A cognitive developmental perspective on counselling adolescents

Although developmental perspectives on counselling are increasingly popular, difficulties inherent in these perspectives impede their actual use in practice. In this paper, individual counselling is situated within a cognitive developmental (Piagetian) framework. Its major constructs — structure and function, assimilation and accommodation, and equilibration — can profitably be applied to the counselling of adolescents. The implications of these constructs for use by counsellors are presented in the light of the traditional responsive and initiative conditions required of the helping relationship. Thus, a perspective on actual counselling intervention founded on a major direction in developmental psychology is provided.