Counselling in social work in Aotearoa New Zealand: The historical, political and socio-cultural evolution

Barbara Staniforth

doi:10.11157/anzswj-vol22iss3id179

Abstract

This article is the first of a two-part series which looks at the role of counselling in social work in Aotearoa New Zealand. It follows from a series of interviews with various prominent social workers and academics conducted through 2005-2006, which attempted to provide a historical and thematic construction of some of the forces which had shaped social work and the role of counselling within it. The second article examines a quantitative piece of research which asked approximately 1,000 members of the Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Social Workers for their beliefs around, and practice of, counselling in social work. Both pieces of research formed part of a PhD dissertation entitled Past, Present and Future Perspectives on the Role of Counselling in Social Work in Aotearoa New Zealand completed in 2010.

Highlights

Social work and the role of counselling within it have evolved differently throughout the world
One of the issues which impacted on the development of social work and counselling is the relatively late emergence of formal social work and counselling here, as opposed to other countries
Part two of this article, which discusses the quantitative results of the questionnaire sent to Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Social Work’s1 (ANZASW) members, will demonstrate that the majority of social workers who participated in the study indicated that they did at least ‘some’ counselling within their social work practice, with 12% of the respondent sample indicating that ‘it is the majority of what I do’

Summary

Barbara Staniforth

This article is the first of a two-part series which looks at the role of counselling in social work in Aotearoa New Zealand. The second article examines a quantitative piece of research which asked approximately 1,000 members of the Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Social Workers for their beliefs around, and practice of, counselling in social work. Both pieces of research formed part of a PhD dissertation entitled Past, Present and Future Perspectives on the Role of Counselling in Social Work in Aotearoa New Zealand completed in 2010

Introduction

Previous literature

Methodology

Key influences

Findings

Conclusion