A challenge to objective perception in hearing and seeing in counselling psychology

Purpose – Mainstream counselling psychology with its Western epistemology implies several assumptions about the therapeutic conversation. One assumption is the ability of the therapist to hear and see accurately during the therapy session. Apart from language difficulties and multi-cultural awareness, training in psychological counselling does not adequately address aspects of hearing and seeing as cognitive processors that are observer dependent and circular in nature. The purpose of this paper is to address this missing link by providing a single document addressing errors in hearing and seeing, which can then be used for training new therapists. Design/methodology/approach – Using a Western epistemology, an argument based on multidisciplinary research findings is used to challenge the ideas of objective hearing and seeing in the therapeutic conversation of the counselling activity. Findings – Research findings show that the act of hearing and seeing are personal and subjective. This would be in keeping...

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