make recommendations concerning the
training and functions of counselling
psychologists in Australia (Rose, 1971). The
author of this report, reflecting existing
understandings of counselling psychologists
in the US, emphasised that counselling
psychologists should seek to provide thera-
peutic services to clients from a broad range
of backgrounds, and not only those in
clinical settings (Rose, 1971).
It was a further half a decade, however,
before the Division of Counselling Psycholo-
gists (DCP) within the APS was formally
established in 1976 (Grant, Mullins &
Denham, 2008). A survey by Penney (1981)
revealed a relatively small organisation of
175 members, of whom the majority (53 per
cent) were working in educational institu-
tions. In addition Penney noted that the
DCP membership was predominately
practice rather than research or teaching
orientated, with a sizeable minority prefer-
ring not to primarily identify with the
term ‘counselling psychologist’. This led the
author to suggest that in Australia there was,
‘not as yet a professionally visible group
whose members can readily be distinguished
as counselling psychologists… (rather) there
are some individual psychologists whose
training, experience and interests are prima-
rily in counselling’ (p.28).
A similar review of the counselling
psychology profession, conducted at the end
of the same decade by Linda Schoen (1989),
produced both similar and distinct findings
to those reported by Penney eight years
earlier. The recently renamed Board of
Counselling Psychologists (BCP) remained
relatively small (197 members), was mainly
associated with the primary, secondary and
tertiary educational sectors, with the
majority still preferring not to be referred to
as ‘counselling psychologists’. Significantly
however, Schoen’s study also identified that
during the 1980s Australian counselling
psychologists were increasingly providing
therapeutic services to ‘disturbed’ as well as
‘normal’ clients, resulting in a blurring in
the demarcation between counselling and
clinical psychology.
The 1990s witnessed rapid expansion in
the number of counselling psychologists in
Australia, with membership of the once
Theoretical Paper
Counselling Psychology:
A view from Australia
John Meteyard & Denis O’Hara
This paper outlines the origins, developments, and current state of play of counselling psychology in
Australia. The relative strength of the early and middle developmental stages of the professions are contrasted
with the current decline largely brought about by the Medicare system. The constraints on future development
of the field are examined and the importance of revisiting its philosophical base is discussed alongside the
need to vitalise its research culture and publications. The paper concludes with a number of recommendations
for strengthening counselling psychology in Australia and a reassertion of the value of counselling psychology
for the Australian and international community.
Keywords: counselling psychology; Medicare; Humanism; Critical Realism.
Counselling Psychology Review, Vol. 30, No. 2, June 2015 21
again renamed College of Counselling
Psychologists (CCP) exceeding 900 by 1997
(Brown & Corne, 2004). During the early
years of this decade, college membership
became restricted to applicants with a
minimum of six years of training (i.e.
Master’s level qualifications), as well as a
further two years of supervised counselling
practice post-graduation (Brown & Corne,
2004). A survey of the theoretical orientation
of more than 100 Australian counselling
psychologists conducted by Poznanski and
McLennan (1998) at around the same time,
suggested many were integrationist in
approach, with CBT, psychodynamic, family
systems and experiential comprising the
most common theoretical perspectives cited.
In the year 2000 at the turn of the new
millennium, the Australian Psychological
Society (APS) moved to standardised accred-
itation requirements for all Master of
Psychology awards in Australia, such that
therapeutic techniques taught had to possess
a sound theoretical and empirical base. In
addition, from this time at least 25 per cent
of course content needed to be dedicated to
a research paper or dissertation (APS, 2000).
Brown and Corne (2004) also note that
the early 2000s witnessed the beginning of
what has become a steady decline in the
influence and status of counselling
psychology in Australia in comparison to
clinical psychology. Whereas in 1997 the
CCP and the College of Clinical Psycholo-
gists each contributed approximately 20 per
cent towards the total number of APS
College memberships, by 2003 the relative
proportion of CCP members had fallen to
18.5 per cent, with the proportion of clinical
college membership approaching 30 per
cent (Brown & Corne, 2004). These authors
attributed this substantial change to several
vocational trends in Australian psychology
during this period, including the tendency
for Health Funds to offer rebates to the
clients of clinical but not counselling (or
other) psychologists, despite similar levels of
training.
