This presentation reports on a study documenting an oral history of counselling psychology in Australia. Counselling psychology emerged as a distinct area of practice in Australia in the 1970s. While existing literature has addressed some of the challenges and contemporary state of the field, there has been limited in-depth, firsthand documentation from those directly involved in its development over the past five decades, particularly individuals engaged in teaching, training, and professional leadership.

The project aimed to capture the experiences and perspectives of senior counselling psychologists with more than twenty-five years of professional experience, including those who have contributed to education and training and those who have held national leadership roles, such as within the Australian Psychological Society's (APS) College of Counselling Psychologists. Sixteen semi-structured interviews were conducted with participants who have played significant roles in the profession's development. Together, these interviews provide a rich and contextualised account of counselling psychology's historical development, key milestones, challenges, and evolving practices.

This presentation outlines the project's rationale, methodology, and key findings. Drawing on the analysis of the 16 interviews, it explores themes relating to the development of the profession, questions of professional identity, and changes in training, practice, and professional leadership over time.

As the first systematic study to focus specifically on individuals with long-term, direct involvement in shaping counselling psychology in Australia, this project provides a unique historical record of the profession's evolution. The presentation considers what these accounts reveal about the future of counselling psychology in Australia, including implications for education and training, professional standards, leadership, and the discipline's ongoing identity within the broader psychology profession.