Analysis and Review of Various Methods of Psychotherapy - Essay Example

Jachelline Patino Dr. James Rosado HUS 2303 Chapter 5: Alderian Therapy. This chapter deals with Alfred Adler’s contribution to psychotherapy. Adler’s views on human nature differ substantively from Freud’s traditional position on psychoanalysis, which emphasized biological and instinctual determinism. Adler adopts a social-psychological and teleological, or goal-oriented approach. Adler holds that an individual’s approach to life is based on his first six years of life. Social relatedness is a stronger motive than sexual urges. Human behavior is deliberate and goal-oriented, and therapy should be focused on consciousness. Adler states that choice, responsibility, meaning in life and the desire for success are ruling factors. Adler’s theory claims that individuals are motivated by inferiority feelings, which drive them to reach the life-goal of completion and perfection. Adler holds that individuals can overcome genetics and environment to exercise choice over abilities and limitations. Adler pioneered a subjective, holistic and systemic approach, which emphasizes values, attitudes and goals. Adlerians adopt a phenomenological approach focused on an individual’s subjective perception of reality. Adler’s Individual Psychology emphasizes the interconnectedness of all aspects of a person. This holistic concept incorporates social contexts of school, work and family. The individual is a part of a social system. All human behavior is purposeful and goal-oriented. Behavior is influenced by a guiding self-ideal which motivates the individual to strive towards superiority and the goal of perfection. An individual develops a unique lifestyle based on the interpretation of life events. Personal happiness and mental health depend on social interest, which engenders a sense of identification and empathy with others in society. Community feeling is an important factor. Adler lists three universal life tasks: social task (building friendships), love-marriage task (building intimacy) and occupational task (social contributions), for successful psychological development. Adler emphasizes the importance of birth order and sibling relationships as crucial social influences in adult interaction. Adlerian therapeutic goals center on fostering social interest, encouragement, lifestyle changes, and modifying mistaken motivation. Therapists comprehensively assess the client’s functioning through a family constellation questionnaire, and early recollections, which help in lifestyle assessment. The clients explore the private logic which influences lifestyle, identify basic mistakes and attempt to make those changes required for social living. The client-therapist relationship is based on cooperation and goal alignment. The therapeutic technique of ABT (Adlerian Brief Therapy) is centered round the establishment of a collaborative relationship, client assessment (through subjective and objective interviews), encouraging insight into purpose, and helping in making new choices (mainly through encouragement). As Individual Psychology is based on social interest, it is widely applicable in child and parent education, marriage and family counseling, and group therapy. From a multicultural perspective, Adlerian therapy is particularly effective as it focuses on a holistic approach, which includes cultural context, health, individual goals and purposes and a proactive approach to problems. The recognition that social class, racism, and gender influence behavior, and a flexible approach, tailored to the individual, makes Adlerian therapy suitable for a global society. However, the focus on the self may make it inadequate to address the problems of clients who do not belong to the Western nuclear family tradition. The main strength of Adlerian therapy is its integrative approach, flexibility and brief time-limitedness. Name: Jachelline Patino Instructor: Dr. James Rosado Course: HUS 2303 Date: Chapter 6: Existential Therapy. Existential Therapy is a philosophical approach which influences therapeutic practice. It subordinates determinism and behaviorism to the individual’s freedom to choose what to be. The individual accepts responsibility to consciously shape his own life. Soren Kierkegaard, who introduced the concept of angst, or anxiety, and Friedrich Nietzsche, who emphasized giving free rein to willpower, are the pioneers of existentialism. Other key figures include Martin Heidegger (authentic being), Jean-Paul Sartre (responsibility and choice), Martin Buber (interpersonal relationship), and Ludwig Binswanger (existential analysis). Contemporary figures are Viktor Frankl, Rollo May, James Bugental and Irwin Yalom. The existential tradition is not based on any set of techniques. It explores people and human behavior, and strikes a balance between the limits and possibilities of human existence. It focuses on the individual’s anxiety regarding isolation in the world. It considers human nature to be in a state of constant transition and evolution, making discoveries in every stage of development, based on questions such as ‘Who am I?’ ‘Where am I going?’ The existential approach lists the following propositions as the basic dimensions of human nature: (1) The capacity for self-awareness - as self-awareness increases, there is more potential for personal fulfillment. (2) Freedom and responsibility - this requires a commitment to personal choice. Evading choice leads to existential guilt. Recognition of one’s uniqueness, and conforming to self-evaluation, represent authenticity. Freedom goes hand in hand with responsibility. The client is encouraged recognize how he has abdicated his freedom to make choices, and to actively make his own choices. (3) Striving for identity and establishing meaningful relationships with others - creating one’s identity involves the courage to be, to discover the core of one’s being, and to confront fears of nothingness. The experience of aloneness requires the acceptance of the condition of isolation, and is balanced by the experience of relatedness, which involves personal relationships. The client is encouraged to struggle with identity and discover his own answers. (4) The search for meaning, purpose, values and goals in life - old values are discarded and replaced by internally derived value systems. Meaninglessness in life leads to an existential vacuum. Frankl’s logotherapy helps clients find their own meaning to life. (5)Anxiety as a condition of living – when existential anxiety, which arises from confrontation with inevitable death, meaning, choice, isolation and meaninglessness, serves as a stimulus for growth, it is normal anxiety. Disproportionate, immobilizing anxiety is neurotic anxiety. The client is helped to recognize and confront anxiety. (6) Awareness of death - the reality of death is accepted and is used as a motivation to live full, meaningful lives. The main goals of existential therapy are to assist clients to move to authenticity, supporting clients in confronting anxieties, and helping clients to redefine their genuine identities. The emphasis is on increased self-awareness, acceptance of freedom and responsibility and revealing the client’s latent aliveness. The client is encouraged to accept personal responsibility. Clients with restricted existence are unaware of their own circumstances. The therapist helps the client to take control of his own life and engage in self-confrontation. Therapy is viewed as a stimulus for positive change and is based on Buber’s ‘I/Thou’ relationship of caring and intimacy. The therapist displays empathy and companionship. There are no rigid techniques, and therapy is individually structured to meet client requirements. Clients identify their assumptions about life, examine their value systems and implement their internalized values. Existential therapy is particularly effective in cases of individuals who experience grief or loss, confront death, or seek meaning and identity in life. It is applicable to Brief Therapy and Group Counseling. It is particularly appropriate in a multicultural context due to the universality of its holistic approach. Name: Jachelline Patino Instructor: Dr. James Rosado Course: HUS 2303 Date: Chapter 7: Person-Centered Therapy. Person-Centered Therapy was pioneered by Carl Rogers, and is based on humanistic psychology. Rogers developed this approach through four periods: nondirective counseling advocates the adoption of a permissive and nondirectional stance by the counselor, who rejects therapeutic procedures such as suggestion and persuasion; client-centered therapy emphasizes the phenomenological world of the client and the individual’s internal frame of reference; ‘becoming the self that one truly is’ involves an openness and trust in one’s experiences and an internal locus of evaluation; the person-centered approach based on nondirective therapy, focus on the client’s frame of reference and the adoption of a non-judgmental and empathic attitude by the therapist. The humanistic approach on which person-centered therapy is based, resembles existential therapy in its emphasis on the client’s subjective experiences and individuality, personal responsibility and freedom of choice. Rogers views human nature as basically trustworthy, capable of self-understanding, and with the potential to make constructive changes and live productive lives. He rejects the assumption that an individual needs to be directed or motivated by an ‘expert.’ Rogers lists three necessary attributes of a therapist: congruence (genuineness), unconditional positive regard (acceptance and caring) and accurate empathic understanding (grasping the client’s subjective world). These attributes enable the client to be open and stimulate his drive towards fulfillment. Therapy emphasizes the actualizing tendency which directs the individual towards self-realization and fulfillment. This tendency is a source of internal healing and makes the client primarily responsible for his own psychological health. The person-centered approach rejects the roles of the expert, authoritative therapist and the passive client. The client’s capacity for awareness and self-direction form the basis of therapy. The client is encouraged to constructively overcome obstacles to growth, and strive towards self-actualization. The goal of therapy is to assist the client to achieve independence and integration and put aside their social facades in order to realize self-actualization. The client is directed towards (1) openness to experience (2) self-belief (3) an internal framework of reference (3) a desire for continuous growth. No specific goals are set by the therapist, who only adopts a person-to-person attitude which facilitates change. The counselor creates a climate conducive to self-exploration, and the client is the primary agent of change. The focus is on self-understanding, self-healing and actualization. Rogers’ hypothesis stated six therapeutic core conditions: (1) Two people are in a psychological relationship (2) The client is in a stated of incongruence, or discrepancy in self-perception and reality (3) The therapist is genuine in the relationship (4) The therapist demonstrates