PCP'S APPROACH


In addition to PCP-authored writing about this work, the organization and its approach have been cited and described in scholarly journals, books, and the popular press. Click here to search the catalog.

 


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The Public Conversations Project brings disputants together for the kind of dialogue that shifts relationships from ones of mistrust, defense, withdrawal, or attack to those of curiosity, connection, and compassionate understanding of differences. PCP does not seek to shift people’s core beliefs and commitments around the issues that have divided them.

Many of PCP’s approaches have roots in family systems therapy methods and goals. Family therapist skills help relatives to stop seeing each other as bitter adversaries, even if they do continue to disagree on important matters.

 

Some family systems therapy influences:
  • Narrative Family Therapy (White and Epston). Every human experience can be described (storied) in many ways. Each one of those ways highlights some aspects of experience and obscures others. Any account that someone settles on may limit what that person believes is possible. Questions that stimulate people to think and talk freshly about the experiences that underlie their beliefs and positions can generate new stories of ability, possibility, and hope.
  • The Milan Model (Palazzoli, Boscolo, Cecchin, and Prata). A carefully crafted sequential questioning process can generate shifts in speaking, listening, and relationships among family members. The therapist’s inquiring stance spurs curiosity and openness in families.
  • Collaborative Language Systems Approach (Goolishian and Anderson). The therapist includes all concerned persons, exercises extreme care in listening and inquiring, and closely tracks language use. Family members are exposed to the perspectives and meanings of one another in a fully respectful process. Over the sessions, everyone's meanings and stories shift, and possibilities for going forward together are expanded.
Other Influences
  • PCP has also drawn on related fields, most notably Psychodrama. James Sacks' concept (Lee, 1981) of the "right to pass" reduces clients' anxiety, enhances their sense of responsibility for and control of what happens in the session, and mitigates power imbalances between therapist and client.
  • Appreciative Inquiry (Cooperrider and Srivastva). By guiding group members to explore the nature of positive experiences in their shared past and to envision a preferred future, appreciative inquiry inspires participants to move toward that future.
PCP and others' approaches to conflict transformation

Many people have asked how PCP's approach to conflict transformation relates to those of others. Here are some key points of similarity and difference:

  • Unlike mediation and negotiation, PCP's work does not seek to settle disputes, but focuses on shifting communication, perception, and relationships between opponents.
  • Like transformative mediation (Bush and Folger, Dukes), PCP's work accords primacy to constructive relationship development and attempts to replace stereotyping with more complex perceptions. Transformative mediation has a more flexible structure and allows or invites emotional expression as individual release. PCP’s rules and structures restrain reactive and attacking speech and promote respectful and reflective communications.
  • There are commonalities between PCP and public deliberation. Like PCP, organizations such as Everyday Democracy, Public Agenda, America Speaks, and the National Issues Forum encourage more participation in democracy through constructive discussion of important and divisive public issues. Unlike PCP, public deliberation efforts are typically intent on decision-making.