Counseling Psychology in Israel

Abstract

This article discusses the status of counseling psychology in Israel in the context of its unique characteristics. Despite the respected status of psychology as a profession in Israel and its overall acceptance and involvement in numerous social issues, counseling psychology as a separate specialty is nonexistent, especially because of resistance to the clinical psychology specialty. In addition to general subjects where counseling may be applied, special problem areas-including continuous security threats, massive immigration, non-Jewish minorities, issues concerning religiosity, and effects of the Holocaust-create the necessity for counseling psychology interventions. Nevertheless, actual, successful, professional accomplishments make this either unnecessary or call for a change in the counseling-related training of clinical psychologists.

Formal and Applied Counseling in Israel

“…The only program that was running for several years in Tel Aviv University was obliged to close because of the Israeli Psychological Association's refusal to accredit this program's graduates. The main reason was a lack of agreement as to the uniqueness and scope of relevance of counseling psychologists versus clinical psychologists (Barak & Golan, 2000). It is only recently that a first step toward solving this problem of accreditation was made, with the Israeli Parliament's decision to change the Psychologist Law (2010) and redefine psychological treatment in more general terms, that is, as "any treatment that is relevant to psychological professional training" rather than "psychotherapy" alone.…”