Counselling Theory And Practice: Constructionist Approaches
PSY2016 & PSY3019
A Brief Preamble
PSY2016/3019
Counselling Theory & Practice
Counselling & Psychological Therapies
Constructionist Approaches
PSY2016 & PSY3019
Realism vs Constructionism
• For realists the human mind & behaviour are part of the natural world. For constructionists human activity and experience is constructed by the individual & their context (culture).
• Realist approaches are concerned with the causes of behaviour and experience, constructionist approaches with the meaning of behaviour and experience.
Most (if not all) approaches to counselling and psychotherapy start with some basic assumptions about the nature of human behaviour & experience.
A broad distinction can be made between …show more content…
Realist & Constructionist Approaches to
Counselling & Psychotherapy.
PSY2016 & PSY3019
Constructionist Approaches to Counselling/Therapy
Include:
• Systemic Therapies
• Solution Focused Therapy
• Narrative Therapy
Constructionism has also been incorporated into some humanistic, psychodynamic & cognitive behavioural approaches
PSY2016 & PSY3019
Constructionist Approaches
• Assume that realities are socially constructed.
There is no absolute reality.
• People are healthy, competent, resourceful, and have the ability to construct solutions and alternative stories to enhance their lives.
• Helps clients to recognise their competencies and build on their potential, strengths, and resources. PSY2016 & PSY3019
Solution-Focused Brief Therapy
• People can create their own solutions
PSY2016 & PSY3019
Solution-Focused Brief Therapy
• Therapy grounded on a positive orientation: people are healthy and competent
• Downplay “past”, while highlighting “present and future”
• View people as healthy, competent, and resourceful, with the ability to construct solutions to enhance their lives
• Counselling is concerned with looking for what is working
• Counsellors assist clients in finding exceptions to their problems • The counselling process focuses on creating solutions rather than talking about the problems
PSY2016 & PSY3019
SFBT Goals
• Clients want change (because they have sought help)
• Clients have the ability to define their goals and the resources required to solve their …show more content…
problems
• Current solutions ARE the problem
• Focus on small, realistic, and achievable changes
• Exceptions = Differences that make a difference.
• Small changes lead to large changes
• The client is the expert on his or her own life
• The best therapy involves a collaborative partnership
– Small change leads to big change
• Remain goal-directed and future-oriented
– E.g., what has changed since last session?
• Talk about solutions instead of talking about problems PSY2016 & PSY3019
Counsellor Role
• No knowing position: clients as experts about their own lives.
• Create a collaborative relationships
• Create a climate of mutual respect in which clients are free to create and explore solutions
• Help clients to explore what they would like things to be different, how to make a difference, and what signs to indicate the changes are happening. PSY2016 & PSY3019
SFBT Questions
• The Miracle Question (& Alternatives)
• Coping
• Scaling Questions
• Exceptions
PSY2016 & PSY3019
Therapeutic Relationship
• The therapeutic relationship is an important factor for change to occur.
• Solution-focused brief therapy is designed to be brief, so the counsellor must shift the focus as soon as possible from talking about problems to exploring solutions
• Help clients to use their strengths and resources to construct solutions.
PSY2016 & PSY3019
“What would be different if all your problems were solved?” PSY2016 & PSY3019
PSY2016 & PSY3019
The Miracle Question
“Suppose
that one night, while you are asleep, there is a miracle and the problem that brought you here is solved. However, because you are asleep you don't know that the miracle has already happened. When you wake up in the morning, what will be different that will tell you that the miracle has taken place?”
PSY2016 & PSY3019
The Crystal Ball
• Asks the client to look into the future and see themselves as they wanted to be, problems solved, and then to explain what had happened to cause this change to come about.
The Miracle Question
What difference would you (& others) notice?
What are the first things you notice?
Has any of this ever happened before?
Would it help to recreate any of these miracles? ! What would need to happen to do this?
!
!
!
!
PSY2016 & PSY3019
The Videotape Question
• “Let’s say that a few weeks or months of time had elapsed, and your problem had been resolved. If you and I were to watch a videotape of your life in the future, what would you be doing on the tape that would show that things were better?”
PSY2016 & PSY3019
PSY2016 & PSY3019
Coping Questions – Current problem
How do you cope with these difficulties?
What keeps you going?
How do you manage day-to-day?
Who is your greatest support? What do they do that is helpful?
• This problem feels so difficult at the moment, yet you still managed to get here today. What got you here?