The most recent survey of counselling
psychologists in Australia conducted by
Pelling (2007) yielded a profile of the profes-
sion as mostly female (68.6 per cent),
middle-aged (mean 48.6 years), Caucasian
(89.2 per cent) and heterosexual (92.2 per
cent). In addition counselling psychologists
tended to be reasonably experienced (mean
14.8 years of practice), working full-time
(68.6 per cent), and offering an average of
20 hours a week of counselling to adults,
couples, and families, and less frequently to
children, young people and in groups.
The first decade of the 21st century also
witnessed the event with possibly the biggest
single impact on Australian counselling
psychology in its relatively short history, the
implementation by the Federal Government
of the Better Access to Mental Health Care
initiative in 2006 (Department of Health,
2014). This ongoing programme allows for a
two-tier rebate scheme from the publically
administered Medicare scheme, for psycholo-
gist’s services administered to clients referred
by a medical practitioner (Department of
Health, 2014). Early indications have been
that this initiative has been successful in
allowing people from a broad range of back-
grounds to access effective professional
psychological services (King, 2013).
The Better Access Initiative is designed so
that higher rebates are available for ‘psycho-
logical therapy’ administered by registered
clinical psychologists, while counselling
psychologists from other colleges (including
the CCP), as well as generally registered
psychologists with no college membership,
are considered to deliver ‘focussed psycho-
logical strategies’ that attract a significantly
lower rebate (Department of Health, 2014).
However, as Grant et al. (2008) correctly
point out, there is no evidence that there is a
difference in treatment provided or
outcomes achieved by clinically registered
psychologists when compared to their peers.
The effect of this two-tier system, however,
has been that ‘the specialist Master’s level
training, experience and competence of
counselling psychologists in the public
Counselling Psychology: A view from Australia
22 Counselling Psychology Review, Vol. 31, No. 2, June 2015
health system have been overlooked’ (Grant
et al., 2008, p.7). Perhaps it is not surprising,
therefore, that a recent survey of more than
100 members of the public from the
Australian state of Victoria indicated that
while Australian counselling psychologists
are viewed as needed, valued and respected,
that they are also considered to be less
skilled and qualified, and to work with less
severe client presentations than their clinical
colleagues (McKeddie, 2013).
Training and membership of the
College of Counselling Psychology
The registration of psychologists in Australia
is governed by the Psychology Board of
Australia (PBA), an entity created by the
Federal Government in 2009 for the purpose
of overseeing the registration of psycholo-
gists, developing standards and codes,
handling notifications, complaints and disci-
plinary hearings, and approving standards
for the accreditation of psychology training
courses (PBA, 2009). Individuals seeking
registration as psychologists are required to
complete a total of six years of training
comprising one of the following three path-
ways: (1) 4 + 2 (a four-year undergraduate
psychology degree with honours followed by
two years of supervised practice); (2) 5 + 1
(a four-year undergraduate psychology
degree with honours followed by a one-year
postgraduate diploma in professional
psychology, and a further one year of super-
vised practice); or (3) an approved two-year
Master’s degree in psychology following a
four-year undergraduate psychology degree
with honours (PBA, 2009).
However, only registered psychologists
who have completed the third so-called
‘Master’s pathway’ are eligible to apply for
full membership of the major professional
body representing psychologists in Australia,
the Australian Psychological Society (APS,
2014). The APS includes nine specialist
colleges (i.e. neuropsychology, clinical,
counselling, educational and develop-
mental, forensic, organisational, community,
health, and sport), membership of which
requires two further years of supervised rele-
vant practice, following completion of a
college-approved Master’s degree (APS,
2014).
There are currently only five such
accredited programmes in counselling
psychology in Australia. Three of these are
offered at universities based in Melbourne,
the traditional ‘home’ of counselling and
psychotherapy in Australia. These are: (1)
The Master of Counselling Psychology at
Latrobe University; (2) The Master of
Psychology (Counselling) at Monash Univer-
sity; and (3) The Master of Counselling
Psychology at Swinburne University. The
remaining two awards are the Master of
Applied Psychology in the field of coun-
selling at the University of Queensland in
Brisbane, and the Master of Psychology
(Counselling) at Curtin University in Perth.
