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Emerging Views: My Perspective & Interpretation of Counseling Theories presented in

CSL 686 Counseling Theories & Interventions

Te-Erika Patterson

Barry University

Spring 2008

Instructor: Dr. Richard Tureen

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At the onset of my graduate education in Marriage/Family/Couples Counseling, I

had no idea what to expect from my courses. Much to my surprise I found that I would be

learning about the many theoretical approaches used by outstanding psychologists to help

their clients reclaim or gain the peace of mind they need to enjoy their lives.

There are two different schools of therapy:

Modernist- Objectivist, Linear View, “Expert” stance, “Truth” can be known

From the modernist view-point all clients are pathologized and labeled as deviants for

their issues. The modernist therapist will likely treat the client as the root of the problem,

suggesting that the client is the problem.

Postmodernist- Perspectivist, Non-Linear View, All observation is mediated through

theory, “Non-Expert” stance

From the post-modernist view-point all clients are viewed as separated from the issue

they are seeking help with. The post-modernist therapist will likely treat the problem

instead of the client, allowing the client to feel as though the problem isn’t within, but an

outside issue that can reworked and made manageable.

In the Narrative Approach to therapy we learned:

• Name the problem

• Personify the problem and attribute oppressive intentions and tactics to it

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• Investigate how the problem has been disrupting, dominating or discouraging the

person and the family.

• Discover moments when the client hasn’t been dominated or discouraged by the

problem or when life has not been disrupted by the problem.

• Finding historical evidence to bolster a new view of the person as competent

enough to have stood up to, defeated and escaped from the dominance of the

problem.

• Evoking speculation from the person about what kind of future is to be expected

from the strong, competent person who has emerged from the interview so far.

• Finding or creating an audience for perceiving the new identity and new story.

Corey, G., (1996). Theory and Practice of Counseling Psychotherapy, 5th Edition, Pacific

Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole Publishing Company

In learning about Deconstruction we learned:

• By viewing knowledge as locally produced and related to networks of power, we

are in essence deconstructing ideas, concepts and interactions. We are “troubling”

the familiar ideas of what something is or what it means rather than someone

being deficient.

• We can break down the notion of pathology or deficiency into what discourses are

at play and how this particular problem identity or situation was constructed.
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• When certain ideas and behaviors seem to be fixed or stable, a deconstructive

reading of the situation would help highlight how that stability has been produced.

Excerpted/modified from: Horne, A.M. (2000) Family counseling and therapy (3rd

edition) Chapter 3 Kogan, S & Gale, J. Illinois, F.E. Peacock Publishers pages 218ff

When using the solution-focused approach in therapy there are several assumptions:

• Clients should define the goals of therapy- they are (can be) the experts.

• People have within their experience a wealth of skills…both known and unknown

to them.

• Problems do not indicate pathology, they are just one way of describing things.

• There is no need to understand “why” or to promote insight.

• Change is inevitable.

• Change happens by people experiencing themselves as competent and successful.

• Motivation is more likely when clients are viewed as competent and experience

themselves as having agency.

• If it works, don’t fix it, if it doesn’t, do something different.

• A focus on the possible and changeable is more helpful than a focus on the

overwhelming and intractable.

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• Complex problems do not necessarily require complex or lengthy solutions.

• Every complaint description includes some sort of exception.

• A focus on the future without the problem is more helpful than a focus on the past

with the problem.

• Clients are the best judges of whether and how much they need to talk about

traumatic experiences.

Michael Durant, Brief Therapy Institute of Sydney