class="bi x0 y0 w0 h1"
Consultee-Centered
Consultation
Improving
the
Quality
of
Professional
Services
in
Schools
and
Community
Organisations
The
Consultation
and
Intervention Series
in
School Psychology
Sylvia
A.
Rosenfield,
Series
Editor
Lambert/Hylander/Sandoval
•
Consultee-Centered Consultation:
Improving
the
Quality

Berkeley
Ingrid
Hylander
University ofLinkoping, Sweden
Jonathan
H.
Sandoval
University
of
California
at
Davis
LAWRENCE ERLBAUM
ASSOCIATES,
PUBLISHERS
2004
Mahwah,
New
Jersey London
Copyright
©
2004
by
Lawrence
Erlbaum
Associates, Inc.
All
rights
reserved.
No

of
Congress
Cataloging-in-Publication
Data
Consultee-centered consultation
:
improving
the
quality
of
professional
services
in
schools
and
community organizations
/
edited
by
Nadine
M.
Lambert, Ingrid Hylander, Jonathan
H.
Sandoval
p. cm.
Includes
bibliographical references
and
index.
ISBN

durability
1
.
Printed
in the
United States
of
America
10
987654321
Contents
Part
I
Theoretical Advances
in
Consultee'Centered Consultation
These
papers
provide
a
history
of
consultee-
centered
consultation
as a
method
for
promoting
the

3
Perspective
on
Goals, Process,
and
Theory
Nadine
M.
Lambert
2
Recent Advances
in
Mental Health Consultation
21
and
Collaboration
Gerald Caplan
3
Constructivism, Consultee-Centered Consultation,
37
and
Conceptual Change
Jonathan
Sandoval
4
Analysis
of
Conceptual Change
in
Consultee-Centered

the
authors
address
the
following:
A. the key
factors that support
the
consultation
process including.:
the
general
structure
of
the
organization;
the
culture
of
the
organization;
how
consultation
is
initiated; entry approaches into
the
organization
and the
individuals responsible
for the

consultee
pro-
mote conceptual change
as
evidenced
by:
changes
in the
ways that
the
problem
is
presented
by the
consultee
and
consultant;
and,
changes
in the
ways
that
the
problem
is
represented
or
understood
by the
consultant

Training Challenges
Brent
Duncan
7
Facilitating Conceptual Change
in New
Teacher
101
Consultation
Groups
Leslie
Babinski, Steven Knotek
&
Dwight
L.
Rogers
8
Alternative School Psychological Services: Development
115
of
a
Model Linking Theory, Research,
and
Service Delivery
Chr^se Hatzichristou
9
Multicultural
Consultee-Centered Consultation:
135
Supporting

12
Consultee-Centered Consultation
in Low
Feasibility
189
Settings
Ruth
B.
Caplan-Moskovich
and
Gerald
Caplan
13
Consultation
and
Administrative Coordination
205
in a
Special
Day
Treatment Setting
Eva
Rubin
and
Marjatta
Eladhari
Corporate Settings
14 The
Consultation Process
in

describe
techniques
and
processes
involved
in
consultee-centered
consultation
that
promote
engagement
in the
process
and
new
conceptualizations
in
both
the
presentation
and
representation
of the
professional
problem.
16
Complicating
the
Thinking
of the

of the
Client
Marianne
Brodin
19
Allowing Ambiguity
and
Listening
to the
Contradictions
281
Solveigh
Thorn
viii
CONTENTS
20
Anger
and
Gender
in
Consultation
293
Elin
Michelsen
21
Using Metaphors,
Parables
and
Anecdotes
in

Dialogue:
The
Right
Words
339
at
the
Right Time
Sylvia
Rosenfield
25
Developing Through Discourse: Speech Genres
as
Pathways
351
to
Conceptual Change
Steve
Knotek
26
Reflectivity
in
Consultation
361
Margaret
Garcia
Part
IV
Evidence
of the

of
con-
sultation
involves
assessing
the
conceptual
development
that
occurs
for the two
or
more
participants
in the
process
and the
effects
of
this
change
on the
clients.
27
Identifying
Change
in
Consultee-Centered Consultation
375
Ingrid

promoting
the
well-being
of the
population,
and
show
how the
method
has
evolved over
the
years
to
become
an
approach with broad applications serving
professionals
and
their clients
in
school
and
community settings.
This page intentionally left blank
1
Consultee-
Centered
Consultation:
An

con-
sultation
methods introduced
in the
late 1950s
and
early 1960s. Mental health
specialists
were grappling with
ways
to
broaden
the
application
of
mental health
principles
in
community settings
to
reduce
the
prevalence
of
mental health dis-
orders,
and to
develop strategies
to
intervene with

mandates.
These
legislative initiatives outlined
a
wide range
of
interventions
by
mental health specialists
from
consultation
to
hospitalization.
The new
models
for
comprehensive community mental health services envisioned
a
cadre
of
4
LAMBERT
mental health
professionals
who
would
be
available
to
offer