However, the courses at both Monash
and La Trobe Universities are in the process
of being shut down, having accepted their
final cohorts of commencing students in
January, 2014. As a result, as of January 2015
there remained only three Master’s level
courses in the whole of Australia that will
meet the training eligibility requirements of
the APS College of Counselling Psycholo-
gists. This will represent a halving in the
number of approved counselling psychology
programmes in the last 10 years (Brown &
Corne, 2004). By way of comparison there
are nine Master’s level awards in clinical
psychology alone in the authors’ home state
of Queensland.
During the same period membership of
the CCP has almost doubled, increasing
from 774 in 2003 (Brown & Corne, 2004) to
1448 by late 2013 (CCP, 2013). Although this
obviously represents healthy growth, it pales
in comparison to the increase in member-
ship of the College of Clinical Psychologists
during the same period (i.e. from 1235 in
2003 to 5496 in mid-2014). This further illus-
trates the steady rise in the popularity of
clinical psychology with respect to other
fields of psychological practice which is
discussed elsewhere in this paper.
John Meteyard & Denis O’Hara
Counselling Psychology Review, Vol. 30, No. 2, June 2015 23
A comparison of the clinical and coun-
selling Master’s level programmes at the
three Australian universities who offer
awards in both areas (i.e. Swinburne, Curtin
and the University of Queensland), reveal
many more similarities than differences in
the training received by clinical and coun-
selling psychologists. This is perhaps not
surprising given the relatively prescribed
curriculum requirements dictated by the
Australian Psychology Accreditation Council
(APAC) for all Australian Master of
Psychology programmes (APAC, 2013). It
also reflects the observations of Brown and
Corne (2001) that ‘over time many of (the)
differences between counselling and clinical
psychology are disappearing’ (p.292).
Specifically, 25 per cent of all six
programmes surveyed comprised practicum
placements, with a further 25 per cent dedi-
cated to a major research project and accom-
panying dissertation. Each programme also
included at least one unit focussing on each
of the following areas: counselling theory
and skills, professional ethics and issues, and
psychological assessment.
Furthermore, the three clinical
programmes included at least one, but more
often two, subjects addressing psycho-
pathology, as well as at least one subject from
another relevant field of psychology (e.g.
health psychology or neuropsychology). In
comparison these ‘spaces’ in the counselling
psychology Master’s awards tended (not
surprisingly) to be filled by further options
including more advanced skills training,
explorations of different types of practice
(e.g. relationship or group therapy), or
working with particular groups of clients
(e.g. child and adolescent counselling).
Research
Pryor and Bright (2007) suggest that two
defining factors that often distinguish coun-
selling psychologists from other profes-
sionals involved in the delivery of
counselling services is their commitment to
an evidence-based approach and the scien-
tist-practitioner model. These emphases are
born-out in the current CCP Competencies
Statement (2012) which includes the
following statement concerning the central
role evidence-based practice plays in the
profession: ‘(A counselling psychologist)
demonstrates extensive knowledge of the
evidence for Empirically Supported Treat-
ments (specific factors) and Evidence-Based
Therapy Relationships (common factors),
and their contribution to psychotherapy
outcome’ (College of Counselling Psycholo-
gists, 2012, p.3). Furthermore, a recent
survey of counselling psychologists paints a
clear picture of a professional group who are
active consumers of research-based literature
and professional development opportunities
(e.g. Pelling, 2007).
In addition it appears that counselling
professionals are highly committed to what
King (2013) has previously referred to as
‘practice-based evidence’ or the process of
ongoing critical reflection on one’s practice
in order to identify both effective and inef-
fective elements (Brown & Corne, 2004).
Again this priority is supported by the CCP
Competencies Statement (2012) which empha-
sises the critical application of ‘diverse
research methodologies to address issues
arising in assessment, diagnosis and treat-
ment of psychological problems and disor-
ders’ (p.7).
What is less clear, however, is the degree
to which Australian counselling psycholo-
gists are actively involved in the production
of new research-based scholarship of rele-
vance to their field. Although the CCP Compe-
tencies Statement (2012) makes it clear that
ideally a member of the college is someone
who, ‘Designs, conducts, and critically evalu-
ates research for counselling and psycho-
therapy’ (p.6), the reality appears somewhat
different. For example, Pelling (2007)
recently reported that in a group of just over
100 counselling psychologists, while 99 per
cent regularly consulted research-based jour-
nals and books, only 3.9 per cent were
involved in the creation of new scholarship.
