2013 Volume 27 Issue 1 Pages 1-15
The aim of this research is to examine the effectiveness of a new counseling intervention model: the short-term reconstructing of meaningful life worlds (SRM), which is strongly influenced by social constructivism.
A four-step framework is used. (1) Based on a modified version of Tomm's theory of circular questions, the therapy process is newly structured as three successive phases: descriptive circular questions (DCQ), reflexive circular questions (RCQ), and practice. (2) Social constructivist skills such as circular questioning, solution-focused brief therapy (SFBT), and paradoxical intervention are integrated, and the use of these skills at each phase is clarified. (3) The client's speech acts (interpersonal actions and meaning construction), the basic elements of meaningful life worlds generated by the counselor’s intervention skills, are categorized based on Bales’ interaction process analysis. (4) The frequency of each categorized element in the descriptive and practice phases is determined, and the difference between the two phases is analyzed. Moreover, the sequence of the client’s categorized speech acts in these phases is plotted on a three-dimensional graph, and the dynamics of these sequential elements are compared in two aspects.
The effectiveness of this method of quantitative and qualitative evaluation of the change process is verified by an intensive case study.
