A Primer on Consultation Theory: Building a Flexible Worldview

The purpose of this article is to provide potential consultants with a broad introduction to the learning, gestalt, systems, organizational, psychoanalytic, and chaos theories of consultation. The goal of this article is to demonstrate how the consultant can map each of these theories onto the consultation environment to produce a unique perspective that each theory alone cannot provide. Each theory is described as to how it views and frames the consultation problem and how interventions are then based on these frames. Additionally, each theory is examined as to its view of process difficulties and when termination is deemed appropriate.     

A conceptual overview of selected consultation models

Because of their current popularity and utility 4 consultation models have been selected for analysis: consultee centered, group process, social action, and ecological (exemplified by Gerald Caplan, Ronald Lippitt, Saul Alinsky, and James Kelly, respectively). The process of consultation as outlined by these models is described along the following dimensions: definitions of consultation, self-perceptions of the consultant, target populations, motivation of the client system, entry, goals, diagnosis, techniques, termination, and evaluation. The discussion focuses on criteria for selecting an appropriate consultation model.     

Consultation from the consultee''s perspective

School-based and other mental health consultants are confronted with consultees who must adjust to the process of consultation by learning the parameters of the interaction. Consultees must learn how to act in this unique setting, must learn to use the consultant and the process for their own ends, and must learn about ways that they, themselves, contribute to problems which assail them. Consultation is successful to the extent that consultees come to a quick understanding of how to proceed. By being aware of what it is that the consultee must learn, the consultant may expedite the necessary insight.     

A school-based mental health consultation curriculum

Many articles have been written about mental health consultation and school-based consultation, but little has been written about how consultants are to be prepared for their role. Other authors focus on the theory or process aspects of the approach but do not take the next step in specifying what neophite consultants need to learn. The following paper presents one position on consultation that integrates a theoretical model, a process model, and a curriculum for training school-based mental health consultants. Elements of the proposed curriculum include: ethics, relationship building, maintaining rapport, defining problems, gathering data on what has already transpired, gathering data on the client, sharing information, generating interventions, supporting interventions, and following up and disengaging.     

The relationship variable in behavioral consultation

Behavioral consultation has traditionally been conceptualized as a scientific-technological exchange process where the primary goal is the transfer of information. Perceived reluctance of school personnel to use behavioral techniques has been seen as a special problem of educational settings. However, current understanding of this reluctance has emerged from the treatment adherence literature which stresses the complexity of adherence in clinical settings. One important issue which has emerged is the critical importance of the consultation relationship. While behavioral consultation has utilized an expert model focused on client behavior and problem solving, the efficacy of a more collaborative consultation style has been recommended. Behavioral consultants need to attend to factors such as communication strategies that facilitate shared responsibility as well as to understand consultees' explanations for their problems and their treatment expectations. Such skills need to be incorporated directly into the education of behavioral consultants along with behavioral technology if the behavioral model is to be disseminated widely into educational practice.     

Containment,curiosity and consultation: an exploration of theory and process in individual systemic psychotherapy with an adult survivor of trauma

This paper describes an individual therapy from the author's private practice. On referral, the client came to therapy requesting help with her 8‐year‐old daughter. Within the assessment, a single episode of trauma was revealed. Further therapeutic conversations told of multiple memories of trauma. The main therapeutic work has now ended, the contract being left that the client can continue to request appointments if she wishes. I show how systemic therapy from Post Milan and Narrative models, including practices from other orientations, has been useful and name three key practices as being crucial to the work, containment, curiosity and consultation. I suggest parallel processes operating between myself and my client as well as between the therapy and consultation. Distinct phases in the therapy recovery are identified. The discussion will consider themes of containment, curiosity and consultation.     

