Counselling & Family Therapy: Basic Concepts & Theoretical Perspectives

A set of vocabulary flashcards covering the key principles, models, and theoretical perspectives of counselling and family therapy based on the MCFT-003 lecture notes.

Counselling

A professional relationship that empowers diverse individuals, families, and groups to accomplish mental health, wellness, education, and career goals.

Acceptance (Unconditional Positive Regard)

Accepting the client as a person of worth without judgment, such as not criticising a client who misuses alcohol.

Confidentiality

The principle that information shared stays private, except in cases of risk of harm to self/others or legal obligations, creating psychological safety.

Empathy

Accurate understanding of the client's world which the counsellor communicates back both verbally and non-verbally.

Genuineness (Congruence)

The counsellor being authentic and not playing a role, ensuring their inner experience matches their outer expression.

Client Self-determination

The right and ability of clients to make their own choices while the counsellor facilitates rather than decides for them.

Individualization

Tailoring techniques and goals to each client's unique background, culture, and presenting issue.

A-B-C-D-E-F Model

An REBT framework where Activating events lead to Beliefs, resulting in Consequences; therapy involves Disputing irrational beliefs to create Effective new beliefs and New feelings.

Activating Event (A)

The trigger in the REBT model, which can be a situation, event, or thought.

Rational or Irrational Belief (B)

The interpretation of an activating event that determines emotional and behavioural outcomes.

Consequence (C)

The emotional or behavioural result caused by beliefs rather than the activating event itself.

Disputing (D)

The process where a counsellor challenges an irrational belief, such as asking for evidence of worthlessness.

Unconditional Positive Regard (UPR)

One of Carl Rogers' core attributes involve accepting the client fully without conditions or evaluation, caring for their well-being irrespective of behaviour.

Empathic Understanding

Accurately sensing the client's felt meaning and communicating it, often described as walking in their shoes.

Cognitive Restructuring

A process aimed at identifying, challenging, and replacing maladaptive thoughts with more balanced beliefs.

Cognitive Reframing

Helping a client see a situation from a different, more adaptive perspective without denying reality.

Thought Records

A structured worksheet using Socratic questioning to guide clients in examining the logic of their thoughts by evaluating evidence for and against them.

Strategic Family Therapy (SFT)

A therapy developed by Jay Haley and Cloe Madanes focused on changing problematic interaction sequences through directive techniques.

Homeostasis

The family balance that symptoms often serve to maintain or protect within a system.

Behavioural Activation

Gently encouraging engagement in pleasant activities even when motivation is low, based on the small steps principle.

Resistance in Family Therapy

A family's opposition to therapeutic change, potentially being overt or covert, often stemming from a fear of disrupting homeostasis.

Denial

An unconscious defence mechanism involving the refusal to acknowledge a painful reality, such as a family member's addiction.

Intrusiveness

Excessive involvement in another's life that blurs personal boundaries, common in enmeshed family systems.

Psychodynamic Psychotherapy

A therapy approach holding that behaviour is shaped by unconscious processes and early childhood experiences.

Strokes

Eric Berne's concept in Transactional Analysis referring to a unit of recognition or acknowledgement which can be positive, negative, conditional, or unconditional.

PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder)

A condition developing after exposure to trauma characterized by $4$ symptom clusters: re-experiencing, avoidance, negative cognitions/mood, and hyperarousal.

Psychoeducation

The provision of structured information about a psychological condition to clients and families to reduce stigma and increase treatment adherence.

Crisis

A state of psychological disequilibrium where usual coping fails, typically lasting $4-6\text{ weeks}$ and triggered by an identifiable event.