Fortune-tellers as counselors in Bangkok: Exploratory research

Abstract

This research is an exploratory study held among fortunetellers and their customers to understand the methods of work of fortunetellers and the motivations of their customers to gather opinions regarding potential training in counseling, to be held at the second stage of the project. The aim of this training is to provide fortunetellers with counseling skills, so that they could be recognized by the Public Health system as counselors. The data analysis of 32 (16 customers and 16 fortunetellers) in-depth structured interviews shows that the primary reason customers come to see fortunetellers can be identified as a need to receive help similar to what they can get at a counseling session. However, many people associate mental health services at Thai hospitals with mental illness and fortunetellers avoid referring customers to specialists. Fortunetellers confirmed that the services they provide are similar to counseling services, with the difference that they are not using a scientific approach, but experience in their profession. Both groups of respondents supported the idea of training and merging traditional ways with the existing public health system in approaching mental health. We recommend continuing working on this project as it can help reduce the stigma in society toward both counseling services and fortune-telling and improve the mental health and well-being of Thai citizens.

Keywords:

• Mental health
• counseling
• Thai Public Health System
• fortunetellers
• mental health stigma

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This project was supported by a grant from the Thammasat University Research Fund (Contract #2/46/2560).