Literature has suggested that the cyclical nature of psychological trauma can cause enduring long... more Literature has suggested that the cyclical nature of psychological trauma can cause enduring long-term effects on individuals and those around them. This review examines the effects of psychological trauma and its relationship to ecopsychology to provoke questions about integration and stimulate debate pertinent to trauma therapy. While being relatively unexplored with regards to psychological trauma, empirical evidence is beginning to amass to suggest that ecopsychology could be incorporated as a beneficial therapeutic approach. This paper will outline existing approaches to trauma before considering it from an ecopsychological perspective. Some contributions such as wilderness journeys, contemplative practices and the Natural Growth Project, along with their therapeutic and practical implications will be discussed in more depth along with their limitations and empirical challenges. Speculative practical and therapeutic implications are identified and relevant future research is su...
With the current environmental crisis receiving unprecedented international attention in recent y... more With the current environmental crisis receiving unprecedented international attention in recent years, humanity’s largely unhealthy and unsustainable relationship with our natural world is being placed under scrutiny. Until recently, most psychological work into this area has been anthropocentric in origin, centring on the environment’s impact on human well-being and efficiency. However, ecopsychologists and deep ecologists have argued that the Western adherence to the dominant Cartesian paradigm has created an artificial separation between the individual and nature, which is negatively affecting the well-being of both and that mainstream psychology and therapy continues to maintain this illusory relationship, dealing with the human psyche in isolation of our wider context. Their ecocentric approach centres on the notion of an expanded, ecological self which may benefit both us and the environment. This paper reviews and evaluates these radical perspectives, looking at theoretical d...
Counselling Psychology Contributions to Therapeutic and Social Issues, 2010
Terms such as 'psychopathology','mental illness' and 'disorder'have... more Terms such as 'psychopathology','mental illness' and 'disorder'have become part of everyday discourse, marking people out as 'different', justifying the increase in the provision of mental health services and promoting the development of such professions as clinical ...
There are some aspects of counselling psychology which underpin every aspect of the profession an... more There are some aspects of counselling psychology which underpin every aspect of the profession and the tasks that counselling psychologists undertake. These aspects are fundamental in character and ever present whether they are overt or covert. While aspects of our practice change over time − sometimes in quite significant ways − in light of the therapeutic model embraced, the research method used or the contexts in which we work, these fundamentals remain central to the integrity of the profession. What are these fundamental characteristics, so crucial to the profession and the contribution counselling psychology makes to therapy and to the wider world? This section looks at just a few of them, including pluralism, relational ways of understanding the world, the understanding of distress, research and enquiry, ethics and the therapeutic relationship. Such fundamental aspects are not easy, clear-cut phenomena and certainly not unidimensional in nature. Quite the contrary, these are sometimes rather ethereal, complex domains, requiring open, ongoing and curious engagement. In some contexts (e.g., in the debates about statutory regulation, the setting-up of professional bodies and the writing of therapeutic 'guidelines') the debates can be characterised by conflict, reliance on the exercise of power and the influence of status. This array of responses highlights the crucial nature of these fundamentals. In light of this, it will come as no surprise to readers that the contributors to section 1 approach their topics − and, I suspect, the profession − from different positions. And in doing so, these six chapters draw readers' attention to the complexity of human experience and the ways in which Therapy and Beyond: Counselling Psychology Contributions to Therapeutic and Social Issues Edited by Martin Milton
This Roundtable Discussion seeks to engage with the challenge of working existentially in a genui... more This Roundtable Discussion seeks to engage with the challenge of working existentially in a genuinely phenomenological fashion. The discussion will focus on possible tensions between attempts to conceptualise and formulate clients' issues on the basis of existential theory and a commitment to a phenomenological method of exploration. Phenomenological ways of thinking and working are relational and process-focused and attempt to do without recourse to abstract concepts and notions. By contrast, descriptions of existential approaches to psychotherapy/ counselling often involve the identification of relevant categories drawn from existential philosophy that are then used to make sense of experience. It could be argued that whilst this generates interesting and often helpful insights, it also serves to dilute the phenomenological dimension and renders the 'existential approach' indistinguishable in form (though not, of course, in content) from other theories of human experience and behaviour. The aim of the Roundtable discussion is to reflect on these issues and to identify ways in which 'theory' can be used to guide us without turning into a 'set of tools' or an interpretative frame.
