Practice – Pluralistic Practice

Going for Accreditation as a Pluralistic Counsellor

March 23, 2023 Accreditation Practice Training 1 Comment

John Hills, Tricia Joyce, Julia McLeod, Nicola Blunden, James Schindler-Ord, and Gary Tebble. With thanks to: Kevin Kirwan (BACP) and Jenny McLintock (COSCA) If you are a pluralistic therapist preparing to apply for accreditation, you may be wondering about professional body attitudes towards pluralism, as an emerging approach within counselling…

Conference Tickets and Call for Papers

March 17, 2023 CPD Information and Updates Philosophy Practice Training No Comments

The International Conference on Pluralistic Counselling and Psychotherapy is excited to invite practitioners, academics, and individuals interested in the Pluralistic approach to our annual event. This year’s theme is ‘Applied Pluralistic Therapy: What are we doing in practice?’ and will explore the impact of collaboration and taking our practices beyond…

Sixth International Conference on Pluralistic Counselling and Psychotherapy. Save the Date!

January 11, 2023 CPD Information and Updates Online Practice 5 Comments

We are delighted to announce the date and theme of this years conference! It will be on 2nd and 3rd June 2023, and will be titled Applied Pluralistic Therapy: What are We Doing in Practice? Although we are keen to get in person events back up and running, we have…

Introducing ‘pluralistic sand-tray therapy’: Humanistic principles for working creatively with adult clients

July 19, 2022 Arts therapies Practice Therapeutic approaches No Comments

Doreen Fleet PhD, Visiting lecturer and PhD Research Supervisor, University of Chester; Author of Pluralistic sand-tray therapy (2022, Routledge) As a counsellor and trainer, I have always seen the benefit of using sand-tray with adult clients who want to work creatively. The client will select objects to symbolise their inner…

Is There A Need For Pluralistic CBT?

June 27, 2022 CBT Personal Practice Therapeutic approaches 2 Comments

Ashleigh Hennessy, 2nd Year BA (Hons) Student, studying Counselling and Therapeutic Practice at the University of South Wales Currently there is a lack of research and writing into the benefits of doing CBT within the pluralistic framework. Although Beck, as cited by Windy Dryden, emphasises the importance of collaboration within…

Final Schedule and Last Call for Tickets

June 3, 2022 CPD Online Practice Research Training No Comments

We everyone is enjoying the long weekend! We are all getting very excited to welcome all of the pluralistic community to the conference tonight and tomorrow! Get Tickets Here. Read the Schedule for the Weekend Here. Check out the Conference Booklet Here.

‘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…

Deadline for Submissions Extended

April 4, 2022 Information and Updates Practice Research No Comments

We are delighted to invite further submissions for the fifth international conference on pluralistic counselling and psychotherapy, hosted by The Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, Scotland. Please find the submissions form here. Venue: Online via ZoomFriday 3rd June (6.00 pm – 7.30 pm) (social event from 8.00 pm)Saturday 4th June (9.15 am…

Pluralism, Practice-Based Evidence, and Practice Research Networks

October 29, 2021 Measures Personal Practice Research No Comments

Bill Andrews, co founder of Pragmatic Tracker; Honorary Researcher, CREST, University of Roehampton I trained as a dentist originally back in Cork and spent 22 years looking at people upside down on my dental chair. In the early 2000s I went from ‘dental’ to ‘mental’ and trained as a Human…

The Creativity Gathering: Multilingualism and Creativity in Pluralistic Practice (May 29, 2021)

July 14, 2021 Arts therapies Groups Information and Updates Integrative and Eclectic Practices Networking Practice No Comments

Tatiana Stoyko, pluralistically-minded integrative counsellor, MBACP, www.counsellingnest.com Hello and welcome to the Creativity Gathering! I am writing this with an incredible sense of belonging to the community of people passionate about creative approaches to therapy. The group draws together therapists from different theoretical orientations and promotes openness and curiosity to…

Developing Pluralistic Encounter Groups

July 13, 2021 Groups Information and Updates Networking Person-centred Practice 1 Comment

