The concept of doing therapy through the art of dialogue has a long history from antiquity and the ancient Greek philosophers to the contemporary field of western scientific research and psychotherapy. It forms the essence of the Brief Systemic Dialogical Technique (BSDT). The “space between people” is a place of intersection between the self and the collective life. It becomes an arena whereby personal identities and personal world views are constructed, through an ongoing process of internalization and externalization of ideas, beliefs, behaviors and emotions.
Our vision of Collaborative Counseling is to guide and inspire people to overcome the obstacles they face and strive towards their goals. It is our task to provide counseling that will help people live their lives to the fullest by supporting them through difficult times as well as teaching them skills that will allow them to make changes and progress towards a healthier, happier, more fulfilling life.
WHAT IS A COLLABORATIVE THERAPY?
The collaborative approach is based on the principle that problems are maintained in language by a problem-derived system and can be resolved through conversation. A collaborative conversation is not possible when the therapist assumes the role of the expert. This type of therapy approach presumes that conversation generates meaning, both for clients and in their relationship with their therapist.
According to this view, therapy is understood as a process of caring, empathic conversations within which clients can derive new meanings. Rather than focus on the person who supposedly has the problem. Collaborative therapy focus on the people who view the situation as a problem with the system member. This can be a family member, a friend, or someone from the community. People are part of the problem if they are involved in the conversation describing the problem.
The Treatment Path
Collaborative Dialogue, as it is applied in the BSDT approach in therapy, offers the opportunity for people “trapped” into stories of failure and distress, to free themselves from the power of debilitating problems created in the context of those stories and supported by the significant people involved, including mental health professionals as well.
The therapist, in the role of an active, responsive listener, asks conversational questions that stimulate clients to view the problem in a new light. The system creates the problem, thus the system is organized around the problem. The problem-determined system eventually dissolves as clients and therapists generate new meanings about the problem and clients take new actions to resolve it. Problems are not solved or cured in this model; they are dissolved through conversation and working on the system around the problem. Once the problem is dissolved, the system that was organized around it also dissolves.