Literature has suggested that the cyclical nature of psychological trauma can cause enduring long... more Literature has suggested that the cyclical nature of psychological trauma can cause enduring long-term effects on individuals and those around them. This review examines the effects of psychological trauma and its relationship to ecopsychology to provoke questions about integration and stimulate debate pertinent to trauma therapy. While being relatively unexplored with regards to psychological trauma, empirical evidence is beginning to amass to suggest that ecopsychology could be incorporated as a beneficial therapeutic approach. This paper will outline existing approaches to trauma before considering it from an ecopsychological perspective. Some contributions such as wilderness journeys, contemplative practices and the Natural Growth Project, along with their therapeutic and practical implications will be discussed in more depth along with their limitations and empirical challenges. Speculative practical and therapeutic implications are identified and relevant future research is su...
With the current environmental crisis receiving unprecedented international attention in recent y... more With the current environmental crisis receiving unprecedented international attention in recent years, humanity’s largely unhealthy and unsustainable relationship with our natural world is being placed under scrutiny. Until recently, most psychological work into this area has been anthropocentric in origin, centring on the environment’s impact on human well-being and efficiency. However, ecopsychologists and deep ecologists have argued that the Western adherence to the dominant Cartesian paradigm has created an artificial separation between the individual and nature, which is negatively affecting the well-being of both and that mainstream psychology and therapy continues to maintain this illusory relationship, dealing with the human psyche in isolation of our wider context. Their ecocentric approach centres on the notion of an expanded, ecological self which may benefit both us and the environment. This paper reviews and evaluates these radical perspectives, looking at theoretical d...
Counselling Psychology Contributions to Therapeutic and Social Issues, 2010
Terms such as 'psychopathology','mental illness' and 'disorder'have... more Terms such as 'psychopathology','mental illness' and 'disorder'have become part of everyday discourse, marking people out as 'different', justifying the increase in the provision of mental health services and promoting the development of such professions as clinical ...
There are some aspects of counselling psychology which underpin every aspect of the profession an... more There are some aspects of counselling psychology which underpin every aspect of the profession and the tasks that counselling psychologists undertake. These aspects are fundamental in character and ever present whether they are overt or covert. While aspects of our practice change over time − sometimes in quite significant ways − in light of the therapeutic model embraced, the research method used or the contexts in which we work, these fundamentals remain central to the integrity of the profession. What are these fundamental characteristics, so crucial to the profession and the contribution counselling psychology makes to therapy and to the wider world? This section looks at just a few of them, including pluralism, relational ways of understanding the world, the understanding of distress, research and enquiry, ethics and the therapeutic relationship. Such fundamental aspects are not easy, clear-cut phenomena and certainly not unidimensional in nature. Quite the contrary, these are sometimes rather ethereal, complex domains, requiring open, ongoing and curious engagement. In some contexts (e.g., in the debates about statutory regulation, the setting-up of professional bodies and the writing of therapeutic 'guidelines') the debates can be characterised by conflict, reliance on the exercise of power and the influence of status. This array of responses highlights the crucial nature of these fundamentals. In light of this, it will come as no surprise to readers that the contributors to section 1 approach their topics − and, I suspect, the profession − from different positions. And in doing so, these six chapters draw readers' attention to the complexity of human experience and the ways in which Therapy and Beyond: Counselling Psychology Contributions to Therapeutic and Social Issues Edited by Martin Milton
This Roundtable Discussion seeks to engage with the challenge of working existentially in a genui... more This Roundtable Discussion seeks to engage with the challenge of working existentially in a genuinely phenomenological fashion. The discussion will focus on possible tensions between attempts to conceptualise and formulate clients' issues on the basis of existential theory and a commitment to a phenomenological method of exploration. Phenomenological ways of thinking and working are relational and process-focused and attempt to do without recourse to abstract concepts and notions. By contrast, descriptions of existential approaches to psychotherapy/ counselling often involve the identification of relevant categories drawn from existential philosophy that are then used to make sense of experience. It could be argued that whilst this generates interesting and often helpful insights, it also serves to dilute the phenomenological dimension and renders the 'existential approach' indistinguishable in form (though not, of course, in content) from other theories of human experience and behaviour. The aim of the Roundtable discussion is to reflect on these issues and to identify ways in which 'theory' can be used to guide us without turning into a 'set of tools' or an interpretative frame.
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