The traditional divisions in counseling have been:
- Remedial counseling: helping people to deal with existing problems of life.
- Preventative counseling: help to stop problems from getting worse or prevent them from occurring in the first place.
- Educative counseling: the counselor taking opportunities to teach principles of mental heath to larger groups
Recent studies indicate that the three should be reversed in the order of importance. This would take counseling to the people, rather than waiting for hurting people to come into an office. The focus is moved from individuals with problems to the community.