Identity Renegotiation Counseling

Identity Renegotiation Counseling (IRC) focuses on improving clients’ experiences of identity validation and reducing their experiences of invalidation. IRC teaches that people have plural identities, which are continuously changing, competing for dominance, and proving to be more or less adaptive in any given situation. The goal of treatment is for clients to become more effective at working within their interpersonal contexts to resolve identity confusion and conflict. Counseling is relatively brief, generally requiring less than 15 sessions. IRC grew out of work with adolescent drug abusers but has demonstrated good results with individuals, couples, and families experiencing other kinds of identity transition such as divorce, stepfamily development, graduation, retirement, and coming out as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender.