4 Variables that determine the amount of growth and change in any type of counseling
1. Counselor
2. Client
3. Setting
4. Theoretical orientation
Theory
A model that counselors use as a guide to hypothesize about the formation of possible solutions to a problem.
5 Requirements of Good Theory
1. Clear, easily understood, and communicable
2. Comprehensive
3. Explicit (you can test it) and heuristic
4. Specific in relating means to desired outcomes
5. Useful to its intended practitioners
6 Functions of Theory (help counselor in a practical way)
1. Theory helps counselors find unity and relatedness within the diversity of existence
2. Theory compels counselors to examine relationship they would otherwise overlook
3. Theory gives counselors operational guidelines by which to work and helps them ev
Eclectic
The majority of counselors (60-70%) identify themselves as this. They use various techniques and theories to match their clients' needs.
McBride & Martin: Hierarchy of Eclectic Practices
1. Syncretism
2. Traditional
3. Theoretical integrationism
Syncretism
-1st level of eclecticism
-Sloppy, unsystematic process of putting unrelated clinical concepts together.
Traditional
-2nd level of eclecticism
-Combines compatible features from diverse sources more thoughtfully than syncretism and in greater depth.
Theoretical integrationism
-3rd level of eclecticism
-Requires counselors to master at least two theories before making any combination.
Technical eclecticism
-4th level of eclecticism
-The idea that techniques rather than theories are used to treat clients.
-Includes Lazarus's (2008) BASIC ID
Lazarus's BASIC ID
Behavior
Affect
Sensations
Imagery
Cognition
Interpersonal relationships
Drugs
Transtheoretical Model (TTM)
-5th (final) level of eclecticism
-Developmentally based and direction-focused and purposes 5 levels of change.
5 Levels of Change in TTM
-Symptom/situation problems
-Maladaptive cognitions
-Current interpersonal conflicts
-Family system conflicts
-Intrapersonal conflicts
Counseling from a TTM perspective allows for:
-A macroscopic approach
-Person adaptaion
Macroscopic approach
involving a broad and comprehensive theoretical framework
Personal adaptation
involving an increase in critical, logical, accurate, and scientific-like thinking
Psychoanalytic Theories
-Among first type of counseling to gain public recognition and acceptance
-Freud credited with development
Psychoanalysis: Founders and Developers
Sigmund Freud, Anna Freud, Heinz Kohut
Sigmund Freud
Viennese psychiatrist primarily associated with psychoanalysis.
Anna Freud
Daughter of Sigmund Freud, elaborated the theory with application to children and the development of defense mechanisms
Heinz Kohut
Extended the theory to developmental issues, especially attachment, through conceptualization of object-relations theory
Psychoanalysis: View of Human Nature
People have a:
-Conscious mind
-Preconscious mind
-Unconscious mind
Conscious mind
attuned to awareness of outside world
Preconscious mind
hidden memories or forgotten experiences that can be remembered
Unconscious mind
the instinctual, repressed, and powerful forces
Id
Psychoanalysis - Freud
-amoral basic instincs
-operates on the pleasure principle
Ego
Psychoanalysis - Freud
-conscious
-decision-making "executive of the mind"
-operates on reality principle
Superego
Psychoanalysis - Freud
-conscience of the mind that contains values of parental figures
-operates on moral principle
Oral stage
mouth is the chief pleasure zone
Anal stage
delight is in withholding or eliminating feces
Phallic stage
chief zone of pleasure is in sex organs; individuals must work through sexual desires
Latency
energy focused on peer activities and personal mastery of cognitive learning and physical skills
Genital stage
if previous stages have gone well, each gender takes more interest in the other and normal heterosexual patterns of interaction appear
Fixation
a person's development is arrested at a particular stage
Defense mechanisms
ways of coping with anxiety on unconscious level by denying or distorting reality.