empathy (5) The therapist’s empathy is communicated to the client (6) The therapist treats the client with unconditional positive regard. Roger’s early emphasis on the therapist merely understanding and reflecting the client’s world gave place to a relationship based on empathy and the therapist’s completely engaged presence. Addressing the relationship between the therapist and the client, or immediacy, is stressed. Approaches are modified to suit the client. The client takes the lead in choosing assessment and treatment procedures. Person-Centered therapy is effectively applicable to personality disorders, education, crises intervention and group counseling. Natalie Rogers extends the Person-Centered approach to include Expressive Arts Therapy, which uses artistic forms and spontaneous creative expressions to stimulate self-discovery and healing. Innate creativity requires psychological safety, psychological freedom and stimulating experiences to express itself. A supportive, non-judgmental ambience facilitates the use of art forms for self-expression and personal growth. The Person-Centered Approach is particularly effective in diverse cultural groups. Name: Jachelline Patino Instructor: Dr. James Rosado Course: HUS 2303 Date: Chapter 8: Gestalt Therapy. Frederick S. Perls is the originator of Gestalt Therapy, which was later modified by Laura Perls. The approach is existential, phenomenological and relationship based. Contemporary Gestalt therapy, emphasizing dialogue and relationships, is called relational Gestalt Therapy. It subordinates Perl’s confrontational style to a more empathic, supportive stand. Gestalt Therapy takes a holistic approach, focuses on the present situation and the process, and increases client awareness of present behavior. The ‘here-and-now’ experience is emphasized, based on the client’s interaction with his field (a dynamic system of interrelationships). The client plays a proactive role in the experiential therapy. Fritz Perls adopted a paternalistic stance in therapy, with the agenda of personality reintegration and moving from environmental support to self-support. Awareness and contact with the external and internal environment is more important that analysis and introspection. Awareness promotes self-regulation by the client. According to the paradoxical theory of change, awareness of what one is more important than striving to become what one is not. Therapy focuses on creating a climate conducive to client growth. The basic principles of Gestalt Therapy are: Holism – ‘Gestalt’ means ‘whole.’ In this context, the emphasis is on the person as a whole, and not on any particular individual aspect. By ‘attending to the obvious,’ which refers to surface cues, such as physical gestures and demeanor, the therapist studies the client’s figure (the conspicuous aspects of experience) and the ground (aspects beyond awareness). Field Theory – the client is perceived as a part of a constantly changing field, or environment. The figure formation process - the environmental field is differentiated into the figure, or foreground, and the ground, or background. The client’s dominant needs bring aspects from the ground to the figure. Organismic self-regulation – an individual’s need disturbs his equilibrium; this leads to self-regulation, in order to restore equilibrium and contributes to growth. Gestalt therapy emphasizes the complete experience of the present moment, or the now. To promote client awareness of the now, the therapist uses phenomenological enquiry in the context of the here-and-now questions. Unfinished business refers to incompletely resolved feelings which cause self-defeating behavior. Gestalt therapy pays attention to the location of energy in the client and to any blocks to energy which leads to disruptive behavior. The methodological components of Gestalt Therapy are (1) the continuum of experience (2) the here and now (3) the paradoxical theory of change (4) the experiment (5) the authentic encounter (5) process-oriented diagnosis. Therapy moves the client towards increased self-awareness, accepting responsibility for experiences and actions, acquisition of skills and values, being able to give and receive aid from others. The therapist invites the client into an active partnership and person-to-person relationship, to increase awareness of the present moment and self-direction. Particular attention is paid to non-verbal clues and speech patterns. Gestalt therapy is oriented towards dialogue. Clients are active participants who make their own interpretations. The client integrates growth with discovery (new self-awareness), accommodation (choosing new behavior) and assimilation (learning to influence and make use of the environment). The therapeutic relationship is characterized by respect and acceptance and is non-judgmental and centered in the present. The experiment is the fundamental technique of Gestalt Therapy. Experiments are tailored to the individual and are designed to offer fresh insights and emotional experiences and to give the client the opportunity to try out new behavior. Trust in the therapist, and client preparation, are essential for experiments. The client’s resistance to emotional expression is respected. Confrontation is used only to challenge the client to cooperate. Gestalt Therapy interventions include the ‘external-internal dialogue,’ the ‘empty-chair’ technique, ‘making the rounds,’ reversal, rehearsal and exaggeration exercises, ‘staying with the feeling,’ and dream work. Gestalt Therapy is effective in group counseling and is applicable to culturally diverse populations Read More