Thoughts on readings

[James T. Hansen]

What are your thoughts about the current readings?

James T. Hansen, Ph.D.
Professor

Coordinator, Mental Health Specialization
Oakland University
Department of Counseling
450E Pawley Hall
Rochester, MI 48309

James T. Hansen website

 

 

Phone: (248) 370-3071

Email: jtha...@oakland.edu

[Jeanine Gruschow]

All,

I'm not saying anything particularly insightful, but I believe these readings just reaffirm in eloquent language what we want  do as successful counselors.

Counseling as rhetoric and hermeneutics - how does this work?

Understanding rhetoric (even subconsciously) is is often the set up of successful therapy, that a patient and therapist create together, although subtly, a new, more positive believable life meaning.  This new meaning flows from the rhetorical process, although the purposeful manipulation of emotion can backfire if it is used in a deceptive fashion. Plato and dialectics, noble and base.  The goal of psychotherapy is a conversation between therapist and client that uses the process of dialectical engagement to arrive at significant truths for the client.

Counseling is really in the business of creating new meanings and meaning are created through language. Therapy is thusly most powerful as an active dialog between patient and therapist that incorporates a patient’s world views and a therapist’s possibility of re-imagining these world views in such a manner that the patient is abile to seize and own new meanings in their life.  Hermeneutics is the interpretive element of therapy and is perhaps the therapists greatest tool, the ability to help patients learn to re-narrate their own lives. The closing of the ‘hermeneutic circle’ (p. 72). 

I am personally a big fan of re-narrating life stories, putting a positive spin on difficulties.  I believe that the success I have had with the counseling process is firmly rooted in ability of the therapist to help me re-frame my life experiences.  Those experiences that I was unable to re-frame in a positive fashion had to be incorporated into my narrative as ‘life lessons’ -  experiences that I had that caused great psychological distress, but that were no longer causing distress (unless I was ruminating) and hence could be relegated to the backstory of my new narrative.  

~Jeanine

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[James T. Hansen]

Jeanine:

Thank you for sharing your thoughts about the readings - I look forward to discussing these readings in class tonight.

James T. Hansen, Ph.D.
Professor

Coordinator, Mental Health Specialization
Oakland University
Department of Counseling
450E Pawley Hall
Rochester, MI 48309

James T. Hansen website

 

 

Phone: (248) 370-3071

Email: jtha...@oakland.edu

[Kurtis Kirkpatrick]

Jeanine's response only solidified my reaction to this part of the chapter. Previously, the authors didn't seem to have any preference on theory, but here, they seem to sneak in an endorsement or narrative therapy a the end of this chapter. It seemed really out-of-place considering the rest of the tone of the chapters that we've read. It almost seemed as a disguised way to get readers to buy into narrative therapy. I don't suspect the authors had nefarious intentions, but it just felt that way. They've, to this point, continued to say that theory and technique really matters not, as long as you're using something and it has meaning for you and client. This, to me, deviated from that stance. I was a bit confused by it.

Kurtis

[Jeanine Gruschow]

Interesting Kurt. I didn't take it to mean straight narrative therapy per se but more of a dialog between counselor and client that is contextually placed within belief structure such as faith based, psychoanalysis based, systems etc. Just that the dialog is occurring within an explanatory system that the client is familiar with or has some natural affinity for where a counselor can then work with the client to reframe...

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[Kurtis Kirkpatrick]

You may be right. Perhaps I didn't read it closely enough or that I'm just off base. My reaction to the readings has changed many times after discussing them in class. But how I read it sounds exactly like what I learned about narrative therapy: View the client's issues/life as a story and the meanings attached to parts of that story. Then work to reframe them or make a new story. It was just what I thought of when reading that section.

[Kurt Kirkpatrick]

After reading Dr Hansen's article I saw it more in the way you're describing Jeanine. Not sure what I missed in the Frank & Frank one. Maybe my brain was just tired. Who knows. See everyone soon! 

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[Jeanine Gruschow]

Kurt,

This is most likely just my interpretation of the readings. I often do kind of a soft merging of ideas...

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