Blog – Page 2 – Pluralistic Practice

Why We Should Acknowledge and Accommodate Clients’ Wants and Needs

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…

Leadership and Solidity in a Time of Crisis

March 11, 2020 Leadership Philosophy Politics 6 Comments

Marcella Finnerty, College President, IICP Core to our training as psychotherapists is to trust in the process, to sit with not knowing. To stay calm with the messy vulnerability and uncertainty of life. We are taught to meet and greet the most difficult of feelings, to walk with clients on their…

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…

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…

Watching Clouds: Collaborative Work with Children and Young People

February 13, 2020 Arts therapies Children Practice Young people 7 Comments

Ani De La Prida, BACP Registered Counsellor I love my work with children and young people. I read a book called Dibs when I started training and I knew instantly that this was the work I wanted to do. My training was person-centred and the course I did was flexible…

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…

Reflections on the Pluralistic Influences in Compassion Focused Therapy

January 27, 2020 Therapeutic approaches No Comments

pluralistic influences in Compassion Focused Therapy Hannah Gilbert, The Compassionate Mind Foundation I recently visited Edinburgh’s Royal College of Psychiatry’s exhibition Moonstruck, which explores 500 years of mental health. There are so many ways in which we have tried to both make sense of psychological suffering, and provide forms of…

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…

What Kind of Client Preferences are There?

January 14, 2020 Practice Preferences Research Shared decision making 2 Comments

Mick Cooper, University of Roehampton Recently, I’ve been talking to colleagues–and trying to get my head around–the different kinds of preferences that clients might have in counselling and psychotherapy. At the heart of a pluralistic approach is listening to, and trying to accommodate, client preferences; and thinking about the different…

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…

Pluralistic Art Psychotherapy: Valuing Diverse Lenses

December 6, 2019 Arts therapies Practice Shared decision making Training No Comments

Dr Caryl Sibbett, Kairos Consultancy. Art Psychotherapist (HCPC Reg.); Counsellor (BACP Reg, Snr Accred.); Associate Lecturer, Ulster University, (ret’d Senior Lecturer). I have a childhood memory of walking with my family beside a river in the Glens of Antrim. Stopping at a vantage point where visitors could view a waterfall…

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.…

The Pluralistic Features of Single-Session Therapy and One-At-A-Time Therapy

November 19, 2019 CBT CPD Practice Training No Comments

Windy Dryden, RECBT Therapist, Trainer & Academic In the last five years, I have become increasingly interested in Single-Session Therapy (SST) and One-At-A-Time Therapy (OATTT) as a way of providing therapeutic help at the point of need rather than at the point of availability. The consensus in the SST/OAATT community…

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…

Deliberate Practice (and Why it Matters to Pluralistic Therapy)

November 7, 2019 Deliberate practice Practice Training 1 Comment

Alexander Vaz (ISPA-University Institute, Portugal) Deliberate Practice (DP) is a training philosophy that represents one of the most evidence-based methods we know of to improve ‘performance’ in an effective and reliable manner. Decades of research have demonstrated that lengthy engagement in DP is associated with expert performance across a variety…

Developing Practitioner Confidence: Observations from Teaching Pluralism

November 6, 2019 Deliberate practice Training No Comments

Marcella Finnerty, IICP College, Dublin As an institution, IICP College, has always been integrative, and more recently pluralistic, in its teaching approach. But we have struggled with how and when to present such ideas to our students. By the time we introduce pluralistic counselling and psychotherapy, our students are already…

Client Preferences in counselling for alcohol problems

November 1, 2019 Practice Preferences Shared decision making No Comments

Jillian Walls, Abertay University Walls, J., McLeod, J., & McLeod, J. (2016). Client preferences in counselling for alcohol problems: A qualitative investigation. Counselling and Psychotherapy Research, 16(2), 109-118. doi: 10.1002/capr.12064 What to say about this research? I developed, like most counsellors, a keen interest in what clients wanted from counselling,…

Person-Centred and Pluralistic Approaches: Similarities and Differences

October 29, 2019 Person-centred Practice 1 Comment

Mick Cooper, University of Roehampton ‘What’s the difference between pluralism and person-centred therapy?’ It’s a question I get asked fairly often; or the not-so-pleasant variant, ‘Isn’t pluralism just a re-hash of Rogers?’ Some preliminary distinctions In answering this question, the first thing that’s important to recognise is that there’s lots…

Five tips for Positive Goals Work in Counselling and Psychotherapy

October 24, 2019 Goals Practice Shared decision making Training 1 Comment

Dr Gina Di Malta, CPsychol., Lecturer in Psychotherapy and Counselling, The Open University Setting goals in therapeutic work is used across a range of psychotherapies. It is especially commonplace in therapies such as cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT), where clients may be encouraged to set SMART goals (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and…

Learning about pluralistic therapy: Living with uncertainty

October 18, 2019 Personal Training 7 Comments

Kate Smith, University of Abertay One thing that I am pretty sure about is that, in life, it takes confidence to not be certain for any length of time. The idea of pluralism relies fundamentally on an acceptance of equally valid ‘other truths’ which must be accommodated in to the…

Passionate about Pluralism

October 15, 2019 Personal 3 Comments

Mick Cooper, co-author of Pluralistic counselling and psychotherapy (Sage, 2011). Illustration by Agnieszka Zapart (www.obrazkoterapia.pl) Why am I passionate about pluralism? Why does it mean so much to me? If pluralism was a particular clinical technique, I’m sure I could really care about it; but I don’t think I’d ever…

What is the pluralistic approach, and how is it different from integrative and eclectic practices?

July 15, 2019 Integrative and Eclectic Practices Philosophy 4 Comments

Mick Cooper, Professor of Counselling Psychology, University of Roehampton The pluralistic approach to therapy is something that John McLeod and I first started to articulate back in 2007, with our first book in 2011, and a handbook with Windy Dryden in 2017. John and I both came from person-centred backgrounds,…

Supervising from a Pluralistic Perspective

June 13, 2019 Supervision No Comments

Mick Cooper, University of Roehampton What’s distinctive about supervision when it’s informed by a pluralistic approach? John McLeod and I talked about it in our original 2011 book and then Mary Creaner and Laco Timulak have written about it more extensively in the 2016 pluralistic handbook. Having practiced, pluralistically, as…