Theories

GESTALT Therapy

Focus on awareness of moment to moment experiencing and the belief that people are responsible for their own behaivor and their active participation in here and now. "AH HA" moments. Chief figure is Fritz Perls

Existential Therapy

A process of searching for the value and meaning of life. The individual must find the "will for life" People have freedom to find meaning in what they do and what they experience including the spiritual beliefs and therefore responsible. Chief figures Viktor Frankl and Rollo May

Gestalt Therapy Techniques

1. Dream Work - Clients present dreams 2. Empty Chair - Clients talk to and focus is an empty chair 3. Confrontation - Counselors point out behaviors 4. Making the Rounds - used in group responses by each member 5. I take responsibility - client makes statement and .....6. Exaggeration - overly expressing movements or gestures to make meaning apparent

Reality Therapy

The underlying problem of all clients is the same: they are either involved in a present unsatisfying relationship or lack what could even be called a relationship. Primary need is to be love, belong, and feel worthwhile "WDEP" W= wants and needs; D= direction and doing; E= evaluation; and P = planning and commitment. Chief figures is William Glasser and Robert Wubbolding

Behavior Therapy

Based on the belief that all behavior is learned. Goals of therapy are to eliminate maladaptive behavior while learning adaptive behavior. Stresses current behavior and measurable treatment goals. the behaviorists theorized that human activity was based on a learning model depending upon trial and error. Behavior that produced a pleasurable or useful result was retained and all other behavior was ignored and abandoned over time. Clarify behavior, target behavior, goals of therapy, implement change, evaluate, follow-up assessemnt. Chief figures are Skinner, Bandura, Lazarus, and Wolpe.

Classical Conditioning

links a stimulus with a response

Positive reinforcement

Receiving something desirable as a consequence of a given behavior ( getting a hug for cleaning up your room)

Negative reinforcement

withdrawal or termination of an unpleasant stimulus as a result of performing a desired behavior ( removing the punishment after it is completed. No longer being grounded and the bedroom is clean)

Transactional Analysis

Focus on interaction, communication, early (in life) decisions , and the ability of each person to move these early decisions. Life Scripts - eache person makes one by the age of five based on interpretations of external events. 'I'm ok, you're OK, and I'm not OK and you're not OK Chief figure is Eric Berne

Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy

Stresses thinking, judging, deciding, analyzing, and doing; helping people realize that they can live more rational and productive lives, assisting people in changing self-defeating thoughts and behaviors, and encouraging clients to be more tolerant of themselves and others. Belief that thoughts influence feelings and behaivor. If a person changes a way of thinking, then feelings and behaviors will be modified as a result 1. A - Activating event 2. B - Belief about A 3. C - Consequence (emotinal reaction to B) Focus on dispelling irrational beliefs through confrontation and re-education Recommended for clients with mental impairments. Chief figure is Albert Ellis.

Family Therapy / Transgenerational Family Therapies

Families and other natural systems respond in organized pattern behaviors. Goal is to help individuals differentiate from their family's emotional togetherness. Chief figure is Murray Bowen

Experiential Family Therapy/ Brief Faimly Therapy

stresses the importance of congruent communication both between others and within self. If individuals are able to become more in touch with the messages within themselves, they are then able to communicate more congruently with others. Focus on pwer games in family and solving problems using creative strategic interventions designed to bypass resistance. Chief figures are Virginia Satir and Carl Whittakerm Kyuge; Luige Boscolo, Gianfranco Cecchia

Family Systems Theory

Individuals are best understood within the context of relationships and through assessing the interactions within the entire family. Neither the individual nor the family are to "blame" . Genograms (family diagrams) are used to explore the family's process and rules. Chief figures a0 Alfred Adler (Adlerian family therapy) b. Murray Bowen (Multigenerational family therapy) c. Virginia Satir (Human validation process model) d. Carl Whitaker (Experiential.symbolic family therapy) e. Salvador Minuchin (Structural family therapy)

Genograms (family diagrams)

Are used to explore the family's process and rules. May include birth order and family birth dates, cultural and ethnic origins, religious affiliations, socioeconomic status, type of contact among family members, as well as proximity of family members.

