Associate Professor Frederick Low, President, Singapore Association for Counselling,
Honoured Guests from ASEAN & beyond
Distinguished Guests
Ladies and Gentlemen
1. Good morning. It gives me great pleasure to be here at today’s Symposium. We have amongst us, policymakers, practitioners, educators and researcher from across the region, gathered together to learn from one other.
2. Today’s symposium is made possible by the efforts of the Singapore Association of Counselling. Recognised nationally as the main professional body for counsellors, SAC has been instrumental in advancing the standards and stature of counsellors in Singapore.
Challenges and opportunities in current counselling landscape
3. The theme of today’s symposium “Counselling in Asia: Globally Competent, Locally Relevant” is timely.
4. Counselling has made great strides in Asia over the past decade, enabling more individuals and families to clarify their views, make progress in resolving issues that trouble them, and reach their goals. Counselling is a key aspect of the suite of social services that are provided to our populations, from family counselling, to marital counselling, and youth counselling, to enable individuals and families to bounce back and thrive. I’m glad to witness the professionalisation of this field over the years and also growing receptivity of this profession among the population.
5. Today, I would like to talk about a few features I’ve observed of several countries in Asia, and how they can inform counselling in our contexts.
6. First, family-centricity. Families remain important in many of our societies. Most of our populations see themselves within their context of their families, and their community. How they interpret challenges and resolve issues therefore cannot be viewed in silos, separate from their relationships to their family. Compared to other contexts where individual freedom and self-actualisation is highly valued, even possibly at the expense of relationships, the people in our contexts want to individuate healthily and have strong relationships with their families and their community. This concept of family-centricity informs the design of policies and programmes in our societies. And it must also inform counselling practice.
7. In Singapore, we have designed our services around families. What may appear initially to be a troubled relationship between a parent and child many a times, also involves the other parent and the couple’s marital relationship. Our approach of family-centricity allows us to work with multiple family members and support the family holistically, whether it is providing marriage counselling and family counselling to these families, or encouraging families who may display signs of early stress to attend preventative programmes. We call this the Strengthening Families Programme @ Family Service Centres or the FAM@FSCs.
8. Beyond the design of services, counselling practice too must be sensitive to the familial context and the environment to be effective. I’m happy to know that there are many counsellors and academics here who firmly believe in this, and some of them will be sharing more about their thoughts on navigating family dynamics later this afternoon.
9. Second, mutual accommodation and a willingness to understand and work with worldviews beyond our own. Our countries have been exposed to different cultures and people over history. Today, in a rapidly evolving world, we continue to experience change amidst modernisation, the shift towards urbanisation, and immigration. It is therefore important that professionals have the capacity to unpack different worldviews and the capability to adapt interventions to people to better serve their needs. Professionals know that when they can recognise the culturally relevant beliefs and practices of their clients, their work with clients can be more effective.
10. Singapore is no stranger to this. Being a multi-religious and multi-racial society, the practitioners in Singapore frequently have to work with people who have different backgrounds than their own, build trust, and support their clients in making progress. This is precious and we do not take it for granted.
11. To maintain trust in our social services, it is paramount that our social services remain secular and accessible to all, regardless of factors such as their race, religion, and gender. And we must continue to equip our professionals to work with people from diverse backgrounds. Many Social Service Agencies are like-minded in this area and regularly organise symposiums to exchange learning points from working with different demographic groups.
12. I believe that these two points - Family-centricity and the understanding of diverse cultural, religious backgrounds - will help advance counselling in our region. In this regard, we need robust research that informs practice in our contexts. Building on the valuable work of practitioners in our various countries, research can bridge theory and practice, document effective interventions, distill insights, and facilitate cross-learning.
13. We have seen the value of localised research in the health domain. Studies conducted on our local Singapore population have enabled us to develop better interventions to serve them, and even populations beyond our shore. For example, the development of a genetic data bank from the whole-genomic sequencing of Singaporeans has provided valuable insights on understudied Asian populations and enabled more accurate diagnosis of genetic diseases and more targeted therapies. Similarly, I believe that more codified research on counselling practices and practice research will enable us to deepen counselling theory and practice for our populations.
Responding to Evolving Needs on the Ground
14. At the policy level, we need to create proper structures and develop services to meet the evolving needs of our societies. This requires collaborations beyond the counselling professions and even beyond the social sector.
15. To tackle mental health holistically and to move towards more preventive health, Singapore convened the Interagency Taskforce on Mental Health and Well-being. Comprising individuals from different backgrounds, from Government agencies, academic institutions, professionals, and even the unions and the organisation representing businesses, the Taskforce came together to deliberate on ways in which we can better support mental health in our local context. I’m pleased to share that we recently launched our National Mental Health and Well-Being Strategy.
16. One of the recommendations of the Taskforce is to develop a Tiered Care Model, organising mental health services according to the severity of mental health needs, and tapping on different professionals at each tier. This allows more efficient use of resources and services to improve care access and avoid over-medicalisation of mental health issues. We are working to implement this now.
17. We must also look ahead to track how our society is evolving to better meet the needs of our populations. Many countries in Southeast Asia have young populations and there are challenges that come with this. In Singapore, we have a population that is rapidly ageing and we need to ensure that social services, including counselling practice, caters to the specific needs of the elderly.
New Counselling Track for Social Service Skills Framework
18. Ultimately, people are at the core of our work. Counsellors are key to supporting individuals and uplifting families. This was made especially apparent during the pandemic, where many faced mental health struggles, family conflicts, and stress from having their livelihoods affected. Through your efforts in supporting families and helping them to bounce back, we have emerged stronger.
19. Moving forward, we want to better support counsellors in your professional development. We want to enable all counsellors to deepen your competencies and hone your craft.
20. I’m pleased therefore to announce the new Counselling Track within the Skills Framework for Social Service. It maps out the career opportunities for Counsellors as they progress in their career, and the skills and competencies required for each job role.
21. Alongside the development of the new Counselling Track, we have set out 4 new technical skills and competencies (TSCs) to support individuals in deepening their abilities, in addition to the existing 43. These are in the areas of Clinical Supervision, Counselling Assessment, Counselling Intervention, and Technology Application in Counselling.
22. These TSCs were developed, taking into the consideration the emerging needs of our population and changes in our sector. For example, since the pandemic, we have seen a higher demand for remote counselling. In response, many entities including FAM@FSCs have started to provide counselling through live chat, emails and phone calls to increase accessibility for clients. With the Technology Application in Counselling TSC, more counsellors will be able to deepen their knowledge and adopt technologies effectively to serve their clients.
23. I thank SAC for your contributions and inputs in the development of the new Counselling Track. We hope that the new Counselling Track will better support all counsellors in your practice, and enable training providers and educational institutions to develop training programmes that better address the needs of the sector.
Conclusion
24. In this Year of Celebrating Social Service Partners, I would like to thank all of you - counsellors, clinical supervisors, counsellor educators for your commitment to supporting individuals and strengthening families.
25. I hope today’s symposium will foster stronger partnerships and generate good discussion on innovative approaches to address the challenges ahead. I wish everyone a fruitful day ahead.
26. Thank you.