Counseling Values and Objectives

Abstract

Counseling has established itself as a helping profession with an academic base. Its development has been influenced largely by the socioeconomic, occupational, and technical changes found in western society as well as the various personal and social problems getmane to its societal organization. Although emerging as a profession only during the twentieth century, its origins can be traced back to the post-Renaissance era. It therefore has a distinct orientation, identity, and focus. The existing body of knowledge and the relevant repettoire of counseling techniques and ptactices address the demands of western society within its sociomod value structure. The question then arises as to whether adding the tetm "Islamic" to the available discipline of counseling catties any legitimacy at this stage. This paper is an attempt to examine critically the evolutionary context of counseling, the value system in which it is immersed, and the objectives it endeavors to address. The framework used for this examination is the Islamic outlook on life and the associated objectives and values that Islam regards as detettninants of human behavior. It is assumed that this compatative approach to the underlying perspectives, objectives, and values will explain the congruence or incongruence between the existing model(s) of counseling and any alternative Islamic model(s). It must be realized that Islamizing the prevalent secular-materialistic counseling thanes and practices cannot be accomplished by merely affixing the label "Islamic." Thus this paper should not be seen as an attempt ...