ABSTRACT

In this chapter, the author argues in favour of the idiosyncratic practice of psychotherapy. One of the fundamental axioms in the field of psychotherapy is the importance of responding to each client as a unique individual. The author discusses three such ideas: flexibility, pluralism and idiosyncratic practice. Every approach to therapy has practical procedural rules that can be interpreted flexibly or rigidly. The author also discusses the two pillars of pluralism and a number of pluralistic principles that are based on these two pillars. These pillars include: pluralism across therapeutic orientations and pluralism across perspectives. A pluralistic approach to therapy advocates that both participants in the therapy relationship have much to offer when it comes to making decisions concerning therapeutic goals and the selection of therapy tasks and methods. One of the phases that therapists tend to go through as they are learning their craft is to copy their teachers or role models.