06/01/2009
Posted by: Andrew Little
In early January this year, Andrew Little, SCAPE Committee Member, PACFA Board member and Chair of the PACFA Course Accreditation Committee, presented a paper on Counselling and Psychotherapy Course Accreditation in Australia with Dr Ione Lewis, SCAPE President, PACFA Vice-President, at the International Counseling and Social Work Symposium in Penang, Malaysia. About 150 people attended this conference, including Australians Dr Jac Brown and Elizabeth Riley.
Andrew commented: "Whilst at this conference in Malaysia, I was surprised to notice that the presentations on sex and sexuality were very popular with conference attendees. This interest seems similar to Australia". Conference attendees told us that sexuality, and in particular counselling gays and lesbians, are not matters openly discussed in their culture but that they were dealing with these issues in their counselling practice and were keen to learn more. Another feature of the conference was presentations on domestic violence by a number of research students and graduates.
Ione and Andrew also met with representatives of the Malaysian Board of Counsellors, along with other country representatives (including Afghanistan) in a Dialogue session to discuss areas of common interest and concern. In Malaysia, counselling - but not psychology - is covered by an Act of Parliament. Counselling is viewed as very compatible with Malaysian culture.
The Board of Counsellors is keen to interact with Australia on processes for dealing with ethical complaints.
About 15 countries were represented at this conference with many high quality presentations. "There is a lot we can learn from counselling practice and research in countries in our region", Andrew said. |
