Identity wars, the counselling and psychotherapy profession and practitioner‐based research

Abstract

The counselling and psychotherapy profession has reached a watershed in its history. After a century of introspection and disputes between different theoretical orientations the profession is now facing outwards to the world. This is leading to a great deal of turmoil and upheaval. Instead of the theoretical disputes which typified the twentieth century the current disputes concern the relationship between the profession and society at large. Identity Wars have replaced the Paradigm Wars. These cover a range of practice‐orientated and research‐orientated issues. This article looks at the recently‐published book, Practitioner‐based Research: Power, Discourse and Transformation (Lees and Freshwater, 2008), from the point of view of these broader contextual developments. It discusses, amongst other things, the contribution of the book to these developments.