Section 3: Applying and Extending your Knowledge

You should now have a good understanding of developmental theories and how they can be used to gain an understanding of client issues and guide counselling interventions. In this final section, we explore further professional considerations, particularly in relation to evaluating and applying developmental theories. It is also important that counsellors seek to provide evidence-based practice by continuously reviewing and extending their knowledge.

A counsellor’s work is heavily guided by the theoretical frameworks they apply. These influence the way the counsellor sees client issues and possible interventions for addressing specific client issues or challenges. By incorporating developmental theories into their practice frameworks, counsellors are guided to consider questions such as:

However, each developmental theory makes broad assumptions and has particular strengths and weaknesses. To become a competent counsellor, you must be able to evaluate and compare these theories, and others you learn about, to determine how ‘useful’ these theories may be in specific contexts. For instance, a cognitive theory like Piaget’s is not useful for examining the impacts of critical life events during adulthood, whereas Erikson’s theory is useful for this. Conversely, Erikson’s psychosocial stages do not describe the different ways children think.

In addition, you will need to consider how applicable each theory is in light of the complexity of human development as we currently understand it. At the beginning of this module, and in Reading C, you learned about four aspects that developmental theories vary on.

The following table compares the theories you have learned based on these four aspects:

^{Adapted from Sigelman et al., 2019, pp. 83-84)}

You may notice that these classic theories generally stake an ‘either-or’ stance in the four aspects discussed here. For example, they either view development as a process that an individual has active control over or as a passive process determined by forces beyond the person. This, however, does not fit with the current understanding of development, which views development as much more complex (Broderick & Blewitt, 2015). As such, contemporary perspectives on development have to cater for the complexity of human development:

Not to forget that it is also your ethical obligation as a counsellor to ensure that you are competent and up-to-date in your practice. Counsellors are typically required to work in accordance with a professional code of practice, such as the ACA Code of Ethics and Practice, which outlines requirements for professional development and continuing education, as shown in 4.11 - Competence.

^{Australian Counselling Association, 2019, p.14}

As such, in the remainder of this section (as well as in the next module), you will learn about essential skills and knowledge that will help you develop and expand your understanding of theories of development, critically evaluate the information you retrieve from various sources, and determine how you may incorporate knowledge and learning into your own practice.

Sourcing Information

Let's begin with the first step: sourcing relevant and reliable information. There are many ways to keep up to date with emerging trends in counselling. Publications, such as textbooks, research journals and magazines, are important resources for information about counselling, including theories and practice. Reading professional journals and magazines, and making use of regular supervision and professional development activities, are all ways counsellors can continue to develop their counselling expertise. Attending regular supervision and professional development activities are also ways counsellors can access and update relevant theoretical and evidence-based practice information.

Written information about counselling, or ‘literature’, that includes information about theories and practice, is organised around several different types of publications. These include textbooks, academic journals and publications by reputable professional and research bodies.

Textbooks

Many introductory textbooks include topics on specific theories or, more broadly, lifespan development. Application of development theories in counselling are also included in general counselling and psychology textbooks and books aimed at those in counselling and psychology practice. A few examples of these that have been referred to in the development of this module include:

• Steinberg, L., Bornstein, M. H., Vandell, D. L., & Rook, K. S. (2011). Lifespan development: Infancy through adulthood. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
• Berk, L. E. (2014). Development through the lifespan (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.
• Broderick, P. C., & Blewitt, P. (2015). The life span: Human development for helping professionals (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.
• Hoffnung, M., Hoffnung, R. J., Seifert, K. L., Hine, A., Ward, L., Pausé, C., Swabey, K., Yates, K., & Burton Smith, R. (2016). Lifespan development (3rd ed). Milton, Australia: John Wiley & Sons Australia.
• Sigelman, C. K., De George, L., Cunial, K. M., & Rider, E. A. (2019). Life span human development (3rd ed). South Melboune, VIC: Cengage Learning Australia Pty Limited.
• Lilienfeld, S. O., Lynn, S. J., Namy, L. L., Jamieson, G., Marks, A., & Slaughter, V. (2019) Psychology: From inquiry to understanding (3rd ed). Melbourne, Australia: Pearson Australia.

Research articles

More specific information and emerging research can be sourced through articles generally published in academic journals dedicated to specific fields of study. Journals that publish articles related to theories of development and application include, but are not limited to:

• Journal of Counseling and Development
• Developmental Review
• Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology
• Journal of Research in Personality
• Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

Some journal articles may be freely accessible online (e.g., through Google Scholar, Research Gate, or public libraries), whereas others may require a fee or are accessible to those with membership (e.g., through universities or professional bodies). You may have noticed some of these articles included as readings to supplement your study materials throughout this diploma. The ‘reference’ section in each module is another place to find examples of research articles.

