Summary
Counselling Associations
All Professional Bodies, National Associations (e.g. Mental Health, School, Guidance, Addiction, Faith-based etc.) and Accrediting Organisations.
Professional Association of Psychologists of Liechtenstein (BPL)
- Website: https://www.bpl.li
- Organisation Size: 50 Members
Universities and Other Education and Training Institutes
No further education institutes for counselling or training institutes for psychotherapy were found in Liechtenstein. Counsellors or psychotherapists have usually completed their training in Austria, Switzerland or Germany.
Counselling Agencies, Services, Group Practices, Counselling Centres
Background & Context
No information was found on the historical development of counselling or psychotherapy in Luxembourg.
Current Regulatory Status / Level of Recognition:
Psychological counselling addresses a relatively clear set of questions, for example:
- Career choice
- Career planning
- Educational or learning difficulties
- Professional or partnership conflicts
- separation/divorce
- Prevention (Professional Association of Psychologists of Liechtenstein 2020)
The duration of a psychological consultation is limited in time and lasts only a few sessions (one to ten sessions). It is not a service that is covered by health insurance (see Professional Association of Psychologists of Liechtenstein 2020).
In contrast to counselling, psychotherapy deals with the treatment of mental problems and illnesses. It can help to solve thinking, emotional, experiential and behavioral disorders. These include mental disorders such as:
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Personality and trauma disorders
- Eating disorders
- Behavioral disorders in children and adolescents
- Addictions
- compulsions
- psychosomatic disorders, etc. (Professional Association of Psychologists of Liechtenstein 2020)
Practice Settings
- Consulting is mainly applied in the following areas:
- in personality and structural development
- in educational, life, marriage, partnership and sexual counselling
- in school or vocational promotion/orientation
- in adult education
- in vocational and social rehabilitation (BVPPT 2020)
- With a holistic view of the human being, counselling serves in:
- the prophylaxis
- the maintenance of health
- analysis and change of personal life plans and goals
- crisis management (BVPPT 2020)
Personal, social, professional and socio-political requirements change throughout life. They are increasingly accompanied by stress symptoms that cause illness. On the one hand, counselling has a preventive effect in these cases. On the other hand, counselling offers assistance when people want to bring about processes of change in terms of behavior or attitudes (cf. BVPPT 2020).
Challenges & Trends
Online and telephone counselling are in vogue. At the e-mail address help@helpmail.li, people seeking advice can ask questions that are answered by psychologically trained specialist staff. There is also a general, anonymous telephone counselling service that is available around the clock. This can be reached by dialing 143. Specifically for children, the telephone counselling service is available at 147. Especially in Corona times, the need for telephone or online counselling increases.
Additional Information & References
For a more in-depth examination of the counselling profession in Liechtenstein, interested readers are advised to read the following articles as well as books:
- Berufsverband der Psychologinnen und Psychologen Liechtensteins (2020). Wissenswertes. Abgerufen von https://www.bpl.li/wissenswertes
- Berufsverband der Psychologinnen und Psychologen Liechtensteins (2020). Psychologie als Beruf. Abgerufen von https://www.bpl.li/psychologie-als-beruf
Liechtenstein