1956, 1963, 1970, 1980;
Caplan,
R.B. 1993;
Caplan
&
Caplan,
1993)
as an
essential mental health service
to
schools, professional
or-
ganizations,
and
community agencies.
The
term mental health
in
consultee-centered consultation
reflected
the
fact
that
the
foundations
of
consultee-centered consultation were
focused
on
ser-

the
work
problems
of the
clients consultees sought help with, broadened
to
include,
for
example, child development issues, motivation, learning
and
behavior prob-
lems
in
schools,
family
disruption
and
conflict,
and
organizational
and
system
concerns,
not all of
which could
be
considered
as
"mental health" problems,
even

and
presents some
techniques that have proved valuable
in
enhancing
the
problem-solving
reper-
toires
of
consultant
and
consultee professionals.
The
underlying theme
of
these
presentations
is the
focus
on the
process
of
consultee-centered consultation
and
its
goal
of
promoting conceptual change
in

organizational
system
in
which
the
presenting problem
is
discussed.
It is
important
at the
out-
set
to
distinguish between consultee-centered consultation
and
client-cen-
1.
AN
INTERNATIONA!.
PERSPECTIVE
5
tered
consultation
as
both methods involve consultants, consultees,
and
clients.
Traditional
or

consultation
can
include consultee requests
for
more diagnostic information about
the
presenting
problems, advice about
whether
the
services provided
are
appropriate, recommendations
for
practice,
and
clarification
of
facets
of the
client's problem that
the
consultant
profes-
sional
is in a
position
to
answer.
The

hierarchical
and
pre-
scriptive.
The
consultant
is the
expert
who
offers
his or her
opinion
and
makes
recommendations
for
follow-up
action. Although
the
consultant
may not
nec-
essarily
see the
client
in
client-centered
consultation—such
as in
cases where

All
of
these remain characteristic
of
consultee-centered
consultation.
The
consultant
has no
administrative responsibility
for the
consultee's
work,
and no
professional responsibility
for the
outcome
of the
client's
case.
The
consultant
is
under
no
obligation
to
modify
the
consultee's behavior

of the
problem
from
their
own
perspectives.
The
discussion about
the
client occurs among
two
professional
equals.
This
coordi-
nate relationship
is
fostered
by the
consultant being
a
member
of
another
profes-
sion.
The
consultant
has no
predetermined body

the
work problem,
if
he or she
decides that
it is
relevant
and
wants
to use it. A
consultee asks
for
consultation
from
someone that
he or she
trusts
and from one
who
has
professional experience
and
knowledge
in
another
field.
6
LAMBERT
The
consultant acknowledges that

assisting
the
consultee
to
manage
similar
problems
in the
future.
The aim is to
effect
changes
in the
consultee's
performance
and not his or her
sense
of
well-being.
Consultee-cen-
tered consultation does
not
involve
the
discussion
of
personal
or
private material,
and the

on
Education
and
Rehabilitation
of
Handicapped Children,
1959)
authorized
a
major
research program
in
1958
to
study
and
recommend methods
for
identification
and
education
of
children
who
were described
as
"emotionally
disturbed," (later changed
to
"emotionally

State Department
of
Education
re-
search
staff
(Bower,
1958, 1959-1960).
The
research program undertook
the
establishment
and
evaluation
of the
merits
of an
array
of
services reflecting
the
seriousness
of the
child's problems,
from
help
to the
teacher when
a
child could

who
could
not
attend
school.
As
model programs were
be-
ing
established
in
many
school
districts
in
California,
the
Federal
Government
was
receiving testimony
on the
mental health needs
of
children
from
a
National
perspective. Many mental health
and

was
inevitable that
the
research
team
directing
the
California research
on
programs
for
emotionally handicapped children would
become
involved
in the
community mental health movement
and its
leaders, among whom were Gerald
Caplan,
borrowing
from
their experience
those
programs that might
be
adopted
1.
AN
INTERNATIONAL
PERSPECTIVE

