THE ADVOCATE COUNSELING MODEL: THEORY, PROCESS AND CASE STUDIES (ASSERTIVENESS, LEGAL, SOCIAL CHANGE)

The Advocate Counseling Model (ACM) is an individual and an institutional change model. For individuals, the primary goal of the ACM is to help them gain maximum legal and intrapsychic control over their lives with minimum risk by advocating for themselves. For institutions, the primary goal is to help them become more efficient and effective in meeting client needs.;The philosophical base of the model is social contract theory. Using the law as the highest authority, the AC teaches the C/L to look for discrepancies in the implementation of policies by institutional personnel and effectively use the administrative procedures of due process to update the social contract.;Implementation of the ACM utilizes an Information Resource Center (IRC) containing primary and secondary legal source materials. In the counseling process, C/Ls become familiar with the law.;The process of the ACM is divided into three distinct but overlapping phases. They are the Education, Facilitation, and Implementation phases.;This behavioral counseling model posits an Advocate Counselor (AC) with knowledge and skills in education, psychology, and law, who helps a Client/Learner (C/L) as he/she copes with (a) situation-centered problems involving dysfunctional interactions with institutions, and (b) person-centered problems arising from or aggravated by the dysfunctional interaction(s).;The primary goal of the Education phase is to develop a force choice context of alternatives and consequences related to the solution of the problems. The primary goal of the Facilitation phase is for the C/L to select one of the alternatives to implement in an effort to resolve the problems. The primary goal of the Implementation phase is for the C/L to act in an affirmative, assertive manner to resolve the problems.;The ACM synthesizes behavioral counseling with counseling methods which place primary emphasis on intrapsychic change. Situation- and person-centered problems are dealt with simultaneously.;The case histories depicted were selected to represent both complex and simple situation- and person-centered problem sets. The model has been used in individual, couples, family, and group therapeutic modes. Person-centered problems represented in the case histories include those associated with neurotic as well as character disorders. Situation-centered problems represented include landlord-tenant, student-university, post divorce-custody, and veteran's benefit conflict sets.