UCC Lecturer Honoured by Institute of Guidance Counsellors
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UCC Lecturer Honoured by Institute of Guidance Counsellors
28.04.2010

Dr Ronny Swain (Senior Lecturer, School of Applied Psychology) has been conferred with the grade of Fellowship by The Institute of Guidance Counsellors. The award by the Institute, which is the principal body for guidance professionals in Ireland, is in recognition of significant contribution to the advancement of guidance and counselling.

Ronny's position as an academic has given him an outsider perspective from which he has been able to contribute usefully to Institute business – for example, he has been influential in redrafting the Institute’s Constitution and Code of Ethics. His ability to correct errors in the text of motions and documents is legendary.

He took over the UCC guidance training programme, recently upgraded to MA status, in 1992. The programme was founded in 1982 by Professor Eleanor O’Leary and is the longest running course of its kind in the state. Under his direction eighteen cohorts of students have become eligible for Institute membership. Three of the four most recent Presidents of the Institute, including the current incumbent, have been course alumni. The MA in Guidance Counselling is a rigorous programme, demanding high standards of attainment in both theory and practice, but it has been underpinned over the years by Ronny’s person-centred philosophy which places emphasis on respect for the dignity of persons, whether they be students or clients. Successive external examiners have endorsed this philosophy as highly appropriate in the training of guidance practitioners.

Ronny retires from directing the programme in September and passes the torch to his colleague Nicola Barry. He hopes to continue contributing to both guidance training and the Institute.

Picture: Dr Ronny Swain with his Fellowship scroll in the company of the current MA (Guidance Counselling) class.

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