Caplan (1956, 1963).
The
California research team included "consultation
to
teachers"
as one of the
programs
to be
implemented
and
evaluated.
For the re-
search
effort
mental health professionals
from
the
community were employed
to
provide
consultee-centered mental health consultation
to
teachers
in the
school district research sites. Some
of the
consultants
had
studied with Caplan
at

the
efforts
of the
consultants
who
were assigned
to the
teacher consultees.
It
was the
responsibility
of the
research
staff
to
negotiate with
the
school dis-
tricts
the
actual contracts
for the
services
that
would
be
provided including
the
consultant's weekly meetings with teachers,
the

to
"educationally handicapped"
and
services were authorized
for
reimbursement
ranging
from
consultation
to
teachers
to
home
and
hospital
in-
struction, depending
on the
nature
and
severity
of the
presenting problems
of
the
child. Methods
for
identifying
children
in

restrict
the
consultation services
to
those provided
by a
mental health professional
from the
community,
but
facilitated
the
expansion
of the
role
of
school psychologists
to
include consultation
to
teachers
as a
strategy
for
discussions about problems
with
students without having
to
rely
on the

Health
Services
Act of
1963,
or the
California
8
I.AMBERT
State Department
of
Education legislation
for
educationally
handicapped chil-
dren
in
1963 should
be
interpreted with respect
to the
extent
to
which those
who
provided consultation received
any
training
in
this
new

academic development
of
chil-
dren,
and the
prevention
of
school
failure.
School
psychologists,
in my
vision,
would
gradually
become more visible
on
school sites,
by
moving
out of
their
of-
fices
administering tests
and
meeting
with parents
to
obtain consent

how
learning
how to
read could promote mental health,
how
consultee-centered
consultation
would broaden
the
service delivery
op-
tions
for
school psychologists
to
assist teachers
to be
cognizant
of and
more
re-
sponsive
to the
needs
of
children
with problems,
how
education
had

consultee-centered
consultation
had
shown
its
value when pro-
vided
by
community-based consultants
and was
sanctioned
by the
State Legis-
lature
for
school psychological service delivery systems,
the
task ahead
was to
inform
educational professionals
and
school
psychologists
of the
preventive
agency
for
consultee-centered consultation,
and to

as he or she was
learning
the
specialty
was
debated.
When
I
went
to
Berkeley
in
1964
to
develop
a
doctoral level school psychology
program,
I
pursued
the
challenge
I
laid down
as
president
of
CASR
the
Berkeley

con-
sultant
for
students during their year-long service
to
teachers
as
well
as a
training
supervisor
who
monitored both
the
process
of
acquiring
consultation
skills
as
well
as
the
professional
standards students were
to
demonstrate
in
their school place-
ments (Lambert, Sandoval,

critical challenge
of
examining
more closely
the
process
of our
consultation
efforts,
and the
contrasts
between services
offered
by
community-based consultants,
and
those provided
by
consultants
who
were school-based.
Several
issues
facing
the
school-based
consul
tee-centered
consultant
had to

the
effort
being
seen
as one
where
the
teacher
was
being evaluated, diagnosed,
or
treated
rather
than
one of
egalitarian information-sharing
and
joint problem solving
about
the
student.
Still
another issue
was the
extent
to
which
the
consultant
had an

or to
special education
or to get
counseling ser-
vices.
And
finally,
the
matter
of
responsibility
for
follow-up action
was ex-
pected
to be
more
difficult
for the
school-based consultant whose salary
was
being paid
from
the
same
source,'and
who
might have problems
not
being

but
rather
the
process that
was
taking
place.
We
observed
that
the
student consultees could become proficient
at
providing
consultation services, ameliorating
our
concern
that
they would
have
to be
fully
trained professionals before consultation training. They
be-
came informed
and
knowledgeable about teacher perspectives,
issues
in
teaching, ways that teachers reacted

to
consultation. Many
of
these approaches
reflected
the
"adjective"
in
front
of
consultee-centered
con-
sultation.
Consultee-centered
mental health consultation
was
concerned with
consultee work problems
of a
mental health nature invoking
the
consultant's
psychodynamic
theoretical
framework
(James,
Kidder,
Osberg,
&
Hunter,

