Developmental counselling and therapy

Domain VI · Brief, integrative, trauma, hypnosis & coaching · Allen E. Ivey, Sandra Rigazio-DiGilio · 1986

What it is

What it is: DCT is not a single technique set but an integrative metatheory: a way of assessing how a client is currently making sense of a specific issue and then choosing (and sequencing) interventions from any school to fit that way of knowing. It reinterprets Piaget's stages (sensorimotor,…

Format

• DCT has no fixed session-numbered protocol in the sources; the phases below are the sequence the authors describe. Session counts are not given.
• Joining and assessment. Goal: learn the client's language and identify the predominant orientation(s) and blocks on one specific issue. Format: accommodative listening plus, optionally, the SCDI (a structured interview of an hour or more on one issue). Move on when you can state the predominant…

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• Formats: individual (DCT), couples, families and groups (SCDT); used with children, adolescents and adults, and in supervision and counsellor training. Reported applications include depression (inpatients), families, child abuse, mid-life career change, spiritual bypass, gay and lesbian identity development, learning-disabled students and binge-eating groups.

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Is there physical contact? Was it explained beforehand, and do you feel free to say no or stop at any point?
• Does it involve intense or unusual breathing? Have you been told about the medical conditions for which that is not advised?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• How do you and the practitioner understand what is happening, in spiritual or cultural terms? Is that a source of comfort, worry, or both?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• reduced conflict and more options.
• client describing strengths spontaneously.
• dropout after a premature shift (Illustration 6).
• blocks are issue-specific; re-check on each new issue.
• verify against the book before using as the authors intend.

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.