Shared decision making – Pluralistic Practice

What do Clients Really Make of Working with Preferences?

Mick Cooper, Professor of Counselling Psychology, University of Roehampton Asking clients about their preferences, and trying to accommodate them, is right at the heart of pluralistic practice. But what is that actually like for clients? Do clients want us to ask them about their preferences? Do they find it helpful?…

How My Therapist Dumped Me on My Birthday for Voicing Preferences

December 7, 2022 Metatherapeutic communication Personal Preferences Shared decision making 6 Comments

Simon Yeates, IICP, Dublin, MSc Pluralism, Year 1 In January 2022 I turned 31. During this time, I was struggling. Becoming a new father seven months previously coupled with sleep deprivation and coronavirus restrictions had taken a toll and I had made the decision for both me and my family…

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…

‘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…

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,…

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…

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.…

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…

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…

‘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 27 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…

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…

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…

What Kind of Client Preferences are There?

January 14, 2020 Practice Preferences Research Shared decision making 3 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,…

Pluralistic Art Psychotherapy: Valuing Diverse Lenses

December 6, 2019 Arts therapies Practice Shared decision making Training 1 Comment

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…

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,…

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…