SlideShare a Scribd company logo
5
Most read
12
Most read
22
Most read
Six Categories
of Interventions
Mark Stancombe, Psychotherapist & Counsellor
mstancombe@move-forward.org
• Because when we are with a client it is imperative to understand
how we are interacting with them
• Because we need to understand how we are received/experienced
• Because we need to understand ourselves so that we can
understand our client [“how am I experienced?”]
• Because understanding empowers us in the therapeutic relationship
• Because how we deliver ‘help’ determines success & impacts the
relationship we are building with the client
• Because NOT ALL INTERVENTIONS ARE SUPPORTIVE*
* let’s choose carefully then 
If the idea of categories seems a little technical or
impersonal [after-all, we are looking at people in a
relationship] then replace the word with ‘style’ instead..
The six styles of interventions………
• A conceptual framework for understanding interpersonal
relationships
• A means of analysing a range of possible therapeutic
interactions between a client & their helper
“ An intervention* is an identifiable piece of verbal and/or non-
verbal behaviour that is part of the practitioner’s service to the
client ”
Heron 2001
IMPORTANT: Emphasis is on what the practitioner intended
to achieve in the interaction/intervention rather than on
the actual effect
* How many interventions can you name..?
• Two Fundamental Styles - Authoritative and Facilitative. These
sub-divide into six styles
Authoritative
Therapist is giving information, challenging the other person or
suggesting what the other person should do – We can say that the
therapist is taking a more assertive/dominant role, taking
responsibility for and on behalf of the client
Facilitative
Therapist is drawing out ideas, solutions, self-confidence, and so
on, from the client that can help them to reach their own solutions
or decisions. The therapist is seeking to enable the client to
become more autonomous and take more self-responsibility
• Prescriptive
Explicitly direct the client by giving advice and direction
• Informative
Provide information to instruct and guide the client
• Confronting
Challenge* the client’s behaviour or attitude
* not aggressive. Positive & constructive. Helping client see behaviour
they have been unaware of
An Introduction to the Six Categories of Intervention perspective [based on Heron]
• Cathartic
helping the client to express/overcome thoughts or emotions
that they have not previously confronted
• Catalytic
help the client reflect, discover and learn for them-self.
Towards self-actualisation. Self-reflection, self-direction, self-
awareness
• Supportive
build up the confidence of the client by focusing on their
competences, qualities and achievements
An Introduction to the Six Categories of Intervention perspective [based on Heron]
DEGENERATE: An inappropriate intervention which is
delivered in a misguided manner. Ineffective / Potentially
Harmful Interventions
“ Degenerate interventions are rooted in lack of awareness,
in lack of experience, lack of personal growth, lack of
training “
Heron 2001
• Unsolicited
Formal relationship hasn’t been established and proceeds
without the client’s consent
Intervention is overly intrusive or disrespectful despite the
relationship having been established
• Manipulative
Inappropriate interventions motivated by self-interest or any
interest other than those of the client
Being in control is most obvious. Where the therapist always
wants to lead and never follow the client
• Compulsive
Therapist projects their own unresolved psychological problems
onto the client during the intervention. Could involve
inappropriately attacking the client, colluding with the client or
overlooking important aspects of the client’s welfare
• Unskilled
Incompetent interventions caused because the therapist has
never had appropriate training and so has no grasp of the
quality, scope or suitability of their intervention
• Prescriptive Degeneration: -
* Benevolent take-over
Creating dependency by giving advice to an insecure
client who needs encouragement to be self-directing
* Moralistic Oppression
Creating rebelliousness by imposing authoritarian ‘shoulds’
‘oughts’ ‘musts’ on a client who might appreciate the
rationale but feels emotionally compelled to reject the
way in which it is presented
• Informative Degeneration: -
* Seductive Over-teach
Excessive information giving such that the client is
seduced into passivity and away from self-directed
learning
* Oppressive Over-teach
Therapist goes-on too long, giving out too much
information, insensitive to any evidence of the client
becoming fatigued or needing to contribute. The client is
held back from self-direction
• Confronting Degeneration: -
* Sledgehammer
Therapist raises issues aggressively, displacing their own
anxiety into a punitive attack on the client rather than on
the client’s attitude or behaviour
* Smiling Demolition
Therapist says hurtful things to the client in a smiling,
friendly or jocular way. The feedback is indirect,
therefore, confusing to the client who may deny hurting
badly
• Cathartic Degeneration: -
* Encouraging Dramatisation
Therapist mistakes dramatisation for catharsis then colludes and
encourages the client to act out in disruptive and destructive
ways. The drama that created the original hurt is re-enacted
rather than the release of harmful emotions
* Nut Cracking [too deep too soon]
Therapist takes the client’s defences by storm & makes a steep
intervention into deeply buried stress, which the client isn’t
ready to handle. This can cause the client to defend more
intensely or dramatise in an uncontrolled way
• Catalytic Degeneration: -
* Implicit Take-Over [compulsive search for order]
Therapist unwarily imposes meaning & order onto the
client’s story. The catalytic intervention centres on the
practitioners’ search for meaning & not the client
* Scraping The Bowl
The therapist, with discreet compulsion goes beyond
productive enabling & tries to enable the client to find
more to talk about in the same area. Therapist becomes a
Ferret
• Supportive Degeneration: -
* Moral Patronage [or ‘your character is coming along
nicely’]
Therapist handles the anxiety associated with true caring
& sharing by climbing into the pulpit to congratulate the
client on their self-improvement. Result is client feeling
subtly insulted & put down
* Qualified Support
Therapist can only give support if at the same time the
client is reminded of their inadequacy in some respect
Perverted: -
An inappropriate intervention which is deliberately malicious
& intentionally seeks to do harm to the client. It can leave a
client disabled, disadvantaged and in distress. A perverted
intervention damages!
• Perverted Prescription: -
“The deliberate use of force, threat, pain, compulsion in
constraining a person to act against that persons’ needs and
interests”
Heron 2001
• Perverted Information
“The deliberate use of misrepresentation, lies, calumny and
slander to harm the person about whom they are put forth, or
to whom they are addressed”
Heron 2001
• Perverted Confrontation: -
“Deliberate, punitive psychological attack on a person to wound
and incapacitate him or her emotionally. Torturing a person to tell
the truth or to confess to things never said or done”
Heron 2001
• Perverted catharsis: -
“Deliberately producing cathartic collapse and disintegration
through subjecting a person to extreme mental and physical stress
and pain. The disintegrated person may then be re-integrated in
terms of imposed suggestions and indoctrination”
Heron 2001
• Perverted Catalysis
“Deliberate and malicious seduction. Both in the sexual and in the
wider sense; intentionally leading a person on to his or her own
undoing by eliciting self-indulgent and self-destructive tendencies”
Heron 2001
• Perverted Support: -
“Affirming, supporting or encouraging the weak, distorted and
corrupted behaviour of a person”
Heron 2001

