Browsing by Author "Fisher, Laura Diane"
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- ItemRegistered Counsellors at a crossroads: Current status, professional identity and training realities(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2017-12) Fisher, Laura Diane; Naidoo, Anthony V.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Psychology.ENGLISH SUMMARY: The Registered Counsellor (RC) category within the profession of psychology in South Africa was envisaged to create ground swell for scaling up access to and provision of mental health care services nationally. The RC category echoes Community Psychology’s (CP) call to engage in a value based, transformed psychology that shifts from a biomedical model focusing upon individual mental distress towards a psychology that is relevant to individuals and groups embedded within diverse community realities. The overarching aim of this research study was to explore the current status of the RC category and the lived experience of RCs with a focus on their journey of professional identity construction as well as the realities and challenges for training RCs. The study was undergirded by an interpretivist social phenomenological research paradigm within which a multimethod sequential research design guided the research. Survey research was employed to access a well-defined sample of RCs (n=687) in order to address the current status of the RC category and to access a sample of academics from 13 Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) who provided insights into the realities and challenges for training RCs. Qualitative interviewing was used to investigate the lived experiences of 26 RCs. The study reveals that the RC category in South Africa is at a cross roads and illuminates the current status of the RC category, the RCs journey of professional identity construction, and their training realities. A macro perspective of the current status of RCs shows that the category remains small compared to the population it is envisaged to serve and disproportionate to the racial and geographical characteristics of the country. Concern is raised regarding the category’s ability to deliver on its intended purpose. For RCs professional identity construction is a journey of Readying; Becoming; Aspiration and Vision; Reality kicks in and Choosing. The journey is an organic, dynamic and continuous journey embedded within a multi-layered ecosystemic context within which a dichotomy of ecosystemic realities exists that mediates the RCs ability to meaningfully construct their professional identity as RCs or not. The realities and challenges of training (or not training) RCs show that, although there is general institutional recognition within Higher Education in South Africa of the need to train RCs, many have abandoned the training owing to the (non) viability of the training at a number of levels. For academics who continue to run BPsych (RC) training, offering the training is challenging but they feel they have institutional strength to do so. Several recommendations are made to reposition the professional status and training priorities for the nascent RC category.