The History of Counseling

1900s
1907
First Use of Systematized Guidance
Jesse B. Davis, superintendent of the Grand Rapids school system, is first to
implement a systematized guidance program in public schools.

1908
"Father of Guidance"
Frank Parsons, the "Father of Guidance," founds Boston's Vocational Bureau, a
major step in the institutionalization of vocational guidance. Parsons worked with
young people who were in the process of making career decisions. He theorized that
choosing a vocation was a matter of relating three factors: knowledge of work,
knowledge of self, and matching of the two.

Mental Health Reforms

Clifford Beers, former Yale student, was hospitalized for mental illness several times
during his life. He found conditions in mental institutions deplorable and exposed
them in a book, A Mind That Found Itself. Beers advocated for better mental health
facilities and reform in the treatment of the mentally ill. Beers was the impetus for
the mental health movement in the United States, and his work was the forerunner
of mental health counseling.

1910s
1913
First Counseling Association
National Vocational Guidance Association founded, publishing literature and uniting
professionals for the first time.

1917
Smith-‐Hughes Act
This legislation provided funding for public schools to support vocational education.

U.S. Army Employs Psychological Screening

During World War I, the U.S. Army begins using numerous psychological
instruments to screen soldiers, which are utilized in civilian populations after the
war and become the basis for the popular movement called psychometrics.

1920s
1925
First Certification of Counselors
The first certification of counselors took place in New York and Boston in the mid-‐
1920s.

1929
First Marriage Counselors
Abraham and Hannah Stone are first to establish a marriage and family counseling
center in New York City.

1930s
1930
Development of the First Theory of Counseling
E.G. Williamson of the University of Minnesota modifies Parsons' theories and uses
them to work with students and the unemployed, emphasizing the teaching,
mentoring, and influencing skills of the counselor.

1932
Brewer Incorporates Education and Guidance
Edmund Brewer publishes Education as Guidance, which proposes that every
teacher be a counselor and that guidance be incorporated into curriculums as a way
to better prepare students for life outside of school.

1939
U.S. Employment Service Established
This agency publishes the first edition of the Dictionary of Occupational Titles and
becomes a major source of career information for guidance specialists working with
students and the unemployed.

1940s
1942
Carl Rogers Publishes Counseling and Psychotherapy
This work challenged counselor-‐centered approaches as well as major tenants of
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