This finding supports Schoen’s (1989)
earlier observation that counselling psycho-
Counselling Psychology: A view from Australia
24 Counselling Psychology Review, Vol. 31, No. 2, June 2015
logists tend to be a highly-practice focused
professional group.
In further support of the observation that
whilst most counselling psychologists are
active consumers of research literature but
not researchers themselves is the fact that in
2013 the CCP’s peer-reviewed academic
journal, the Australian Journal of Counselling
Psychology, was discontinued after more than
20 years of operation, due to a lack of suit-
able research-based submissions. It is
possible that this apparent lack of coun-
selling psychology related research in
Australia is also a result of the comparatively
small number of accredited higher degrees
dedicated to training counselling psycho-
logists, and associated scarcity of research-
active counselling psychology academics and
postgraduate students.
Of course, as already noted elsewhere in
this paper, counselling psychologists are by
no means the only group of psychologists to
offer therapeutic interventions to clients
experiencing a broad range of difficulties. In
order to gauge whether original research of
direct relevance to counselling psychology
more broadly was being produced and
published in other forums, the abstracts of
all articles published between 2012 and 2014
in five peer-reviewed Australian academic
journals were also analysed to identify orig-
inal research papers with a counselling
psychology related focus. The search criteria
used for this purpose was intentionally
broad, only requiring that articles: (1)
employed Australian samples; (2) involved
original research studies that could be quan-
titative, qualitative, or mixed-method in
approach; and (3) addressed topics of direct
relevance to counselling psychology (e.g.
outcomes of therapeutic interventions, the
therapeutic relationship or process, the
characteristics or training of psychologists
who offer counselling and so on). The five
journals surveyed were Psychotherapy
Australia, the Australian Journal of Educational
and Developmental Psychology, Clinical Psycho-
logist, Australian Psychologist, and the
Australian Journal of Psychology.
Somewhat surprisingly results of this
survey suggested that comparatively little
research with direct relevance for coun-
selling psychologists is currently being
published in Australian academic journals.
For example, the number of relevant
abstracts identified in the five designated
journals varied from lows of 0 out of 31
(0 per cent) in the Australian Journal of
Educational and Developmental Psychology and
one out of 86 in the Australian Journal of
Psychology (1.1 per cent), to a high of five out
of 29 (17 per cent) in Clinical Psychologist.
The median number of individual research-
based articles of direct relevance to coun-
selling psychology per individual issue of
each journal ranged from 0 for the
Australian Journal of Educational and Develop-
mental Psychology and the Australian Journal of
Psychology, to one for both Psychotherapy
Australia and Australian Psychologist.
Taken as a whole the observations
summarised above appear to paint a picture
of counselling psychologists as a professional
group who are primarily practice-focussed
but with a strong commitment to staying up-
to-date with the developing evidence-base of
their profession (most of which is generated
overseas). However, far fewer appear actively
involved in the generation and dissemina-
tion of new research and scholarship which
is conducted in and of direct application to
the Australian context.
Medicare
As discussed above possibly the single most
significant issue to impact counselling psychol-
ogists in Australia in recent years was the intro-
duction in 2006 of the Federal Government’s
Better Access Initiative. This programme entails a
‘two-tiered’ rebate system, administered
through the publically funded Medicare
programme, for clients referred to clinical or
generally registered psychologists (including
members of the CCP).
Early indications are that the Better Access
Initiative has been successful in both
improving the psychological well-being of
many Australians accessing the service
John Meteyard & Denis O’Hara
Counselling Psychology Review, Vol. 30, No. 2, June 2015 25
(Pirkis, Ftanou et al., 2011), as well as raising
awareness of and access to psychological
services (Pirkis, Harris et al., 2011). However,
it can also be argued that the ‘privileging’ of
clinical psychologists over psychologists from
other professional groups, that is inherent to
the Better Access Initiative, is problematic on
several grounds.
