History of Counselling: How Psychology Came Into Being

Psychology has, until recently, tended to focus on psychological and emotional problems and how to deal with these. This article identifies the key schools of thought, whose philosophies are often diametrically opposed.

Getting caught in the problem cycle

Psychology has developed as a science over many years, with many different ways of considering the thought and emotional processes that affect individuals. The field of psychology includes what has been termed 'Applied Psychology' where knowledge is used by individual practitioners such as counselors and psychologists to help people overcome problems and, 'Research Psychology' where academic psychologists focus on experiments and studies into human behaviour by testing out concepts behind psychological theories and human behaviour. These studies are then used in fields such as Counselling, Coaching, Stress Management and Mental Health.

Although some applied psychologists who work with individuals also undertake research, there are many academic psychologists who devote their whole life work to research without ever actually working directly with an individual. The field of psychology is split into many areas such as Occupational Psychology (work related issues for individuals and organizations), Educational Psychology (children and learning), and Counselling Psychology (mental health and emotional factors).

Until recently the whole world of psychology has tended to focus on the emotional and psychological difficulties experienced by individuals, groups and organizations. Research has focused on identifying a problem, working out what has gone wrong and then considering what needs to be done to put it right.

How Psychology came into being

The word "psychology" is the combination of two terms - study (ology) and soul (psyche), or mind. Back as far as 355BC the famous Greek philosopher Aristotle suggested that the heart was the mechanism for mental processes and in 387BC Plato, another Greek philosopher suggested that it was the brain and not the heart. Without knowing it, the thoughts of these philosophers led the way for what would later become known as the Science of Psychology. Psychology attempts to identify the forces at work behind human emotions and behaviour.

As time went by many people made their own unique contributions to the growing body of knowledge about how the mind works, why people behave the way they do, what can go wrong and what can be done to put things right.

There are many 'Schools of Psychological Thought' that have developed over the years and many of these have very different ideas about why people are unhappy and become emotionally or psychological distressed and the best ways of helping such people.

The four main Schools of Thought are

• Analytical Psychology


• Cognitive & Behavioural Psychology


• Humanistic Psychology


• Transpersonal Psychology

All of the schools have gone on to develop many different types of therapies that are on offer throughout the world. However, all therapies owe their origins to one school of thought or another.

Tweet