Ani de la Prida, University of East London, Association for Person Centred Creative Arts My training was person-centred, and my practice has always been on the experiential and integrative end of the spectrum of person-centred practice rather than classical client-centred therapy. In my practice I draw on various types of…

4th International Conference on Pluralistic Counselling and Psychotherapy – Conference Booklet

June 21, 2021 Information and Updates Networking Practice Research No Comments

Under a month to go now! There are still tickets left, so if you are yet to buy one you can get one here. We’re operating on a pay what you can afford system when it comes to tickets to make it accessible for everyone. We now have our conference…

Finding a Voice: Speech Therapy and Pluralistic Practice

June 2, 2021 Practice Training No Comments

Darren Hopgood, BA (Hons) MNCS, Pluralistic counsellor at You Can Be You Counselling, Durham County Carers Support, Counsellor Whether it is the 40, 50, or 60-year-old person that has had a stroke; or the child or teenager and beyond; difficulties with speech can be a highly emotional issue that plague…

Do Clients Want What They Want? Understanding Preferences Through the Directional Framework

April 8, 2021 Philosophy Practice Research Shared decision making 1 Comment

Mick Cooper, Professor of Counselling Psychology, University of Roehampton ‘The problem with pluralistic therapy is that clients do not know what they want.’ This criticism of pluralism, levelled even by advocates of a person-centred approach, has many parallels in the field of social and political theory. Here, ‘preference utilitarianism’, articulated…

Reflections on Using the Cooper-Norcross Inventory of Preferences (C-NIP): Confronting Early Dropout

April 1, 2021 Measures Person-centred Personal Practice Shared decision making 2 Comments

Michelle Briggs, UKCP-accredited psychotherapist in private practice at Counselling West Bridgford Pressure to Connect? I tend to describe myself as a person-centred psychotherapist, placing the therapist-client relationship at the heart of the therapeutic process, following the pace of and being led by the client. This is all well and good,…

Emotioncubes: A New Psychotherapy Tool

March 26, 2021 Arts therapies Practice Preferences 9 Comments

Brendan Murphy; counsellor, supervisor, and trainer living in the West of Ireland About eight years ago I had an idea for a new tool that I thought might help when working with emotions in therapy. I’ve developed it since into (what I think) is a good working prototype and have…

Working Pluralistically with Parts of Self: The Principles of Inner Pluralism

March 24, 2021 Inner plurality Person-centred Practice Shared decision making 3 Comments

Nicola Blunden, Metanoia Institute, London In this blog, I outline the key elements of working with self-plurality (the experience of multiple inner ‘selves’), and I describe the creative synergy between the pluralistic approach and this work, in particular in our commitment to collaboration, multiplicity, and flexibility. The Spectrum of Self-Plurality…

The Creativity Gathering

March 24, 2021 Arts therapies Information and Updates Networking Online Practice Strengths and Resources Therapeutic approaches No Comments

Janie Keddie – 3rd Year MSc student, studying pluralistic counselling at Abertay University Janie mooted the idea of Creativity Gathering in 2020 as a way of bringing together people who are passionate about creative approaches to therapy. When we entered lockdown a little over a year ago, I never anticipated…

Pluralistic Practitioners Network: Creativity and Challenge

February 5, 2021 Arts therapies Groups Information and Updates Practice 4 Comments

Marianne Reilly Following on from Roddie McKenzie’s blog post 18/1/2021, this is an open invitation to all who might be interested in something old, or new, to do in 2021. Would you like to join our Creative Gatherings, hosted on Zoom, on the last Saturday of each month at 10:00am…

Pluralistic Practitioners Network: Creativity and Storytelling Gathering

January 18, 2021 Arts therapies Groups Information and Updates Practice 5 Comments

Roddie McKenzie PhD, PG Dip. Counselling Our October 2020 gathering was the second Zoom meeting of this group and the first to have an agreed theme: creative writing. At that meeting we decided to adopt the term ‘gathering’ rather than ‘meeting’: partly to indicate that we aim to have an…

