ABSTRACT
The pattern of childhood and adult experience is unique for every therapist and undoubtedly shapes one’s approach to the practice of counselling as a career. Marston (1984) suggests that the motives for becoming a therapist may include contact, helping others, discovery, social status, power and influence, self-therapy and even voyeurism. Clearly, some motives are more problematic than others. For perhaps the majority of counsellors, the pathway into the occupation unfolds over time. It is common for people to enter professions such as nursing, social work and teaching and then find themselves more and more attracted to, and involved in, the counselling components of the job. Undergoing personal therapy or counselling as a client may also be the catalyst for the decision to enter counselling training, while the experience of meeting therapists or trainers who become influential role models may also be a factor. The decision to become a counsellor may be prompted or facilitated by any number of events or influences, and it is hoped that through the use of this book you have been assisted in identifying how you got to be where you are today.
