Chile

Exploring the background and current presence or extent of professional counselling, as it is generally defined in Western regions like the United States or Europe, proved a challenge for the country of Chile. Research revealed only sporadic references to any type of professional activity that could be defined as counselling. Of those located, most references focused on vocational guidance counselling (Alexandrowicz, 2004; McWhirter & McWhirter, 2012; Vera, Jimenez, & Barreto, 2017; Watts & Fretwell, 2004) and even fewer references discussed training programs. 

One program for the study of logotherapy (http://www.icae.cl/) was located; however, this program appears to be targeted primarily to psychiatrists, psychologists, and other unnamed “professionals,” which may or may not refer to counsellors. Additionally, an institute for the study of sexology offers training courses and a master’s degree in clinical sexology, but also seems to target its training to psychologists, individuals in the medical profession (e.g., doctors, nurses, physiotherapists), and “non-health professionals,” such as eductors and people employed in the media, as well as offering some custom training to business professionals, such as those in pharmaceuticals or communication, whose works connects to sexual health (http://insexibe.com/curso-counselling-santiago-de-chile/). With these latter two programs, it is very unclear if anyone identifying as a counsellor may be training or working in these  areas related to clinical counselling. 

Concerning vocational guidance counselling, the earliest mention of career counselling (then called vocational guidance) as a professional activity in Chile comes from Carey (1947), but the full scope of career counselling activities or of the training and professional identity of those individuals who offer it today is unclear. Vera et al., (2017), state that Chile was one of the first Latin American countries to implement vocational guidance counselling in their public school programs, via the Chilean General Education Act no.20.370; however, this act was instituted in 2009 (Castillo & Lobos, 2017), and although career counselling may have existed in some form in the distant past, it was only formalized in the Chilean educational system within the past decade.  

Despite research discussing the existence of career counselling in Chile, no definitive information was located concerning how many individuals provide career counselling, the types of interventions offered (aside from mentions of education and guidance), nor was any information located on the training of these career counsellors or any other aspects of professionalization of the field. Furthermore, it may not be accurate to reference these individuals as counsellors per se, as most of them appear to be middle and high school teachers tasked with covering vocational guidance subjects in classroom instruction, rather than specialist practitioners in career counselling (Alexandrowicz, 2004; McWhirter & McWhirter, 2012). One formalized government program, known as ChileCalifica, was mentioned as being implemented in grades 11 and 12 in Chilean public schools, which also had the goal of forming networks of “school counsellors” to undertake collaborative career guidance endeavors (Watts & Fretwell, 2004, p. 29). This program was initiated with over 240 individuals in 91 networks by 2003 and by 2005, 318 networks were projected to serve the entire country of Chile, but the current extent of this program could not be ascertained (Watts & Fretwell, 2004).