Drawing on the work of many others, Jeff Young (Project Manager and Lead Researcher) developed No Bullshit Therapy (NBT), which aims to create constructive contexts for mutual honesty and directness in working relationships. Creating contexts for mutual honesty, sometimes just by stating that is how you would like to work, can be liberating and productive. If combined with warmth and care, honesty and directness can enhance intimacy, connection and trust. NBT is consistent with the general trend toward more transparent negotiations about how to work with clients, which has been shown to contribute to effective therapeutic outcomes, (Miller, Duncan, & Hubble, 2004).
NBT has five basic clinical guidelines:
- striving for mutual honesty and directness in working relationships;
- openly negotiating levels of honesty and directness;
- marrying honesty and directness with warmth and care;
- being upfront about difficulties and constraints to the work; and
- avoiding jargon.
Because it can be difficult to negotiate the counselling relationship with people who approach therapy with strong anti-therapy stances (i.e. people who hate being psychologised, see therapists as warm and fuzzy and not trustworthy, feel confounded by jargon or are disempowered by specialist knowledge), a No Bullshit Therapist may have to negotiate honesty and directness. This may be gentle negotiation for clients who are open to counselling or rhetorically for clients who are suspicious of counselling. Depending on the language of the client, the therapist may indicate early on that he or she ‘prefers to practice no bullshit therapy – where I don’t bullshit you and you don’t bullshit me.’ For people who are very suspicious of therapy, this can be a breath of fresh air and can create a context for productive straight talking- especially if combined with warmth and care, and an acknowledgement of constraints, or making overt what might get in the way of the work.
Despite its name, No Bullshit Therapy does not have to involve swearing. Other colloquial terms for honesty and directness can be used such as ‘not pussy foot around’, ‘say it straight’, ‘not walk on eggshells’, ‘cut to the chase’, ‘ be direct’ , ‘call a spade a spade’, ‘to be frank’, ‘I’m not going to sugar coat it’ etc. The shock value of NBT may be helpful to disrupt stereotypes of a professional counsellor or it may get in the way. Selecting the terminology to express the intent of the clinical guidelines requires judgment.
Strategies to help promote productive, rather than harsh honesty, include marrying honesty and directness with warmth and care, dimensions often seen as mutually exclusive. NBT encourages a weaving back and forth between these dimensions. For example, ‘I can see you want the best for your kids (warmth) but unless you can address your anger, there is not much chance of them 40 wanting to see you (directness). I’m being pretty direct with you (making directness overt) because I want the best for you and your family (care), I can see you are a decent man (warmth) and don’t want your kids to be afraid of you’ (honesty). Really believing that most clients have the best of intentions is another philosophical position that allows honesty and directness to be constructive.
NBT also encourages honesty and directness about constraints – rather than pretending they don’t exist. For example, a middle class therapist might be upfront about her class ‘I haven’t got a clue what it’s like to do it really tough (honesty about constraints) but I can help you get a meal (directness and care).’ A drought counsellor may acknowledge that ‘there is absolutely nothing I can do about the drought, and you’d probably prefer to see a water tanker than me, (upfront about constraints) but I might be able to suggest some ways you might help your family survive it intact (directness) and I get the impression you’re the sort of bloke to whom family is everything’ (warmth and care).
The NBT approach has been received well by many groups attempting to engage people who are suspicious of therapy, including drought counsellors. The general approach of NBT is not new to many workers, especially rural workers such as drought counsellors, but the theoretical framework of NBT helps legitimize their approach and provides some helpful guiding principles to extend their work and to ensure that directness is softened by warmth and care. Some of the advantages of NBT are described in an interview with Jeff Young for the La Trobe University Bulletin, including that NBT is ‘provocative, even cheeky, but it leads to a real sense of authenticity. And it has a particular resonance with Aussie culture’ (Rebecca Dredge, 2008). The term, No Bullshit Therapy, can act as a door opener to communities suspicious of counselling and was a significant reason The Bouverie Centre was funded to support the drought counsellors.
An article based on this interview, as published by Ron Findlay in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy, is available here.
(Source: Findlay, R. (2007) ‘A Mandate for Honesty, Jeff Young’s No Bullshit Therapy: An Interview,’ Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy, Vol. 28, No. 3. 165-170)
Read an article about NBT from the La Trobe University Bulletin (March-April 2008) here.
