Client-Centered Consultation and
Consultee-Centered Consultation: A Comparison
March 2006
Introduction
Caplan and Caplan
(1993) make a distinction between client-centered and consultee-centered
consultation in their text, defining first the characteristics that identify or
distinguish a mental health consultant from consultants in other professional
fields. Following the guidelines of
these definitions Caplan and Caplan (1993) navigate the sometimes murky waters
that exist between consultation formats, providing some specialised
characteristics associated with each approach – such as theme interference with
consultee-centered consultation – to untangle what could otherwise appear to be
similar or the same consultation process.
The following paper attempts to pull out some of the salient points
addressed in the author’s text to demonstrate several of these differences.