The use of a consultation team to network families with other helping systems

Families, therapists, and other service providers often find themselves uncooperative and at cross purposes when working toward solutions to family problems. Sometimes each professional is involved in one small piece of the problem and may never have encountered other providers and all family members. This paper describes a family-agencies-team consultation model intended to address the above issues. The model uses a consultation team to facilitate better understanding of family needs, helping agency roles, and service provider constraints. The approach has been successful in creating dialogue, generating a wide range of goals, engendering cooperation, empowering families, and affirming agency participation.In addition to the authors, the consultation team included staff members at the Pitt County Mental Health Center working with client families and other agencies in Pitt County, North Carolina.     

Using a Generalizable Photo-Coding Methodology for Assessing Organizational Culture Artifacts

Despite scholars’ reliance on Schein’s (1990) three-interconnected layer framework of organizational culture (i.e., artifacts, values/norms, underlying assumptions), few, if any, measure artifacts. This gap is significant because artifacts are readily visible and provide valuable insight into understanding the perpetuation of norms through their manifestation in the work environment. Moreover, existing assessments focus on one layer only, either values/beliefs or underlying assumptions, resulting in only a partial picture of culture. In this tutorial-based paper, we demonstrate a grounded theory approach comprising content analysis, thematic analysis, and intensity scoring, to develop an unobtrusive method for coding artifacts seen in photos of office spaces. Unobtrusive methods reduce participant burden, which is critical because existing assessments of culture are time consuming and/or rely on numerous participants. We demonstrate how to use the photo coding method and wrap-up the tutorial by showing how artifact coding augments an existing qualitative culture assessment, emphasizing the added value of artifact assessment. We hope by providing an unobtrusive method to artifact coding, researchers will start assessing this important layer of culture to achieve a more comprehensive understanding of organizational culture.

     

The analysis of verbal interactions occurring during consultation

This article describes a consultation analysis technique for coding conversion between a consultant (e.g., psychologist) and a consultee (e.g., teacher) serving a client (e.g., student). Consultation analysis classifies the topics discussed in consultation, the verbal processes exhibited during consultation, and the extent to which one participant in consultation controls the kinds of things which another participant says. Uses of consultation analysis in training and research are discussed.     

Multicultural Issues in School-Based Consultation Conceptual and Research Considerations

In this article, we review literature relevant to multicultural issues in school-based consultation. Specifically, multicultural literature in the counseling and psychotherapy fields is presented as it relates to consultation. Ways in which culture may affect the consultant, consultee, and client are suggested. Because of the paucity of multicultural research in consultation and lack of major break-throughs in multicultural research as related to consultation, a conceptual framework related to the utility of multicultural issues is presented as a new paradigm for future investigations.     

我究竟该听谁的?——一例恋爱冲突的案例报告

本例是由父母与男友就恋爱问题的不一致意见导致来访者不知道如何选择而引发的一般心理问题。咨询师通过倾听、理解、共情等技术与求助者建立了良好的咨询关系,在此基础上进一步了解来访者的基本情况和相关资料,共同找出问题关键点在于各种交往关系中习惯于迎合别人,而忽视了自己内心感受。通过运用认知疗法进行咨询,引导来访者认识到在恋爱问题上,自己心里的想法和决定最重要,同时也让其认识到自己有这个能力对恋爱问题作出合适的选择。     

The Application of Family Systems Theory to Organizational Consultation: A Content Analysis

A content analysis was performed on 43 articles published between 1970 and 1998 discerned as relating family systems theory (FST) frameworks and constructs to organizational consultation. Frameworks and constructs were coded and then investigated in relation to four independent variables: type of organization, decade of article publication, gender, and educational training of author. Results indicate that the use of FST frameworks and constructs vary depending upon the characteristics of the organization, time period, and consultant. Results highlight specific FST frameworks and constructs most common in organizational consultation.     

The impact of consultant,consultee, and organizational variables on teacher attitudes toward consultation services

The current study investigated relationships between consultant, consultee, and organizational characteristics and teacher preferences for school-based consultation versus traditional referral services. Stepwise regression analysis revealed that principal initiating structure, number of years of teaching experience, and number of years teaching at the current school each made statistically significant, although weak, contributions to predicting teacher attitudes toward consultation. Initiating structure and number of years of teaching experience were negatively related to consultee preference for consultation, while years of teaching at the current school correlated positively.     

