Metatherapeutic communication – Pluralistic Practice

Making Learning Personal and Pluralistic: Giving Students What They Need, What They Want, and What Makes Sense

Dr Paul Galbally & Dr Fevronia Christodoulidi, BSc (Hons) Counselling, University of East London In our exciting new article in Teaching in Higher Education, we take a pluralistic perspective to demonstrate how academics at the University of East London—working with a diverse cohort of students in a collaborative, reflexive, and…

Preference Work: Notes from the Other Side

June 28, 2023 Metatherapeutic communication Personal Preferences No Comments

Mick Cooper, Professor of Counselling Psychology, University of Roehampton Yesterday, my lovely osteopath said to me at the start of our session, ‘What would you like to work on?’ It was unexpected and I smiled: funny to be on the other side of preference assessments. My response wasn’t what I…

What do Clients Really Make of Working with Preferences?

January 23, 2023 Co-production Metatherapeutic communication Preferences Research Shared decision making No Comments

Mick Cooper, Professor of Counselling Psychology, University of Roehampton Asking clients about their preferences, and trying to accommodate them, is right at the heart of pluralistic practice. But what is that actually like for clients? Do clients want us to ask them about their preferences? Do they find it helpful?…

How My Therapist Dumped Me on My Birthday for Voicing Preferences

December 7, 2022 Metatherapeutic communication Personal Preferences Shared decision making 7 Comments

Simon Yeates, IICP, Dublin, MSc Pluralism, Year 1 In January 2022 I turned 31. During this time, I was struggling. Becoming a new father seven months previously coupled with sleep deprivation and coronavirus restrictions had taken a toll and I had made the decision for both me and my family…

Collaboration, Metacommunication, and Pluralistic Therapy

May 28, 2022 Critiques Integrative and Eclectic Practices Measures Metatherapeutic communication Policy Preferences Shared decision making 4 Comments

Jay Beichman, Counsellor/Psychotherapist in Private Practice The following thoughts about collaboration, metacommunication, and pluralistic therapy are drawn from my thesis How Counsellors and Psychotherapists Make Sense of Pluralistic Approaches to Therapy (2018). I write this in anticipation of this year’s Pluralistic Therapy Conference. In my view, pluralism is better thought…

‘Scaffolding’ and ‘De-Specifying’: Deepening an Understanding of Clients’ Preferences through Conversational Analysis

April 7, 2022 Co-production Metatherapeutic communication Practice Preferences Shared decision making Training No Comments

Sarah Cantwell, @cantwels1 For better or worse, I’ve always had a drive towards trying to comprehend the fundamental structure of things. Unsurprisingly then, I majored in philosophy for my undergraduate degree, and I took my curiosity about underlying causes with me, through my studies in psychology and into my counselling…

The Metatherapeutic Current in Pluralism

March 31, 2022 Arts therapies Co-production Critiques Integrative and Eclectic Practices Metatherapeutic communication Person-centred Preferences Therapeutic approaches Training 5 Comments

Nicola Blunden, BSc Person-Centred Pluralistic Counselling, Metanoia Institute, London Terry Eagleton, one of my favourite philosophers, has written that, ‘For much of the time, our intellectual and other activities bowl along fairly serenely, and in this situation no great expenditure of theoretical energy is usually necessary. But there may come…