ABSTRACT
The importance of psychological processes in the experience of health and illness has become increasingly recognized and acknowledged by the medical profession and the public. A leading medical sociologist, estimated that 95 per cent of all medical and surgical patients could profit from psychotherapy or behavioural medicine interventions. In medical settings, as elsewhere, there is much confusion relating to the distinction between counselling skills and counselling. In 1987, the British Association for Counselling sponsored a survey conducted by Glenys Breakwell to map the extent of counselling provision in the National Health Service outside primary care. A system which encourages self-referral may allow the individual to decide when counselling would be of most benefit to them. Epidemiological studies, in Britain and the United States, suggest that the rate of mental distress in the population is in the range of 10-15 per cent at any point in time.
