Abstract
Need of school counseling has grown rapidly in various countries. This article ascertains principal dilemmas in School Counseling in Pakistan that were identified through panel discussions, focus groups, and dialogues held with academic psychologists (n=6; teaching school counseling with basic training), undergraduate students (n=2; intends to choose school counseling as majors), graduate students (n=4; major school counseling), and practicing professional school psychologist (n=3). The findings highlight the Internal Dilemma, including ideational process, personal improvement, completion purpose of professional school counseling, training requisite, pedagogical apprehensions, pragmatic action research, school counseling services to rural and urban areas, and dissemination of awareness about school counseling to society; External Dilemma, including course contents’ upgrading, creative pedagogy, specialized training in school counseling, obscure research methods (laboratory experiments, neuropsychological research), the feasibility of research in a developing country, and cross-cultural framework in the theory-practice discrepancy, and System Dilemma referring to the school counseling specialization and training programs in Pakistan. The preliminary analysis indicated the discrepancy in school counseling in terms of specialization, needs, and availability of school counseling psychologists. Currently, there is a serious need of specialization in school counseling in Pakistan. Few propositions towards addressing the issues are discussed.