Developing Pluralistic Practice in Counselling and Psychotherapy: Using What the Client Knows

Abstract

The concept of pluralism is increasingly used to indicate the rich diversity of theory and practice in the field of counselling and psychotherapy. A version of pluralism is described that takes account of the range of ideas about health and healing that exist within contemporary culture, and the expression of these positions in the personal knowledge and preferences held by clients in respect of different therapy formats and techniques. A review of recent research is used to provide a basis for discussion of some of the practical manifestations of client knowledge, and the ways in which practitioners can work with these factors.Keywords: client experience, knowledge, pluralism, preferences, researchThe European Journal of Counselling Psychology, 2013, Vol. 2(1), 51-64, doi:10.5964/ejcop.v2i1.5 Received: 2011-04-20. Accepted: 2012-04-11. Published: 2013 *Corresponding author at: Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo 0317, Norway. E-mail: j.mcleod@abertay.ac.uk This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.One of the most striking aspects of current theory and practice in counselling, counselling psychology and psychotherapy, is the wide range of ideas in circulation around the nature of psychological problems, and the change processes through which these problems might be addressed. Within the therapy literature, there are quite different ideas and practices associated with mainstream therapy approaches such as cognitive-behavioural therapy, psychodynamic therapy, experiential/humanistic therapy, narrative therapy, and systemic/family therapy. In addition, there is also a diversity of ideas about healing and well-being that arise from different cultural worldviews. The existence of this spectrum of therapeutic possibilities has presented a major challenge for the professional community. One response to this challenge has been to seek to use research to identify a single model of change that is most effective. Another response has been to identify "common factors", such as instillation of hope, or involvement in a therapeutic relationship, that represent underlying change mechanisms that operate even in therapy approaches that on the surface might appear to be radically different from each other. A third response has been to find ways to integrate different ideas and practices within one over-arching approach. At a philosophical or conceptual level, each of these responses to the diversity ideas about what is therapeutic represents a monistic strategy, which assumes that there is one right answer that can be found -a single truth. An alternative to monism, which is receiving increased attention within the counselling and psychotherapy community, is to adopt a pluralistic stance in relation to knowledge and practice. The concept of pluralism was first suggested as a b...

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