Features of counseling

  • Helps you address specific challenges in everyday life without altering your personality structure
  • Focuses on your present, the here and now
  • Offers a targeted path with a defined duration

Definition of counseling

Professional counseling is an activity whose goal is to improve the quality of life of clients supporting their strengths and abilities for self-determination.

Counseling provides a space for listening and reflection in which clients may explore problems related to evolutionary processes, phase transitions and states of crisis and strengthens the capacity of clients to choose or change.

Counseling is an intervention that uses various methods borrowed from different theoretical orientations. It caters to individuals, families, groups, and institutions. Counseling can be provided in various settings such as private practice, education, health, business.

(AssoCounseling definition of counseling adopted in 2011)

History of counseling

Counseling was born in the United States in the 1940s as psychological support for World War II veterans, focusing on their social reintegration and emotional management. It then developed as an autonomous discipline, aiming at enhancing personal resources and improving relationships, distinguishing itself from psychotherapy.

The fundamental contribution came from Carl Rogers with the person-centered approach which emphasizes:

  • Unconditional acceptance
  • Authentic empathy
  • Sincerity in the helping relationship

These principles continue to guide global counseling.

In English-speaking countries, counseling became a recognised profession in the 1960s-70s with structured training programs, professional associations and integration into healthcare systems.

In Italy, counseling spread in the 1980s finding application in education, business and personal growth.

In France, it emerged in the 1990s, integrating with social sciences and being applied in mental health, education and social work.

In Transactional Analysis, counseling finds particularly effective tools through concepts such as ego states, transactions and life scripts, offering a clear method for understanding and improving relational dynamics.