Group Counseling

four stages of group development include. Stage 1 - Initial Stage - orientation and exploration, Stage 2 - Transition Stage - dealing with resistance Stage 3 - Working Stage - cohesion and productivity Stage 4 - Final Stage - cosolidation and termination. Members must beleive that change is possible. Individuals learn that others have the same bad thoughts and feelings. Deveolpment of techniques (social skills), model behaviors, and learn one must take ultimate responsibility for the way he/she lives their life no matter how much guidance and support is given by others. Small Group Process/Stages: Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, and Adjourning.

Feminist Therapy

Feminist therapists emphasize that societal gender-role expecations profoundly influence a person's identity form the moment of birth and become deeply ingrained in adult personality. Children learn society's view of gender and apply it to themselves. Cultural feminist believe opprssion stems from society's devaluation of women's strengths. Radical feminist focus on oppression of wome that is embedded in partriarchy and seek to change society thorug activism. Feminists challenge all forms of oppression through insight, intorspection, or self-awareness to free women (and men) of roles that have prohibited them from realizing their potential.

The Basic Philosophy of Psychanalytic Therapy

Human beings are basically determined by psychic energy and by early experiences. Unconscious motives and conflicts are central in present behavior. Irrationa forces are strong; the person is driven by sexual and agressive impulses. Early development is of critical importance because later personality problems have their roots in repressed childhood conflicts.

The Basic Philosophy of Adlierian Therapy

Humans are motivated by soical interest, by striving toward goals, and by dealing with the tasks of life. Emphasis is on the individual's positive capacities to live in society cooperatively. People have the capacity to interpret, influence, and create events. Each person at an early age creates a unique style of life, which tends to remain relatively constant throughout life.

The Basic Philosophy of Existential Therapy

The central focus is on the nature of the human condition, which includes a capacity for self-awareness, freedom of choice to decide one's fate. responsibility, anxiedty, the search for a unique meaning in a meaningless world, being alone and being in relation with others, and facing the reality of death.

The Basic Philosophy of Person-Centered Therapy

The view of humans is positive; we have an inclination toward becoming fully functioning. In the context of the therapeutic relationship, the client experiences feelings that were previously denied to awareness. The client actualizes potential and moves toward increased awareness, spontaneity, trust in self, and inner-directedness.

The Basic Philosophy of Gestalt Therapy

The person strives for wholeness and integration of thinking, feeling, and behaving. The view is antideterministic in that the person is viewed as having the capacity to recognize how earlier influences are related to present difficulties. As an experiential approach, it is grounded in the here and now and emphasizes personal choice and responbility

The Basic Philosophy of Reality Therapy

Based on choice theory, this approach assumes that we are by nature social creatures and we need quality relationships to be happy. Psychological problemsare the result of our resisting the control by others or of our attempt to control others. Choice theory is an explanaion of human nature and how to best achieve good relationships.

The Basic Philosophy of Behavior Therapy

Behavior is the product of learning. We are both the product and the producer of the environment. No set of unifying assumptions about behavior can incorporate all the existing procedures in the behavioral field.

The Basic Philosophy of Cognitive Behavior Therapy

Individuals tend to incorporae faulty thinking, which leads to emotional and behavioral disturbances. Cognitions are the major determinants of how we feel and act. Therapy is primarily oriented toward cognition and behavior, and it stresses the role of thinking, deciding, questioning, doing, and redeciding. This isa psychoeducational model, which emphasizes therapy as a learning process, including acquiring and practicing new skills, learning new ways of thinking, and acquiring more effective ways of coping with problems.

