Consultation models: Caplan, Schein, and behavioral consultation
Last reviewed September 2026 by Dr. Andrew Wichterman · Aligned to the current NCE blueprint. Valid for exams through June 30, 2027.
AI-narrated overview made with Google NotebookLM. The written lesson below is by Dr. Andrew Wichterman.
Consultation is a triadic, voluntary relationship in which a consultant helps a consultee serve a third party. The exam tests the definition, Caplan's four types and Schein's three models.
Try to answer each from memory first, even if you have to guess. Guessing before reading makes the answer stick; reveal only after you have tried.
Defining consultation
Consultation is triadic: the consultant works with a consultee, such as a teacher, parent or agency, to help them with a client or system. It is voluntary, the consultee is free to accept or reject advice, and the consultant has no administrative authority or evaluative role, which is what distinguishes consultation from supervision. The consultee retains responsibility for the client. Consultation is also distinguished from counseling: the focus is work-related, and the consultee's personal problems are not the subject.
Caplan's mental health consultation
Gerald Caplan described four types. Client-centered case consultation: the consultant assesses a specific client and recommends a plan to the consultee. Consultee-centered case consultation: the focus is the consultee's difficulty with a case, whether lack of knowledge, skill, confidence or objectivity; theme interference is a loss of objectivity from the consultee's own issues, addressed indirectly. Program-centered administrative consultation: help with a program or policy. Consultee-centered administrative consultation: help with the consultee's functioning in administering programs. The exam tests which type fits a scenario.
Schein's three models
Edgar Schein described consultation by the consultant's role. Purchase of expertise: the consultee knows the problem and buys a solution. Doctor-patient: the consultant diagnoses and prescribes. Process consultation: the consultant helps the consultee perceive, understand and act on the process events in their environment, so that the consultee learns to solve the problem and future ones; Schein favored this model. Related terms: expert model, prescriptive mode, collaborative mode, and mediation mode from Kurpius.
Behavioral and other approaches
Behavioral consultation, from Bergan and Kratochwill, applies learning principles through problem identification, problem analysis, plan implementation and plan evaluation; common in schools. Organizational consultation and organization development address systems: Lewin's unfreezing, moving and refreezing model of change; Lippitt and Lippitt's stages of consultation. Adlerian consultation in schools, from Dinkmeyer and Carlson, and Gerald Caplan's mental health consultation remain the two most-cited traditions. The generic stages of consultation are entry, diagnosis, implementation, evaluation and disengagement.
Advocacy and collaboration
Collaboration differs from consultation in that the collaborator shares responsibility for the outcome and is often directly involved with the client. Advocacy, from the ACA Advocacy Competencies, is acting with or on behalf of clients to address systemic barriers. School counselors in particular use consultation, collaboration and advocacy as the indirect services in the ASCA National Model. The exam may ask you to distinguish these three by who holds responsibility and whether the counselor acts directly.
Without scrolling up, write everything you remember from this lesson. Then check yourself against the key terms. Recalling the whole lesson once, right after reading it, does more than reading it twice.
Ten more questions from the whole domain, with an explanation after each answer.
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