Category: Personal

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…

The 2022 International Conference on Pluralistic Counselling and Psychotherapy: A Personal Introduction to the Speakers and What their Work has meant to me –John McLeod

April 27, 2022 Cultural diversity Information and Updates Narrative therapies Personal Politics Social justice 2 Comments
The 5th annual conference on pluralistic practice is being held on 3-4th June 2022. As in previous years, the aim of the conference is to provide an inclusive space for counsellors, psychotherapists, and other mental health and care practitioners to come together to share ideas about how to work together…

Shirley Brennan (1965-2021) Obituary

December 13, 2021 Information and Updates Personal 2 Comments
Julia McLeod, Lecturer in Counselling, Abertay University On the day I learned about Shirley’s death I had just finished reading Mariana Lecky’s book What you can see from here in which a much-loved member of a small community unexpectedly dies and one of the characters describes his heart as ‘weighing…

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…

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,…

Personal and Professional Development Groups in Counselling and Psychotherapy Training: A Pluralistic Perspective

November 23, 2020 Groups Personal Training 1 Comment
Julia McLeod, Marie-Clare Murphie, Kate Smith, Christine Kupfer and Mhairi Thurston (University of Abertay), Hanne Oddli (University of Oslo), Lynne Gabriel (York St John University), Mick Cooper (University of Roehampton) What do personal and professional development (PPD) groups, on counselling and psychotherapy training courses, look like from a pluralistic perspective?…

Pluralism: A Home for Gender Fluidity?

July 29, 2020 Gender Personal Politics 7 Comments
Dan Jones is a mental health social worker in the University of Roehampton’s Student Support Services and with the Enabling Assessment Service London. He is also a trainee psychotherapist at the Minster Centre. As I write this, I am again feeling a profound sense of anxiety – an experience which…

Complexities of Working with Client Preferences

May 18, 2020 Personal Preferences Shared decision making 2 Comments
Caroline Burke, psychotherapist in private practice, Personal Development Tutor, IICP. The pluralistic approach—which prioritises the perspective of the client, their goals, and preferences—has challenged me personally. I trained as a psychodynamic psychotherapist, so the organic unfolding of a client’s story within the cultivation of a therapeutic relationship, unrestricted by time, is…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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,…

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…