Advanced Counselling: Integrating Theory with the Self

Abstract

Student counsellors must develop introspective awareness over the course of their programs. This may be a difficult task for some, as it requires patience, self-awareness, and the motivation to develop the skill more fully. As a skill, introspection is necessary to uncover bias, strengths, and the motivations of counsellors in order to better assist their future clients and communities. Psychology further acknowledges the necessity of this skill, as many psychologists and psychotherapists in practice today emphasize the importance of moving toward integrative praxis—which is to say, using an integrative approach to counselling, while incorporating the self within such theoretical orientations. To incorporate the self, then, refers to building on our self-awareness and utilizing the strengths that we identify, or uncover, within our self-awareness practices. As a counselling student myself, the need of self-awareness must be demonstrated and reflected on in order to further my training. This paper examines the nature of multitheoretical integrative models, and more specifically, examines the Multitheoretical Psychotherapy model, in relation to my own epistemological underpinnings. In this paper, then, I argue that while the Multitheoretical Psychotherapy model is a useful tool in addressing the varied needs of clients, the model must be complemented with other ways of conducting knowledge in order to more effectively evoke change in client narratives. I demonstrate this through a thorough reflection of my own epistemology as feminist, queer, postmodern, and critical in nature. In doing so, I integrate the Multitheoretical Psychotherapy model’s concepts of Systemic-Constructivist and Multicultural-Feminist, and argue for the complementary nature of my background in integration of the two. Ultimately, I hope to underline that counsellor strengths can provide a richness that may not otherwise be present in many mainstream theories of psychology.