The Synonymic Nature of Professional Counseling and Humanism: Presuppositions That Guide Our Identities

The authors present the argument that professional counseling is philosophically grounded in humanism. As evidence, 5 major presuppositions of professional counseling--relationality, development, empowerment, wellness, and social justice--are situated as fundamental to the understanding of humanism. These tenets are presented as a foundation to ground professional counselor identity as humanistic, and thus position humanism as synonymic with professional counseling. Keywords: humanism, humanistic, professional counseling ********** Historically, scholars and theorists have positioned the humanistic philosophy as the third force of counseling, situated between behaviorism and multicultural counseling. However, humanism can arguably be best understood as a metaparadigmatic framework that guides the identity and the enactment of the professional values of counselors. The synonymic nature of professional counseling and humanism emerges from the emphasis counselors place on relationality, development, empowerment, wellness, and social justice. These five tenets of professional counseling ground our professional identity in humanism and provide the foundation for presuppositions that guide our work as counselors. Across this article, the aforementioned five presuppositions will be presented to elucidate how humanism is a metaparadigm that is synonymous with the values of professional counseling. Essential to a professional counseling identity is the value of relationships, a developmental perspective of growth and change, a holistic wellness paradigm, and a commitment to client empowerment through social justice (Carney, 2007; Chung & Bemak, 2012; Day-Vines & Holcomb-McCoy, 2007; Myers & Sweeney, 2005; Perepiczka & Scholl, 2012; Seccombe, 2002). Therefore, professional counselors can be seen as nurturers of relationships, wellness, development, and social justice, and as contributing to the foundational aspects of the existence that emerges through the enactment of humanism. Humanism has often been presented as a way of being (Rogers, 1961) and as a way of becoming--or evolving--into one's ideal self. At its core, professional counseling is grounded in a humanistic paradigm. While introducing us to the I and thou, Buber (1970) extrapolated the difference in personal attitude toward the individual versus an object. In doing so, he revealed a fundamental value of professional counseling: a foundational attitude toward individuals as a relation between, and to things as a connection with objects. According to Buber, these attitudes represent the basic twofold situation of human life, in which the relation to thou knows no bounds, whereas a relation to it or to object has bounds. From a professional counseling viewpoint, a comprehensive understanding of human behavior involves consideration of growth and developmental transitions. According to Vontress (1996), people, including professional counselors, are trying to make sense of life and in this quest develop a philosophy of existence. Within the philosophy of the professional counselor, the ideal is to assist the client in making meaning of existence in the context of growth and developmental transitions. The counseling profession's emphasis on human growth and development is demonstrated through action, education and training, and scholarship. In terms of action, professional counselors view growth and development as a normative process in which each individual engages via social, contextual, and ecological environments, which are grounded in culture, history, and experience; these aspects relate to, and provide the rationale for, social justice as an important aspect of both humanism and counseling. Professional counseling is grounded in two critical tenets of humanism: the individual is always in a fluid state of development, and the awareness that we as humans cannot be reduced to a series of parts (M. …