Defense mechanisms (list of)
-Repression
-Denial
-Regression
-Projection
-Rationalization
-Reaction Formation
-Displacement
Psychoanalysis: Techniques
-Free Association
-Dream analysis
-Analysis of transference
-Analysis of resistance
-Interpretation
Free Association
the client says whatever comes to mind
Dream analysis
clients are encouraged to dream and remember dreams and the analyst helps interpret
Analysis of Transference
analyst encourages transference and interprets positive or negative feelings expressed
Analysis of Resistance
can help clients gain insight in their resisting and other behaviors
Interpretation
the counselor helps the client understand meaning of past and present personal events
Alfred Adler (Adlerian Theory)
-founder of Individual Psychology
-emphasized the holistic and indivisible nature of people
Adlerian theory
-focus on social interest and purposefulness of behavior
-importance of developing a healthy style of life
-internationally popular
Adlerian theory: View of Human Nature
People are primarily motivated by social interest - a feeling of being connected to society as part of the social whole
Striving for perfection
Adlerian
a process in which people strive to become successful
Inferiority complex
Adlerian
a tendency for people to feel inferior to others becomes a complex when feelings are not worked through
Superiority complex
Adlerian
developed when a person overcompensates for feelings of inferiority
Style of life
Adlerian
-an individual's methods of relating to others
-viewing the world
-governing behavior
Adlerian technique
-Confrontation
-Asking "the question"
-Encouragement
-Acting "as if
Confrontation
the counselor challenges the client to consider their own private logic
Asking "the question
What would be different if you were well?
Encouragement
counselors encourage clients to feel good about selves and others
Acting "as if
clients act as if they are the person they want to be
Spitting in the client's soup
counselor points out behaviors to a client and ruins the payoff for the behavior
Catching oneself
clients learn to become aware of self-destructive behaviors or thoughts
Task setting
clients set short range, attainable goals and eventually work up to long-term, realistic objectives
Push button
clients encouraged to realize they have choices about what stimuli in their lives they pay attention to
Humanistic theories
-Person-centered counseling
-Existential counseling
-Gestalt therapy
Person-centered counseling
Founded by Carl Rogers and described in his book "Counseling and Psychotherapy
PCC: View of Human Nature
Phenomenological perspective
Self Theory
Positive regard
Phenomenological perspective
what is important in the person's view of reality rather than the event itself
Self-theory
the self is an outgrowth of the person's experience
Positive regard
love, warmth, care, respect are needed for a healthy self to emerge
PCC Techniques
3 Necessary Conditions of Counseling
-Empathy
-Unconditional Positive Regard
-Congruence
*The quality of the counseling relationship is much more important that techniques.
Motivational Interviewing
-grew out of person-centered approach
-helps ambivalent clients assess their thought and feelings as they being making changes
Existential Counseling Founders
Rollo May - focused on anxiety with regard to life and death
Viktor Frankl - focused on finding meaning in life even under extremely negative conditions
Existential: View of Human Nature
-People for their lives by the choices they make
-Logotherapy
Logotherapy
meaning goes beyond self-actualization and exists at 3 levels
-Ultimate meanings
-Meaning of the moment
-Common day-to-day meaning
Existential counselors
concentrate on being authentic with their clients and entering deep personal relationships with them
Existential techniques
-Does not limit counselors to specific techniques
-Most powerful technique is the relationship counselors have with their clients
-Existential counselors borrow some techniques from other models of counseling such as:
1. awareness exercises
2. imagery
3.
Gestalt Therapy
Gestalt means "whole figure"
Founded by Frederick "Fritz" Perls
Gestalt: View of Human Nature
-Self-actualization
-Antideterministic view
-Unfinished business
Self-actualization
is centered in the present
Antideterministic view
each person is able to change and become responsible
Unfinished business
earlier thoughts, feelings, and reactions that still affect a person's functioning and ability to live life in the present
Gestalt techniques
Exercises - ready-made techniques, i.e. enactment of fantasies, role-playing, psychodrama
Experiments - unplanned activities that grow out of the interaction between counselor and client
Dream work
Gestalt
Dreams are messages that represent a person's place at a certain time.
The empty chair
Gestalt
Clients talk to different parts of their personality with the chair as the focus
Making the rounds
Gestalt
Used in group settings; a theme or feeling expressed by a client should be faced by every person in the group
I take responsibility
make statements about perceptions and close with the phrase "I take responsibility for it.
Exaggeration
clients accentuate unwitting movements or gestures
May I feed you a sentence?
counselor asks whether or not client will certain sentence that makes the client's thoughts explicit