More Related Content

PPTX
Infection control nursing
DOCX
my reflection
PPTX
Body defense immunity & immunization
PPTX
Ppt oil spill
PPTX
Diabetes and its Management
PPTX
Enlightenment Thinkers and Ideas
PPT
PPT ON MANAGEMENT OF CYCLONIC DISASTER
Infection control nursing
my reflection
Body defense immunity & immunization
Ppt oil spill
Diabetes and its Management
Enlightenment Thinkers and Ideas
PPT ON MANAGEMENT OF CYCLONIC DISASTER

What's hot (20)

PPTX
1 family system therapy powerpoint presentation christine moran
PPTX
Transference & Countertransference
PPT
Person centered therapy dr veera_balaji
PPTX
Shame (1) (1)
PPT
Self awareness
PPT
EXISTENTIAL THERAPY
PPTX
Couple therapy
PPTX
Person centered
PPT
Cognitvie theory of personality
PPT
07 Person Centered Therapy
PPTX
Principles and Ethical Issues of Psychotherapies
PPTX
Person centered therapy
PPTX
Behavioural Therapy
PPTX
Psychology of Betrayal
PPTX
Interpersonal effectiveness r
PDF
Cognitive behavioral therapy
PPT
Family Systems Theory
PPTX
Narcissistic personality disorder
PPTX
Ethical and Legal Constraints in Psychotherapy
PPTX
Attachment Theory and Settling
1 family system therapy powerpoint presentation christine moran
Transference & Countertransference
Person centered therapy dr veera_balaji
Shame (1) (1)
Self awareness
EXISTENTIAL THERAPY
Couple therapy
Person centered
Cognitvie theory of personality
07 Person Centered Therapy
Principles and Ethical Issues of Psychotherapies
Person centered therapy
Behavioural Therapy
Psychology of Betrayal
Interpersonal effectiveness r
Cognitive behavioral therapy
Family Systems Theory
Narcissistic personality disorder
Ethical and Legal Constraints in Psychotherapy
Attachment Theory and Settling
Ad

Viewers also liked (20)

