What is interdividual counselling?
Interdividual counselling is an approach to counselling that is based upon the groundbreaking work of Jean-Michel Oughourlian and Rene Girard, among others. In it's simplest form it is about relationships and the role that desire plays in our actions. Girard first proposed that there is a distinction made between needs and desires. We need to eat and have shelter, to have heat and to sleep and to sleep; however beyond the basics we then have desires. For example we need to drink; but do we need to have champagne everyday? It might be nice but what is it that determines whether we want champagne or if water is good enough? The desire, Girard, would say is that once the basic need is satsified then we begin to move into the territory of desire, and desire is always mediated through another; we see what other people have or, more importantly, what they desire, and that becomes our desire.
In this approach to counselling we look at what the drivers are for our desires.