Genetic counseling

Genetic counseling is the process of advising individuals and families affected by or at risk of genetic disorders to help them understand and adapt to the medical, psychological and familial implications of genetic contributions to disease. The process integrates: Genetic counseling is the process of advising individuals and families affected by or at risk of genetic disorders to help them understand and adapt to the medical, psychological and familial implications of genetic contributions to disease. The process integrates: Sheldon Clark Reed coined the term genetic counseling in 1947 and published the book Counseling in Medical Genetics in 1955. Most of the early genetic counseling clinics were run by non-medical scientists or by those who were not experienced clinicians. With the growth in knowledge of genetic disorders and the appearance of medical genetics as a distinct specialty in the 1960s, genetic counseling progressively became medicalized, representing one of the key components of clinical genetics. It was not, though, until later that the importance of a firm psychological basis was recognized and became an essential part of genetic counseling, the writings of Seymour Kessler making a particular contribution to this. The first master’s degree genetic counseling program in the United States was founded in 1969 at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York. In 1979, the National Society of Genetic Counselors (NSGC) was founded. Genetic counselors work in a wide variety of patient-facing and non patient-facing settings.