Historical Perspective of Counseling Psychology

Before 1900

• Sigmund Freud developed a way to talk to patients that were deemed hysterical which he called ‘psychoanalysis’.
• Lightner Witmer started the world's first psychological clinic in 1896.
• The social welfare reform movement (now known as social justice).

1900–1909

• Frank Parsons, often called the founder of guidance, focused his work on growth and prevention.
• Jesse B. Davis was the first person to set up a systematized guidance program in the public schools (Aubrey, 1977; Brewer, 1942).
• Clifford Beers found conditions in mental institutions deplorable and exposed them in his book, A Mind That Found Itself (1908), which became a popular best seller.

1910s

• The first was the 1913 founding of the National Vocational Guidance Association (NVGA), which was the forerunner of the American Counseling Association.

1920s

• A notable event was the certification of counselors in Boston and New York in the mid-1920s.
• A final noteworthy event was Abraham and Hannah Stone’s 1929 establishment of the first marriage and family counseling center in New York City.

1930s

• First theory of counseling, which was formulated by E. G. Williamson

1940s

• Carl Rogers rose to prominence in 1942 with the publication of his book Counseling and Psychotherapy.

1950s

• The establishment of the American Personnel and Guidance Association (APGA);
• The charting of the American School Counselor Association (ASCA);
• The establishment of Division 17(Society of Counseling Psychology) within the American
• Psychological Association (APA);
• The passage of the National Defense Education Act (NDEA); and
• The introduction of new guidance and counseling theories

1960s

• Counseling as a developmental profession.

1980s

• National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC), which was formed in 1982

1990s

• American Counseling Association (ACA).