Disappointing state of affairs for counsellors

I AM a licensed and registered counsellor with the Malaysian Board of Counsellors or Lembaga Kaunselor Malaysia (LKM), and I work mainly with students. Even though I am already retired, I am still being invited to conduct motivational talks and counselling seminars and workshops in schools.

When I was studying for my Masters in Counselling, I decided to do my practicum at three local secondary schools. This was because I was running a community centre that targeted youths, especially the economically disadvantaged and academically challenged.

Even though I may not be an expert, I have more than 10 years’ experience in counselling secondary school students. More recently, I have been working with undergraduates from various colleges and universities.

But I think some of us are overworked due to the high number of clients we have to counsel. As a mental health professional, I also go through an occupational hazard called “compassion fatigue”, which of course is not peculiar to our profession only.

There is certainly a need for more counsellors! So, it is heartening to know that the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry is planning to increase the number of counsellors with LKM to 11,000 in 2020.

However, it will be challenging to find another 3,000 counsellors within such a short period of time!

Even though there is an urgent need, many who have graduated with counselling degrees from overseas universities are still finding it hard to be licensed and registered as counsellors.

One must graduate from the prescribed list of universities to be recognised as a counsellor by LKM.

I have a colleague who obtained her PhD from the United States and was even practising as a licensed professional counsellor in Texas for several years. She has passed the stringent National Counsellor Examination and has completed over 3,000 practicum hours in the US. Yet, her application to be registered in Malaysia as a counsellor was not approved.

I think LKM should approve such applications on a case-by-case basis.

Meanwhile, to meet the need for more counsellors, Deputy Prime Minister Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, who is also Women, Family, and Community Development Minister, had announced that about 5,500 lay counsellors were trained in 2018. She added that they only needed to go through a screening test and attend a three-day course to get the qualification certificate.

But how effective, or rather how safe is this stop-gap measure? How would a lay counsellor who has not been professionally trained be able to counsel clients with their diverse mental health issues? What would be the job description? More importantly, what would be their scope and boundaries?

Having said that, I think the lay counsellors may be able to assist professional counsellors in less complex cases and provide basic advice and guidance.

But why is the government spending time and money to train lay counsellors when we already have scores of counsellors who have been professionally trained albeit in overseas universities?

There are about 8,000 counsellors listed in the LKM website. As the population is currently about 32 million now, it works out to about one counsellor for every 4,000 people. Of course, this is just an average across the country, so it would be safe to assume that there will be more counsellors in the cities than in smaller towns.

It is disappointing that LKM will only recognise and give accreditation to counsellors who have obtained their counselling degrees from its list of universities. Perhaps LKM can accommodate those graduates from reputable and wellknown universities by requiring them to undergo some additional modules or even extra courses.

I would like to appeal to LKM to also consider these overseas-trained graduates, some of whom even have doctorates in counselling!

There is a dire need for more counsellors in Malaysia now.

PETER SOO Kluang, Johor