Pluralistic therapy can be understood as a form of practice that does not involve the application of a pre-determined set of ideas and activities. Instead, the therapist and client work together to draw on their knowledge and life experience to co-produce or co-design a therapy process that is most helpful for that client in that specific context, in relation to accomplishing their therapy goals. The aim of the present paper is to explore the relevance of the concept of ‘making’ as a way of making sense of the distinctiveness of this kind of approach to practice. Following a brief account of the limitations of a conceptualisation of therapy as an intervention based on implementation of a standardised protocol, the authors will summarise critical psychological and anthropological perspectives on making as a general human accomplishment (explained in more detail in McLeod, J., & Sundet, R. (2022) Psychotherapy as making. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 1048665 – open access journal). Examples will be provided of what makingtogether looks like in therapy practice, and implications for therapy training will be explored. A key aim of the presentation is to facilitate discussion: the closing section will focus on group discussion in which participants are invited to share their responses to what they have heard, and ask questions.
Course Content
Presenter
John McLeod is Visiting Professor of Counselling at the Institute for Integrative Counselling and Psychotherapy, Dublin, and Emeritus Professor, Abertay University. He has been closely involved in the development of pluralistic therapy, as well as publishing widely on a wide range of aspects of counselling and psychotherapy research and practice. He lives in Dundee, Scotland.
Rolf Sundet is specialist in clinical psychology and professor emeritus at the University College of Southeast Norway, Drammen, Norway. He is also a freelance supervisor and consultant. He has published in both English and Scandinavian books and journals. A special interest is in perspectives on returning to the real as a necessary focus in therapeutic practices and conceptualisations.
