Albania

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Counselling is not an independent profession in Albania. Counselling is only linked with the psychology field of study and practice. The first Psychology major in Albania is being introduced in 1996 due to the socio-political transitions in post-communist Albania. During communism, the psychiatry was the only field of study responsible for the treatment of mentally ill. During communism, psychiatry was used as an additional instrument to control people’ s behavior and treat what was considered ‘deviant’ behavior by the totalitarian ideology.

Counselling is not regulated by law in Albania. Psychotherapy is also not regulated by law in Albania (as of 2017).

• School
• Private practices

Challenges:

The mental health care system has not yet caught up with the European standard, although past political repression and persecution has led to widespread mental disorders.

Moreover, psychotherapeutic treatments are still only accessible to a fraction of the population. There is a need of establishing formal procedures of training as it has been done with psychotherapy for example. It is a grey area in determining who is monitoring counselling services in Albamia and how this is being implemented.

Trends:

People are asking for counselling services and this is a great change occurring in 5 last years, but there is a gap in the quality of what is being offered. Most of the reliable services offering psychological counselling are those who are run by professionals who have studied abroad.