• Sometimes problems tend to get worse, what do you do that stops it getting worse?
•
•
•
•
PSY2016 & PSY3019
Coping Questions – Past problem
How did you get through that period?
Who was your greatest support?
How did they help?
How did you manage to solve that problem in the past? • Other people might have had more difficulty, but you managed to survive and get here today. How did you manage to achieve that?
•
•
•
•
PSY2016 & PSY3019
Scaling
Scaling Questions
• Scale of 1 – 10
– 1 is the worst it’s ever been
– 10 is after the miracle has happened
•
•
•
•
Where are you now?
Where do you need to be?
What will help you move up one point?
How can you keep yourself at that point?
• On a scale of 1 to 10, where 10 is where you achieve your goal completely and 1 is the furthest away you have ever been, where would you place yourself now?
• On a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 is the worst things have been and 10 is best, where would you place yourself today?
PSY2016 & PSY3019
PSY2016 & PSY3019
Scaling Questions
Exception Questions
• What makes you think you got that far?
• What things have you done already that got you to this point?
• What do you think will move you one step further on? • What would be the first sign that you had moved one point further on?
• Who would be the first person to notice that you had moved one point on? What would they notice about you?
PSY2016 & PSY3019
• Tell me about the times when (the complaint) does not occur, or occurs less than at other times.
• Tell me about the days when you wake up more full of life.
• When are the times when you have come closest to….? • When did you last wake up feeling quite good?
• When have you been able to stop yourself doing….? PSY2016 & PSY3019
Exception Questions
Skeleton Keys
• Amplifying the exception
– How do you explain to yourself why these times are different? – How do you achieve that?
– What do you do differently then?
– Who else is involved that notices the difference? What do they say or do? What else?
– What would you have to do or see for this to happen more often? What else?
• Between now and next time…observe what works • Do something different
• Pay attention to when…(an exception happens) • Write, read, and burn thoughts
PSY2016 & PSY3019
Narrative Therapy
Narrative Therapy is concerned with how individuals construct meaning or ‘stories’ in a social context; and of how action is meaningless outside of a social context. It is a more a social as opposed to psychological approach to personal and group change.
PSY2016 & PSY3019
Telling Stories
For narrative therapists, stories consist of:
• Events
• Linked in sequence
• Across time
• According to a plot
It is a way to work with people who wish to change in ways that place them and their experience at the centre rather than as the objects of expert judgement.
PSY2016 & PSY3019
How do psychological problems arise?
• When dominant narratives are preventing people from living out their preferred narrative; PSY2016 & PSY3019
Goals of Narrative Therapy
• To engage clients in making sense of their narrative; • Externalising the client’s problem;
• Mapping the client’s problem;
• Participating in their current stories are unsatisfying and dead-ended.
• Re-authoring the Story;
• Providing a context for the new story.
PSY2016 & PSY3019
PSY2016 & PSY3019
Counsellor’s Role
Why Externalise?
• Fellow traveler
• Radical listening
• Side-by-side
• Separates person from problem
• Disempowers the problem
• Decreases guilt and blame
– Respectful curiosity
– Client is expert
• Opens pathways for action
• Assist clients in new meanings & possibilities
• Promotes cooperative effort
• Objectifies or personifies the problem
PSY2016 & PSY3019
PSY2016 & PSY3019
How to Externalise?
How to Externalise?
• Give the problem a persona
A client might say:
• Translate verbs to nouns
–
The counsellor might respond:
• Use the client’s own words
–
• List the problems externalised
• Describe how the persona dictates the client’s actions and feelings
“I am a very anxious person”
•
“I see you as a person troubled by anxiety. Somehow, anxiety gets the better of you.”
Externalising requires a particular shift in the use of language. Rather than sentences that begin with ‘I am’, externalising statements begin with the name of the problem.
PSY3019 Counselling Theory & Practice
• Change the following Internalised statements into
Externalising ones. You can: make a statement, ask a question, or use a reflection.
Internalised+statement+
Externalised+Statement++
I’m$a$worrier$$
He’s$unmo5vated$
What$does$the$Worry$say?$$
How$does$it$(the$problem)$
affect$his$mo5va5ons?$
Mapping the Problem
• Understand the power of the dominant story (DS)
• Understand the meaning of the DS
• Understand the impact of the DS
They’re$dysfunc5onal$$
She’s$a$failure$$
• Expose what supports the DS
I$can’t$go$out$at$all$$
• Explore the experience of the DS
PSY3019 Counselling Theory & Practice
PSY3019 Counselling Theory & Practice
Mapping the DS
• Continue to externalise
Reauthoring
•
• Use the investigative journalist approach
• Search for ways in which the problem has affected the person: home, work, relationships etc.
