Category: Critiques

The Radical Nature of Pluralism in Therapy

April 19, 2023 Critiques Person-centred Personal Philosophy Shared decision making Strengths and Resources Training 4 Comments
Mick Cooper, Professor of Counselling Psychology, University of Roehampton One of the challenges to pluralism in therapy, over the years, is that we’re not really saying anything new. The challenge goes something like, ‘Yeah, pluralism, that’s great, but we’re all pluralists anyway. I’ve been doing pluralism for years.’ Being pluralistic,…

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…

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…

Pluralism as Diversity in Practice: But What about Indigenous and Transpersonal Approaches?

December 9, 2021 Critiques Cultural diversity Cultural resources Person-centred Personal Philosophy Politics Spirituality No Comments
Joe Bartholomew, trainee psychotherapist, Brighton Therapy Centre; radicalcultureint@gmail.com; www.radicalculture.co.uk On my journey as a trainee therapist I’ve previously worked as a trainee NHS psychological wellbeing practitioner (PWP) within an IAPT service. This involved using a CBT model, as well as CBT based interventions when working with clients. More recently in…

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…

Pluralistic therapy and William James’s A Pluralistic Universe

February 26, 2020 Critiques Policy Practice Therapeutic approaches 3 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…