Protect The Good Name Of Psychologists
KINDLY publish this concern in your wonderful newspaper and keep up the good work.
You really keep us updated about Namibia.
Psychology is supposed to be a respected profession.
It should instil and build confidence by keeping the image of
the profession positive and clean.
What prompted me to write about this is the fact that there are
so many people out there that call themselves counsellors.
These people were trained varying from one day to few months, if
lucky up to a year.
These people go out there and claim to be counselling people
while doing more harm than good and tarnishing the image of the
professional counsellors.
Most Namibians do not know much about psychology yet; they still
live in the myths of the olden days and having so many complaints
about these chance takers - so-called unqualified counsellors -
makes people link this distrust to the real field, although they
are two different things.
As far as I understand, to be a professional counsellor you
should have a Bachelor Degree in Psychology, Honours followed by a
Masters in Psychology.
This training lasts no less than five years.
There is an urgent need to protect the title and let us know the
difference between unqualified counsellors and professional
counsellors.
At the moment most of the people have a negative perception
towards the counsellors that they do not want to hear about that
title.
I am lucky I came a cross someone who explained to me the whole
profession, its training and the occupational classes.
Kindly take this as an urgent need, we want to make use of
professional well trained counsellors and other psychologists and
need to be able to distinguish between them by their titles.
A friend of mine told me in their country a board could legally
put measures into places to protect such titles and reserve them
for well-trained professionals.
Why don't you do the same to keep the image of the profession?
Remember: "A person with a little knowledge of something is a
dangerous fellow".
Therapy can do more harm than good if inappropriately
conducted.
Let us distinguish between fantasy and reality.
In the meantime professionals keep up the good work and face the
challenge of educating us.
- Laoie H Brand - via email
Psychology is supposed to be a respected profession. It should
instil and build confidence by keeping the image of the profession
positive and clean. What prompted me to write about this is the
fact that there are so many people out there that call themselves
counsellors. These people were trained varying from one day to few
months, if lucky up to a year. These people go out there and claim
to be counselling people while doing more harm than good and
tarnishing the image of the professional counsellors. Most
Namibians do not know much about psychology yet; they still live in
the myths of the olden days and having so many complaints about
these chance takers - so-called unqualified counsellors - makes
people link this distrust to the real field, although they are two
different things. As far as I understand, to be a professional
counsellor you should have a Bachelor Degree in Psychology, Honours
followed by a Masters in Psychology. This training lasts no less
than five years. There is an urgent need to protect the title and
let us know the difference between unqualified counsellors and
professional counsellors. At the moment most of the people have a
negative perception towards the counsellors that they do not want
to hear about that title. I am lucky I came a cross someone who
explained to me the whole profession, its training and the
occupational classes. Kindly take this as an urgent need, we want
to make use of professional well trained counsellors and other
psychologists and need to be able to distinguish between them by
their titles. A friend of mine told me in their country a board
could legally put measures into places to protect such titles and
reserve them for well-trained professionals. Why don't you do the
same to keep the image of the profession? Remember: "A person with
a little knowledge of something is a dangerous fellow". Therapy can
do more harm than good if inappropriately conducted. Let us
distinguish between fantasy and reality. In the meantime
professionals keep up the good work and face the challenge of
educating us.- Laoie H Brand - via email