First and foremost, the higher level of
Medicare rebates available for clinical
psychologists under the Better Access Initiative,
is predicated on the faulty assumption that
clinical psychologists are more specifically
trained in and work with more serious
mental health issues and client presentations
than do other psychologists (including coun-
selling psychologists (Grant et al., 2008). Not
only do counselling psychologists typically
work with similar levels of client psycho-
pathology, often side-by-side in the same
settings as their clinical colleagues (Brown &
Corne, 2004), but a recent study of two client
groups, each with approximately 300
members, seen by counselling and clinical
psychologists respectively, failed to detect
any notable differences in treatment effects
for either group (Pirkis, Ftanou et al., 2011).
Secondly, it appears that the higher
rebates available to clients of clinical psychol-
ogists may be resulting in a public perception
that counselling psychologists are of lower
status than clinical psychologists. In support
of this possibility are the results of a recent
study by McKeddie (2013) that suggested that
while counselling psychologists were held in
relatively high regard by members of the
Victorian public, they were also perceived as
being less well-trained, less skilled, and less
capable of assisting clients with more complex
presentations than their clinical colleagues.
Finally, the potential to obtain higher
Medicare rebates as a clinical psychologist
has seemingly resulted in an increase in
demand for postgraduate training in clinical
psychology at Australian universities, at the
expense of interest in other programmes by
potential psychology applicants. In support
of this possibility is the steady decline of
Master’s and professional doctorate level
programmes in non-clinical areas of
psychology. Indeed, not only have Master’s
level awards in counselling psychology
declined from eight to only three in recent
years, but similar decreases have been
observed in the number of Australian univer-
sities offering Master’s degrees in both
educational and developmental (Gilmore,
Fletcher & Hudson, 2013) and health
psychology (Martin et al., 2014). The poten-
tial implications for the future viability of
graduates from non-clinical psychology
programmes that are the consequence of
these shifts in the Australian psychology
training landscape are obvious.
Thus, it appears more than reasonable to
argue that the two-tiered Better Access Initia-
tive, for all its positive contributions to
mental health in Australia, has inadvertently
also placed the future of non-clinical
branches of psychology in a vulnerable posi-
tion. This is in spite of the fact that there
exists no reliable evidence that clinical
psychologists are more skilled or highly
trained than other psychologists (Grant et
al., 2008), or achieve better outcomes
(Pirkis, Ftanou et al., 2011). Indeed, there
exists an increasing body of evidence
supporting the central importance of the
therapeutic relationship, a key distin-
guishing feature of counselling psychology,
in predicting positive therapeutic results for
a broad range of clients (Norcross, 2011).
Based on these observations we would
strongly support and extend the recent
recommendation of Gilmore et al. (2013),
who called for the current inequitable privi-
leging of clinical psychologists by the Better
Access Initiative to be replaced by a fairer
model recognising the skills and expertise of
appropriately trained and experienced
educational and developmental psycholo-
gists. Specifically, we believe it is time for
access to the higher tier of Medicare rebates
in Australia, to be made available to psycho-
logists from other colleges (including the
CCP) who can demonstrate equivalent levels
of training, knowledge and expertise as their
clinical colleagues.
Counselling Psychology: A view from Australia
26 Counselling Psychology Review, Vol. 31, No. 2, June 2015
Philosophy and identity
It is fair to say that the creation of counselling
psychology as a specialty within psychology
was first a response to a practical need rather
than something which burst forth due to the
energy of a philosophical or scientific impera-
tive. As noted by Wang and Heppner in this
edition, counselling psychology was estab-
lished in response to the great demand for
mental health workers who could counsel and
care for veterans in need of psychological
support after the Second World War. Having
acknowledged the very pragmatic emergence
of counselling psychology, it might be some-
what curious to assert that there was also an
underlying philosophical drive and rationale
for the specialty. In fact we argue that the
foundations for a counselling psychology
have been present from the beginning of
psychology as a discipline. Psychology
pioneers like William James and George
Herbert Mead and later psychotherapy theo-
rists like Daniel Stern and Heinz Kohut and
philosophers like Husserl, Kierkegaard and
Nietzsche, to name only a few, are examples
of those who highlighted the central impor-
tance of intersubjectivity in the healthy devel-
opment of the self. The emergence of
counselling psychology in its various jurisdic-
tions over the past 60 years has not only been
driven by the mental health needs of respec-
tive societies but also by philosophical and
scientific understandings and also the felt
need of psychologists to practice in a way
which acknowledges and reflects the funda-
mental intersubjective nature of humanness.
