Counselling in social work in Aotearoa New Zealand: The historical, political and socio-cultural evolution

Dr. Barbara Staniforth is a senior lecturer in social work in the School of Health and Social Services at Massey University. This article is the first of a two-part series which looks at the role of counselling in social work in Aotearoa New Zealand. It follows from a series of interviews with various prominent social workers and academics conducted through 2005-2006, which attempted to provide a historical and thematic construction of some of the forces which had shaped social work and the role of counselling within it. The second article examines a quantitative piece of research which asked approximately 1,000 members of the Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Social Workers for their beliefs around, and practice of, counselling in social work. Both pieces of research formed part of a PhD dissertation entitled Past, Present and Future Perspectives on the Role of Counselling in Social Work in Aotearoa New Zealand completed in 2010.