So, You Think Your Counselling Practices Are Collaborative?

The concept of collaboration in mental health service delivery currently has wide currency among policy makers and practitioners alike. The professional’s speaking practices are recognised to be an important part of establishing and maintaining a collaborative relationship with their clients. Textbo...

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Main Author: Anne Hollingworth
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia 2017-08-01
Series:Psychotherapy and Counselling Journal of Australia
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.59158/001c.71177
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author Anne Hollingworth
author_facet Anne Hollingworth
author_sort Anne Hollingworth
collection DOAJ
description The concept of collaboration in mental health service delivery currently has wide currency among policy makers and practitioners alike. The professional’s speaking practices are recognised to be an important part of establishing and maintaining a collaborative relationship with their clients. Textbooks on counselling and interviewing techniques extol reflective listening as a speaking practice, and typically provide exemplars of therapeutic discourse in which the counsellor sums up the client’s prior utterance with a paraphrase introduced by ‘So’. This paper examines whether or not this way of talking can fairly be called collaborative, using insights from linguistics to illuminate various aspects of the question. The conclusion is that through this widespread speaking practice the practitioner who intends to work collaboratively may unwittingly erect barriers to empowerment by usurping the client’s right to investigate, reflect upon and proclaim the meaning of their own lived experience in therapeutic conversations.
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series Psychotherapy and Counselling Journal of Australia
spelling doaj-art-acbf351545cd4e2cb25f22309f4b18632025-08-20T02:38:24ZengPsychotherapy and Counselling Federation of AustraliaPsychotherapy and Counselling Journal of Australia2201-70892017-08-015110.59158/001c.71177So, You Think Your Counselling Practices Are Collaborative?Anne HollingworthThe concept of collaboration in mental health service delivery currently has wide currency among policy makers and practitioners alike. The professional’s speaking practices are recognised to be an important part of establishing and maintaining a collaborative relationship with their clients. Textbooks on counselling and interviewing techniques extol reflective listening as a speaking practice, and typically provide exemplars of therapeutic discourse in which the counsellor sums up the client’s prior utterance with a paraphrase introduced by ‘So’. This paper examines whether or not this way of talking can fairly be called collaborative, using insights from linguistics to illuminate various aspects of the question. The conclusion is that through this widespread speaking practice the practitioner who intends to work collaboratively may unwittingly erect barriers to empowerment by usurping the client’s right to investigate, reflect upon and proclaim the meaning of their own lived experience in therapeutic conversations.https://doi.org/10.59158/001c.71177
spellingShingle Anne Hollingworth
So, You Think Your Counselling Practices Are Collaborative?
Psychotherapy and Counselling Journal of Australia
title So, You Think Your Counselling Practices Are Collaborative?
title_full So, You Think Your Counselling Practices Are Collaborative?
title_fullStr So, You Think Your Counselling Practices Are Collaborative?
title_full_unstemmed So, You Think Your Counselling Practices Are Collaborative?
title_short So, You Think Your Counselling Practices Are Collaborative?
title_sort so you think your counselling practices are collaborative
url https://doi.org/10.59158/001c.71177
work_keys_str_mv AT annehollingworth soyouthinkyourcounsellingpracticesarecollaborative