Ecological counseling is a form of pastoral
counseling
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 c ...
which is dependent on the meaning clients derive from their interactions with their own environment.
It is an approach that integrates personal and environmental factors to conceptualize human issues by focusing on their interaction. By doing so, divergent forces that converge through the development of human life can be organized into a logical and coherent narrative. This process attempts to assist people in recreating their lives, similar to various forms of counseling.
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.
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 (Peirce), a branch of philosophy according to Charles Sanders Peirce (1839â ...
, and
constructivism. 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 psychology, social, industrial and organizational psychology, organizational, and applied psychology in the ...
, 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, Moscow – September 25, 2005) was a Russian-born American psychologist best known for using a contextual framework to better understand human development. This framework, broadly referred to as 'ecological sys ...
expanded Lewin's work in 1979 into
Ecological Systems Theory
Ecological systems theory is a broad term used to capture the theoretical contributions of developmental psychologist Urie Bronfenbrenner. Bronfenbrenner developed the foundations of the theory throughout his career, published a major statement of ...
. 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 individual ecological niches. These niches are what one experiences as their world.
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
*
Ecological psychology
Ecological psychology is the scientific study of the relationship between perception and action, grounded in a direct realist approach. This school of thought is heavily influenced by the writings of Roger Barker and James J. Gibson and stands ...
*
List of counseling topics
References
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External links
University of Cincinnati website, Counseling Graduate Programs
Counseling