Like any other human activity, counseling is inevitably influenced by the socio-cultural context and such influence is substantial. Throughout the four periods that counseling has undergone in China — the beginning period (1949-1965), the recession period (1966-1977), the revival period (1978-1986), and the rising period (1987 to present) — the socio-cultural influence on counseling primarily from the traditional philosophies such as Confucianism and Taoism, and the current socio-cultural context, has never ceased. It is this unique influence that has made Chinese counseling characteristic of a mixture of counseling and psychotherapy, a combination of ideological and political education, and the preference of directive counseling. Meanwhile, another feature of Chinese counseling, emerging at the beginning period, is the localized study of counseling, which mainly focuses on the areas: developing counseling theory of Chinese characteristics based upon the Chinese socio-cultural context, and applying Chinese traditional thoughts into counseling practice.