Establishing the School Counseling Profession in Bhutan: Reflections from the Field

Counseling is a developing profession in the country of Bhutan. The National Board of Certified Counselors International (NBCC-I) has been collaborating with the leaders and counselors in the country in order to help facilitate this development and provide training to prospective counselors. As a result of this ongoing collaboration, a three-week institute in Bhutan was held in the Fall of 2011. During this institute, 12 counseling professionals traveled to the country to work and provide trainings in various settings, including schools. The authors describe the work in the schools, a personal narrative about the experiences, and the implications for future work in the country. Implications include: Understand clients/students/school systems from their internal frame of reference; Culturally responsive counseling skills and interventions are essential; Some issues are universal across cultures; Be spontaneous and creative when there are limited resources; Consider the impact of globalization when conceptualizing the clients and concerns; and Consider how counseling may need to be adapted to fit with the student’s/school’s cultural frame of reference