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The author describes a qualitative analysis of interviews with 12 senior counselors in South Korea. The participants were certified by the Korean Association of Counseling and Psychotherapy as professional counselors (sang‐dam sim‐li chun‐mun‐ga) and are among the first generation of counselors in South Korea. Eight semistructured questions were asked about the work of these counselors. Qualitative analysis identified practice, relationships, and emotional well‐being as 3 domains of professional experience, each consisting of 2 categories. The results provide (a) a view of counseling practices as experienced by senior members of the profession and (b) a starting point for further research on mental health workers in South Korea.

Using data collected as part of a collaborative international study of the development of psychotherapists (D. E. Orlinsky et al., 1999), the authors of this study describe a sample of 538 Korean psychotherapists in various mental health professions and also provide information about the cultural and historical background of psychotherapy in South Korea. The study delineates the professional identifications, training, theoretical orientations, career status, personal therapy, and demographic characteristics of this little-known group of psychotherapists and describes their treatment settings, clients, and typical treatment modalities. The use of Western therapeutic approaches in a non-Western cultural context is discussed with respect to the potential conflicts for practitioners between imported methods that embody individualistic values and the traditionally collectivist orientations of their societies.The fact that modern forms of psychotherapy are practiced in South Korea by a large and growing number of professionally trained psychotherapists is not widely known by therapists in the United States and other countries. The present study aims to help dispel this relative lack of information by providing a detailed description of the characteristics and practices of therapists in South Korea. Some facts about the traditional culture and current conditions of Korean society are also described to provide a context for understanding the situation of psychotherapists in Korea. Consideration of the problems that may arise for practitioners when typically individualistic Western therapies are imported and practiced in non-Western settings should also have relevance for understanding parallel situations in other non-Western countries (e.g.,

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In this chapter, we introduce readers to the varied groups of psychotherapists who participated in our study. In doing this, we have two aims in mind. The first is to provide a context for understanding variations in responses to the questions posed in the Development of Psychotherapists Common Core Questionnaire. Psychotherapists share certain basic characteristics, but they also differ in many ways from one another. A detailed description of our therapists' varied characteristics will help readers 27