Maria Pavlovski Page 1
Assignment No. 1

Theoretical approaches in the use of counselling skills

1.1 Key characteristics and concepts of:

Humanistic theory,

The humanistic theory was developed by a group of American psychologists (Maslow, Rogers, Fritz Perls and others) who were disillusioned with the psychoanalytical approach in the 1940’s and 1950’s. Carl Rogers developed the person-centred approach based on the concept that the client was at the centre of the helping process and that they had their own self- healing capacity within themselves. He theorized that by creating a safe, confidential, non-judgemental and un-biased safe environment,and that the counsellor is open and genuine towards the client then the client will use their own wisdom in healing themselves in the way that’s right for them. The Humanistic theory is one of growth and development, it explores creativity, encourages self-awareness and self-development. Maslow theorized that people are always striving towards self-improvement, to grow and develop to their full potential. He called this self-actualization. He also theorized that people are always growing and changing in their life and he called this process actualization. Rogers theorized that people grow up developing behaviour which they feel is expected from them by family and society and that sometimes this behaviour is in conflict with the persons true natural behaviour, they may have different moral values or opinions than their parents yet won’t disclose it in fear of being rejected. The more ‘imported’ restraints imposed upon a person the more conflict will occur with their natural self they ought to be. This can cause feelings of anxiety and the feeling something is ‘wrong and they will struggle within the conflict. Humanistic approach believes people are innately good with a strong desire to better themselves and their environment. Humanistic counselling helps to enable the client to grow and develop by encouraging them to be more aware of their inner feelings by providing them with six core conditions which provide a climate conductive to growth and therapeutic change. The six core conditions are: * Therapist-client psychological contact * Client vulnerability * Client perception * Unconditional positive regard * Empathic understanding * Therapeutic Congruence or Genuineness With Unconditional positive regard, the counsellor accepts the client unconditionally

Page 2 and is non-judgemental. The client is then free to explore all their feelings and emotions without the fear of being judged or rejected. Empathic empathy refers to the counsellors accurately understanding the thoughts, feelings and meanings the client has and to perceive their world as they do. Congruence is the therapist being genuine and authentic towards the client. The therapist is open, approachable and transparent to the client and that the therapeutic relationship between client and therapist is also a part of the healing process. If these core conditions are followed, client is enabled to develop and grow in their own unique way to become the person they really are. By creating the correct environment and by showing and demonstrating the six core conditions allows the client to explore and express their thoughts and feelings without any fear of being judged or rejected and being allowed to explore and identify their problems and find their own solution. Fritz Perls was a psychoanalyst in the 1950,s and 60’s. He is regarded as the originator of Gestalt l therapy.

Psychodynamic theory

In the early eighteenth century, the view of how mental illness and distress was regarded and treated was changing due to changes in social society. Psychoanalysis was developed by Sigmund Freud in Vienna in the 1890’s. In Psychotherapy, a therapist will be listening to the patient and will be paying particular attention to the patients past experiences and what kind of relationships they had with their parents/carers to establish how their past experiences are impacting their life today. Other pioneers in psychodynamic therapy are Carl Jung(founder of analytical psychology), Adler(individual psychology) and Reich (father of the sex revolution)
One of Freud’s theories was the importance of development in childhood. Adult personality is shaped from experiences in early childhood. He developed the study of psychosexuality and named three stages of sexual development, the oral, the anal and the phallic. Freud divided the mind into three parts, the unconscious, the conscious and the preconscious. The unconscious mind is where information is kept that is either very difficult or near impossible to bring into conscious awareness. These are the repressed thoughts and memories of the person. The conscious consists of thoughts that are our current focus of attention. We are aware of our thoughts at this time. The preconscious consists of information and ideas which we can easily bring into our conscious if needed from memory. One of the aims of psychology is to make the unconscious, conscious, so enabling the client to have a better awareness of themselves. He theorized that that man was driven by sexuality and aggression and that these feelings were repressed. Freud and other psychoanalysts used various methods to uncover repressed ideas and conflicts. Freud and Carl Jung both believed in the importance of dreams, they were believed to be the royal road to the unconscious. A dream is a (disguised) fulfilment of a (suppressed or repressed ‘wish’ Freud (1900). Freud argued that dreaming is due to wish fulfilment and tried to make sense of the dreams by translating (dream interpretation) their meaning. He identified the

