Exploring New Models in Counselling: Egan, Mindfulness, and Eclectic Approaches

No single counselling approach works for every client. Human beings are too complex, too varied in their struggles and backgrounds, for a one-size-fits-all model to succeed. This reality has pushed the field of counselling forward, giving rise to newer frameworks that prioritize flexibility, self-empowerment, and present-moment awareness. Three models stand out in contemporary practice: the Egan Skilled Helper model, mindfulness-based counselling, and eclectic therapy. Each one addresses the limits of older, more rigid approaches – and together they represent a shift toward truly client-centred care.

The Egan model: a structured path to self-reliance 🔗

Gerard Egan’s Skilled Helper model, first published in 1975, remains one of the most widely taught frameworks in counselling today. Its central purpose is not to solve clients’ problems for them but to build their capacity to manage challenges independently. Egan described his goals clearly: to help people manage their problems in living more effectively, and to help them become better at helping themselves in their everyday lives.

The model is structured around three sequential stages, though in practice a counsellor may move back and forth between them depending on the client’s needs.

Stage 1: exploring the current picture 🔗

The first stage provides a safe space for the client to tell their story in their own way, to be fully heard and acknowledged. The counsellor relies heavily on active listening, open questions, paraphrasing, and reflection. Egan drew from Carl Rogers’ core conditions here – empathy, congruence, and unconditional positive regard – as the foundation for building trust. He also introduced the concept of SOLER to guide nonverbal communication: facing the client squarely, maintaining an open posture, leaning toward them at times, keeping good eye contact, and remaining relatively relaxed. These behaviours signal full engagement and help the client feel safe enough to open up.

The counsellor also gently helps the client identify blind spots – gaps in their perception of their own situation – using empathic reflections and carefully timed challenges.

Stage 2: building the preferred picture 🔗

Once the client has explored their situation, the focus shifts to possibilities. This stage helps clients break through blind spots and choose problems or opportunities to work on. The counsellor encourages the client to imagine what a better future could look like, asking open questions about their ideal scenario. This is where goal-setting begins. The process requires deeper empathy and the ability to link individual issues into broader themes, helping the client prioritise what matters most.

Stage 3: planning the way forward 🔗

The third stage helps clients develop strategies for accomplishing their goals – seeing that there are many different ways of achieving them, choosing the best-fit strategies, and crafting a concrete plan. The counsellor supports brainstorming, creative problem-solving, and evaluating the potential consequences of different actions. Egan referred to an “action arrow” running through the model to emphasise that results depend on real-world action, not just insight.

What makes the Egan model distinctive is its pragmatic eclecticism. It does not commit to a single theory of personality or pathology. Instead, it provides a flexible map for the helping process, one that keeps the client’s agenda central throughout. By empowering individuals to identify their own strengths, resources, and solutions, the model fosters a sense of ownership and self-reliance.

Mindfulness-based counselling: working with the present moment 🔗

The foundation of mindfulness-based counselling lies in the Buddhist tradition of mindfulness meditation. In the 1970s, Jon Kabat-Zinn brought these ancient practices into clinical settings, developing Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) to help patients manage chronic pain and stress. Since then, mindfulness has become one of the most researched and widely adopted approaches in modern mental health care.

At its core, mindfulness-based counselling asks clients to pay deliberate attention to their present-moment experience – thoughts, emotions, and physical sensations – without judging or trying to change them. Mindfulness asks the practitioner to focus deliberate attention on the present experience in a way that is nonjudgmental and non-striving. This shift in attention alone can interrupt patterns of rumination and anxiety that keep clients stuck in cycles of distress.

Key approaches within mindfulness-based counselling 🔗

Two structured programmes dominate the field. MBSR combines mindful meditation, yoga, body awareness, and cognitive-behavioural techniques. The 8- to 10-week intervention has been shown to improve psychological function, reduce stress, increase self-compassion, and reduce binge-eating behaviour. Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT), developed specifically for depression, integrates mindfulness practices with cognitive therapy. Evidence from studies highlights the effectiveness of MBCT in reducing symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress, and it has also been shown to enhance cognitive functions and emotional regulation across diverse populations.

Beyond these programmes, mindfulness has been adapted for substance use disorders (Mindfulness-Based Relapse Prevention), eating disorders, PTSD, and anxiety disorders. Beneficial effects of mindfulness-based interventions have been found on depression, anxiety, stress, insomnia, addiction, psychosis, pain, hypertension, weight control, cancer-related symptoms, and prosocial behaviours.

What the evidence shows 🔗

Mindfulness-based interventions consistently outperform non-evidence-based treatments and active control conditions such as health education, relaxation training, and supportive psychotherapy. A landmark study published in JAMA Psychiatry found that mindfulness was as effective as anti-anxiety medication in treating anxiety disorders – a finding that has significantly raised the profile of mindfulness in clinical practice.