The various philosophical and psycho-
logical theories and ideas mentioned above
influence counselling psychologists world-
wide. However, different cultural contexts
colour these influences in different ways and
this is often best seen in the language used to
describe professional identity and practice.
In the US, counselling psychology emerged
out of guidance and counselling (Blocker,
2000) and was soon re-focused around the
philosophy of humanistic psychology
(Woolfe et al., 2010). In Britain, counselling
psychology arose much later in the 1980s
and took on a strong identification with
humanistic psychology and also incorpo-
rated the language of the ‘reflective-practi-
tioner’ prominent in the work of Donald
Schön (Woolfe et al., 2010). There are
seminal papers and books written by psychol-
ogists from both these jurisdictions. A good
example of this is the existence of the APA
Handbook of Counseling Psychology (US), Hand-
book of Counseling Psychology (US), and the
Handbook of Counselling Psychology (UK).
A number of other books from both the US
and the UK on counselling psychology have
also been written. These books and other
scientific papers have greatly contributed to
defining and establishing the nature of the
field generally, while also allowing local
emphases in theory and practice to emerge.
Based on these writings, the more local
priorities can be gleaned with, for example,
emphasis in the US on multiculturalism,
social action, educational and development
psychology and career guidance; and an
emphasis in the UK on humanistic
psychology, qualitative research, and reflec-
tive practice.
Australian counselling psychologists share
with their British and American colleagues
the importance of intersubjectivity and
Humanism but it has also developed its own
character. One of the features of Australian
cultural style is pragmatism. While there is a
strong pragmatist philosophy shared by
Americans and Australians, the Australian
version is much less philosophically rooted.
American pragmatism is undergirded by big
thinkers like William James, John Dewey and
Richard Rorty. Australian pragmatism is much
more grounded in instrumentalism – ‘if it
works, do it, if it doesn’t, don’t’. Within this
cultural framework, Australian counselling
psychology has been much more focused on
two issues, getting on with the job and survival.
There is evidence for these two foci some-
times in what is said and done and sometimes
in what is not said and done. An example of
what is not said very much about is the impor-
tant influence of Humanism in Australian
counselling psychology. A search of papers
John Meteyard & Denis O’Hara
Counselling Psychology Review, Vol. 30, No. 2, June 2015 27
written by counselling psychologists or about
counselling psychology in Australia failed to
find very much direct engagement with the
topic other than general references and infer-
ences (Grant et al., 2008). Given that
academic psychology in Australia has a very
strong positivist influence, it is curious that
counselling psychologists have not been more
vocal in arguing for the centrality of human-
istic values such as intersubjectivity, an
emphasis on health and personal growth, and
more recently, supporting the evidence on
the centrality of client and therapist factors in
therapeutic change. While these are impor-
tant values and priorities within the Australian
form of the discipline, there is not a strong
tradition of academic debate and argument
to assert these priorities, at least not in the
literature. A statement made on the website of
the College of Counselling Psychologists
asserts, ‘Counselling psychologists have a
distinct philosophical stance, recognising the
strengths and resources of people at all levels
of psychological functioning, working collab-
oratively with people in a therapeutic rela-
tionship to bring about meaningful change’
(https://groups.psychology.org.au/ccoun/
about_us/#counsel). This is reassuring but
any further search to discover what this
distinct philosophical stance actually is has
proven to be elusive. The point being made
here is not that there no philosophical stance,
rather, that the nature of Australian pragma-
tism, the exigencies of getting on with the job,
and having a relatively small academic cadre
within the discipline has not provided the
opportunity for a thorough academic exami-
nation of the philosophical underpinnings of
the field. The consequence of this limitation
is that the counselling psychology is less
equipped to establish its own uniqueness
within the array of specialities.
Expanding our philosophical base
Counselling psychology arose as a sub-disci-
pline within psychology not only because of
a pragmatic need to provide more therapists
to support returning servicemen and woman
but because it offered an approach to
therapy which expressed a different view of
the person. This view included:
1. Seeing human beings as greater than the
sum of their parts and, therefore, not
reducible to the parts.
