Abstract
ABSTRACTThe aim of this paper is to critically examine the axiom of Cooper and McLeod that the person-centered approach should incorporate pluralistic practices based on clients’ goals and wants. First, we examine Cooper and McLeod’s argument that the uniqueness of clients means that therapeutic work should orientate around helping clients to identify what they want and how to achieve it. Second, we examine their position that the theories that the therapist may hold about therapeutic change should be subordinate to the client’s specific wants and needs. Finally, we consider their assertion that there is a need to reconceptualize person-centered theory with a pluralistic framework. The person-centered approach has its own unique ontological position based on a trust in the actualizing tendency of all organisms. If by pluralism Cooper and McLeod are proposing ontological eclecticism, then this is fundamentally incompatible with the person-centered approach. In terms of method, the person-centered approach was already pluralistic; if this is what Cooper and McLeod mean by pluralistic, then what they are proposing is simply old wine in a new bottle.
Highlights
Recent years have seen much interest in pluralistic therapy
The aim of this paper is to critically examine the axiom of Cooper and McLeod (2011) that the person-centered approach should incorporate pluralistic practices based on clients’ goals and wants
In 2011, Cooper and McLeod proposed a pluralistic approach to person-centred therapy
Summary
In 2011, Cooper and McLeod proposed a pluralistic approach to person-centred therapy They describe a pluralistic standpoint as the prioritization of the therapist’s responsiveness to the client’s goals, wants and needs. What this means is that it is of primary importance to identify the client’s goals, wants and needs and for the therapist to be flexible in their ways of working to help clients achieve these goals, wants and needs They argue that to have a ‘person-centered understanding of therapeutic change’ (p.210) necessarily means being open and appreciative of the many different ways that clients may benefit from therapy, including practices outside of the person-centered orientation. Translating such an understanding to practice, they suggest that therapists should orientate therapeutic work towards clients’ goals and facilitate a discussion with the clients about the different tasks and methods to achieve them
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