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BJSW Advance Access originally published online on August 1, 2005
British Journal of Social Work 2005 35(6):793-806; doi:10.1093/bjsw/bch210
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© The Author 2005. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The British Association of Social Workers. All rights reserved.

Constructive Social Work and Personal Construct Theory: The Case of Psychological Trauma

Trevor Butt and Nigel Parton

Trevor Butt is Reader in Psychology and Co-Director of the Centre for Constructions and Identity in the School of Human and Health Sciences, University of Huddersfield. He is the author of Understanding People (Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan) and (with Vivien Burr) Invitation to Personal Construct Psychology (London, Whurr). He has published widely in the areas of personal construct theory, phenomenology and psychotherapy, and is the co-editor of Personal Construct Theory and Practice.

Nigel Parton is Professor in Child Care and Director of the Centre of Applied Childhood Studies, School of Human and Health Sciences, University of Huddersfield and Visiting Professor, Department of Social Policy and Social Work, University of Tampere, Finland. His most recent books are (co-authored with Patrick O’Byrne) (2000) Constructive Social Work: Towards a New Practice (Basingstoke, Palgrave/Macmillan) and (co-edited with Chris Hall, Kirsi Juhila and Tarja Poso) (2003) Constructing Clienthood in Social Work and Human Services: Interaction, Identities and Practices (London, Jessica Kingsley). He is currently writing a book entitled Safeguarding Childhood in Late-Modern Society to be published by Palgrave/Macmillan in 2005.

Correspondence to Dr Trevor Butt, Department of Behavioural Sciences, University of Huddersfield, Queensgate, Huddersfield HD1 3DH, UK. E-mail: t.butt{at}hud.ac.uk

The complex and changing relationship between theory and practice in social work has received increasing attention in recent years. Parton (2000) has advocated a constructionist approach that underlines the similarity between the roles of the researcher and the practitioner. Personal construct theory (Kelly, 1955) is one member of the constructionist family that has particular implications for social work practice. It evolved as a pragmatic approach to psychotherapy, advocating a research supervisor/student model of the practitioner/client relationship. In this article, we elaborate its application to social work practice, drawing on contemporary work in the fields of trauma and loss to illustrate its value.

Keywords: personal constructs, constructionism, theory, practice, trauma, grief


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