Counselors pride themselves on their developmental focus; however, they have generally only applied phasic theories to counseling practice and have not incorporated constructive “stage” theories into clinical work. This article begins to rectify that lack by explicating the relevance of Kegan's subject-object theory for counseling practice, by reviewing Kegan's “imperial” stage, and by applying the theory to cases in which at least one of the clients operates primarily out of the imperial stage, cases that include families and/or couples in some way. This is the third in a series of articles on Kegan's theory, begun in The Family Journal in July 2006 with an interview of Kegan and an overview of his theory.
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