Collaborative Therapy

Collaborative therapy is among those therapies referred to as dialogical, conversational, narrative, postmodern, and social constructionism that are informed by assumptions of postmodern and hermeneutic philosophies, and dialogue and social construction theories. Parallel to these therapies, the collaborative relationship and dialogical conversation of this approach decentralize the therapist, shift the therapist from a hierarchical strategist position to one of mutual inquirer, and encourage a natural rather than predesigned transformational process. The therapy system is considered a conversational partnership that relies on the expertise that client and therapist bring, and therefore, the system becomes less hierarchical and dualistic as compared with expert–nonexpert top-down systems. The process of the approach helps the client access, develop, and use his or her local knowledge, expertise, and resources to produce ...