Inspiring growth: a counselling framework for industrial psychology practitioners

Industrial psychologists provide short-term counselling in the workplace and should, therefore, be equipped to manage or deal effectively with the challenges that confront employees. However, practitioners report that they are ill equipped to manage both the practical and emotional demands associated with work-place counselling. Most professional industrial psychology training programmes also fail to provide neither adequate training in counselling, nor practical skills, or “tools” to aid distressed employees. The reason may be that there are no clear training framework for the industrial psychologist as counsellor. Therefore, the purpose of this chapter is to develop a counselling framework for the industrial psychologist as workplace counsellor. Illuminated by a metaphor of a growing sycamore fig tree, this chapter delineates a four-phased framework (Rooting, Growing, Branching and Thriving). The aim is to help tertiary educational institutions train industrial psychologists as workplace counsellors.