Helping professional ethics, traditionally functioning within the framework of individualism, needs to be reconsidered in terms of community psychology. Its basic concepts such as decision making, moral agent and profession, usually defined in rationalist outlook, must integrate irrational factors mostly associated with community life. Both professional ethics and community psychology are expected to be theoretically elaborated by communitarianism, and now invited to meet challenges of increasingly dominant intellectual trends in the world today: social contract theory and neoliberalism. Finally, community psychology may adequately contribute to the coping with problems, especially on the management of boundaries, facing professionals practicing in small communities.

The purpose of this study was to examine the scale of the system for the use of school psychologists as well as their relation to age, positions, and affiliations. We carried out semi-structured interviews with school executives and chiefs, making questionnaires with items that we considered to be related to the effective use of school psychologists. Then we performed the survey with the school executives and middle leaders as the focus group and examined the school psychologist system by creating “scale for the usage of school psychologists” and “scale of difficulty in acting/dealing with student problems.”

The research enabled us to identify the following three factors:(1) cooperation with school psychologists, (2) evaluation of school psychologists, (3) usage system of school psychologists. As a result of the survey there was a correlation only between “scale of difficulty in acting/dealing with student problems” and “usage system of school psychologists.” Compared to staff that did not feel the high level of difficulty in dealing with students, the number of staff that felt the school psychologist system is not maintained were suggested to be high.

With regard to (1), (2), and (3) the score of junior high schools was higher than primary (elementary) schools, high schools, and special schools. It can be inferred that the school psychologists are being meaningfully used in the junior high schools. Furthermore, comparisons among positions showed that school principals tended to evaluate the system of the use of school psychologists more highly than the other middle leaders.

Adlerian Consultation (AC) is a consulting method based on Individual Psychology of Alfred Adler. AC has rarely been acknowledged by Japanese mental health professionals although it is considered to be one of the important consultation approaches in Western countries. In this article, the author aims to describe the theory and practice of AC. Individual Psychology operates on following basic assumptions: goal-directedness (teleology), style of life, holism, phenomenology, understanding a person in social context, creativity, and psychology of use. Adlerian clinical practice has following characteristics: enhancement of social interest, emphasis on psychoeducational process, active role of the counselor, social equality, encouragement, differentiation between counseling and psychotherapy, and eclectic approach. There are five phases in the process of AC: 1. structuring of consultation and building a collaborative relationship with the consultee, 2. assessment of problems, 3. goal disclosure and facilitating insights of both consultee and client, 4. intervention, 5.evaluation. Techniques used in each phase of AC are examined. A case example with a teacher (the consultee) utilizing counseling services for a student (client) illustrates how the consultant helped the consultee encourage his student to cope constructively with his academic task. Finally, the application of AC to Japanese clinical settings as well as the integration of Individual Psychology into community approach are discussed.