Theory and Experience: Teaching Dialectical Thinking in Counselor Education

✍ Scribed by FRED J. HANNA; FRED BEMAK; FRANCESCA G. GIORDANO

• Publisher: American Counseling Association
• Year: 1996
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 702 KB
• Volume: 36
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0011-0035
• DOI: 10.1002/j.1556-6978.1996.tb00232.x

✦ Synopsis

Dialectical thinking is a modality that may be able to improve the quality of counselor training when introduced into theory courses. Teaching suggestions are offered.

The wide vartety of more than 400 theories of counseling and psychotherapy can be confusing and overwhelming to the student as well as to the researcher. The literature contains references to this situation that range from bewildering (Fowler. 1992). to cluttered (Hanna. 1994). to chaotic (Garfield. 1983;Orner & London. 1988). After nearly two decades. researchers still do not know which approach is generally more effective (Lambert. 1992; Stiles. Shapiro. & Elliott. 1986). Although it is widely acknowledged that each of the major schools have made valuable contributions. the question is how to best present these theories to students so that they can make optimum use of them.

To make matters even more complex. research reviews by Whiston and Sexton (1993) and by Goldfrted, Greenberg. and Marmar (1990) indicated that theory or approach is not nearly so related to outcome as are the personal qualities of the counselor. professional. or paraprofessional (Hattie. Sharpley. & Rogers. 1984). Along these same lines. recent studies (e.g.. Lyddon, 1989) have shown that clients seem to do better with counselors who share similar worldviews.

Unfortunately. theory textbooks have not kept pace with these complex issues and continue to be arranged in a way that sometimes leads courses into a "theory-of-the-week" format (Sexton &