Counselling Methods/Framework/technique
/Approaches
Pluralistic Counselling - A Unique Client Experience
Pluralistic Counselling believes that different people need different things at different times.
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As a pluralistic counsellor, I offer a variety of methods/approaches. Other counsellors often only offer one method/approach, such as CBT, for example. A pluralistic counsellor believes that there are plural (multiple) aspects to our personality, such as being a daughter, a friend, a co-worker, disabled and so on. We, therefore, also believe there are plural/multiple ways of addressing these different sides of your self. Finally, we believe that different people need/want different things and at different times - so plural approaches are necessary, as we do not believe 'one size fits all' when it comes to your personal mental health/fitness and emotional wellbeing. This is why we offer more than one method/approach to our clients. We will then work together with the client (collaboratively) to figure out which methods work best for you, to tailor our counselling sessions after you. We believe this helps remove inequality in the room and remove the power imbalance, you might feel, being the client, sitting across from a counsellor. |
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Approaches/Methods
Psycho-educational Means
Isn't that just an impressive word? No wonder I like saying I offer my clients this, right?
Basically, it's reading material, like books or articles, and worksheets, like a 'worry diary' that I ask clients to consider looking at between sessions as it might lead to them learning new things (educate) about themselves, their emotions, or other people's perspectives (the psychology of self and others) = psycho-educational means.
I do, however, encourage the use of psycho-educational means rather frequently in my counselling, as I believe it's important for us all to keep growing as humans, and keep learning.
If you come as a client and you want to change, for example, the amount you worry but you only engage with this in a productive way for your one hour of counselling per week, it's likely that your therapeutic journey away from worrying so much, will be a slow one, whereas if you do pro-active reading and work sheets in between sessions because you're really eager and willing to see positive change in your life, the results are likely to come sooner and quicker.
Basically, it's reading material, like books or articles, and worksheets, like a 'worry diary' that I ask clients to consider looking at between sessions as it might lead to them learning new things (educate) about themselves, their emotions, or other people's perspectives (the psychology of self and others) = psycho-educational means.
I do, however, encourage the use of psycho-educational means rather frequently in my counselling, as I believe it's important for us all to keep growing as humans, and keep learning.
If you come as a client and you want to change, for example, the amount you worry but you only engage with this in a productive way for your one hour of counselling per week, it's likely that your therapeutic journey away from worrying so much, will be a slow one, whereas if you do pro-active reading and work sheets in between sessions because you're really eager and willing to see positive change in your life, the results are likely to come sooner and quicker.
Person-centered therapy
Carl Rogers is quite a famous fella among us counsellors, and he invented the 'person-centered' way of working with clients, to challenge other therapeutic methods like Freud's psycho-analytical style.
The name kind of gives it away - the client is at the centre of attention.
It's based on listening a lot, reflecting back feelings to the client and offering unconditional positive regard, empathy and congruence.
Mighty fancy words, right?
Unconditional Positive Regard is the basic acceptance and support of a person regardless of what the person says or does, especially in the context of client-centered therapy.
Empathy is the ability to understand and share another person's feelings and shouldn't be misunderstood for 'sympathy' which refers more to feeling pity for someone. Pity is saying "I feel so sorry for you", whereas empathy is more like saying "I can understand why you reacted like that. I'd find that situation very difficult to handle too."
The name kind of gives it away - the client is at the centre of attention.
It's based on listening a lot, reflecting back feelings to the client and offering unconditional positive regard, empathy and congruence.
Mighty fancy words, right?
Unconditional Positive Regard is the basic acceptance and support of a person regardless of what the person says or does, especially in the context of client-centered therapy.
Empathy is the ability to understand and share another person's feelings and shouldn't be misunderstood for 'sympathy' which refers more to feeling pity for someone. Pity is saying "I feel so sorry for you", whereas empathy is more like saying "I can understand why you reacted like that. I'd find that situation very difficult to handle too."
Cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT)
Lots of people are familiar with with term 'CBT' which stands for Cognitive Behaviour Therapy but what does that actually mean?
Cognition is the mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses. So what is going on in your head - your thoughts and feelings.
Behaviour obviously refers to your behaviour, as in your reaction to things but also your bodily/physical reaction.
CBT is often done by walking through a specific situation (see below) and try to come up with alternative explanations to find more healthy thoughts, feelings and behavoiurs to a situation. CBT is supported by giving clients worksheets to fill out at home, such as a thought diary, to monitor where thoughts and emotions might become unhelpful to behaviours.
It's a lot easier to explain in a handy diagram:
Cognition is the mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses. So what is going on in your head - your thoughts and feelings.
Behaviour obviously refers to your behaviour, as in your reaction to things but also your bodily/physical reaction.
CBT is often done by walking through a specific situation (see below) and try to come up with alternative explanations to find more healthy thoughts, feelings and behavoiurs to a situation. CBT is supported by giving clients worksheets to fill out at home, such as a thought diary, to monitor where thoughts and emotions might become unhelpful to behaviours.
It's a lot easier to explain in a handy diagram:
The therapy part is when we think, feel and behave/react in a way that's problematic or unhealthy.
So, for example, a person with depression, let's call him James, sees a friend on the street and waves. The friend doesn't wave back. James now thinks the friend doesn't like him and was ignoring him (thought). This can lead to further thoughts of worthlessness and being disliked by everybody (this is called 'black and white thinking'). James' heart starts racing and he feels flustered with burning cheeks and stinging eyes, because he feels like crying (bodily reaction). This makes the emotion fly, and James feels hurt, and sad, and rejected. By the time James comes home, he's in a bad mood and shouts at his partner, and may even go and hurt himself, self-harm, to release some of the negative feelings (behaviour).
CBT offers a way of analysing this pattern and offer alternative ways of reacting. Maybe the friend didn't see James, in which case there was no need to react so strongly. Even if the friend did ignore James, does that make James worthless? Is it correct of James to think that he's disliked by all? What about his partner? (Here, the counsellor would be working with James' thoughts and presumptions - his cognition - to try and alter this black and white thinking).
Could James do a few breathing exercises to calm down the bodily reactions before the emotions become too strong to control?
When James comes home next time, after having had CBT therapy, he's not feeling quite so emotionally upset because he's been able to reason a bit more with himself and he doesn't shout at his partner but gets a hug instead and he doesn't feel like self-harming today because he controlled his thinking (cognition) and feelings and this helped on controlling his behaviour as well.
So, for example, a person with depression, let's call him James, sees a friend on the street and waves. The friend doesn't wave back. James now thinks the friend doesn't like him and was ignoring him (thought). This can lead to further thoughts of worthlessness and being disliked by everybody (this is called 'black and white thinking'). James' heart starts racing and he feels flustered with burning cheeks and stinging eyes, because he feels like crying (bodily reaction). This makes the emotion fly, and James feels hurt, and sad, and rejected. By the time James comes home, he's in a bad mood and shouts at his partner, and may even go and hurt himself, self-harm, to release some of the negative feelings (behaviour).
CBT offers a way of analysing this pattern and offer alternative ways of reacting. Maybe the friend didn't see James, in which case there was no need to react so strongly. Even if the friend did ignore James, does that make James worthless? Is it correct of James to think that he's disliked by all? What about his partner? (Here, the counsellor would be working with James' thoughts and presumptions - his cognition - to try and alter this black and white thinking).
Could James do a few breathing exercises to calm down the bodily reactions before the emotions become too strong to control?
When James comes home next time, after having had CBT therapy, he's not feeling quite so emotionally upset because he's been able to reason a bit more with himself and he doesn't shout at his partner but gets a hug instead and he doesn't feel like self-harming today because he controlled his thinking (cognition) and feelings and this helped on controlling his behaviour as well.
psychodynamic therapy
Freud is known to be the father of 'talking therapy' and psycho-analysis (you know, the couch with the man sitting behind taking notes). He did society a huge favour by introducing talking therapy instead of the alternatives of the day.
