What is counselling?

Chapter 1, 'What is counselling' by Randolph Bowers provides a narrative reflection on the status of the field from several perspectives. These include: • an examination of values associated with professional practice and professional status; • analysis of issues of power, influence, and control in therapy; • engagement with a critical sociological perspective on the field; and • sharing a vision for what counselling could be when at its best. The author speaks with an up-front and personal voice, much like he is speaking directly to his students in discussions. The text flows from practical personal suggestions for practitioner's keeping of a journal, to questions of meaning and philosophical reflection, to raising complex and difficult issues that may arise over the course of one's career as a counsellor. While the chapter does not necessarily foreground issues of self-care for students and practitioners of counselling, the reader may get the sense that the author has taken time out to reflect, consider, and ponder his stance towards many issues. This provides the reader with an example of reflexivity in action (or a balanced critical self-analysis), where we do not necessarily have all the answers, nor do we know what the outcome of our analysis will become. The author would suggest that the most important part of the process of learning is the experience of questioning itself - and that is only one more part of a process that is ongoing. This indeed is the practice of counselling.