Counselor Conceptual Level and Counseling: A Reappraisal

Therapists' cognitive complexity: Review of theoretical models and development of an integrated approach for training.

“…For instance, therapists' ability to attend to the changes in the process of a counseling session (e.g., changes in affect or tone) is a key component in their training (Hall-Marley, 2000). Furthermore, the ability to integrate as well as differentiate between useful and irrelevant client statements is an important task (McLennan, 1995). Accordingly, these elements should be included in a model of cognitive complexity for therapists.…”

“…Notwithstanding the aforementioned limitations of differentiation, its primary limitation is that the theory was designed to be domain general. For instance, conceptual level has yielded small relationships to domain specific tasks for teachers (Hunt, 1970) and counselors (McLennan, 1995). The motivational orientations do not specifically address the changes seen in therapist training.…”