Contemporary Therapy Models

Psychoanalytic therapy

Founder: Sigmund Freud. A theory of personality development, a philosophy of human nature, and a method of psychotherapy that focuses on unconscious factors that motivate behavior. Attention is given to the events of the first six years of life as determinants of the later development of personality.

Adlerian therapy

Founder: Alfred Adler. Key Figure: Rudolf Dreikurs. Following Adler, Dreikurs is credited with popularizing this approach in the United States. This is a growth model that stresses assuming responsibility, creating one’s own destiny, and finding meaning and goals to create a purposeful life. Key concepts are used in most other current therapies.

Existential therapy

Key Figures: Viktor Frankl, Rollo May, and Irvin Yalom. Reacting against the tendency to view therapy as a system of well-defined techniques, this model stresses building therapy on the basic conditions of human existence, such as choice, the freedom and responsibility to shape one’s life, and self-determination. It focuses on the quality of the person-to-person therapeutic relationship.

Person-centered therapy

Founder: Carl Rogers. Key Figure: Natalie Rogers. This approach was developed during the 1940s as a nondirective reaction against psychoanalysis. Based on a subjective view of human experiencing, it places faith in and gives responsibility to the client in dealing with problems and concerns.

Gestalt therapy

Founders: Fritz and Laura Perls. Key Figures: Miriam and Erving Polster. An experiential therapy stressing awareness and integration; it grew as a reaction against analytic therapy. It integrates the functioning of body and mind and places emphasis on the therapeutic relationship.

Behavior therapy

Key figures: B. F. Skinner, Albert Bandura, and Marsha Linehan. This approach applies the principles of learning to the resolution of specific behavioral problems. Results are subject to continual experimentation. The methods of this approach are always in the process of refinement. The mindfulness and acceptance-based approaches are rapidly gaining popularity.

Cognitive behavior therapy

Founders: Albert Ellis and A. T. Beck. Ellis founded rational emotive behavior therapy, a highly didactic, cognitive, action-oriented model of therapy. Beck founded cognitive therapy, which gives a primary role to thinking as it influences behavior. Judith Beck continues to develop cognitive behavior therapy (CBT); Christine Padesky has developed strengths-based CBT. Donald Meichenbaum, who helped develop cognitive behavior therapy, has made significant contributions to resilience as a factor in coping with trauma.

Choice theory/Reality therapy

Founder: William Glasser. Key Figure: Robert Wubbolding. This short-term approach is based on choice theory and focuses on the client assuming responsibility in the present. Through the therapeutic process, clients are able to learn more effective ways of meeting their needs.

Feminist therapy

This approach grew out of the efforts of many women, a few of whom are Jean Baker Miller, Carolyn Zerbe Enns, Lillian Comas-Diaz, Thelma Bryant-Davis, and Laura Brown. A central concept is the concern for the psychological oppression of women. Focusing on the constraints imposed by the sociopolitical status to which women have been relegated, this approach explores women’s identity development, self-concept, goals and aspirations, and emotional well-being.

Postmodern approaches

A number of key figures are associated with the development of these various approaches to therapy. Steve de Shazer and Insoo Kim Berg are the cofounders of solution-focused brief therapy. Michael White and David Epston are the major figures associated with narrative therapy. Social constructionism, solution-focused brief therapy, narrative therapy, and motivational interviewing all assume that there is no single truth; rather, it is believed that reality is socially constructed through human interaction. These approaches maintain that clients are the experts in their own life.

Family systems therapy

A number of significant figures have been pioneers of the family systems approach, two of whom are Murray Bowen and Virginia Satir. This systemic approach is based on the assumption that the key to changing the individual is understanding and working with the family.