Abstract
Young and colleagues’ contextual action theory (CAT) provides an integrated framework for understanding action across the contexts of daily life, including the contexts of counselling practice. This chapter begins with an overview of how goal-directed human action is conceptualized from CAT. This includes a desctription of the perspectives from which action may be viewed; that is, manifest behaviour, internal processes, and social meaning. The levels by which action are organized, encompassing the elements, functional steps, and intentional frameworks of action are also described. The overview concludes with a description of the temporal systems of action, which include immediate action, mid-term projects, and longer-term careers. This understanding of action is then applied to the context of counselling. Specifically, five tasks that are central to a CAT approach to counselling are described. These tasks, which may occur simultaneously and any given order, are the initial creation and ongoing maintenance of an effective working alliance; assessing and identifying the organization and systems of action that are salient to the client; addressing problematic actions, projects, and careers that have been identified; attending to the client’s emotion and emotional memory; and making connections to the client’s daily life. Although empirical research on the application of CAT is only in its preliminary stages, this approach holds excellent promise for counselling practice.
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Domene, J., Valach, L., Young, R. (2015). Action in Counselling: A Contextual Action Theory Perspective. In: Young, R., Domene, J., Valach, L. (eds) Counseling and Action. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-0773-1_9
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