Psychology - Counseling
The Social Constructionist Model of Counseling
Social constructionism is a framework that conventionally belongs to the area of epistemology. Social constructionism has grown from a classic shift throughout the last half century in which realist epistemologies, which have directed the majority of intellectual disciplines since the scientific revolution, have been rejected by a lot of people as being flawed. Social constructionism sets forth insinuations for mental health that significantly go away from the realist epistemological policies that standardize most approaches in clinical psychology and psychiatry. In particular, from a social constructionist viewpoint clinical problems are not seen as objective defects but, instead, are understood as inter-subjective linguistic formations that are shaped in conversations between clinicians and clients. Therefore, the objects of change corresponding to traditional clinical theories like irrational beliefs and repressed complexes are also understood as metaphors, rather than as objective representations of the nature of problems and change. As a result, social constructionism...
As such, the collaboration between clients and therapists in this communication process is of paramount importance as it opens up new meanings and alternatives in the way of knowing. By adopting this way of knowing, theories are not representations of truths but are different ways of making meaning (Lit & Shek, 2002). "Social constructionism represents the development of ideas in counseling that have been and continue to be influenced by the humanistic tradition" (Rudes & Guterman, 2007).
Since the client is believed to have problems, the counselor or social worker has to formulate treatment goals and propose treatment strategies on the basis of a selected theoretical approach after an in-depth intervention. In other words, the counselor or…