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following instinctual drives; Eros, the life instinct, represents love for self and others, and Thanatos the death instinct. Freud assumed the mind was made up of the three following parts; Id The id contains everything that is inherited, that is present at birth, The super-ego observes the ego, it is thought to be fully developed by the time a child is five years old. The super-ego represents the internalisation of parental and social moral values. It is the conscious which threatens the ego with punishment for bad behaviour in the form of self-esteem and pride. The ego is the conscious rational mind and is developed in the first two years of life, The ego enables us to distinguish between a wish and reality which the id is unable to do. Psychotherapy requires the client to see the therapist a number of times a week and is a long treatment process. Clients are encouraged to use free association meaning they say whatever comes into their mind. Everything has a reason, a meaning it is hoped by allowing the client free association, they might let something from the unconscious come through to the conscious mind. The therapist is aware of the possibility of transference, whereby the client may transfer their feelings for their mother or father onto the therapist, or be aware of their own unconscious feelings towards the client (countertransference). Carl Jung was Freud’s most promising pupil but Jung went his own way and become the founder of Analytical psychology.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

CBT is a form of treatment which is used for a whole range of psychological problems. CBT is the use of Behavioural therapy and Cognitive therapy combined. The Behavioural referring to the behaviour and the cognitive to the thought process of a person. The Cognitive model was brought forward by Beck in 1976. There are many approaches that come under CBT and they all share the same view that our own emotional problems stem from how we see think and feel about ourselves. Based on the principle that individuals learn unhelpful ways of thinking and behaviour over a long period of time, CBT aims to change these patterns of thinking and behaviour that are behind the cause of the problem and so change the way they feel. CBT focuses more on what is happening in the present day rather than past experiences, but a therapist will look for negative patterns which may have begun in childhood and see how the pattern of thoughts impact the adult today. NATS (Negative Automatic Thoughts) is referred to the negative chatter that goes on in the mind. If a person has experienced a difficult or traumatic childhood it is likely they will have developed negative beliefs and assumptions throughout their life. The more negative thoughts a person has, the bigger the likelihood of negative patterns or vicious cycles. They will be unaware of most of the chatter that is going on in their mind as it is out of their awareness in the subconscious. The CBT model sets out to break the cycle by using cognitive methods to bring positive page 4

change. The model works on three levels of cognition, automatic thoughts, dysfunctional assumptions rules and core beliefs. Our automatic thoughts are the ones we are aware of we have positive and negative chatter and the task of CBT is to help clients identify how their moods and thoughts are affected by their thoughts.

Assumptions are defined by what if …then theory, e.g., if I fail, then they’ll think I’m stupid thus avoiding Core beliefs. Core beliefs are the deepest level of cognition. Core beliefs include statements such as I am no good, everybody hates me. People can have many negative beliefs but if their lives are going well, then these negative thoughts are not triggered so the positive thoughts are the most prominent impacting their behaviour and mood in a positive way. CBT uses cognitive interventions such as thought challenging, coping strategies and physical interventions to help with relaxation. The Behavioural intervention deals with goal setting. Clients are encouraged to be aware of their thoughts and how they impact their moods and behaviour so they can recognise the negative beliefs and find a strategy to break the cycle. The length of the treatment depends on the nature or complexity of the issues. . 1.2 Summarize the key strengths and limitations of the three main approaches to
Counselling