in
the
classroom
(Keys,
1986).
Organizational consultation focused
on
organiza-
tional development
and
systems theory
(Vernberg
&
Repucci, 1986)
and
viewed
presenting problems
as
reflecting larger problems within
the
school
or
district.
The
espoused
theories
of the
consultant began
to
drive

the
teachers encountered.
And
students, like their professors, were
not
omniscient.
But
consultants needed
a
broad theoretical perspective,
and
could
not
rely
on
any
single theoretical model
if
they were
to be
responsive
to the
teacher's con-
cerns with students.
These
early descriptions
of the
consultee-centered
consultation method
were focused

foremost among these
distinctions
was
whether
the
consultation
was
hierarchical
or
nonhierarchical
and
prescriptive versus
not
prescriptive.
At the
core
of
consultee-centered
con-
sultation
as it
evolved
at
Berkeley,
and as it has
been
developed
by
Caplan
are

developing comparable models
to
what
we
were trying.
On
October
17,
1989,
three psychologists
from
Sweden
who
were
in
Berkeley
to see the
late Millie
Almy,
a
professor
in
early
childhood
I.
AN
INTERNATIONAL
PERSPECTIVE
11
education,

the
problems
and
challenges that they experienced,
and the
strategies
for
consulta-
tion
that they
had
developed,
it was as if
they
had
been
in
Berkeley working
in
the
same school sites,
not
thousands
of
miles
away
in
Sweden. Shortly
after,
Ing-

to
attend
to
share experiences,
and to
establish
a
common ground
for
defining
the
current status
of the
consultee-centered consultation
method.
The
initial
meeting
was
held
in
Stockholm, Sweden
in
1995,
a
second
one in
Stockholm
in
1999,

changes
in the
consultee
as
well
as in the
consultant. Consultation processes
would
be the
defining principles distinguishing
consultee-centered
consulta-
tion
from
other consultation methods.
Definition
of
Consultee-Centered
Consultation—
A
Consensus
From
the
Seminar
Participants
At
each meeting
of the
Seminar
on

consultation
emphasizes
a
nonhierarchical, nonprescriptive help-
ing
role relationship between
a
resource (consultant)
and a
person
or
group (consultee)
who
seeks professional help with
a
work problem involving
a
third party
(client).
This
work problem
is a
topic
of
concern
for the
consultee
who has a
direct responsibil-
ity

of the
consultation process
is the
joint development
of a new way of
con-
ceptualizing
the
work problem
so
that
the
repertoire
of the
consultee
is
expanded
and the
professional relationship between
the
consultee
and the
client
is
restored
or
improved.
The
chapters
in

professional
seeks information
or
confirmation
from a
specialist,
is
clearly
fo-
cused
on
case
findings
about
the
client.
These
findings
can
include more
infor-
mation about
the
presenting problems, advice about whether
the
services
provided
are
appropriate,
or

expertise
is
appropriate
to the
request
to see or
evaluate
the
client's
problem
and to
offer
an
evaluation
of the
problem along with recom-
mendations
to the
consultee
professional.
However,
the
process changes when
the
focus
of the
consultation
shifts
to
the

the
consultee
with
the
consultee's problems rather that
to
assist
the
consultee with
the
development
of
alternatives
to
help
the
client.
Or the
novice consultant
who has
developed diagnostic
and
intervention theories
may see the
consultee
as
the
consultant's agent
in
serving client needs

problems
is a
major
shift
in the
roles
of
the
consultant
and
consultee.
The
process
of
discussion also
differs
sub-
stantially
between client-centered
and
consultee-centered consultation
from
hierarchical
and
prescriptive
to
nonhierarchical
and
nonprescriptive.
Consultee-centered consultation

consultant does
not
determine
or
advise
on the
course
of
action
for the
consultee,
but
facilitates
consultee
consideration
of
relevant
follow-up
courses
of
action.
The
literature
on
consultee-centered consultation pro-
vides
a
variety
of
strategies

the
consultant does
not
apply
his or
her
expertise directly
in an
effort
to
improve
the
performance
of the
consultee.
Possibly,
it is the
this
feature
of
consultee-centered
consultation—that
of
the
joint
problem solving relationship between
the
consultant
and the
consultee with