2. Understanding the person in terms of
their wider ecology and context.
3. Acknowledging that people are aware and
have capacity for reflectivity.
4. Asserting that human beings have choice
and responsibility.
5. Appreciating that human beings have an
agentic nature and are goal seeking.
6. Emphasising the fact that human beings
are fundamentally social and relational
beings (Cooper, 2009).
These humanistic values stood and continue
to stand in stark contrast to the inherent
assumptions of Positivism which holds that:
a. The logic of scientific inquiry is the same
across all sciences.
b. The goal of inquiry is to explain and
predict.
c. Research should be empirically
observable and should use inductive logic
to develop statements that can be tested.
(Thus assuming that the objects of
investigation, including human beings,
are reducible to their parts).
d. Science should be judged by logic, and
should be as value-free as possible (Moses
& Knutsen, 2012).
It takes little more than a cursory glance at
these two lists of values and assumptions to
see the large gap between the two views of the
world. Having said this, it is important to
acknowledge that both philosophical stances
have contributed significantly to counselling
psychology. The psychologist as a scientist
appreciates the knowledge gained from the
empirical stance demanded by Positivism
while similarly appreciating the humanising
values of Humanism. Without venturing into
extended debates about the clash between
these different philosophies and the resulting
varieties of post-positivist positions, it will
serve us to understand the tension that
engaging with these two positions has had on
counselling psychology to date, and how it
Counselling Psychology: A view from Australia
28 Counselling Psychology Review, Vol. 31, No. 2, June 2015
might inform the future direction of the field.
As the juggernaut of evidence-based
practice (in practice, Positivism) has been
busy subjugating large swaths of health and
mental health policy and practice in its all-
encompassing wake, it has unexpectedly
stumbled upon several of the foundation
stones of humanistic and counselling
psychology, in particular:
l The centrality of the human relationship
to therapeutic change;
l The importance of the client in the
change process; and
l The power of hope and expectancy (and
ultimately of the power of human agency)
in healthy human functioning.
These, of course, are the key elements of the
non-specific factors of therapeutic change
(Frank & Frank, 1991; Lambert, 1992;
Wampold, 2001). As mentioned earlier,
while this is a welcome recognition it does
not seem to have significantly impacted the
positivist sensibilities within wider
psychology. The obvious reason for this is
because Empiricism is one of the central
planks of psychology. In our view, it should
remain a central plank but simply not the
only plank. This is especially so for coun-
selling psychology and probably for other
psychology sub-disciplines like community
and health psychology. The real problem
underlying the struggle for the identity of
counselling psychology worldwide but partic-
ularly in Australia, is an inadequate philo-
sophical framework. Put bluntly, Positivism
and Humanism when considered on the
same ontological plane are mutually exclu-
sive (Kuhn, 1982). The problem for us as
counselling psychologists is that we value
both empirical knowledge and humanistic
values and want to put them together. The
real problem is not with psychological
Empiricism but with Positivism’s insistence
on being the only philosophy of science. In
our view, science and, therefore, psychology
can and should be founded on a much
more inclusive philosophy of science. One
example of a more inclusive philosophy is
Critical Realism.
There is not space in this paper to
develop a detailed profile and rationale for
the Critical Realism as a philosophical foun-
dation for counselling psychology but a brief
summary will be useful. In outlining the
following ideas we acknowledge that our
proposal is relevant not just nationally within
the Australian context but internationally as
well. Critical Realism shares with Positivism
the view that there is an objective reality but
differs with it in that it holds that only parts
of that reality can ever be observed and
measured. It also distinguishes between the
natural and social words in terms of objective
existence, claiming that social structures
only exist in terms of their effects (Bhaskar,
1979, 2012). The key implication here is that
unlike the natural world which can be
observed (in part), the structures of the
social world can only be inferred and, there-
fore, are not independent of our concep-
tions of them. As O’Hara and O’Hara (2014)
clarify,
One of the benefits of this philosophy is
that it allows for the existence of universal
principles, but acknowledges that human
apprehension of these principles is
limited by epistemology. This means that
if there is an objective reality separate
from human awareness, our capacity to
apprehend that reality and, for that
matter, any constructed reality, is always
limited by our subjective awareness.
http://pacja.org.au/?p=1470
While much more could be said about
Critical Realism the central point is that it is
a philosophical structure that can encom-
pass a wide range of philosophical positions.
