Сategories of analysis within activity-oriented counseling

Abstract

This paper aims to provide an analysis of the theoretical and methodological grounds of Activity-oriented models of psychological counseling practice, along with an author's model of counseling interaction between a psychologist and a client within the framework of Activity theory.
 In contrast to majority of psychological theories, Activity theory has not yet been fully reflected in psychotherapeutic and counseling practice. As a consequence, we can see the gap in the relevant methodology of psychological care, despite of multiple theoretical and empirical research, conducted within Activity framework.
 The structure and procedure of Activity-oriented counselling is based on major categories of Activity theory, developed by S. Rubinstein, A. Leontiev, F. Vasilyuk, G. Schedrovitsky, namely: i) unity of consciousness and activity; ii) experiencing as a form of personal activity; iii) categories of activity analysis. Since the subject of counseling is the problem situation experienced by a client, the main purpose of psychological counseling is to convert the problem into achievable tasks, which requires setting a clear logic and sequencing stages of consultative process.
 It is shown that the consultant guides the client through a series of stages, which involve consistent changes.
 Those stages include following: situation scanning; positional analysis; problematizing and capturing of contradictions, repositioning and designing of new activity schemes.
 Activity-oriented counseling offers a comprehensive, context-sensitive method of client`s life story exploration and highly structured procedure, which allows psychologist and the client to retain its overall meaning and logic.
 Certainly, an active approach in the psychological practice of counselling requires further methodological developments: in particular, the development of protocols of counseling sessions and non-parametric methods of diagnosis of client advancement.