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Planning a career in counselling in Singapore

What counselling is, what it is not, and what the work asks of the people who do it.

First published

December 2015

Publication

What is counselling?

People from many professions describe themselves as counsellors, and not all of them hold significant advanced training in counselling. This article sets out what the profession involves.

Counselling is a broad term covering interviewing, assessment, testing, guiding, and helping people to cope with, manage or resolve difficulties and make plans. The word counsellor has gradually become an umbrella, stretched to cover everyone from those providing intensive psychotherapy to those offering gentle advice. That breadth is why a clear account of the profession is useful.

Counsellors are professionals who hold substantial post-graduate training in counselling theory and skills, or its equivalent through experience in practice, and who provide safe, confidential and relevant services to the members of the public who approach them.

Professional practice and ethics

The professional practice of a counsellor should include, and is not limited to, the following.

What counselling is not

Much of counselling is a dialogue between two or more people, but a counsellor must always hold a professional and objective position within that relationship. For this reason a professional counsellor is generally discouraged from counselling a relative, someone they already have a relationship with, or a close acquaintance. Proceeding in such a situation creates what is known as a dual relationship, which can compromise the counsellor’s objectivity. Where an acquaintance, friend or relative asks for help, the counsellor should consider a referral, or assist on a personal rather than a professional footing.

Telling a person what to do

Passing judgement

Moralising

Encouraging dependence

Taking sides between couples

Boosting someone’s ego

Giving advice

Solving other people’s problems for them, when people have the capacity to solve their own

Why people seek counselling

People are more willing to speak to someone outside their own circle than they once were, and they expect that person to be properly trained, knowledgeable in the area of enquiry, and professional in handling personal information. Help is sought for reasons including these.

Scope of practice

Counsellors must be equipped, and able to source adequate supervision, across the range of needs a client may bring. Where a client’s issues fall beyond a counsellor’s training and expertise, the counsellor is professionally required to refer that person to someone trained and capable of providing the service. Continuing in a counselling relationship to address issues you have no training in, and without a certified supervisor, is practice beyond your scope. It is among the most common routes to counsellor burnout, and to a client being misdiagnosed, mistreated or mismanaged.

Counsellor training

Many counsellors train through non-degree courses leading to a certificate or diploma, or through training on the job. Over the past two decades a growing number of local and overseas universities have also offered specialist diplomas, degrees, postgraduate diplomas, master’s degrees and doctorates in counselling and applied psychology.

There is no governing body regulating counselling in Singapore. SAC has, however, established benchmarks for counsellor training and monitors the courses that meet them. It therefore falls to the prospective student to enquire carefully about curriculum, practicum, supervision, and the employment or private practice prospects that follow, before committing to any course.

What the work asks of you

Before beginning training in counselling, or making a mid-career move into it, consider the qualities the work calls for and the commitment it involves.

A satisfying career

Volunteer counsellors work to different objectives than professional counsellors, but what binds the two is the wish to relieve another person’s distress. Sometimes the approach is simple, an hour over a cup of coffee and a listening ear. Sometimes it takes six months of weekly psychotherapy. In both cases the aim is the same: that the distress eases, that the person becomes unstuck, and that they can move on with a new sense of freedom and face what comes next. There is little more satisfying than knowing you have helped a fellow traveller along the way.

Counsellors believe in the dignity of the person and the uniqueness of the individual. They respect confidentiality and privacy, listen well, and relate to people easily. They place the responsibility to decide and to initiate change with the person themselves, remain sensitive to their clients, and hold a high degree of self-awareness.

Specialised training and modalities

Counsellors can specialise in particular branches of therapy: solution-focused brief therapy, cognitive behavioural therapy, emotion focused therapy, child counselling, educational counselling, school psychology, addiction counselling, art therapy, marriage and family therapy, and others. These areas of specialisation serve as platforms for professional development. With an advanced degree, counsellors may establish private practices offering specialist treatment in areas of service gap, or take on the leadership of agencies and other executive roles.

First published December 2015.

Thinking about training as a counsellor?

SAC recognises programmes that meet its benchmarks for counsellor training, and publishes the current list.