Counselling Psychology training: Implications for ‘Self’

Abstract

It is widely accepted that Counselling Psychology is underpinned by both Humanist and Post-Modern epistemologies, and that it holds the practitioner’s ‘use of self’ in the service of the therapeutic relationship to be paramount in the therapeutic encounter. Although Humanism and Post-Modernism can both provide theoretical pretexts for the use of self, these stances to knowledge can be experienced as in conflict with each other, and so generate ambiguity and conflict for trainees. The academic (University) contexts of training courses can feed into aspects of these epistemological conflicts in that they uphold individualist-objectivist stances to knowledge/evidence and styles of communication. In this paper psychological literature is drawn upon to explore how trainees are positioned by the discourses of ‘self’ and ‘development’ that are available to them, with particular reference to the discourse of ‘reflective-practice’. The concept of a plural and dialogical self is used to suggest augmenting the manner in which personal and professional development is conducted and assessed.