Paradigms and Epistemologies in the Promotion of Therapeutic Change: A Synoptic Re-Examination

Abstract

Although psychological clinicians in Africa and the wider world are usually exposed to several paradigms and epistemologies for promoting therapeutic change in clients, not many of these clinicians tend to look back and draw their clinical guidance from most of those therapeutic approaches and philosophies. Rather a vast majority of practising clinicians tend to adopt only one of those existing therapeutic paradigms or epistemologies, ignoring others, influenced by the conviction that psychological problems originate from one single master cause which when discovered and dealt with will lead to the amelioration of the challenge presented. This article argues that this tendency to adopt a single assumption theory of aetiology of human psychological problems is mistaken and needs to be reconsidered as problems which many clients present for psychological attention often do originate from multiple sources or factors. Against this background, the major objective of this article is to encourage practising clinicians to form the habit of looking back and drawing clinical insights from important variety of paradigms and epistemologies that promote effective therapeutic change which they were exposed to in the course of their training. Through such a strategy they will avoid the regrettable error of continuing to neglect important clinical approaches that they have routinely ignored but which may merit a second chance of attention in promoting their practice.