The bricoleur model of psychological practice

A bricoleur is a resource person enlisted when conventional procedures in daily life fail to work, and who utilizes whatever is at hand in the given situation to effect a solution. The psychologist-cum-bricoleur relies on three sources of knowledge: what we all know about being human because we are human, what we know about some others because we participate in particular shared meaning systems (language and culture), and what we know about unique persons. Psychological treatment is seen as composed of three interacting part projects, namely building trust between psychologist and client, modifying the client's behavior, and modifying the client's surroundings. Actual interventions are formed by the concrete treatment situations. Finally, the differences between the bricoleur model and the standard scientist-practitioner model are examined.