Professional bodies

The websites and magazines of and training provided by professional bodies can be valuable sources of information. For example, members of ACA get access to the body’s magazine – Counselling Australia – which publishes research articles on topics surrounding the application of various theories and models that inform counselling work. On the Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia (PACFA) website, you will also find links to various literature reviews and resources for counsellors under the ‘publications & research’ tab. PACFA also publishes Psychotherapy & Counselling Today, which is a professional journal in a magazine format.

Professional development (PD)

Professional bodies such as ACA and PACFA also offer a range of professional development opportunities for counsellors to update and expand their knowledge of theory, develop new skills, and keep up to date with new developments in the counselling field. You can find a range of PD events under the ‘professional development’ tab of their websites, which may include workshops, webinars, conferences, and short training courses on relevant areas or counselling issues. As mentioned before, contemporary approaches to counselling recognise the complexities of human development. Hence most PD or training is likely to be more comprehensive or focused on using integrated models that are informed by one or more of these development theories. In addition, there is a range of podcasts and videos that are available on relevant counselling issues. For example, the Australia Counselling Podcast is a radio show dedicated to helping counsellors, psychotherapists, and other helping professionals.

Critically Evaluating Information

With technological advancement, there are now more opportunities than ever for counsellors to develop and extend their knowledge and skills conveniently and efficiently. However, we must be cautious about how we source information and critically consider if the information is credible, relevant and of good quality to inform our practice. The vast majority of websites and web-based media, including blogs, Wikipedia, TED Talks, media articles, interviews, non-academic books and journals, are non-professional and cannot be relied on for PD (even when they are written or presented by professionals, researchers, scientist, or academics).

So, how can you identify professional literature? Professional literature meets a number of criteria, including that which is:

• relevant to your field
• produced by authoritative authors
• subject to criticism and peer review.

Relevant to your field

For counsellors, this usually means counselling-focussed sources. However, depending on the context of role and clientele, this may also include literature from social work, psychology, and the behavioural and social sciences, or intersect with areas such as health, education, law, and so on.

Produced by authoritative authors

The people writing and reviewing the material have relevant, high-level qualifications and/or experience that make them authoritative in their writing area. For example, the author of a counselling text should have many years of experience in counselling, as well as relevant qualifications.

Subject to criticism and peer review

The peer review process means that multiple people with relevant expertise who are independent of the authors of the work have critically reviewed it. It is not a perfect process – some articles have passed peer review despite being inaccurate – but it is a level of protection beyond that which non-peer-reviewed sources have. Some sources often assumed to be professional, such as textbooks and other books written for counsellors, are not regularly subjected to peer review. Suppose an article is not peer-reviewed. Subject it to additional critical scrutiny. Even when a comprehensive peer review process is in place, you have a responsibility to evaluate the material critically.

Note: Checking whether the source you are reading has been peer-reviewed is not an overly complicated task. You can usually find this out from the publication information in the front of the printed journal or the homepage of an electronic journal (Hint: look for links such as ‘about this journal’ or ‘notes for authors’). You should find information that tells you if the articles published in this journal are peer-reviewed. For example, search for “Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology” online, and on its homepage, click on the link to ‘Guide of Authors’. You will see relevant information under the subheading of ‘peer review’.

Essentially, critically evaluating information means not merely believing or accepting everything you read but analysing and evaluating the ideas or arguments presented – this does not necessarily mean finding fault in the information. In the process of critical evaluation, you will ask several questions about the information (adapted from Meriam Library, 2010):

The five aspects discussed in the table formed the acronym CRAAP (Blakeslee, 2004), an evaluation tool designed to help make critical evaluation more friendly. You can use this as a prompt – by asking, “Is this CRAAP?” – to remind yourself about the important aspects and questions you must consider when evaluating information.

Generally speaking, a piece of good quality information is more recently dated, contains updated information, has been peer-reviewed and uses a comprehensive range of scholarly and peer-reviewed references in development, is written by qualified authors in a non-bias way and demonstrates sufficient evidence to support the claims being made. More specifically, for evaluating information regarding the application of theories of development in counselling practice, you should consider if the authors adopted a multidimensional perspective (e.g., considering a range of nature and nurture factors) and whether they have considered cultural differences in discussing development (Broderick & Blewitt, 2015). On the contrary, information that suggests a ‘one size fits all’ way of thinking on development (e.g., all clients go through all stages at the same time; one theory is sufficient to explain all about development) would warrant cautious attention.

Ideally, you should aim to look at several resources by different authors relevant to the area you are researching to source different points of view and help you pick up any potential biases or issues. It is also beneficial to discuss the information with experienced and knowledgeable colleagues or supervisors to determine how relevant or applicable the information is to your practice.

