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 9 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…

Heal Thy-Self: Goal Setting for Self

May 11, 2020 Goals Personal Training 2 Comments
Darren Hopgood, MBACP NCS, child counsellor, adult carer support counsellor, online counsellor As my dissertation word count is not increasing in any way, and my deadline getting closer and closer, and the realisation that I am getting less present-motivated and more future-anxious, I needed help.  While the storm outside kept…

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 ‘Love’ Letter to Pluralism

April 27, 2020 Personal Training 4 Comments
Dear Pluralism, I have had a lot of time on my hands over the last month or, more aptly, the hands of the clock are rotating in very unprecedented ways for me. I suppose this coupled with the imminent ending of my university studies as a pluralistic therapist has found…

‘We’re making it up as we go along!’ Co-production in Pluralistic Person-Centred Therapy

April 16, 2020 Co-production Person-centred Practice Preferences Shared decision making 25 Comments
Nicola Blunden; BACP Accredited Counsellor, Psychotherapist, Supervisor, and Trainer, Metanoia Institute, London; Co-Convenor Holi: Co-productive Research in Wales This blog is an overview of co-produced, pluralistic person-centred therapy, as I live it with my clients. I talk about co-production, and what it is generally in health care, where it has…

Working Online: A Practitioner Reflects

April 8, 2020 Online Practice 18 Comments
Allie Scott, BACP (Accred), PMCOSCA, ACTO Within the world of counselling and psychotherapy right now there is an awful lot of pressure on therapists to transition their work to the online environment – this is all very well and good but actually nowhere near as simple as might be hoped! Online counselling consists of a range of relatively…

Why We Should Acknowledge and Accommodate Clients’ Wants and Needs

March 14, 2020 Critiques Person-centred Philosophy Preferences Shared decision making No Comments
Jonny Hutchinson, Trainee Counselling Psychologist, University of Roehampton This blog is a response to one of the points raised in Ong, Murphy, and Joseph’s (2020) critique of the pluralistic approach to counselling and psychotherapy. For reasons of space, I’ve chosen to address just one particular aspect of their argument, but…

From the Actualising Tendency to Autonomy: How do we Understand and Honour Self-Determinism in Pluralistic, Integrative, and Person-Centred Therapy?

March 3, 2020 Critiques Person-centred Preferences Shared decision making 2 Comments
Erin Stevens, Counsellor/Psychotherapist, blogger A few years ago, in therapy, as I discussed some of the more questionable choices I have made in my life, my therapist said to me ‘You always get to where you need to be, Erin. You might not always take the most orthodox route, but…

Glasgow Networking Update

February 27, 2020 Information and Updates No Comments
To update everyone interested in the west coast networking meeting.  We are meeting on Saturday 7th March from 1pm-4pm (apologies for the short notice) at one of the beautiful community spaces at Macintosh at the Willow, 215  Sauchiehall St, Glasgow. The general plan for this meeting is to start a…

Pluralistic therapy and William James’s A Pluralistic Universe

February 26, 2020 Critiques Policy Practice Therapeutic approaches 2 Comments
Jay Beichman, Counsellor/Therapist, Brighton. Pluralistic therapy seems—so far—to have had a tendency towards emphasising quantitative research and a desire to gain ‘scientific’ credibility. The 2nd International Conference of Pluralistic Psychotherapy and Counselling in 2019 matter-of-factly stated that they were ‘pleased to inform [me] that the scientific panel’ had accepted my…

Finding Myself Coming Back Again

February 24, 2020 Personal 3 Comments
Dr Andrew Reeves, Associate Professor in the Counselling Professions and Mental Health, University of Chester Do you find pluralism, or does it find you? Or, can you be pluralistic all along without really realising it? I ask because I have had several conversations recently with people who have approached me…
Stack of journals

Philosophical Foundations of Pluralism

February 19, 2020 Philosophy 2 Comments
Mick Cooper, Professor of Counselling Psychology, University of Roehampton The recent critique of pluralistic therapy by Ong et al. (2020) has made me think that it might be useful to try and unpack further the philosophical roots of the approach, at least as I see it. John (McLeod) always used…

Glasgow Networking Meeting

February 17, 2020 Information and Updates 8 Comments
Kathryn Stevens, MSc, MA. NHS Therapist and Private Counsellor. The original Pluralistic Practice Network group was formed over in Dundee to create networking opportunities, peer support and encourage practitioners to share experience and expertise. Being able to meet with and discuss any issues in your practice, or thoughts about theory,…

Shaking the Pluralistic Kaleidoscope on a Central Asian Campus

February 17, 2020 Arts therapies Cultural diversity Philosophy Research Young people 2 Comments
Robin Higgins MA, University Counsellor and Well-Being Consultant, University of Central Asia, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Campus Well-Being blog: https://tenthstreetdinner.wordpress.com/ Pluralism is a process and not a product. It is a mentality, a way of looking at a diverse and changing world. A pluralistic environment is a kaleidoscope that history shakes…

Sitting in the Grey: Letting Go of Either/Or

February 5, 2020 Epistemology Personal 3 Comments
Caitríona Kearns, Director of Registry & Operations, IICP College, Dublin. As we approach the Third International Conference for Pluralistic Counselling and Psychotherapy in Dublin (28-29 March 2020), I find myself reflecting on my own journey toward pluralistic practice and research. I was very young when I started training as a…

Eliciting and Accommodating Client Preferences in Counselling and Psychotherapy: When is it Helpful?

January 23, 2020 Preferences Research Shared decision making 1 Comment
Mick Cooper, Professor of Counselling Psychology, University of Roehampton Is it always helpful to ask clients in counselling and psychotherapy about their preferences, and to fully accommodate them? Of course, from a pluralistic standpoint, that is the wrong question to be asking. Overall, meta-analyses do show that preference accommodation is…

Working Pluralistically with Religious Clients

January 21, 2020 Practice Spirituality No Comments
John Wilson, Honorary Research Fellow and Director, Bereavement Service, York St John Counselling and Mental Health Clinic I recently delivered a public lecture on loss and grief at my university. After the event a member of the audience sought me out to say that she was experiencing anticipatory grief for…

A Soulful Solstice

December 17, 2019 Personal Philosophy Politics Shared decision making 2 Comments
Lynne Gabriel, School of Psychological and Social Sciences, York St John University For me, the winter solstice is an important time for simply being, for reflecting on the year and for heralding the return of the light.  I am usually to be found winding down at this point; feeling mellow,…

From Ticking Boxes to Meeting People: My Counselling Journey

December 11, 2019 Training 3 Comments
Darren Hopgood, Trainee Counsellor, University of Sunderland I realised, when I researched pluralistic counselling at college for a modalities presentation, that I wanted to be a pluralistic counsellor. It was the thought of a counsellor and client being part of a collaborative partnership that inspired me to start working towards…

On the Possibility of Hope Through Goals: A Reflection

November 21, 2019 Goals Practice 1 Comment
Chris Lloyd, London Metropolitan University We’ve all had that feeling of stuckness with a client. Wondering whether we are competent or ‘skilled’ enough to support our clients towards change. I feel this is particularly so as we journey alongside clients who struggle with a sense of hopelessness in their lives.…

Pluralism: Uniting the opposites

November 12, 2019 Personal Philosophy No Comments
Richard Knight, School of Psychological and Social Sciences, York St John University, Lord Mayor’s Walk, York, YO31 7EX It’s always been an item on my bucket list to visit Gatecrasher (a club night that became popular in the 90s and early 2000s). Some of you will remember it as the…