PPT
Facilitation[1]
PPTX
¿TICs para qué? Algunas preguntas desde el enfoque de educación para todos
PDF
The Heron Mapping Client - Overview, Functions, Concepts
PPTX
Tic´s y nuevas prácticas educativas
PDF
11.seven level modified cascaded inverter for induction motor drive applications
PPT
Tutorial 2 The Professionals In Education Simon & Habermas
PPTX
Principios De La FacilitacióN
PPTX
Hebarmas interests and education
PPT
The seven level model ppt 2003
PDF
APPLIED SOCIAL THEORY: Frankfurt School and Critical Social Theory
PPT
Class 4 mezirow's transformative learning theory
PDF
Twitter Heron in Practice
PPT
Jurgen Habermas
PPT
Group Therapy
PPT
Organization Development - Intervention Processes
PPT
Transactional Analysis by Dr. Eric Berne
PPTX
Jürgen habermas
PPTX
Herramientas1 mapas mentales y mapas conceptuales
PPT
Jürgen Habermas
PPT
Facilitation[1]
¿TICs para qué? Algunas preguntas desde el enfoque de educación para todos
The Heron Mapping Client - Overview, Functions, Concepts
Tic´s y nuevas prácticas educativas
11.seven level modified cascaded inverter for induction motor drive applications
Tutorial 2 The Professionals In Education Simon & Habermas
Principios De La FacilitacióN
Hebarmas interests and education
The seven level model ppt 2003
APPLIED SOCIAL THEORY: Frankfurt School and Critical Social Theory
Class 4 mezirow's transformative learning theory
Twitter Heron in Practice
Jurgen Habermas
Group Therapy
Organization Development - Intervention Processes
Transactional Analysis by Dr. Eric Berne
Jürgen habermas
Herramientas1 mapas mentales y mapas conceptuales
Jürgen Habermas
Ad

Similar to An Introduction to the Six Categories of Intervention perspective [based on Heron] (20)

PPTX
Effective listening skills
PPTX
COUNSELLING ..pptx. .
PPTX
The therapeutic relationship
PPTX
Psychiatric Therapeutic communication.pptx
PPTX
Counselling process and skills
PPTX
guidance counselling.pptx dddddddddddddddddddddd
PPTX
COUNSELLING POWER POINT PRESENTATION FOR NURSES
PPTX
DIASS 6 - -METHODggggggggggggggggggggggggS-.pptx
PPTX
Counselling- counselling approach: dirctive, non directive, eclectic and grou...
PPTX
Therapeutic Modes - My Part
PPTX
Topic 4 theory chapter4
PPTX
counselling Type.pptx
PDF
GUIDANCE AND COUNSELLING DIP IN LABORATORY.pdf
PDF
GUIDANCE AND COUNSELLING IN HEALTHCARE.pdf
PDF
councelling-151026104634-lva1-app6891.pdf
PPTX
Councelling
PPTX
Councelling
PPTX
Counselling.pptx
PPTX
Counseling.pptxfhjhrtjnrtyhtbrgsesrhbrthbrt
PPTX
Attributes & Skills of a Counsellor_Mar 2022.pptx
Effective listening skills
COUNSELLING ..pptx. .
The therapeutic relationship
Psychiatric Therapeutic communication.pptx
Counselling process and skills
guidance counselling.pptx dddddddddddddddddddddd
COUNSELLING POWER POINT PRESENTATION FOR NURSES
DIASS 6 - -METHODggggggggggggggggggggggggS-.pptx
Counselling- counselling approach: dirctive, non directive, eclectic and grou...
Therapeutic Modes - My Part
Topic 4 theory chapter4
counselling Type.pptx
GUIDANCE AND COUNSELLING DIP IN LABORATORY.pdf
GUIDANCE AND COUNSELLING IN HEALTHCARE.pdf
councelling-151026104634-lva1-app6891.pdf
Councelling
Councelling
Counselling.pptx
Counseling.pptxfhjhrtjnrtyhtbrgsesrhbrthbrt
Attributes & Skills of a Counsellor_Mar 2022.pptx

Recently uploaded (20)

