Following is an interview with Prof. Tim Bond given to MACP vice-president Roderick Agius

What is your background in counselling?I have been actively involved in the development of counselling in the UK from the 1970s, originally in social work, later running a student counselling service and then training counsellors and group workers from the mid-1980s. Currently I combine a university post with work with clients. This combination of activities provides me with opportunities to work closely with the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) and the International Association for Counselling (IAC) I am a former chairperson of BACP and member of the executive council of IAC.What are your most significant contributions to counselling? I am interested in working with clients of all ages but it is my work with younger clients that has proved most satisfying and challenging. I have been actively involved in the development of young people’s counselling services. Young people are the future of any society and frequently the most energetic and creative contributors to society. Inevitably they sometimes need support to overcome the challenges of growing up in contemporary society. My major contributions have been concerned with developing effective systems of support, especially with regard to the use of counselling skills and the ethical standards involved in providing safe services. I have written extensively about both these aspects of counselling and have an international reputation for some of my work on ethics, especially for developing contextually appropriate ethics. I bring this concern about ensuring that counselling standards of practice are contextually appropriate to work with young people, the challenges of developing services in small states and in different cultural contexts.

What makes a counsellor?

An effective counsellor needs a combination of several things. An essential starting point is an interest in other people and a commitment to listening carefully to their experience. A healthy curiosity about the different ways people respond to the challenges that face them is a great asset. Typically people seek counselling because they have lost confidence in their ability to resolve an issue that they are facing or because they are experiencing emotional turmoil and difficulty that they have not been able to resolve through their usual sources of support. Counsellors need to be able to apply their body of professional knowledge and expertise to finding ways of responding in ways that are helpful. The counsellor’s own life experience and self-awareness make important contributions to his or her ability to help clients. As a consequence no two counsellors work in exactly the same way. However all good counsellors share a concern about being effective and safe. An essential part of achieving these two concerns is receiving counselling supervision on a confidential basis from someone who is independent of the counselling relationship and has sufficient expertise to assist counsellors in their work with clients.

Why did you become a counsellor?

I had been greatly helped by counselling in my late teens over struggles with my father and discovering more about the person I was and who I wanted to become. Some years later, I was working as a social worker and realised that some of my clients would be helped by counselling. I sought opportunities to learn the basics of counselling as an apprentice to more experienced practitioners. Like many before and after me, I discovered that I was not as sorted out as I had thought and have continued a journey of learning how to help people in ways that are assisted, rather than hindered, by my own areas of personal vulnerability. I feel I have been particularly fortunate that I have found a role in life which is full of interest and challenges and that can make such positive contributions to the well-being of others. The only times I have wished that I had chosen an area of work which is less personally involving is when I have been in those unavoidable traumas such as bereavement, difficulties in personal relationships and a nearly fatal car accident. However each time, I have been forcefully reminded what it is like to be a client seeking help and I have revisited and expanded my understanding of how to face these types of

challenges in life – hopefully to the benefit of my clients and students.

How is counselling developing elsewhere?

Counselling is developing rapidly worldwide. In some parts of Europe, partly due to constraints of language and culture there are preferences for psychotherapy, for example in Germany. Counselling is particularly vibrant in areas of the world where English is first or second language. Typically, those aspects of counselling that have been developed in the USA or the British Isles are often used selectively and re-shaped to meet the needs of the local situation. There is a strong concern to be practical and useful that runs through counselling. From what I have seen through my international work, it appears that counselling is being developed in the majority of countries worldwide as a way of meeting a wide variety of needs.

How can the standards and ethics of counselling be protected and enhanced?

Protecting the standards and ethics of counselling requires the combination of several strategies. Statutory regulation can be a way of identifying who has reached an adequate standard of practice and controlling entry to the profession in order to create a first line of protection for the safety of the public. It is important to the professional integrity of any service that the boundaries of incompetence and exploitative practice are identified and policed. Usually these are relatively clear cut and straightforward issues. For example, it is wrong in most jurisdictions for a counsellor to exploit a client’s trust for personal sexual gratification or fraudulent financial gain. The process of getting to statutory regulation often starts through a national association developing effective governance and ethics that has widespread professional support and defines the field of activity. We are moving slowly in this direction in the UK with a provisional date for regulation in 2008. However, the achievement of regulation is merely the start of a story. Mere compliance with legal requirements is a very low form of ethical commitment as the law can seldom grapple with all the variables of individual counselling relationships. Government regulation may secure the minimum standards but a profession like counselling requires a commitment to strive for the highest possible ethical standards for clients to feel as secure and safe as possible. This requires a systematic education for all counsellors about potential ethical issues and how to address ethical dilemmas where there may be several possible options that are equally desirable or undesirable. This is where the professional body and the universities continue to have an important role to play. The nature of the ethical challenges change as society evolves to meet new national and international circumstances and professional ethics have to be continually reviewed to keep up with these developments. Counsellors need to be continually striving to be ethically mindful, both individually and collectively.

What is your vision of counselling for Malta in 20 years’ time?

I hope that counselling will have become more established in ways that meet the needs of Malta. I know that the development of counselling is well underway and look forward to learning more about what has happened since my last visit in 1995. I am sure that the experience of developing counselling in a small state like Malta will have a great deal to offer other small states as well as other larger states which sometimes suffer from having a more diffuse sense of identity and a complacency that can come from larger size. For further details regarding the Training Programme contact Mr Roderick Agius on 7970-3011 or email [email protected] Information may also be found on the MACP website, www.geocities.com/macpmalta