Students’ Perceptions of Mental Health Counseling in the United Arab Emirates (UAE)

Abstract

Counseling services in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have focused on counseling in the elementary and secondary schools. To date, the idea of the private practitioner of mental health counseling has been virtually nonexistent. However, education officials at the University of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have been exploring the option of following the international trends of preparing students for mental health counseling services, with special emphasis in marriage and family. A counselor education degree would allow individuals to operate private practices to address various concerns that impact individuals within the society at large. No instruments that measure perceptions of counseling from an international perspective were found for the purposes of this study. Therefore, it was necessary for the authors to devise and test a new tool. Surveys were completed by a sample of 141 undergraduate students regarding their perceptions of the importance of counseling in UAE society and the role of the counselor in society and other general questions regarding perceptions of counseling. With this initial effort, psychometric properties of the ‘Perceptions about Counseling Survey’ appeared promising. Results revealed that students had a favorable view toward the role of the counselor in UAE society. Results further revealed that students perceived the counseling profession as favorable. Given that the participants were predominately female, the results were analyzed from the social and cultural perspective of women in Arab society and the social psychological theory of ‘attitude’ is considered as a contextual backdrop.