ABSTRACT
Theory is a way of looking at humans and our predicament that makes it more possible for clinicians to be of more help to more people more often. Theory is malleable, subject to interpretation and an evolutionary work-in-progress; to understand it and become the vehicle for its implementation, the clinician must look beyond the languaging of competing theories and, humanistically, at underlying observable phenomena and the common factors linking our theories. The metaphor of the rider and the elephant sheds light on the two neural networks in the clinician’s brain and the management of the goals—process dialectic in counseling and therapy. The metatheory of Developmental Counseling and Therapy (DCT) is introduced and correlated with both the dialectic and current findings in neuroscience. DCT positions clients, clinicians and educators of clinicians on the same developmental continuum, providing a frame for understanding both clients’ differential response to goals-based interventions and how clinicians each respond to and interact with theory. It follows that becoming a clinician is an identifiable, intentional process of development over time.