Finds the contradictions in the Dominant
Story.
•
Finds the exceptions to the Dominant
Story - and the problem - or ‘sparkling moments’ PSY3019 Counselling Theory & Practice
PSY3019 Counselling Theory & Practice
Reauthoring - The Exception
Reauthoring - The Exception
• Landscape of action - What did you do that was different that time?
• Landscape of action - What did you do that was different that time?
• Landscape of consciousness - What do those experiences tell you about yourself?
• Use supportive others to discover the true person - Encourage others to join in the process of supporting the alternative story • Landscape of consciousness - What do those experiences tell you about yourself?
• Use supportive others to discover the true person - Encourage others to join in the process of supporting the alternative story PSY3019 Counselling Theory & Practice
Goals of Narrative Therapy
• To engage clients in making sense of their narrative; • Externalising the client’s problem;
• Mapping the client’s problem;
• Re-authoring the Story;
• Providing a context for the new story.
PSY3019 Counselling Theory & Practice
Strengths & Contributions
• A collaborative approach to counselling therapy.
Counsellor is neither expert on the solution or origin of problems.
• An emphasis on the strengths
and accomplishments of the client rather than deficits or pathology. (Is this also a weakness?)
• Has brought a range of techniques (including externalising and looking for exceptions) that have been incorporated into eclectic, pluralistic & integrative practice.
PSY3019 Counselling Theory & Practice
Weaknesses of NT
• Lack of clinical/empirical studies to validate its many claims.
• Narrative therapists may privilege their client's concerns/stories over "dominating" cultural narratives. • Little recognition that the individual Narrative therapist may bring personal opinions and biases into the counselling session.
PSY3019 Counselling Theory & Practice
Summary
• NT understands psychological problems as a mismatch between prevailing cultural
‘stories’ and a client’s perspective or wishes. • NT seeks to help clients change the stories that they live by in order to overcome their difficulties and/or distress.
A Brief Preamble
PSY2016/3019
Counselling Theory & Practice
Counselling & Psychological Therapies
Constructionist Approaches
PSY2016 & PSY3019
Realism vs Constructionism
• For realists the human mind & behaviour are part of the natural world. For constructionists human activity and experience is constructed by the individual & their context (culture).
• Realist approaches are concerned with the causes of behaviour and experience, constructionist approaches with the meaning of behaviour and experience.
Most (if not all) approaches to counselling and psychotherapy start with some basic assumptions about the nature of human behaviour & experience.
A broad distinction can be made between …show more content…
Realist & Constructionist Approaches to
Counselling & Psychotherapy.
PSY2016 & PSY3019
Constructionist Approaches to Counselling/Therapy
Include:
• Systemic Therapies
• Solution Focused Therapy
• Narrative Therapy
Constructionism has also been incorporated into some humanistic, psychodynamic & cognitive behavioural approaches
PSY2016 & PSY3019
Constructionist Approaches
• Assume that realities are socially constructed.
There is no absolute reality.
• People are healthy, competent, resourceful, and have the ability to construct solutions and alternative stories to enhance their lives.
• Helps clients to recognise their competencies and build on their potential, strengths, and resources. PSY2016 & PSY3019
Solution-Focused Brief Therapy
• People can create their own solutions
PSY2016 & PSY3019
Solution-Focused Brief Therapy
• Therapy grounded on a positive orientation: people are healthy and competent
• Downplay “past”, while highlighting “present and future”
• View people as healthy, competent, and resourceful, with the ability to construct solutions to enhance their lives
• Counselling is concerned with looking for what is working
• Counsellors assist clients in finding exceptions to their problems • The counselling process focuses on creating solutions rather than talking about the problems
PSY2016 & PSY3019
SFBT Goals
• Clients want change (because they have sought help)
• Clients have the ability to define their goals and the resources required to solve their …show more content…
problems
• Current solutions ARE the problem
• Focus on small, realistic, and achievable changes
• Exceptions = Differences that make a difference.
• Small changes lead to large changes
• The client is the expert on his or her own life
• The best therapy involves a collaborative partnership
– Small change leads to big change
• Remain goal-directed and future-oriented
– E.g., what has changed since last session?