A 2025 clinical trial published in The Lancet Psychiatry confirmed that mindfulness-based treatment can be beneficial after non-remission from major depressive disorder following psychological, stepped care treatments – establishing it as a viable further-line treatment for patients who have not responded to other approaches. Mindfulness-based counselling is not a passive intervention. Clients are active participants, learning skills they can use independently long after sessions end, which aligns it closely with the self-empowerment goals seen in the Egan model.

Eclectic counselling: tailoring therapy to the individual 🔗

Eclecticism, or integration, is now the most common theoretical orientation among counsellors and psychotherapists. Rather than committing to a single school of thought, eclectic counsellors draw on techniques from multiple therapeutic traditions – choosing what fits the specific client, the specific problem, and the specific moment in therapy.

Eclectic therapy, also known as integrative therapy, is a therapeutic approach that combines techniques from various therapeutic modalities to tailor treatment to individual client needs. A counsellor might use cognitive-behavioural techniques to address distorted thinking, psychodynamic exploration to uncover deeper patterns, and person-centred approaches to build the therapeutic alliance – all within the same case.

Technical eclecticism vs. theoretical integration 🔗

It is worth distinguishing between two related but different approaches. Eclectic psychotherapy selects convenient techniques from various approaches, while integrative psychotherapy aims at putting diverse theoretical systems together under a superordinated or metatheoretical system. In practice, eclectic therapists are guided by empirical evidence about what works – they choose a technique because data and clinical experience support its use with a particular type of client or problem.

Technical eclecticism is designed to improve the therapist’s ability to select the best treatment for the person and the problem, guided by empirical data on the efficacy of different methods. This approach demands broad training – a counsellor must understand the principles behind each technique well enough to use them coherently, not simply mix and match at random.

Why clients benefit from eclectic approaches 🔗

Real-world clients rarely fit neatly into the categories that any single therapy was designed for. One of the key benefits of eclectic therapy is its adaptability – treatment can evolve based on the client’s progress, preferences, and specific goals. A client managing both trauma and depression, for instance, may need grounding techniques for the former and behavioural activation for the latter. Eclectic therapy handles this complexity without forcing the client into a single framework that may only partially address their needs.

The main emphasis of integrative psychotherapy is on the individual characteristics of the client and on the therapeutic relationship, both considered key elements of therapeutic change. The counsellor adjusts their approach based on client characteristics and preferences, making the client an active participant rather than a passive recipient of a pre-set protocol.

The benefits of newer counselling models 🔗

What unites the Egan model, mindfulness-based counselling, and eclectic therapy is a shared move away from rigid, therapist-directed treatment toward approaches that centre the client’s own experience, goals, and capacities. Each model offers distinct advantages that address the limitations of older, more prescriptive frameworks.

Flexibility. Unlike classical psychoanalysis or strict behavioural protocols, these newer models are designed to adapt. The Egan model is explicitly non-linear. Mindfulness-based approaches can be delivered in individual, group, or self-guided formats. Eclectic therapy, by definition, shifts with the client’s needs.

Empowerment. All three approaches build client agency. Egan’s model is structured around helping clients develop their own problem-solving abilities. Mindfulness equips clients with skills they can practise independently. Eclectic counsellors involve clients in understanding the rationale behind interventions, building informed collaboration.

Evidence base. Mindfulness-based interventions are effective for many common mental, physical and social health conditions across different populations. Eclectic approaches, guided by outcome research, are increasingly supported by integrative psychotherapy literature demonstrating their real-world effectiveness. Egan’s model has been adopted across counselling, social work, and health professions precisely because it translates well into practice.

Cultural responsiveness. Newer models tend to be more sensitive to cultural context. Client-centred approaches to treatment naturally facilitate culturally responsive mental health treatment, ensuring that client needs are not overlooked in the service of adhering rigidly to any given treatment model. This matters increasingly in diverse contemporary populations where a single cultural or theoretical lens is likely to miss important context.

Broad applicability. These models are not confined to a single presenting problem. The Egan model works across career counselling, mental health support, and social work. Mindfulness has demonstrated benefits across depression, anxiety, pain, addiction, and beyond. Eclectic therapy, almost by definition, has no fixed scope – it goes where the client’s needs lead.

The emergence of these newer models does not mean older frameworks are obsolete. Rather, they fill gaps and extend the toolkit available to practitioners. A skilled counsellor today is likely drawing on several of these approaches simultaneously, moving between them fluidly in response to what each client needs in each session.

What do you think? If you were seeking counselling support, would you prefer a structured, stage-by-stage model like Egan’s, or a more flexible eclectic approach tailored to your individual needs – and what would influence that preference? How do you think the growing evidence base for mindfulness-based interventions should shape the way counselling services are designed and delivered?

References

1. https://counsellingtutor.com/the-skilled-helper-approach/
2. https://www.counseling.org/publications/counseling-today-magazine/article-archive/article/legacy/is-mindfulness-a-cure-all-approach
3. https://gp-training.net/mentoring/egans-skilled-helper-model/
4. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4707273/