the
trainee
or the
client.
And it is
this
context
of the
shared expertise,
and
shared theoretical perspec-
tives,
in the
discourse between
the
consultant
and
consultee where
the
process
of
consultee-centered consultation becomes
differentiated
from
the
type
of
consultation where
the
consultant applies

consultee,
and the
consultant—pro-
vide
three
ways
to
examine
the
process
and the
relevance
or
appropriateness
of
selected
theoretical applications.
The
Client
The
nature
of the
case,
the
setting
in
which
the
client resides
or

is
seeing
the
client
di-
rectly,
and is
expected
to
take responsibility
for the
client
as in
client-centered
consultation,
the
consultant would likely select
from
among
his
expert theo-
14
IJVMBERT
retical
perspectives
the one
that
offers
the
most robust explanation

consultee's observations
and
information about
the
client
are
processed through
the
consultee's professional theories
and
par-
ticular
biases
and
perspectives. During
the
reciprocal consultation exchange,
the
consultant encourages
the
consultee
to
offer
relevant explanations
and
information about
the
work problems,
and the
consultant's questions, obser-

the
goals
the
consultee
wishes
to
achieve
or for
which help
is
requested,
and the
range
of
alternatives
available
to the
consultee
in
resolving
the
problem.
A
novice consultant
is
tempted
to
understand
the
client's problem

consultee
issues
discussed
in the
consultation
literature—such
as
lack
of
knowledge, lack
of
objectivity, theme
interference—can
call
the
consultant's
attention
to, and
invite
the
application
of,
various direct approaches
to
assist
the
consultee
to
resolve
the

his or her
theoretical perspectives,
re-
flects
on
explanations
of the
client's behavior,
the
consultee
offers
her
perspec-
tives
and the
process promotes
the
consultee's development
of an
appropriate
resolution
of the
problem.
The
objectives
of
consultee-centered
consultation
are
compromised when

and
hunches about possible solutions
are not
highlighted. With-
out
shared expertise
in a
reciprocal dialogue about
the
case,
the
consultee-
cen-
tered consultation
goals
would
fail
to be
realized.
1.
AN
INTERNATIONAL
PERSPECTIVE
15
The
Consultant
The
professional expertise
of the
consultant

is
often
not
considered. Both
issues
of
professional background,
as
well
as
training
and
experience should
be
resolved
before
the
consultation begins.
The
consultee-centered
consultant could
be a
mental health professional,
a
health professional,
an
education
professional,
or
from

of the
consultee. This would
be
reflected
in
types
of
questions asked,
redirection
of
requests
for
advice, clarification
of
what
has
been
attempted,
and
exploration
of the
resources available.
In
such interactions,
the
consultant aims
to
clarify
the
consultee's presentation

inter-
action,
the
consultant searches
his or her
theoretical repertoire
for
appropriate
representations
of the
problem.
A
joint solution
of the
consultee's work problem
results
from the
reciprocal nature
of the
consultee-centered process.
We
have removed
the
adjectives
in our
definition
of
"consultee-centered
consultation"
to

forces
in the
environment
that
must
be
accounted for,
and
interpreting
and
applying professional perspectives
and
scientific theories
to the
develop-
ment
of
strategies
to
resolve
the
consultee's work problem with
the
client.
Principles
of
Consultee-Centered
Consultation
The
following

a
consultant, consultee,
and
clients
and
take into account
the
ecological
or
organizational
system
in
which
the
presenting problems
arise.
3. All
consultation
efforts
are
guided
by
explicit
or
implicit
agreements
about
the
role
of

affective,
and
motivational components
in the
consultation
effort.
6.
Consultees
are
always
free
to
accept
or
reject
results
of
consultation
ei-
ther
explicitly,
or by
failing
to
implement changes.
7.
Consultation centers attention
on the
professional
work

1.
Consul
tee-Centered
Consultation
is a
problem-solving
interaction
in
which
the
consultant assists another professional
to
develop
new
ways
of
conceptualizing client/organizational problems
and
interventions.
2.
In
Consultee-Centered
Consultation,
the
"client"
may be a
single case
discussed
by one or
many consultees, many cases discussed

problems.
4.
The
attention given
to the
"client"
in
Consultee-Centered
Consul-
tation
enables
the
process
to
center
on the
ways
the
consultees con-
ceptualize
client
or
organizational problems
and
enables
the
consul-
tant
and
consultee