The Consulting Process: A Multidimensional Approach

The consulting process seems to work similarly regardless of whether the consultant is internal or external or is doing individual or group consultation. Some differences may occur depending on whether the consultant is a process helper or content helper, although good content-focused consultants often possess excellent process skills and use them as a regular part of the consulting process. Several consultation processes were reviewed, and from this a six-step approach is presented.     

Organizational factors influencing consultation in schools

A key variable in successful consultation is the consultant's skill in assessing the organization in which he is working or contemplating working. This paper presents a framework for gathering and organizing data related to organizational phenomena in a school or school district. The implications of these data for the consultant in determining priorities, assessing strengths and weaknesses, generating problem-solving strategies, and predicting consequents are discussed. In addition, the dilemma of the school psychologist, caught in complex and rapidly changing environmental pressures, is explored and some alternative role models are suggested.     

A Bayesian analysis of human decision-making on bandit problems

The bandit problem is a dynamic decision-making task that is simply described, well-suited to controlled laboratory study, and representative of a broad class of real-world problems. In bandit problems, people must choose between a set of alternatives, each with different unknown reward rates, to maximize the total reward they receive over a fixed number of trials. A key feature of the task is that it challenges people to balance the exploration of unfamiliar choices with the exploitation of familiar ones. We use a Bayesian model of optimal decision-making on the task, in which how people balance exploration with exploitation depends on their assumptions about the distribution of reward rates. We also use Bayesian model selection measures that assess how well people adhere to an optimal decision process, compared to simpler heuristic decision strategies. Using these models, we make inferences about the decision-making of 451 participants who completed a set of bandit problems, and relate various measures of their performance to other psychological variables, including psychometric assessments of cognitive abilities and personality traits. We find clear evidence of individual differences in the way the participants made decisions on the bandit problems, and some interesting correlations with measures of general intelligence.     

Peter Block's Flawless Consulting and the Homunculus Theory: Within Each Person Is a Perfect Consultant

Authenticity on the part of the consultant is significant to the process of consulting, according to Peter Block (1981). As the consultant acknowledges feelings and thoughts when they surface, client commitment and trust develop. By defining five phases to consulting and by detailing the work that must be completed in each phase, Block (1981) has provided a step-by-step procedure for consulting without errors.     

Business Consulting vs. Channeling: What is the Difference?

This article focuses on the intriguing question how channeling, essentially a religious activity, is practised and constructed within the modern Western business culture. Two major aspects emerged from the analysis of observations and interviews with clients and channels: the essence of client–channel relationships and the nature of the exchange between them. These aspects are compared to one-to-one management consultancy situations. The results show that the fundamental principles that help define client–channel and client–consultant relationships, i.e. perceiving the client as an independent and autonomous individual and cultivating equality between client and channel/consultant, are similar. Furthermore, both channels and consultants are expected to follow similar professional codes of behavior and communication. These findings lead to the conclusion that channeling, in spite of its focus on accepting guidance from ‘external’ entities, enters the business domain by embracing existing relationships and linguistic structures.     

A conceptual review of discipline in the schools: A consultation service model

Although discipline has been identified consistently as the major problem in U.S. education, few conceptual models are available to guide the analysis of discipline problems and to integrate the consultation and preventive mental health perspectives. A model is presented that integrates a consultation problem-solving process (involving problem identification, problem analysis, intervention, and evaluation) with the preventive mental health levels (i.e., primary, secondary, and tertiary preventions). These perspective interface because discipline-related problems can occur and be resolved at all three prevention levels, although most are addressed only at the tertiary level. A review of the relevant literature is presented with each component of the model, and pragmatic applications are suggested to facilitate both problem-solving and consultation. Although the tertiary prevention level is emphasized, consultants are reminded that secondary and primary prevention programs are potentially more cost-effective and efficacious.