Psycho-analysis is still used by some today, but not me, so I won't offer more details about this. I do, however, offer psycho-dynamic therapy, which is grounded in Freud's methods.
How I use it, is to offer you to journey back to your childhood and look at the behaviours, thoughts and feelings you picked up in your early years and what kind of relationship you had with the adults in your life back then. Was it a very critical relationship and how might that impact your romantic life today? Were you neglected by those you trusted and loved, and what effect does that have on you as an adult?
We might not even sit and 'analyse' your childhood but sometimes it's just nice to go back and be able to talk about these things with an 'outsider' like a counsellor and be able to openly admit that you found your mother, or father, or caretaker flawed, without further consequences.
Psycho-analysis is still used by some today, but not me, so I won't offer more details about this. I do, however, offer psycho-dynamic therapy, which is grounded in Freud's methods.
How I use it, is to offer you to journey back to your childhood and look at the behaviours, thoughts and feelings you picked up in your early years and what kind of relationship you had with the adults in your life back then. Was it a very critical relationship and how might that impact your romantic life today? Were you neglected by those you trusted and loved, and what effect does that have on you as an adult?
We might not even sit and 'analyse' your childhood but sometimes it's just nice to go back and be able to talk about these things with an 'outsider' like a counsellor and be able to openly admit that you found your mother, or father, or caretaker flawed, without further consequences.
existential therapy
Have you heard of Danish Søren Kirkegaard? He was a philosopher and the father of Existentialism. He, famously said: "Life can only be understood backwards, but must be lived forward." How many of us have said "if only I'd known this when I was younger?"
Existentialism is a philosophical theory or approach, which emphasizes the existence of the individual person as a free and responsible agent determining their own development through acts of the will.
Fancy, right? I stole that off Google's dictionary.
Existentialism, as a philosophy, often focusses on the meaning of life and what our purpose on this Earth is, as it deals with the questions around our existence. Why are we here? What am I to do now? What happens when I die (and so, often, the fear of death).
However, what that means in counselling, and how I use it in sessions, is to work with taking responsibility for our feelings and reactions to others and the world.
Take a wee look....
Existentialism is a philosophical theory or approach, which emphasizes the existence of the individual person as a free and responsible agent determining their own development through acts of the will.
Fancy, right? I stole that off Google's dictionary.
Existentialism, as a philosophy, often focusses on the meaning of life and what our purpose on this Earth is, as it deals with the questions around our existence. Why are we here? What am I to do now? What happens when I die (and so, often, the fear of death).
However, what that means in counselling, and how I use it in sessions, is to work with taking responsibility for our feelings and reactions to others and the world.
Take a wee look....
Narrative therapy
Narrative means the story we tell.
In our second meeting I will ask you to tell me your life story and it helps me to see the 'narrative' you give your story. Have you ever found that a sibling doesn't remember your childhood the same as you? That's because they have a different narrative, much like when you're arguing with your partner - it's because you don't see eye to eye, because you each have a different narrative.
Using narrative therapy is a way of working with 'your story' of life and events, your perspective, and add a different perspective to the mix, for example, or to change the story a little bit to open up your eyes to the possibilities instead of the limitations.
Narrative therapy can also help externalise a problem, which can be very liberating and rewarding.
In our second meeting I will ask you to tell me your life story and it helps me to see the 'narrative' you give your story. Have you ever found that a sibling doesn't remember your childhood the same as you? That's because they have a different narrative, much like when you're arguing with your partner - it's because you don't see eye to eye, because you each have a different narrative.
Using narrative therapy is a way of working with 'your story' of life and events, your perspective, and add a different perspective to the mix, for example, or to change the story a little bit to open up your eyes to the possibilities instead of the limitations.
