Developmental Constructivism

Developmental constructivism is an integrative approach to the theory and practice of counseling that Michael Mahoney began developing in the 1980s. Although developmental constructivism shares some of the distinguishing features of other forms of constructivism—such as emphasizing how humans (intersubjectively) construct knowledge rather than (objectively) discover “the truth” existing “out there”—it is unique in many other ways, such as its emphasis on the complex, nonlinear dynamics involved in human change processes, its interdisciplinarity, and the breadth of its integration of a wide diversity of counseling theories and their practical application. Emphasizing humans’ active construction of their sense of self and the world, the pervasive nature of organizing (structuring) processes is central to developmental constructivism.