Counselling in a Discursive World
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Counselling in a Discursive World Tim Corcoran
Published online: 1 May 2007 # Springer Science + Business Media, LLC 2007
Abstract Dominant psychological theories receive ongoing criticism for their reliance on deficit-based models of human being and an adherence to individualistic notions of social action. Recent offerings from the fields of discursive psychology and community psychology provide counsellors with alternative conceptual and practical resources for strategic engagement. This paper briefly introduces both areas and suggests how they may contribute to counselling in educational settings. An example is given showing how discourse works through language to construct and inform accounts of school exclusion. The primary question for each of us, counsellors and community members alike, is whether prevailing constructions promote (or discourage) the mental health of school communities. Keywords School exclusion . Discourse analysis . Social constructionism . Health promotion
Introduction What is sought is a reflexive process that focuses on our too easy use of taken-forgranted forms and that might lead us towards a science capable of continually demystifying the realities it serves to create. (Lather 1991, p. 15) Social constructionist theories (McNamee and Gergen 1992; Paré and Larner 2004) remind counsellors that therapy “is a process of continuing to engage in a conversation with the intention of facilitating/co-creating/co-authoring a new narrative with the clients without imposing a story on them. The starting point is always the client’s story about his or her understanding of the world” (Lax 1992, p. 74; emphasis in original). This paper addresses this concern in relation to what counsellors bring to therapeutic relationships via discursive performance. It may be our intention as counsellors, if we have already discarded the expert
T. Corcoran (*) School of Social Sciences and Liberal Studies, Charles Sturt University, Bathurst, NSW 2795, Australia e-mail: [email protected]
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Int J Adv Counselling (2007) 29:111–122
or outsider’s position (Madsen 1999, pp. 47–51), to do all that is professionally possible to create a collaborative space in which to work. But (as Lather intimates above) such repositioning requires an ongoing reflexivity in relation to the prevailing discourses that inform and guide professional practice. Put in an inclusive way, counsellors must be aware of not only the client’s ‘starting points’ but just as importantly their own. This paper questions how counsellors’ awareness of their own positioning (Davies and Harré 1990) may be augmented by explicating the discursive context in which practice takes place. To begin, a brief discussion regarding the concept of discourse takes place highlighting an urgent and ongoing need for counsellors to accept that dominant psychological theories impart certain beliefs about humanity and community. As such, the division often suggested between theory and practice can be recognised for what it is, an erroneous one. Recent works from the fi
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