Narrative therapy can also help externalise a problem, which can be very liberating and rewarding.
T. A. - TRANSACTIONal analysis
T.A. can be a very powerful tool to bring into counselling and allows you to evaluate how you communicate with others and why. These two videos do a great job of explaining it and I do recommend all my clients to view them at some point during their journey with me (so you can get a head-start now!)
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Creative Arts Therapy
Were you ever in that situation at school that when it was time for 'art class' some people moaned and others cheered? What camp did you fall in?
I'm not an artistic person! I do quite fine stick men figures but that's about it. Nevertheless, I have enjoyed smearing paint around a canvas on occasion and then thrown it out, embarrassed by the results.
Art Therapy can push your comfort zone, or even if you love that sort of stuff, make you think twice.
It's not necessarily about drawing or painting, but about being creative and thinking outside the box in how to work with yourself.
I might introduce stones, a sand tray, the 'empty chair' exercise, a writing exercise - like writing a letter to someone - or other such unusual methods into the session, whether you feel you're creative or not, because 1) creative mastery isn't the point 2) it forces you to engage with something unusual but in a safe space, and it always leaves you learning something new about yourself 3) we are all creative beings in some way or another.
I will, however, never force you to do something you're not comfortable with, so don't worry!
I'm not an artistic person! I do quite fine stick men figures but that's about it. Nevertheless, I have enjoyed smearing paint around a canvas on occasion and then thrown it out, embarrassed by the results.
Art Therapy can push your comfort zone, or even if you love that sort of stuff, make you think twice.
It's not necessarily about drawing or painting, but about being creative and thinking outside the box in how to work with yourself.
I might introduce stones, a sand tray, the 'empty chair' exercise, a writing exercise - like writing a letter to someone - or other such unusual methods into the session, whether you feel you're creative or not, because 1) creative mastery isn't the point 2) it forces you to engage with something unusual but in a safe space, and it always leaves you learning something new about yourself 3) we are all creative beings in some way or another.
I will, however, never force you to do something you're not comfortable with, so don't worry!
Compassion Focussed Therapy
This form of therapy has its root in Buddhism but really, it has its roots in humanity - our compassion
Sympathetic pity and concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others.
The way I use compassion-focussed Therapy is to simply (hard as it is) practice using a more compassionate voice towards ourselves.
Haven't we all called ourselves stupid, or worse, at some point of our lives? Sometimes that critical voice can be quite overwhelming and pervasive. And quite often, it's saying things far worse than 'stupid' - things we'd never say to other people, even people we don't like. So, why do we say them to ourselves?
I work with this inner critical voice, and often mix in a bit of Narrative Therapy here, but the important bit is practicing kindness towards yourself - self-compassion - because you're worthy of it.
Haven't we all called ourselves stupid, or worse, at some point of our lives? Sometimes that critical voice can be quite overwhelming and pervasive. And quite often, it's saying things far worse than 'stupid' - things we'd never say to other people, even people we don't like. So, why do we say them to ourselves?
I work with this inner critical voice, and often mix in a bit of Narrative Therapy here, but the important bit is practicing kindness towards yourself - self-compassion - because you're worthy of it.
OTHER METHODS/APPROACHES/TECHNIQUES
If you'd like to work in a way not mentioned above, please feel free to enquire about it. I'm familiar in other methods, such as Motivational Interviewing Therapy, Solution Focussed Therapy and Coaching but do not use them on a regular basis.
Or perhaps you'd like to incorporate Family Group Therapy, Dance Therapy, Gestalt, or Walking Therapy into your sessions, in which case I'll be happy to sign-post you on to other services with more expertise in this field.
Or perhaps you'd like to incorporate Family Group Therapy, Dance Therapy, Gestalt, or Walking Therapy into your sessions, in which case I'll be happy to sign-post you on to other services with more expertise in this field.