Al-Darmaki and Yaaqeib (2015) explain that the education of psychology in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) started in the 1970’s through the first bachelor’s degree offered at United Arab Emirates University. Although the education is offered for the counselling profession, there continues to be a lack of effort in promoting quality counselling services, which has caused a lot of ambiguity among the profession (Al-Darmaki, & Yaaqeib, 2015).
In 2003, the Emirates Psychological Association (EPA) was established (Al-Darmaki, & Yaaqeib, 2015). The Ministry of Social Affairs was the catalyst for the only psychological association offered in UAE (Al-Darmaki, & Yaaqeib, 2015). Although the EPA attempts to promote awareness of mental health issues, there is still a problem with the current education offered in universities in UAE because the students are not getting the proper education to correctly conduct the counselling services that are needed (Al-Darmaki, & Yaaqeib, 2015). Al-Darmaki and Yaaqeib (2015) explain how more universities are continuing to add psychology courses, but there are still limited opportunities for the students and it makes it difficult for the students to find relataed jobs after graduation in the counselling field.