Training and education for therapeutic practitionership: “Trans-modern” perspectives

Abstract

In this paper I revisit the theme of therapy training, examined in this journal a decade ago in House (1996. I first outline what I mean by the term “trans-modern” in the context of debates about “postmodern” and deconstructive approaches to therapy. I then explore the configuration that therapy training might plausibly take when technological rationality's positivistic certainties are dramatically undermined, and the path to becoming a therapy practitioner coheres more closely with the trans-modern, “New Paradigm” Zeitgeist–a world-view which both acknowledges the (albeit unbalanced) contributions of modernity, yet takes us well beyond modernity's constraining limitations. To illustrate my argument I focus on and problematize the role of theory in therapy training. I conclude with some speculations about plausible paths that a trans-modern approach to therapy training might profitably take in future.

Keywords:

• future of training
• practitioner competence
• deconstruction
• postmodernity
• role of theory