• Talk about solutions instead of talking about problems PSY2016 & PSY3019
Counsellor Role
• No knowing position: clients as experts about their own lives.
• Create a collaborative relationships
• Create a climate of mutual respect in which clients are free to create and explore solutions
• Help clients to explore what they would like things to be different, how to make a difference, and what signs to indicate the changes are happening. PSY2016 & PSY3019
SFBT Questions
• The Miracle Question (& Alternatives)
• Coping
• Scaling Questions
• Exceptions
PSY2016 & PSY3019
Therapeutic Relationship
• The therapeutic relationship is an important factor for change to occur.
• Solution-focused brief therapy is designed to be brief, so the counsellor must shift the focus as soon as possible from talking about problems to exploring solutions
• Help clients to use their strengths and resources to construct solutions.
PSY2016 & PSY3019
“What would be different if all your problems were solved?” PSY2016 & PSY3019
PSY2016 & PSY3019
The Miracle Question
“Suppose
that one night, while you are asleep, there is a miracle and the problem that brought you here is solved. However, because you are asleep you don't know that the miracle has already happened. When you wake up in the morning, what will be different that will tell you that the miracle has taken place?”
PSY2016 & PSY3019
The Crystal Ball
• Asks the client to look into the future and see themselves as they wanted to be, problems solved, and then to explain what had happened to cause this change to come about.
The Miracle Question
What difference would you (& others) notice?
What are the first things you notice?
Has any of this ever happened before?
Would it help to recreate any of these miracles? ! What would need to happen to do this?
!
!
!
!
PSY2016 & PSY3019
The Videotape Question
• “Let’s say that a few weeks or months of time had elapsed, and your problem had been resolved. If you and I were to watch a videotape of your life in the future, what would you be doing on the tape that would show that things were better?”
PSY2016 & PSY3019
PSY2016 & PSY3019
Coping Questions – Current problem
How do you cope with these difficulties?
What keeps you going?
How do you manage day-to-day?
Who is your greatest support? What do they do that is helpful?
• This problem feels so difficult at the moment, yet you still managed to get here today. What got you here?
• Sometimes problems tend to get worse, what do you do that stops it getting worse?
•
•
•
•
PSY2016 & PSY3019
Coping Questions – Past problem
How did you get through that period?
Who was your greatest support?
How did they help?
How did you manage to solve that problem in the past? • Other people might have had more difficulty, but you managed to survive and get here today. How did you manage to achieve that?
•
•
•
•
PSY2016 & PSY3019
Scaling
Scaling Questions
• Scale of 1 – 10
– 1 is the worst it’s ever been
– 10 is after the miracle has happened
•
•
•
•
Where are you now?
Where do you need to be?
What will help you move up one point?
How can you keep yourself at that point?
• On a scale of 1 to 10, where 10 is where you achieve your goal completely and 1 is the furthest away you have ever been, where would you place yourself now?
• On a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 is the worst things have been and 10 is best, where would you place yourself today?
PSY2016 & PSY3019
PSY2016 & PSY3019
Scaling Questions
Exception Questions
• What makes you think you got that far?
• What things have you done already that got you to this point?
• What do you think will move you one step further on? • What would be the first sign that you had moved one point further on?
• Who would be the first person to notice that you had moved one point on? What would they notice about you?
PSY2016 & PSY3019
• Tell me about the times when (the complaint) does not occur, or occurs less than at other times.
• Tell me about the days when you wake up more full of life.
• When are the times when you have come closest to….? • When did you last wake up feeling quite good?
• When have you been able to stop yourself doing….? PSY2016 & PSY3019
Exception Questions
Skeleton Keys
• Amplifying the exception
– How do you explain to yourself why these times are different? – How do you achieve that?
– What do you do differently then?
– Who else is involved that notices the difference? What do they say or do? What else?
– What would you have to do or see for this to happen more often? What else?
• Between now and next time…observe what works • Do something different
• Pay attention to when…(an exception happens) • Write, read, and burn thoughts
PSY2016 & PSY3019
Narrative Therapy
Narrative Therapy is concerned with how individuals construct meaning or ‘stories’ in a social context; and of how action is meaningless outside of a social context. It is a more a social as opposed to psychological approach to personal and group change.
