Supervision in an organisation where counsellors are a minority profession

Abstract

While much supervision occurs within organisations in which counsellors work, it seems that the issues facing supervision in organisations where counsellors are the main professional group are different from those in organisations where counsellors are only a small percentage of the employees. One field in which counsellors are a minority profession is in education. For example, Education Queensland has approximately 55,000 employees, 400 of whom are guidance officers (the term used for school counsellors in this organisation). Counsellors therefore represent less than one per cent of the total number of employees, and proportions of this order would be expected in most, if not all, school systems. Using the supervision of guidance officers in Education Queensland as an example, this chapter will explore issues in an organisation where counsellors constitute a minority profession. An historical background will be presented first, followed by a discussion of the issues inherent in the provision of supervision in such an organisation. Examples of supervision practices will then be provided.