JONAED

With almost six decades of existence, counselling in Nigeria could still be said to be relatively young in comparison to the western world. This fact notwithstanding, however, counselling practice in Nigeria has remained a viable and visible entity within the Nigerian educational service delivery. To this effect, quite a number of counselling personnel have been trained by various universities in Nigeria and are currently contributing immensely to the Nigerian educational system and the mental wellbeing of the general public at large. Apparently, a greater percentage of the trained counsellors have first degrees or masters and are functioning within the school setting as school counsellors. Quite a number have also been trained at the doctoral level. Added to these facts, counsellors in Nigeria have continued to contribute to the advancement of knowledge and solutions to issues and problems through teaching and research endeavours. As such, the low public awareness of the existence of counselling and its benefits could have improved since the advent of the counselling services nearly six decades ago. Invariably, the increasing public awareness of counselling services in the country does seem to raise an added responsibility for counsellors in Nigeria to begin contemplating the development and entrenchment of counsellor professional identity as a worthwhile venture. Quite evidently, counsellor professional identity has become a leading concern in the counselling profession considering the flurry of research activities that have emerged in recent times (Hierbert, Simpson, Uhlemann, 1992; Gibson, Dollarhide & Moss, 2010; Alves & Gazzola, 2011; Auxier, Hughes, & Kline, 2003; Bruss & Kopala, 1993; Gale & Austin, 2003).