David Paré

Suffering and the Relationship with the Problem in Postmodern Therapies: A Buddhist Re-Visioning

ABSTRACT This article explores ways that Buddhist psychology can enrich postmodern family therapy practice. The discussion focuses in particular on Buddhist ideas regarding suffering and the relationship with suffering. We propose that Buddhist practices of accommodation to suffering offer an alternative orientation to problems that in various ways can be incorporated into postmodern therapeutic practice—specifically solution-focused brief therapy, narrative therapy, and collaborative language systems. The article compares and contrasts Buddhist and postmodern therapy ideas about relating to problems before providing examples of postmodern practice informed by Buddhist psychology.

Creating a Space for Acknowledgment and Generativity in Reflective Group Supervision

Small group supervision is a powerful venue for generative conversations because of the multiplicity of perspectives available and the potential for an appreciative audience to a practitioners work. At the same time, the well-intentioned reflections by a few practitioners in a room can inadvertently duplicate normative discourses that circulate in the wider culture and the profession. This article explores the use of narrative practices for benefiting from the advantages of group supervision while mindful of the vulnerability that comes with sharing ones work among colleagues. The reflective group supervision processes described were modified from the work of Tom Andersen and Michael White to provide a venue that encourages the creative multiplicity of group conversation while discouraging unhelpful discourses which constrain generative conversation.

Finding a Place to Stand: Reflections on Discourse and Intertextuality in Counselling Practice

This chapter draws on contemporary theory in discourse and discursive psychology to examine a counsellor education program wholeheartedly devoted to postmodern counselling practices — specifically, narrative and social constructionist approaches. The research focused on what occurs when students, accustomed to drawing on certain established professional and popular discourses, enter into a range of alternative, postmodern discourses that turn many traditional counselling assumptions on their heads. This chapter focuses on one particular issue that emerged from the research dialogue: the challenge, in practice informed by postmodernism’s embrace of multiplicity, of not reifying one’s theoretical orientation, of not promoting a grand narrative that duplicates the univocal tradition of psychology. A response to this dilemma that emerged from the study involved locating one’s practice within an ethical domain, rather that identifying it with any one “pure” theoretical model. One participant called this working from “a place to stand”.