Ecological Counseling is an approach to the conceptualization of human issues that integrates personal and environmental factors by focusing on their interaction. By doing so, divergent forces that converge through the development of a human life can be organized into a logical and coherent narrative. This process attempts to assist people in the recreation of their lives, as is the case with the various forms of counseling.
The theoretical structure of this approach emerges from the integration of
field theory,
phenomenology
Phenomenology may refer to:
Art
* Phenomenology (architecture), based on the experience of building materials and their sensory properties
Philosophy
* Phenomenology (philosophy), a branch of philosophy which studies subjective experiences and a ...
, and
constructivism
Constructivism may refer to:
Art and architecture
* Constructivism (art), an early 20th-century artistic movement that extols art as a practice for social purposes
* Constructivist architecture, an architectural movement in Russia in the 1920s a ...
. In 1935,
Kurt Lewin
Kurt Lewin ( ; 9 September 1890 – 12 February 1947) was a German-American psychologist, known as one of the modern pioneers of social, organizational, and applied psychology in the United States. During his professional career Lewin applied hi ...
, a German Gestalt psychologist, articulated that human behavior is a product of personal and environmental factors and formulated the equation B=(PxE).
Urie Bronfenbrenner
Urie Bronfenbrenner (April 29, 1917 – September 25, 2005) was a Russian-born American psychologist who is most known for his ecological systems theory.Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979).The ecology of human development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University ...
expanded Lewin's work in 1979 into
Ecological Systems Theory
Ecological systems theory (also called development in context or human ecology theory) was developed by Urie Bronfenbrenner. It offers a framework through which community psychologists examine individuals' relationships within communities and th ...
. Ecological Counseling posits that the person is inextricably situated within radically specific and interdependent ecological systems. Additionally, the individual carries particular capacities, limitations, temperaments, preferences, symbolic representation systems and personal historicity through the varying environmental settings in which the person lives. The interactions between the person and environment result in the construction of the individual ecological niches. These niches are what we experience as our world.
Ecological counseling seeks to understand people's ecological niches and assist them to live a satisfying life. This is accomplished by improving one's interactional quality, or concordance, through counseling intervention at both the personal and environmental levels.
Ecological Counseling has implications for clinical counseling practice, counselor training, group work, career counseling, social service delivery, research, social justice initiatives, community intervention, consultation, supervision, and human growth & development.
See also
*
List of counseling topics
Counseling is the professional guidance of the individual by utilizing psychological methods especially in collecting case history data, using various techniques of the personal interview, and testing interests and aptitudes.
This is a list of co ...
External links
http://cech.uc.edu/programs/counseling/employees.html
Counseling