Integrating Knowledge into Practice

Part of your critical evaluation process will naturally include considering how relevant the information is to your work. This is important because you may not want to, or have the capacity to, spend time reading deeply into an article if it has little relevance to your practice (though you can do so for your own interest!). When considering how to integrate learning into practice, you may need to consider the following questions:

• What are the key themes and messages discussed in this information?
• What does it suggest about the practical implications of [theory of development] to counselling?
• Are the recommendations for counselling work applicable/appropriate to my practice and clients?
• If so, how can I implement/integrate these recommendations into my practice?
• Who do I need to consult with in making these decisions?

The final question is important, as it may not be obvious whether a piece of information is relevant or applicable to your practice. Working jointly with an experienced colleague or supervisor can help deepen your understanding of the information and consider if and how you should integrate it into your work. Particularly when it involves changing aspects of your practice (e.g., implementing a new intervention; or using a new technique), your supervisor can help you consider relevant organisational procedures or ethical issues. They can also support you to adjust practices appropriately in response to research.

Let’s look at a case study where a counsellor identifies a need for research, locates relevant information, and evaluates an article to determine what they would do with the information. The article reviewed is included as Reading I – we recommend you complete this reading before going on to the case study. As you read, consider how you might apply your knowledge to determine whether the article is trustworthy.

Although Miranda does not usually work with adolescent clients, she recognises a need to extend her understanding of loss and grief issues in adolescence. She carefully interprets the key messages from the article and takes notes of areas that she wants to do more research on to help her decide what information she might incorporate into her practice. She is also dedicated to seeking consultation with her supervisor before sharing any findings with her client.

Documenting and Organising Information

To aid your research and PD, it is recommended that you develop your own counselling resource system (e.g., electronic folders of research articles) so that the information is organised and easily accessible when required. Though it may sound time-consuming to have to develop a systematic way to organise your resources, it can bring several benefits:

Reduces time for searching

So often, we find ourselves in the frustrating position of needing to find one item among a pile of materials but unable to remember exactly where it is! You may have a range of good information that you want to share with your clients or colleagues at times, but it is rather pointless when you cannot find it.

Convenience for evaluation and cleaning

Having an organised system to store your information can help you quickly identify outdated or no longer applicable information. If you are looking for information relevant to a particular theory of development, or a specific client issue, you are more likely to find it when files are saved under relevant file names or keywords.

Increases effectiveness of learning

Imagine that the articles in your Readings are saved across various folders or locations on your computer. How motivated would you be to complete these readings if it takes almost as much effort to try to locate them in the first place? Being organised is an important first step for effective studying, ongoing education, and PD as a counsellor.

When organising resources about theories of development, you may need to consider how or when you are more likely to access them and what is the most relevant way to find what you need in those situations. For instance, imagine that you have found a range of research articles about different theories of development you learned in this module for the purpose of your assessment. For ease of access, you may save all of them in an electronic folder labelled ‘Theories of development’ or ‘Module 4’ if you have several folders for each module of the diploma. Within these, you might divide them by specifying the most relevant topic (e.g., ‘Maslow’s Theory’ or ‘Stages of Development’. As the number of resources grows, you may need to create further subdivisions to organise articles by publication years, authors, or specifics of the approach (e.g., children/adolescents; adults).

In this final section, we reviewed ways counsellors can develop and extend their understanding of important theories for informing client work. In particular, you were introduced to the importance of skills to source, critically evaluate, and organise information in a way that supports integration into practice and continuing professional development.

As you progress through your learning journey, we will continue to explore development and behaviours from behaviourist and other learning perspectives.

• Broderick, P. C., & Blewitt, P. (2015). The life span: Human development for helping professionals (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.
• Australian Counselling Association (2019). Code of ethics and practice of the association for counsellors in Australia. Retrieved from https://www.theaca.net.au/documents/ACA%20Code%20of%20Ethics%20and%20Practice%20Ver15.pdf
• Blakeslee, S. (2004). The CRAAP test. LOEX Quarterly, 31(3). Retrieved from https://commons.emich.edu/loexquarterly/vol31/iss3/4
• Corey, G. (2017). Theory and practice of counseling and psychotherapy (10th ed). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.
• Meriam Library. (2010). Evaluating information applying the CRAAP test. Retrieved from https://library.csuchico.edu/sites/default/files/craap-test.pdf
• Sigelman, C. K., De George, L., Cunial, K. M., & Rider, E. A. (2019). Life span human development (3rd ed). South Melbourne, VIC: Cengage Learning Australia Pty Limited.
• Vossler, A., & Moller, N. (2015). The counselling and psychotherapy research handbook. London, UK: Sage Publications.