Survey of Pluralistic Practice: Key Findings

December 17, 2020 Information and Updates Practice Research Training 2 Comments

Julia McLeod, School of Applied Sciences, Abertay University An on-line survey of counselling and psychotherapy practitioners who identified themselves as using, or influenced by, a pluralistic framework for practice, was conducted in April 2020. Invitations to complete the survey were circulated by email to a wide range of individuals who…

Focus: Finding my Strengths in Pluralistic Practice

October 30, 2020 Critiques Person-centred Personal Practice Therapeutic approaches 3 Comments

Darren Hopgood BA(Hons) MBACP MNCS, Academic Researcher (Counselling Tutor) and Private Practice (Chiron Counselling Support) I have been practising for a short time now, two and a half years, not long at all. When I qualified as an integrative counsellor, I focused on person-centred, Gestalt, and cognitive behavioural therapy. Whilst…

How Do You Ask Clients About Their Preferences?

October 19, 2020 Co-production Practice Preferences Shared decision making 1 Comment

Mick Cooper, Professor of Counselling Psychology, University of Roehampton Asking clients, directly, what they want from therapy isn’t always helpful. Sometimes, it’s just too direct, too blunt, and can be difficult for clients to answer. So having gentler ways of asking this question can be important in identifying clients’ preferences.…

Moving from Busyness to Retirement and Older Age: Can Pluralistic Counselling Help?

September 8, 2020 Older adults Practice Research 1 Comment

Dr. Nicholas Sarantakis, Senior Lecturer at the University of Northampton, www.nicholassarantakis.com, nicholas.sarantakis@gmail.com Pluralistic counselling, by definition, draws on a combination of different ideas and therapeutic approaches and techniques; where the journey from psychological distress to contentment and fulfilment is an ongoing, often convoluted, process. This is pretty much like life…

Pluralistic Counselling for Sight Loss

August 3, 2020 Personal Philosophy Practice Research Training 6 Comments

Dr Mhairi Thurston, Senior Lecturer in Counselling at Abertay University I am a blind pluralistic counselling academic with an irrational fear of writing. That blank page and the deafening voice of my inner critic, telling me no one is interested in what I have to say and that other people…

Journey of a Pluralistic Trainee: A Response to COVID-19

June 18, 2020 Personal Practice Training 9 Comments

Emma Foley, Trainee BA (Hons) Counselling & Therapeutic Practice, @ USW Newport Practising to work pluralistically during the second year of my counselling degree came with a comforting, familiar, ‘clickety clack’. The cart was sitting firmly on the rails and the view was amazing, opening up to new horizons. I…

Bread and Jam and Sparkling Wine? Can I be Person-Centred and Pluralistic?

May 12, 2020 Arts therapies Person-centred Personal Philosophy Practice Therapeutic approaches 11 Comments

Ani de la Prida, creative arts counsellor, psychotherapist, founder of the Association for Person Centred Creative Arts, and lecturer at the University of East London I have been a passionate person-centred therapist and trainer for many years. A couple of years ago I attended the pluralistic conference in London, and…

Arguing the Difference While Rome Burns: Perhaps Pluralism Can Help?

April 29, 2020 Personal Philosophy Practice Therapeutic approaches 4 Comments

Andrew Reeves, Associate Professor in the Counselling Professions and Mental Health, University of Chester Like many others working in the psychological therapies I have, over my 30-plus years of being a practitioner, been immersed in the diversity of therapeutic approaches. Humanistic, psychodynamic, cognitive-behavioural – to name the loose umbrella headings…

A Moment in Time: Opportunity and Challenge During Covid-19

April 28, 2020 Co-production Personal Practice Shared decision making 6 Comments

Caroline Burke, psychotherapist in private practice; Lecturer in Personal Development IICP It seems to me that this pandemic offers us, as therapists, a unique experience of symmetry with our clients. This is a moment in time where client and therapist are navigating exactly the same landscape, albeit from different standpoints. From a…