Ship's Counsellor or Chief Counsellor?

[Bry_Sinclair]

Troi was seen to be the only Counsellor onboard the E-D, but is it just me or does 1000-odd people seem a lot for just one person to handle?

In the episode when she lost her empathic abilities, Riker told her there were others onboard with a degree in psychology, but didn't refer to them as counsellors.

Wouldn't she need to have a small staff to divide up the crew between, over all shifts (especially as she seems to spend more time on the Bridge than her office )?

[MacLeod]

But would she really deal with 1000 or so people?

90% of them might have no issues with which they need to speak to a counsellor about.

[Bry_Sinclair]

True. Not everyone would need to speak with a shrink, especially during TNG timeframe (nothing all that traumatic happened).

[EmperorTiberius]

She's a bit more than a psychological counsellor. She also has a role of an advisor and is responsible for the morale of the crew, we see her doing performance evaluations with Riker, she's able to interfere with command decisions etc. A bit of a "political officer" like some fans theorize is right in my opinion

[Bry_Sinclair]

The role of Counsellor really could be pretty vast, depending on how you look at it. Not only is their diagnosis and treatment of emotional/psychological trauma, but understanding the mentality of others, studying the individual psychology and collective sociology of new species, which would lend itself to cultural anthropology, diplomacy and politics, which gives her many good reasons to be on the Bridge. Then there is also their role as a morale officer and we saw Troi working with the civilians from time to time as a bridge between them and Picard.

With all that going on, wouldn't it make sense for her to supervise two or three other counsellor's for when she was busy with other duties, so that they can tend to patients in her absence?

[Relayer1]

Americans are more likely to see value in counselling or therapy. In the UK (and probably much of the rest of the world) it is viewed with suspicion or as quackery.

I'd say one was sufficient...

[EmperorTiberius]

Relayer1 wrote:

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Americans are more likely to see value in counselling or therapy. In the UK (and probably much of the rest of the world) it is viewed with suspicion or as quackery.

I'd say one was sufficient...

In some places, people who go to a counsellor are viewed with suspicion

I can see there being couple of other pshychologists under her. Isn't Troi considered a "department head"?

[Sonja]

Ezri Tigan (Dax) was an Assistant Counselor aboard the USS Destiny.

I think it's pretty safe to assume that there's a Chief to the Assistant.

[T'Girl]

EmperorTiberius wrote:

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In some places, people who go to a counsellor are viewed with suspicion

You voluntarily go to a medical doctor because there's something wrong with you.

You voluntarily go to a councilor because ... well because something is wrong with you.

Isn't Troi considered a "department head"?

Given how much time she spends with the Captain and going on away team missions, wouldn't it make sense for Troi not to be the department head?

[Timo]

...Or for Riker, or LaForge, or Worf?

Timo Saloniemi

[Nerys Myk]

Yeah, being a Department head seems to mean that you have to go on away missions with the Captain.

[EmperorTiberius]

T'Girl wrote:

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You voluntarily go to a medical doctor because there's something wrong with you.

You voluntarily go to a councilor because ... well because something is wrong with you.

Yeah, but in some places, people assume the worst -that you're crazy.

[kythe]

We see several of Dr. Crusher's staff over time, but we see no evidence that Counselor Troi oversees any kind of staff.

Also, didn't they establish in TOS (Whom Gods Destroy) that mental illness had basically been cured? I'm not sure I buy that, since there are so many forms of mental illness and I think TOS simplified it too much. But the idea presented was that there was very little mental illness in the universe since the brain was completely understood.

This would leave a psychologist with much less to do, other than handling day to day family issues, as well as the occasional immediate traumatic situation.

I would like to think that the stigma against mental illness and therapists in general would be gone by the 24th century, and hopefully long before.

[TheSeeker]

Well there were supposed to be a lot of civilians on board. Perhaps Troi was the only Starfleet counselor and there were several civilian counselors for the civilian population.

[T'Girl]

Timo wrote:

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...Or for Riker, or LaForge, or Worf?

For Riker to go on "landing parties" does make some sense to me.

Once Worf became security chief, not really. It deprived the bridge of it's primary tactical officer. And (oncoming tirade) why was the "security chief" on the bridge all the time anyway? Kirk's security chief kept his butt off the bridge. Odo didn't normally just hang around in DS9's ops. The only time Worf should have been beaming down is if a large number of security were going down and his command presence was required to direct them, otherwise he needed to be directing shipboard security activities.

Basically the same thing with LaForge, while he was a young bridge officer sure, send him off the ship. But not once he made chief engineer. There would be exceptions, like what he was doing in First Contact.