Qualitative Research on Career Development of Psychological Consultants in China Social Psychological Counseling Institutions

The goal of our qualitative study was to research the career development of psychological consultants in China social psychological counseling institutions, promote the personal growth of psychological counselors, carry out the career plan and personal coping, and provide enlightenment for the career development plan of psychology majors. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 6 psychological consultants in social psychological counseling institutions. The results show that the career development of psychological consultants in social psychological counseling institutions is influenced by both personal factors and environmental factors; the career development can be divided into three stages with different development tasks. Finally, we discussed the influencing factors and career development tasks of psychological consultants in social psychological counseling institutions. Introduction In recent years, psychological counseling, as a kind of rising service industry, has made great progress in China, but it still faces some problems in its professionalization process. Besides, through analyzing the literature, we found that there was little relative research on the career development of psychological consultants and the psychological consultants of social psychological counseling institutions. In order to better carry out the professional qualification certification of psychological consultants, there are many important issues need to be figured out, including the career development of psychological consultants and their influencing factors, which can help put forward effective measures for the development of psychological counseling. In this research, taking psychological consultants as research objects, in the form of interview for data gathering, through qualitative research construct theoretical model, from the perspective of career discover the corresponding influencing factors, we discuss the characteristics of their career development and explore their career paths. Besides, this research aims to promote the personal growth, the career plan and personal coping of psychological consultants, providing enlightenment for students of psychology in the career development plan. The Development of Psychological Counseling and Psychological Consultant According to National Occupational Standards for Psychological Consultants, psychological consultant is a person who are engaged in psychological counseling, “uses the professional knowledge of psychology and related disciplines, follows the principles of psychology, and applies the techniques and methods of psychological counseling to help the clients to solve psychological problems”. According to the survey, less than 1/10 of qualified psychological consultants are actually engaged in psychological counseling no matter how the professional level is[1]. However, there still exists large requirement of psychological consultants who can provide professional help[2]. In this professional environment, it is likely that psychological consultants in social psychological counseling institutions will change jobs, who have great career uncertainty, career obstacles and career hesitation. 5th International Conference on Education Reform and Modern Management (ERMM 2019) Copyright © 2019, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volume 361