PPTX
anaemia in PGJKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH...
PPTX
JUVENILE NASOPHARYNGEAL ANGIOFIBROMA.pptx
PPTX
surgery guide for USMLE step 2-part 1.pptx
PPTX
Stimulation Protocols for IUI | Dr. Laxmi Shrikhande
PPTX
CME 2 Acute Chest Pain preentation for education
PPTX
History and examination of abdomen, & pelvis .pptx
PPTX
Important Obstetric Emergency that must be recognised
PPT
Management of Acute Kidney Injury at LAUTECH
PDF
شيت_عطا_0000000000000000000000000000.pdf
PPT
Obstructive sleep apnea in orthodontics treatment
PPT
STD NOTES INTRODUCTION TO COMMUNITY HEALT STRATEGY.ppt
PPTX
ca esophagus molecula biology detailaed molecular biology of tumors of esophagus
PDF
Copy of OB - Exam #2 Study Guide. pdf
PPT
MENTAL HEALTH - NOTES.ppt for nursing students
PDF
Handout_ NURS 220 Topic 10-Abnormal Pregnancy.pdf
PDF
NEET PG 2025 | 200 High-Yield Recall Topics Across All Subjects
PPTX
15.MENINGITIS AND ENCEPHALITIS-elias.pptx
PDF
Oral Aspect of Metabolic Disease_20250717_192438_0000.pdf
PPT
HIV lecture final - student.pptfghjjkkejjhhge
PDF
Medical Evidence in the Criminal Justice Delivery System in.pdf
anaemia in PGJKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH...
JUVENILE NASOPHARYNGEAL ANGIOFIBROMA.pptx
surgery guide for USMLE step 2-part 1.pptx
Stimulation Protocols for IUI | Dr. Laxmi Shrikhande
CME 2 Acute Chest Pain preentation for education
History and examination of abdomen, & pelvis .pptx
Important Obstetric Emergency that must be recognised
Management of Acute Kidney Injury at LAUTECH
شيت_عطا_0000000000000000000000000000.pdf
Obstructive sleep apnea in orthodontics treatment
STD NOTES INTRODUCTION TO COMMUNITY HEALT STRATEGY.ppt
ca esophagus molecula biology detailaed molecular biology of tumors of esophagus
Copy of OB - Exam #2 Study Guide. pdf
MENTAL HEALTH - NOTES.ppt for nursing students
Handout_ NURS 220 Topic 10-Abnormal Pregnancy.pdf
NEET PG 2025 | 200 High-Yield Recall Topics Across All Subjects
15.MENINGITIS AND ENCEPHALITIS-elias.pptx
Oral Aspect of Metabolic Disease_20250717_192438_0000.pdf
HIV lecture final - student.pptfghjjkkejjhhge
Medical Evidence in the Criminal Justice Delivery System in.pdf

An Introduction to the Six Categories of Intervention perspective [based on Heron]

