Counseling

Assumption of person-centered therapy

The basic assumption of person-centered therapy is that humans are 'trustworthy' and have their own capacity for self-understanding, 'selfdirecting,' pursuing personal growth and solving problem by themselves.

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The basic assumptions are that people are essentially trustworthy, that they have a vast potential for understanding themselves and resolving their own problems without direct intervention on the therapist part and that they are capable of self directed growth, if they are involved in a therapeutic relationship.

Belief of person-centered therapy

individuals have internal resources to work toward wholeness and self-actualization and can move forward constructively on their own

Emphasis of Person-Centered Therapy

This approach emphasizes:

Personal characteristics of the therapist

* Quality of the therapeutic relationship
* Counselor's creation of a "growth-promoting" climate
* Person's capacity for self-directed growth if involved in a therapeutic relationship

Assumptions that the theory challenges

This approach challenges: Assumption that "the counselor knows best". Validity of advice, suggestion, persuasion, teaching, diagnosis, and interpretation

* Belief that clients cannot resolve their own problems without help
* Focus on problems over persons

Three Attributes of a person-centered therapist

* Congruence: Genuineness or realnes. Unconditional positive regard: Acceptance and caring. Accurate empathic understanding: The ability to deeply grasp the subjective world of another person

Therapeutic conditions of person-centered therapy

Six conditions that are necessary and sufficient for personality changes to occur:


1. Two persons are in psychological contact
2. The first, the client, is experiencing incongruence
3. The second person, the therapist, is congruent or integrated in the relationship
4. The therapist experiences unconditional positive regard or real caring for the client
5. The therapist experiences empathy for the client's internal frame of reference and endeavors to communicate this to the client
6. The communication with the client is, to a minimal degree, achieved

What is person-centered therapy and who started it?

A movement, often referred to as the "third force," that emphasizes freedom, choice, values, growth, self-actualization, becoming, spontaneity, creativity, play, humor, peak experiences, and psychological health. \n \n Carl Rodgers

The Structure of Personality (Psychoanalytic Therapy)

THE ID —The Demanding Child \n Ruled by the pleasure principle \n The part of personality, present at birth, that is blind, demanding, and insistent. Its function is to discharge tension and return to homeostasis. \n \n THE EGO —The Traffic Cop \n Ruled by the reality principle \n The part of the personality that is the mediator between external reality and inner demands. \n \n THE SUPEREGO —The Judge \n Ruled by the moral principle \n That aspect of personality that represents one's moral training. It strives for perfection, not pleasure.

The unconscious mind (Psychoanalytic Therapy)

That aspect of psychological functioning or of personality that houses experiences, wishes, impulses, and memories in an out-of-awareness state as a protection against anxiety.

* Dreams
* Slips of the tongue
* Posthypnotic suggestions
* Material derived from free-association and projective techniques
* Symbolic content of psychotic symptoms
* NOTE: consciousness is only a thin slice of the total mind

The process of Psychoanalytic Therapy

The goal is to make the unconscious conscious and strengthen the ego so behavior is based on reality.

* The blank-screen approach fosters transference
* Achieving insight into problems and increasing awareness of ways to change helps clients gain control over their lives
* Pushing the client too rapidly or offering ill-timed interpretations will render the process ineffective

The role of the therapist in Psychoanalytic Therapy

the therapist functions as a "blank screen," allowing individuals to transfer unconscious feelings that may have been directed toward a significant person in their past, like a parent, onto the analyst.

Transference

Occurs when the client reacts to the therapist as he or she did to an earlier significant other

Countertransference

The reaction of the therapist toward the client that may interfere with objectivity

Resistance

Anything that works against the progress of therapy and prevents the production of unconscious material

Maintaining the Analytic Framework (psychoanalytic technique)

Therapist uses a range of procedural and stylistic factors (e.g., analyst's relative anonymity, consistency of meetings)

Analysis of resistance (psychoanalytic technique)

Therapist helps clients become aware of reasons for their resistance so they can deal with them

Analysis of transference (psychoanalytic technique)

Therapist uses this to elucidate client's intrapsychic life

Free Association (psychoanalytic technique)

The client reports immediately without censoring any feelings or thoughts

Dream Analysis (psychoanalytic technique)

The therapist uses the "royal road to the unconscious" to bring unconscious material to light

Interpretation (psychoanalytic technique)

Therapist points out, explains, and teaches the meanings of whatever is revealed

Limitations of Psychoanalytic Approach

* This approach may not be appropriate for all cultures or socioeconomic groups
* Deterministic focus does not emphasize current maladaptive behaviors
* Minimizes role of the environment
* Requires subjective interpretation
* Relies heavily on client fantasy
* Lengthy treatment may not be practical or affordable for many clients

Alfred Adler Pscyhology

Individual Psychology

Adler's original name for his approach that stressed understanding the whole person, how all dimensions of a person are interconnected, and how all these dimensions are unified by the person's movement toward a life goal.

