WEEK 2

Question 1

What is a framework?

Answer 1

A coherent statement of the ideas principles and beliefs that guide our action in counselling practice

A tool to assist our reflection and to ensure that what we do in therapy matches our stated theoretical, and philosophical positions

Question 2

What are values?

Answer 2

Idea that every decision we make is underpinned by what we value in life: every action and inaction.

Our values shape everything we do; they underpin human agency, choice and autonomy.

Values are inescapable and inherent in our behaviour and everyday decisions.

Question 3

What is Epistemology

Answer 3

• Theory of knowledge – “knowing what we know” or ‘thinking
  about how we think’
• Invitation to position ourselves in a way of thinking – consistent & congruent, thoughtful &intentional
• No more flying by seats of pants

Question 4

What is the Modernist Approach

Answer 4

• Counselling Theories seen as accurate reflections of human experience
• Problems that people face result from deficits or pathologies within themselves or their environments
• Counsellors can act as objective observers of the unconscious, mental structures or environmental contingences that represent clients’ personal deficits
• These can be broken down into categories of pathology thatthen have specific methods of remediation/interventions that are generalisable across populations
• Language is capable of accurately representing original
  experiences – i.e., it is representative.
• By attending to client’s language counsellors can gain an
  accurate understanding if the experience their client is
  attempting to convey
• Positions therapist as expert & privileges therapist knowledge’s both regarding the problem & its resolution .

Question 5

What are the modernist assumptions?

Answer 5

1. Clients are able to accurately acknowledge what they are
   experiencing
2. These experiences can be communicated to the counsellor through language.
3. Through language, counsellors can gain an accurate
   understanding of the experience their client is conveying
4. Counsellor can then draw on universal law of human
   functioning (counselling theory) to impart a corrective or
   healing intervention.
5. Clients, like all people have a relatively stable psychological core or personality. Changes to personal psychology will generalize to situations outside of counselling.

Question 6

What is post modernism?

Answer 6

• Counselling Theories seen as socially constructed in a particular time place and context.
• Problems that people face are understood as patterns of attention & meaning that are individually and social constructed.
• Hence change can be brought about by co-constructing new meanings, and attentional patterns via language and relationship.
• Language cannot accurately represent original experiences, instead it is understood to generate, shape and constrain experience. – i.e. it is performative .
• A Counsellor cannot achieve objectivity; hence any interpretation will be based in perceptual bias.
• Generally, the focus of therapy is on client capacity, resources and the generation of new meanings.
• Positions client as expert & privileges client’s local knowledge regarding the problem & its resolution.

Question 7

What is structuralism?

Answer 7

• The aim of enquiry is to search for ‘deep structures’ or ‘essential truths’ about people
• Such a search for ‘deep structures’ or essential truths can be objective
• It is our ‘deep structure’ (inner self) that shapes life
• Our ideas, problems, qualities, are linked to some internal self
• Our identities are fixed and essential – to be found within our inner selves
• Our identities are always consistent Our identities are made up, and continually being made up of many

Question 8

What is post structurlsim

Answer 8

• An effect of enquiry into structures is the development of certain norms about what people’s lives should look like in order to be healthy
• What we are looking for and what we believe and where we come from will shape both how we look and what we will find.
• anguage and the use of language plays a vital role in shaping life. What people say and do and how we relate to each other shapes life. The meaning that we give to events in our lives and how we organise these into stories about ourselves, shape and life.
• Our ideas, problems, qualities are all products of culture and history. They have been created over time and in particular context
• Our identities are constantly created in relationship with others, with institutions and with broader relations of power.
• our identities are made up, and continually being made up of many (sometimes contradictory) stories

Question 9

What is a theory

Answer 9

*Ideas rather than facts

• A system of inferences, assumptions, and interpretations drawn from observations and experiences.
• Offers a lens or framework to guide our practice
• Helps us to know what we are doing, why we are doing it and the influence or impact of our action
• People, problem & change
• When was it created? What were the historical & social factors at play