The Basic Philosophy of Feminist Therapy

Feminists criticize many traditional theories to the degree that they are based on gender-biased concepts and practices of being: androcentric, gendercentric, ethnocentric, heterosexist, and intrapsychic. The constructsof feminist therapy include being gender-free, flexible, interactionist, and life-span-0riented.

The Basic Philosophy of Family Systems Therapy

The family is viewed from an interactive and systemic perspecitve. Clients are connected to a living systeml a change in one part of the systme will result in a change in other parts. The family provides the context for understanding how individuals function in relationship to others and how they behave. Treatment is best focused on the family unit. An individual's dysfunctional behavior grows out of the interactional unit of the family and out of larger systems as well.

Psychoanalytic Therapy - Key Concepts

Normal personality development is basedon successful resolution and integration of psychosexual stages of development. Faulty personality development is the result of inadequate resolution of some specific stage. Id, ego, and superego constitute the basis of personality structure. Anxiety is a result of repression of basic conflicts. Unconscious processes are centrally related to current behavior.

Adlerian Therapy - Key Concepts

It stresses the unity of personality, the need to view people from their subjective perspecive, and the importance of life goals that give direction to behavior. People are motivated by social interest and by finding goals to give life meaning. Other key concepts are striving for significance and superiority, developeing aunique lifestyle, andunderstanding the family constellation. Therapy is a matter of providing encouragement and assisting clients in changing their cognitive perspective.

Existential Therapy - Key Concepts

It is an experiential therapy. Essentially an approach to counseling rather than a firm theoretical model, it stresses core human conditions. Normally, personality development is based on th euniqueness of each individual. Sense of self develops from infancy. Self-determination and a tendency toward growth are central ideas. Focus is on th present and on what one is becoming; that is, the approach has a future orientation. It stresses self-awareness before action.

Person-Centered Therapy - Key Concepts

The client has the potential to become aware of problems and the means toreslove them. Faith is placed in the client's capacity for self-direction. Mental health is a congruence of ideal self and real self. Maladjustment is the result of a discrepancy between what one wants to be and what one is. Focus is on the present moment and on experiencing and expressing feelings

Gestalt Therapy - Key Concepts

Emphasis is on the "what" and "how" of experiencing in the here and now to help clients accept their polarities. Key concepts include holism, figure-formation process, awareness, unfinished business and avoidance, contact, and energy.

Reality Therapy - Key Concepts

The basic focus is on what clients are doing and how to get them to evaluate whether their present actions are working for them. People create their feelingsby the choices they make and by what they do. The approach rejects the medical model, the notion of transference, the unconsicious, and dwelling on one's past.

Behavior Therapy - Key Concepts

Focus is on overt behavior, precision in specifying goals of treatment, development of specific treatment plans, and objective evaluation of therapy outcomes. Therapy is based on the principles of learning theory. Normal behavior is learned through reinforcement and initation. Abnormal behavior is the result of faulty learning. This approach stresses present behavior.

Cognitive Behavior Therapy - Key Concepts

Although psychological problems may be rooted in childhood, they are perpetuated through reindoctrination in the now. A person's belieft system is the primary cause of disorders. Internal dialogue plasy a central role in one's behavior. Clients focus on examining faulty assumptions and misconceptions and on replacing these with effective beliefs.

Feminist Therapy - Key Concepts

Core priniciples that form the foundation for practice of feminist therapy are the personal is political, the counseling relationship is egalitarian, women's experiences are honored, definitions of distress and mental illness are reformulated, emphasis on gender equality, and commitment to confronting oppression on any grounds.

Family Systems Therapy - Key Concepts

Focus is on communication patterns with a family, both verbal and nonverbal. Problems in relationships are likely to be passed on form generation to generation. Symptoms are viewed as ways of communicating with the aim of controlling other family members. Key concepts vary depending on specific orientation but include differentiation, triangles, power coalitions, family-of-origin dynamics, functional versus dysfunctional interaction patterns, family rules governing communication, and dealing with here-and-now interactions. The present is more important thatn exploring past experiences.