He studied part-time under Charles Wheeler at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School in Melbourne during 1930–31, where he met the social realists Herbert McClintock and Roy Dalgarno.

He helped found the Workers Art Guild, and began printmaking, producing linocuts and lithographs for Communist magazine covers and pamphlets as well as designing banners.

During the Great Depression Counihan participated in the "free speech" fights in Brunswick, organised by the Communist Party in response to a Victorian state government law banning "subversive" gatherings.

As part of this fight, a young Counihan addressed a crowd from a locked worker lift turned over to create a cage on top a dray/cart not truck.

To mark its tenth anniversary, Edwina Bartlem curated an exhibition in which contemporary artists created works inspired by the art and ideas of Counihan.