Professional boundaries and the identity of counselling psychology in South Africa.

Abstract

The discipline of counselling psychology in South Africa has recently been perturbed by debates over professional boundaries and the identity of counselling psychologists following the newly promulgated and much contested scope of practice for psychologists (Government Gazette, 2011). These debates, articulated elsewhere (Bantjes, Kagee, & Young, in press; Young, 2013), provide an opportunity for a re-consideration of the potential role of counselling psychologists in South Africa. We begin this editorial by drawing attention to domains that have traditionally been the focus of counselling psychology. We suggest ways in which counselling psychology in South Africa might reaffirm its identity as a socially relevant and important sub-discipline which is distinct from but nonetheless overlaps significantly with other areas of professional psychology. We conclude by considering some of the factors that impede the development of the discipline.