In Humanistic counselling the client is encourage to understand and find solutions to their problems by exploring and understanding their own inner world without the therapist being intrusive or judgmental. The unconscious is not explored, humanistic is interested in how the client is denying certain aspects of their present awareness. One of limitations is it believes in the healthy mind, not illness. CBT is a goal orientated, time limited treatment which is beneficial to some clients as they know when the treatment will end soon so preventing dependency. It is not suitable for all disorders In psychodynamic therapy the client is able to make links between their past and present day experiences to gain a better understanding of their current problems. The limitations can be a patient might be reluctant or show resistance in delving into their unconscious thoughts which would hinder the therapy or they may be unable to communicate or express their feelings of thoughts into words or the patient may be put off by the remote demeanour of the therapist if they prefer a more informal approach. .
2.1 Explain the theory of the integrated model

With the development of many new helping theories developing in the 50’s and 60’s, some therapists started to question of the vast number of theories, which were the most effective in the helping of clients. They questioned whether it was possible for any one psychological theory to be able to cover all the complexities of the human psyche. With
Page 5 each theoretical approach claiming their theory to be the right one so started a process that saw the beginning of the integrative model. Therapists were introduced to new schools of thought and theories in training and through colleagues and work places and so learned new ways of counselling skills which they incorporated within their own present skills. The integrated model is the fusion of different schools of psychology (Wikipedia). Therapists do not have to stick to any one school of thought, they are free to choose what would work best for them and their client’s needs at the time. There are three elements of integration; technique, theory and common factors.
Technique The counsellor choosing the technique they best believe is right for their client.
Theory, the counsellor has a range of theoretic approaches to work with
Common factors, the provision for a therapeutic rationale (CBT for beginners, R. Griffiths)
Egan Gerard and Clarkson are pioneers of the integrative model. 2.2 Assess the advantages and disadvantages of the integrative model
The advantages of the integrative model is that therapist/counsellors are able to choose what they consider are the best theories from any school of psychology. They are not tied down to just one theory so can take the theories which they feel works best for them. They can use two or more theories of therapy to combine what they feel would work best for their client without being restricted to one school of thought therefore enhancing the clients expectations. One of the disadvantages to the integrative model is the therapist may not have the knowledge or the experience when choosing the correct theory for their client. They may use a process without fully understanding the theory behind it.

3.1 Explain the role of theory in relation to helping relationships
The role of theory enables the therapist to work to a scientific framework for the purpose of gaining a better understanding of the person they are trying to help. The counsellor is able to work to a guided structure of the therapeutic theories as it works like a map for helping. 4.1 Demonstrate how to apply core theories when using counselling skills
One example of applying a core theory is when emphatic listening. If a client/colleague is telling me their story, then I need to tune in to their feelings and try to feel how they are experiencing them, for example, if they were talking about a loss, I would try to imagine what emotions they are experiencing to show I understand how they are feeling, I would listen to the tone of their voice, their body language to pick up

4.2 Assess the impact of applying core theory to interactions
In Carl Rogers interview with Gloria he demonstrated empathy when paraphrasing back to Gloria that she found it hard to believe she would be loved if her family knew how she really was, he had picked up that she desired to be open and honest about who she really was but feared being rejected. He showed congruence in the fact that she felt comfortable with him and felt he was being genuine with her. He was non-judgemental with her and didn’t direct the session even though she kept asking for answers.

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5.1 Reflect on ways in which the study of counselling theory has developed their Understanding of self
The study of the counselling theories has helped me to look more closely and be more aware of my own thoughts and feelings and so try to understand them better. It has enabled me to be more ‘aware’ of my own self talk, to ‘listen’ to my own self talk in a more insightful and intuitive way. It has encouraged me to look at my family and see what my role is within it and how it has contributed to the way I think and feel about myself and how it impacts on my every-day life. I am more accepting and less judgemental of my own limitations
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5.2 Explain how this informs own approach to counselling
It has helped me develop better empathy skills and to look for what’s under the surface, to look out for body language, especially when its contradictory. It has taught me there are many tools and listening skills that are used in counselling and that I find some more challenging than others but I am able to see which of these theories appeal more to me.

NB. Some txt and information taken from my hypnotherapy notes.