  • 1. Six Categories of Interventions Mark Stancombe, Psychotherapist & Counsellor mstancombe@move-forward.org
  • 2. • Because when we are with a client it is imperative to understand how we are interacting with them • Because we need to understand how we are received/experienced • Because we need to understand ourselves so that we can understand our client [“how am I experienced?”] • Because understanding empowers us in the therapeutic relationship • Because how we deliver ‘help’ determines success & impacts the relationship we are building with the client • Because NOT ALL INTERVENTIONS ARE SUPPORTIVE* * let’s choose carefully then 
  • 3. If the idea of categories seems a little technical or impersonal [after-all, we are looking at people in a relationship] then replace the word with ‘style’ instead.. The six styles of interventions………
  • 4. • A conceptual framework for understanding interpersonal relationships • A means of analysing a range of possible therapeutic interactions between a client & their helper “ An intervention* is an identifiable piece of verbal and/or non- verbal behaviour that is part of the practitioner’s service to the client ” Heron 2001 IMPORTANT: Emphasis is on what the practitioner intended to achieve in the interaction/intervention rather than on the actual effect * How many interventions can you name..?
  • 5. • Two Fundamental Styles - Authoritative and Facilitative. These sub-divide into six styles Authoritative Therapist is giving information, challenging the other person or suggesting what the other person should do – We can say that the therapist is taking a more assertive/dominant role, taking responsibility for and on behalf of the client Facilitative Therapist is drawing out ideas, solutions, self-confidence, and so on, from the client that can help them to reach their own solutions or decisions. The therapist is seeking to enable the client to become more autonomous and take more self-responsibility
  • 6. • Prescriptive Explicitly direct the client by giving advice and direction • Informative Provide information to instruct and guide the client • Confronting Challenge* the client’s behaviour or attitude * not aggressive. Positive & constructive. Helping client see behaviour they have been unaware of
  • 8. • Cathartic helping the client to express/overcome thoughts or emotions that they have not previously confronted • Catalytic help the client reflect, discover and learn for them-self. Towards self-actualisation. Self-reflection, self-direction, self- awareness • Supportive build up the confidence of the client by focusing on their competences, qualities and achievements
  • 10. DEGENERATE: An inappropriate intervention which is delivered in a misguided manner. Ineffective / Potentially Harmful Interventions “ Degenerate interventions are rooted in lack of awareness, in lack of experience, lack of personal growth, lack of training “ Heron 2001
  • 11. • Unsolicited Formal relationship hasn’t been established and proceeds without the client’s consent Intervention is overly intrusive or disrespectful despite the relationship having been established • Manipulative Inappropriate interventions motivated by self-interest or any interest other than those of the client Being in control is most obvious. Where the therapist always wants to lead and never follow the client
  • 12. • Compulsive Therapist projects their own unresolved psychological problems onto the client during the intervention. Could involve inappropriately attacking the client, colluding with the client or overlooking important aspects of the client’s welfare • Unskilled Incompetent interventions caused because the therapist has never had appropriate training and so has no grasp of the quality, scope or suitability of their intervention
  • 13. • Prescriptive Degeneration: - * Benevolent take-over Creating dependency by giving advice to an insecure client who needs encouragement to be self-directing * Moralistic Oppression Creating rebelliousness by imposing authoritarian ‘shoulds’ ‘oughts’ ‘musts’ on a client who might appreciate the rationale but feels emotionally compelled to reject the way in which it is presented
  • 14. • Informative Degeneration: - * Seductive Over-teach Excessive information giving such that the client is seduced into passivity and away from self-directed learning * Oppressive Over-teach Therapist goes-on too long, giving out too much information, insensitive to any evidence of the client becoming fatigued or needing to contribute. The client is held back from self-direction
  • 15. • Confronting Degeneration: - * Sledgehammer Therapist raises issues aggressively, displacing their own anxiety into a punitive attack on the client rather than on the client’s attitude or behaviour * Smiling Demolition Therapist says hurtful things to the client in a smiling, friendly or jocular way. The feedback is indirect, therefore, confusing to the client who may deny hurting badly
  • 16. • Cathartic Degeneration: - * Encouraging Dramatisation Therapist mistakes dramatisation for catharsis then colludes and encourages the client to act out in disruptive and destructive ways. The drama that created the original hurt is re-enacted rather than the release of harmful emotions * Nut Cracking [too deep too soon] Therapist takes the client’s defences by storm & makes a steep intervention into deeply buried stress, which the client isn’t ready to handle. This can cause the client to defend more intensely or dramatise in an uncontrolled way
  • 17. • Catalytic Degeneration: - * Implicit Take-Over [compulsive search for order] Therapist unwarily imposes meaning & order onto the client’s story. The catalytic intervention centres on the practitioners’ search for meaning & not the client * Scraping The Bowl The therapist, with discreet compulsion goes beyond productive enabling & tries to enable the client to find more to talk about in the same area. Therapist becomes a Ferret
  • 18. • Supportive Degeneration: - * Moral Patronage [or ‘your character is coming along nicely’] Therapist handles the anxiety associated with true caring & sharing by climbing into the pulpit to congratulate the client on their self-improvement. Result is client feeling subtly insulted & put down * Qualified Support Therapist can only give support if at the same time the client is reminded of their inadequacy in some respect
  • 19. Perverted: - An inappropriate intervention which is deliberately malicious & intentionally seeks to do harm to the client. It can leave a client disabled, disadvantaged and in distress. A perverted intervention damages!
  • 20. • Perverted Prescription: - “The deliberate use of force, threat, pain, compulsion in constraining a person to act against that persons’ needs and interests” Heron 2001 • Perverted Information “The deliberate use of misrepresentation, lies, calumny and slander to harm the person about whom they are put forth, or to whom they are addressed” Heron 2001
  • 21. • Perverted Confrontation: - “Deliberate, punitive psychological attack on a person to wound and incapacitate him or her emotionally. Torturing a person to tell the truth or to confess to things never said or done” Heron 2001
  • 22. • Perverted catharsis: - “Deliberately producing cathartic collapse and disintegration through subjecting a person to extreme mental and physical stress and pain. The disintegrated person may then be re-integrated in terms of imposed suggestions and indoctrination” Heron 2001 • Perverted Catalysis “Deliberate and malicious seduction. Both in the sexual and in the wider sense; intentionally leading a person on to his or her own undoing by eliciting self-indulgent and self-destructive tendencies” Heron 2001
  • 23. • Perverted Support: - “Affirming, supporting or encouraging the weak, distorted and corrupted behaviour of a person” Heron 2001