For Adler, Individual Psychology meant indivisible psychology

* Is based on the concept of holism
* Stresses social interest
* Focuses on birth order and sibling relationships
* Therapy involves teaching, informing, and encouraging
* Considers basic mistakes in the client's private logic
* The therapeutic relationship is a collaborative partnership

Self Interest (Adler)

* Adler's most significant and distinctive concept
* Embodies a community feeling and the capacity to cooperate and contribute to something bigger than oneself
* Mental health is measured by the degree to which we share with others and are concerned with their welfare
* People express social interest through shared activity, cooperation, participation in the common good, and mutual respect

Inferiority Feelings (Adler)

* Are normal and a source of all human striving
* Are the wellspring of creativity
* Develop when we are young—characterized by early feelings of hopelessness

Superiority Feelings

Promote mastery and enable us to overcome obstacles

Basic Mistakes (Adler)

Faulty, self-defeating perceptions, attitudes, and beliefs that may have been appropriate at one time but are no longer useful. These are myths that are influential in shaping personality. These may often include avoidance of others, seeking power, a desperate need for security, or faulty values.

Lifestyle (Adler)

* One's perceptions regarding self, others, and the world
* The characteristic way we think, act, feel, perceive, and live


* A life movement that organizes our reality, giving meaning to life
"fictional finalism" or "guiding self-ideal"
* Faulty interpretations may lead to mistaken notions in our "private logic"
* Lifestyle is how we move toward our life goals
* Unifies behaviors to provide consistency and makes all our actions "fit together"

Fictional Finalism (Adler) or "guiding self-ideal"

an imagined life goal that guides a person's behavior. The endpoint of what we are searching for is Fictional finalism or striving for perfection

Birth Order (Adlerian Theory)

Five psychological positions:


1. Oldest child- receives more attention, spoiled, center of attention
2. Second of only two- behaves as if in a race, often opposite to first child
3. Middle- often feels squeezed out
4. Youngest- the baby
5. Only- does not learn to share or cooperate with other children, learns to deal with adults

First phase in the Four Phases of Therapy (Adler)

Establishing the Proper Therapeutic Relationship

* Supportive, collaborative, educational, and encouraging process
* Person-to-person contact with the client precedes identification of the problem
* Help client build awareness of his or her strengths

Second phase in the Four Phases of Therapy (Adler)

Exploring the Individual's Psychological Dynamics

\-Lifestyle assessment

* Subjective interview
* Objective interview
* Family constellation
* Early recollections
* Basic mistakes

Third phase in the Four Phases of Therapy (Adler)

Encouraging Self-Understanding/Insight

* Interpret the findings of the assessment
* Hidden goals and purposes of behavior are made conscious
* Therapist offers interpretations to help clients gain insight into their private logic and lifestyle

Fourth phase in the Four Phases of Therapy (Adler)

Reorientation and Re-education

* Action-oriented phase; emphasis is on putting insights into practice
* Clients are reoriented toward the useful side of life
* Clients are encouraged to act as if they were the people they want to be

Adlerian Techniques

* Immediacy
* Advice


* Humor
* Silence
* Paradoxical intention
* Acting as if
* Catching oneself
* Push-button technique
* Externalization
* Reauthoring
* Avoiding the traps
* Confrontation
* Use of stories and fables
* Early recollection analysis
* Lifestyle assessment
* Encouraging
* Task setting and commitment
* Homework
* Terminating and summarizing

The importance of a therapeutic relationship (Chapter 2)

Bordin defined a good therapeutic relationship as consisting of three essential qualities: an emotional bond of trust, caring, and respect.

The purpose of a therapeutic relationship is to assist the individual in therapy to change his or her life for the better.