PSY2016 & PSY3019
Telling Stories
For narrative therapists, stories consist of:
• Events
• Linked in sequence
• Across time
• According to a plot
It is a way to work with people who wish to change in ways that place them and their experience at the centre rather than as the objects of expert judgement.
PSY2016 & PSY3019
How do psychological problems arise?
• When dominant narratives are preventing people from living out their preferred narrative; PSY2016 & PSY3019
Goals of Narrative Therapy
• To engage clients in making sense of their narrative; • Externalising the client’s problem;
• Mapping the client’s problem;
• Participating in their current stories are unsatisfying and dead-ended.
• Re-authoring the Story;
• Providing a context for the new story.
PSY2016 & PSY3019
PSY2016 & PSY3019
Counsellor’s Role
Why Externalise?
• Fellow traveler
• Radical listening
• Side-by-side
• Separates person from problem
• Disempowers the problem
• Decreases guilt and blame
– Respectful curiosity
– Client is expert
• Opens pathways for action
• Assist clients in new meanings & possibilities
• Promotes cooperative effort
• Objectifies or personifies the problem
PSY2016 & PSY3019
PSY2016 & PSY3019
How to Externalise?
How to Externalise?
• Give the problem a persona
A client might say:
• Translate verbs to nouns
–
The counsellor might respond:
• Use the client’s own words
–
• List the problems externalised
• Describe how the persona dictates the client’s actions and feelings
“I am a very anxious person”
•
“I see you as a person troubled by anxiety. Somehow, anxiety gets the better of you.”
Externalising requires a particular shift in the use of language. Rather than sentences that begin with ‘I am’, externalising statements begin with the name of the problem.
PSY3019 Counselling Theory & Practice
• Change the following Internalised statements into
Externalising ones. You can: make a statement, ask a question, or use a reflection.
Internalised+statement+
Externalised+Statement++
I’m$a$worrier$$
He’s$unmo5vated$
What$does$the$Worry$say?$$
How$does$it$(the$problem)$
affect$his$mo5va5ons?$
Mapping the Problem
• Understand the power of the dominant story (DS)
• Understand the meaning of the DS
• Understand the impact of the DS
They’re$dysfunc5onal$$
She’s$a$failure$$
• Expose what supports the DS
I$can’t$go$out$at$all$$
• Explore the experience of the DS
PSY3019 Counselling Theory & Practice
PSY3019 Counselling Theory & Practice
Mapping the DS
• Continue to externalise
Reauthoring
•
• Use the investigative journalist approach
• Search for ways in which the problem has affected the person: home, work, relationships etc.
Finds the contradictions in the Dominant
Story.
•
Finds the exceptions to the Dominant
Story - and the problem - or ‘sparkling moments’ PSY3019 Counselling Theory & Practice
PSY3019 Counselling Theory & Practice
Reauthoring - The Exception
Reauthoring - The Exception
• Landscape of action - What did you do that was different that time?
• Landscape of action - What did you do that was different that time?
• Landscape of consciousness - What do those experiences tell you about yourself?
• Use supportive others to discover the true person - Encourage others to join in the process of supporting the alternative story • Landscape of consciousness - What do those experiences tell you about yourself?
• Use supportive others to discover the true person - Encourage others to join in the process of supporting the alternative story PSY3019 Counselling Theory & Practice
Goals of Narrative Therapy
• To engage clients in making sense of their narrative; • Externalising the client’s problem;
• Mapping the client’s problem;
• Re-authoring the Story;
• Providing a context for the new story.
PSY3019 Counselling Theory & Practice
Strengths & Contributions
• A collaborative approach to counselling therapy.
Counsellor is neither expert on the solution or origin of problems.
• An emphasis on the strengths
and accomplishments of the client rather than deficits or pathology. (Is this also a weakness?)
• Has brought a range of techniques (including externalising and looking for exceptions) that have been incorporated into eclectic, pluralistic & integrative practice.
PSY3019 Counselling Theory & Practice
Weaknesses of NT
• Lack of clinical/empirical studies to validate its many claims.
• Narrative therapists may privilege their client's concerns/stories over "dominating" cultural narratives. • Little recognition that the individual Narrative therapist may bring personal opinions and biases into the counselling session.
PSY3019 Counselling Theory & Practice
Summary
• NT understands psychological problems as a mismatch between prevailing cultural
‘stories’ and a client’s perspective or wishes. • NT seeks to help clients change the stories that they live by in order to overcome their difficulties and/or distress.