Pluralistic framework
Overview
Over the last few years, Mick Cooper has been working closely with John McLeod and colleagues at the Tayside Centre for Counselling to develop a ‘pluralistic’ framework for the practice, training and research of counselling and psychotherapy. This framework is based on the principle that different clients are likely to need different things at different points in time, and that there is no one, ‘right’ way of practising therapy. The pluralistic framework is an attempt to transcend the schoolism that can permeate the counselling and psychotherapy field; but, unlike traditional integrative and eclectic models, it does not stipulate any one particular way of bringing together different practices. Rather, like the internet encyclopaedia, Wikipedia, its aim is to create an open framework within which many different forms of practices can be articulated and researched. Central to this framework is a belief that the starting point for therapy should be a collaborative exploration between client and therapist of what the clients wants from therapy, and how best this might be attained (if at all) within the therapists’ range of competencies.
The role of research within the pluralistic framework is principally to map out the kinds of practices that may be most helpful to clients in getting what they want from therapy. This may be undertaken through quantitative study, but there is a key place for qualitative research in the pluralistic framework: in particular, research which asks clients – either after sessions or at the end of therapy – to describe the aspects of the therapeutic process that helped them achieve their goals. This links in with the tradition of ‘helpful factors’ research in counselling and psychotherapy [see, for instance, Timulak (2007)]
Published work
Presentations
- Cooper, M. and McLeod, J. (2006) ‘Developing a pluralistic model of therapeutic change, practice and research,’ 12th Annual BACP Research Conference, Glasgow [ (PDF - 271kb)]
- Cooper, M. (2005) ‘Young people’s perceptions of helpful aspects of therapy: A pluralistic model of therapeutic change,’ Joint Meeting of European and UK Chapters, Society for Psychotherapy Research, Lausanne. [ (PDF - 103kb)]
Grant funding
- Carnegie Trust and British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy (2004). Start-up funding for the Tayside Counselling Centre.
Current research
- Mick Cooper and John McLeod are currently working on an introductory text to the pluralistic framework (Sage, due for publication 2009)
- Helpful aspects of therapy within a counselling clinic
- Analysis of clients’ therapeutic goals
Potential research questions
- Qualitative studies of the aspects of therapy that clients find helpful/unhelpful focusing, for instance, on particular clients goals (for instance, to get things off their chest, to become more self-aware), particular client groups (for instance, depressed clients, anxious clients, bereaved clients), particular contexts (for instance, prisons, voluntary agencies) or particular therapeutic orientations (for instance, PCT, CBT).
- What do clients want from therapy?
- Do clients preferences and predilections for particular types of therapy affect the process and outcomes of the therapy?
- What is the role of social support factors in therapeutic change?
Active researchers
- Mick Cooper (contact)
- John McLeod (University of Abertay)
- Stephen Goss (University of Abertay)
- Joe Armstrong (University of Abertay)