Given that counselling psychology by its
nature embraces disparate philosophies,
Humanism and Empiricism, Critical Realism
may well provide the framework which is
expansive enough to hold these different
viewpoints (Pilgrim, 2013). If counselling
psychology is to consolidate its place within
psychology and the helping professions it
needs a clear philosophical rationale.
Humanism has served well as a founding
philosophy but its juxtaposition with Empiri-
John Meteyard & Denis O’Hara
Counselling Psychology Review, Vol. 30, No. 2, June 2015 29
Counselling Psychology: A view from Australia
cism has diluted its influence. By providing a
realist ontology while emphasising a critical
epistemology, Critical Realism makes room
for objectivity, subjectivity and intersubjec-
tivity. In such a scheme, the values of
Humanism cannot be drowned or sidelined
by Positivism’s claims for supremacy. The
straight-jacket that Positivism has placed over
epistemology by limiting it to logic, observa-
tion, and measurement is cast aside and the
subjective epistemologies important to
Humanism are freed to take equal place
alongside them. Clarifying the underlying
philosophy of the discipline allows for the
joint contributions of objectivity and subjec-
tivity to be acknowledged. Wampold (2007)
asserts a similar view stating,
The humanistic and the scientific strands
do not need to stand in opposition to
each other. The mission of science is to
explain, discover, and understand. It is
time for science to be applied to the
humanistic aspects of psychotherapy to
better understand the intricate nature of
a remarkably effective healing practice
(p.869).
Whether Critical Realism gains the support
of counselling psychologists as the founda-
tional philosophy of the discipline is yet to
be seen. What is imperative is that the disci-
pline urgently identifies a philosophical
rationale which is robust enough to cater for
the demands of both science and the social
sciences. We now have far too much research
evidence about the nature of therapeutic
change to situate counselling psychology
singularly within one or the other domain.
It is time to move beyond old thought silos
and establish a philosophical framework
which actually represents the evidence we
already have.
Conclusion
It appears that the theoretical gap between
counselling and clinical psychology in many
jurisdictions worldwide is narrowing. In
Australia, while the theoretical gap is also
diminishing the professional gap is
widening. Apart from the obvious impact of
the two-tiered Medicare system, there
continues to be impact generated by the use
of language. The terms ‘clinical’ and ‘coun-
selling’ appear to have a cultural bias
favouring the use of the word clinical. Our
recommendation is that more neutral terms
be incorporated into our professional and
public lexicon like applied psychologist, and
psychological therapies. This is a move which is
already well underway in the UK. For
example, their National Health Service
(NHS) requires that advertising for new posi-
tions is based on the knowledge and skills
required for the position rather than on
professional title. Hence, the NHS typically
advertises for either ‘Applied Psychologists’
or ‘Clinical Psychologists’ and ‘Counselling
Psychologists’ jointly. In Australia, a survey of
advertised positions for counselling psychol-
ogists in contrast to clinical psychologists will
quickly demonstrate that counselling
psychologists, at least by title, are an endan-
gered species. In our view, the position of
counselling psychology would be greatly
improved in Australia if regulators learnt
from the British example.
The take home message is that the
different branches of applied psychology
have a lot more in common than not, as is
overwhelmingly demonstrated by the
research evidence. It is time for a more inte-
grated view of applied psychology to be
promoted amongst the psychology profes-
sion, government, health insurers, and to
the public. Such an integration does not
imply a loss of Divisional (College) strengths
and distinctives – diversity is a strength.
What it does mean is that our strengths can
be more equally shared.
30 Counselling Psychology Review, Vol. 31, No. 2, June 2015
About the Authors
Dr John Meteyard is a Senior Lecturer at the
Australian College of Applied Psychology,
Brisbane, Australia, and practising psycho-
logist.
Email: John.Meteyard@acap.edu.au
Dr Denis O’Hara is an Associate Editor of
the Counselling Psychology Review, and
Associate Professor of Counselling and
Psychotherapy at the Australian College of
Applied Psychology, Brisbane, Australia.
Email: drdenisohara@gmail.com
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BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA
