TOWARDS THE PROFESSIONAL RECOGNITION OF GUIDANCE COUNSELLING IN IREALND

Towards the Professional Recognition of Guidance Counselling in Ireland.

On behalf of the Institute of Guidance Counsellors (IGC), I welcome the publication of this policy paper (PDF link below) and I would like to acknowledge and thank the members of the Policy and Practice Working Group (PPWG), in particular Dr Liam Harkin, for their diligent research, detailed discussions, writing and editing of the document over the past number of years. I would also like to recognise the foresight of my immediate past-President Beatrice Dooley for initiating this work in October 2020.

All organisations, big and small, need a clear roadmap and strategic vision for the short-, medium- and long-term. This document provides a clear pathway for the IGC to further develop professionally over the next decade or so.

This policy paper defines professionalism and contends that guidance counselling is a professional occupation; it provides a chronology of developments and thinking around professionalism in guidance counselling in the first two decades of this century; it affirms that the IGC has the capacity to undertake all the functions, organisation and oversight needed by a national professional organisation; it contains four recommendations for the IGC around professionalism and it outlines the roles and functions of a future fully professional IGC, as an aspirational series of professional goals, which have been categorised as short-term, medium-
term and long-term.

Kind regards,

Tadhg Crowley
IGC President.

BOOKLET: Towards the professional recognition of Guidance Counselling in Ireland.