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The Indigenous Counselling Framework (ICF) for school counselling in Singapore
Citation
Lee, B. O. (1999). The Indigenous Counselling Framework (ICF) for school counselling in Singapore. In S. P. Loo (Ed.), Proceedings of the MERA-ERA Joint conference 1999: Educational Challenges in the New Millennium (pp. 900-906). Malaysian Educational Research Association; Educational Research Association (Singapore).
Abstract
The Indigenous Counselling Framework (ICF) was derived from an empirical study conducted in Singapore. It provides a culturally relevant framework for counselling with Singaporean students. The ICF is based on two premises. Firstly, counselling is originated from Western culture and its belief systems about the cause and treatment of psychological problems may not be consistent with those of the Singaporean clients. When counselling with students, teacher-counsellors should be aware of their students’ perceptions about psychological problems. They have to match counselling modalities (e.g., psychodynamic, cognitive behavioural, humanistic, or religious-spiritual models) with the students’ beliefs because more positive outcomes in counselling may come about through converging the counsellor’s and client’s belief systems. Secondly, a holistic counselling approach is culturally more appropriate in the Singapore context. The ICF, which perceives individual’s problems in a larger context, consists of several interdependent systems: the person, immediate family system, extended family system, micro-social system, macro-social system, and natural-ecological system. All systems are inter-related to each other; changes or disturbances in one system may lead to changes and disturbances in another. As adolescents’ concerns are always related to their families, peer groups, and schools; the ICF will provide teacher-counsellors with a more comprehensive picture for planning intervention programmes
Date Issued
December 1999
Description
This paper was published in the 1999 Proceedings of the MERA-ERA Joint Conference held at Malacca, Malaysia from 1-3 December 1999