The special assets and problems of members of other professions

Social workers, and particularly psychiatric social workers, have a training and experience which can be of the greatest value in marriage counseling. Their awareness of the inner dynamics of personal attitude and behavior, their training in case work, and their experience with people in all kinds of “stress situations” constitute a basic foundation for marriage counseling which is probably as strong as that of any profession. When they build on to this foundation a specific study and training in matters concerning the marital relationship and its disorders they are probably better equipped in the all round competence for marriage counseling than any other profession.

But their main problems, as with other professions, are concerned with the allotment of time and energy, and with the professional orientation which is predominantly focussed on the social environmental aspects of distress, though not by any means excluding the relational aspects or even the intra-personal. As members of the staff of many social agencies and psychiatric clinics, social workers are doing some very effective service in marriage and family counseling, and they will tend to do more and more as the needs become more accepted in the public mind. They can offer quite distinctive assistance in the team work of any marriage counseling agency, and their expert knowledge of the social aspects of marital disorder is of great help in the training of marriage counselors as well as in the actual professional work of counseling.

Clinical psychologists also have many assets which are of great use in marriage counseling, particularly their experience in assessing personality characteristics by objective testing and their understanding of the inner dynamics of personal attitude and behavior. In countries where marriage counseling is predominantly carried on by university graduates there is always a large percentage of trained psychologists in the field, who have supplemented their professional training with some special training and experience in marriage counseling and related concerns. As members of a counseling team and as consultants where their special competence is needed they form an indispensable part of the whole undertaking.

Lawyers cannot escape contact with many marital disorders, and their attitude seems to vary from that of doing everything possible to open the dispute to counseling to that of simply giving advice and being willing to act for the person who may wish to seek the dissolution of a marriage. Their vocational aptitude and training give them many valuable assets for counseling; clear orderly minds, ability to think into situations and to sift the significant from the inapplicable, and the knowledge of the law as it affects the various questions that may arise. But the lawyer cannot generally afford the time necessary for any serious counseling, nor has he the training in the actual work of counseling. He is an adviser and clarifier rather than a therapist. He is an indispensable resource for consultation to save distressed people from actions which may increase rather than diminish their difficulties, and sometimes to make it clear to a misbehaving partner that if he persists in his actions he can be challenged in court.

Probation officers are also brought into contact with many marital disorders in their work, and are doing much quiet work in helping people to work through marital difficulties. Their training would appear at present to be generally insufficient for serious marriage counseling, but many of them develop a good practical competence in the course of their careers. They are responsible to the courts, and this may sometimes reduce their professional freedom in marriage counseling, and may possibly deter some couples from allowing them to know the inner elements of the marital trouble. But probation officers are valuable people to have available in many special cases, often cases of considerable difficulty.

Teachers also come into contact with marital disorders, mainly through such offenses by children as truancy, vandalism, and other behavior problems. Sometimes the beginning of the teacher’s acquaintance with a marital disorder is when a child who has been doing well in class suddenly begins to do badly and to slip downward toward the bottom of the class. Where school term reports are the rule the parents will often seek some explanation of the change, and the teacher may be able to help them to realize the connection between emotional strain and poor school work. While teachers are professionally oriented mainly in the direction of education rather than therapy, there is a welcome movement in educational circles toward the concern about the emotional aspects of learning and growth. The teacher with a strong vocational sense and an interest in the total personality and the family backgrounds of his pupils can be of great help in such matters as marriage counseling.

It is likely, however, that there will be an even greater development and use of teachers in the future in the work of education and preparation for marriage than there has ever been in the past. This important work needs to be carried out wherever young people are, in small towns and villages as well as large cities, and the leadership in the future would seem to be in the combined hands of the doctor, the minister and the teacher, the three most suitable professional people for the work who can be found in the smallest villages as well as the large cities.

This consideration of the special assets and problems of the various professional workers seems to point to the conclusion that marriage counseling must be mainly in the hands of suitable people who have undertaken special training for it and are able and willing to give the necessary time and concentration to it. But there is a first-class field of service for other people as we have seen, who can help people in marital trouble as part of their own professional service, and in many cases can be used as consultants in their own special fields. This consideration leads inevitably to the more detailed survey of the necessary personal qualities in the counselor as affecting the work of marriage counseling. This question will now be discussed.

Tags: Counseling