Week 6: Nelson Article

            This week’s article by Nelson (2002) took me back to Theory and Practice 1 and one of our initial conversations about the need for a counselor to be strongly rooted in theory.  I remember learning about the concept of being eclectic in counseling and its negative connotation.  As Nelson (2002) stated, “eclecticism…is often associated with an intellectually sloppy orientation to clinical practice involving a hit-or-miss process of trying techniques to see what works” (p. 416).  As we went through both Theory & Practice classes, as well as Brief, I sometimes wondered how I would describe which theory(ies) I use in my counseling, when adjusting our selection of theory based on a client’s needs was an acceptable practice.   I appreciated the differentiation in this article between unsystematic eclecticism (what to avoid) and technical eclecticism.  I believe that a counselor should be grounded in a particular theory (i.e. Solution Focused) but be flexible enough to utilize other theories when needed.  A knowledge of theories and how or in what situations they are applied must be present in order for this to be an effective method of counseling, just as a knowledge of assessment tools and their purpose is essential for a psychologist when conducting a Multi-Disciplinary Evaluation.

            The article stresses the need for informal assessment of a client’s goals, needs, and desired outcomes.  All components must be considered in order to successfully counsel a client, just as a holistic view of a child must be considered when conducting an evaluation and interpreting its results to make recommendations.  I am reminded of Dr. Garner encouraging us to invite clients to teach us about their stories and perspectives.  The counselor is constantly “in the moment” and assessing the needs of the client, while keeping in mind the original goals, or, in the framework of Solution Focused, what he/she wants to change or do differently.  Understanding where the client is in the process and utilizing appropriate strategies to meet him/her where he/she is could be related to test validity.  Whereas validity refers to whether or not the decisions made based on an assessment are meaningful and relate to the purpose of the assessment, selecting a counseling strategy should relate to the client’s concerns, goals, and needs in the counseling process; it is purposefully chosen.  It would seem that the recommendations made in this article are based on reliability, or the degree to which particular strategies have been found to be effective when applied to certain situations or types of clients.

            I found this article to be helpful and informative, and one that I could see myself referring back to as I enter the counseling field.  I realized through reading it that I do still have a lot to learn when it comes to developing technical eclecticism.

Nelson, M. L. (2002).  An assessment-based model for counseling strategy selection.

            Journal of Counseling and Development, 80, 416-421.