Shoudae Brown

JTS
Orientation to G & C
BASIC APPROACHES TO COUNSELLING/THERAPY
Lecture # 8
Mental health professionals use a variety of approaches to give people tools
to deal with ingrained, troublesome patterns of behavior and to help them
manage symptoms of mental illness. The best therapists will work with you
to design a treatment plan that will be most effective for you. This
sometimes involves a single method, or it may involve elements of several
different methods, often referred to as an "eclectic approach" to therapy.
Biomedical Treatment: Medication alone, or in combination with
psychotherapy, has proven to be an effective treatment for a number
of emotional, behavioral, and mental disorders. The kind of medication
a psychiatrist prescribes varies with the disorder and the individual
being treated.
Psychoanalysis attempts to have people recall, interpret, and work through
childhood experiences. Childhood experience may dramatically influence
adult life. Emotional wounds (especially parental abuse) may influence many
areas of the adult life. However, psychoanalysis often over emphasizes the
sexual aspect. Furthermore, just recalling a negative childhood experience
does not bring emotional healing. Only God through Jesus can accomplish
that. Also, false doctrines and concepts learned in childhood may cause
inner conflicts in adulthood. However, the lies must be confronted with the
truth of the Word.
Psychodynamic Psychotherapy: Based on the principles of
psychoanalysis, this therapy is less intense, tends to occur once or twice a
week, and spans a shorter time. It is based on the premise that human
behavior is determined by one's past experiences, genetic factors, and
current situation. This approach recognizes the significant influence that
emotions and unconscious motivation can have on human behavior.
Non-directive Counseling
(Rogerian Counselling is non directive counselling ) Carl Rogers asserts

that the client has the resources within themselves, to provide the healing
they need.
emphasizes the importance of getting the individual to share his problems.
The individual may need to unload and air his problems, and it is important
the counselor affirms the worth of the client by listening. However, just
sharing doesn't bring resolution to the problems. It is also important to allow
the individual come to a conclusion; however, it is more important to direct
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Shoudae Brown

the individual to the correct conclusion. Furthermore, if the individual had

the answer within himself he wouldn't really need a counselor. Furthermore,
so called "common knowledge" is not always true knowledge and is, in fact,
often wrong.
Existential Counseling attempts to relate the unfulfilled "needs" and
"potential" to issues and to aid the individual to redirect their energy to best
fulfill their needs and reach their potential. Every person "needs" to have
certain needs met. However, man is not to look at himself to fulfill his needs
or potential. God is to be his source. Furthermore, what the individual or
even the counselor may consider to be the proper priorities may not be what
God considers to be the priorities. Man is to be God-centered, not selfcentered.
Transactional Analysis emphasizes the proper playing of roles (child,
parent, adult). This is a favored approach in communications in the business
world. An adult should not treat another adult as a child. Neither should a
parent of a child treat the child as an adult. However, even proper role
playing may not change a rebellious attitude. Everyone is not O.K.
Furthermore, this approach to counseling gives little allowance for the
principles of authority. Transactional Analysis normally does not address the
truth that God works through authority to teach, correct, discipline, prosper,
empower, and protect.
Behavioral Counseling says that we are simply a product of our
environment; therefore, we need to be reconditioned through the proper
training. It is true that society (especially the home environment) exerts
pressure on people to behave in a certain way. Furthermore, some
relearning may be necessary. However, we are not robots or simply a
product of our environment. Behavioral counseling often pits reward against
punishment. The preferred approach in behavioral counseling is reward
because it generally gets better results. However, the combination of both is
seldom used as balanced in the Scriptures.
Reality Therapy approaches counseling from a confrontational
perspective. The counselor confronts the individual with the facts of life,
expecting him to face up to the issues. It is true that we are to confront
people with the truth in love as directed by the Holy Spirit. However, the
problem is that most troubled people are running from the issues. Some
professionals have categorized some forty defense mechanisms that people
use to avoid facing the truth. Often people run from the issues because they
don't see any solution for their issues; therefore the counselor must also
offer true solutions to the issues.
Biblical Counseling aspires to the truth that God has an answer for every
issue and actively intervenes in the lives of individuals. The answers are
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Shoudae Brown

found in the Word of God and revealed by the Holy Spirit. When an individual
responds correctly in faith to the Word of God, God will bring solutions to his
problems, peace of mind, and fulfillment. Each approach to counseling is
based upon some truth; however, only the Biblical Counseling approach is
based entirely upon the truth which can produce effective, long lasting
positive results. Furthermore, the other approaches may lead one even into
greater difficulties. One also should note that many Christian counselors,
because of their secular training, use primarily one of the secular approaches
to counseling along with some Scriptures.
Group Therapy: This form of therapy involves groups of usually 4 to 12
people who have similar problems and who meet regularly with a
therapist. The therapist uses the emotional interactions of the group's
members to help them get relief from distress and possibly modify
their behavior.
Couples Counseling and Family Therapy: These two similar approaches
to therapy involve discussions and problem-solving sessions facilitated
by a therapist-sometimes with the couple or entire family group,
sometimes with individuals. Such therapy can help couples and family
members improve their understanding of, and the way they respond
to, one another. This type of therapy can resolve patterns of behavior
that might lead to more severe mental illness. Family therapy can help
educate the individuals about the nature of mental disorders and teach
them skills to cope better with the effects of having a family member
with a mental illness-such as how to deal with feelings of anger or
guilt.
Cognitive Therapy: This method aims to identify and correct distorted
thinking patterns that can lead to feelings and behaviors that may be
troublesome, self-defeating, or even self-destructive. The goal is to
replace such thinking with a more balanced view that, in turn, leads to
more fulfilling and productive behavior.
Cognitive/Behavioral Therapy: A combination of cognitive and behavioral
therapies, this approach helps people change negative thought
patterns, beliefs, and behaviors so they can manage symptoms and
enjoy more productive, less stressful lives.
Adlerian Therapy : Named for its founder, Alfred Adler, it is also called
individual psychology. Considered the first "common sense" therapy, the
basic premise is that human beings are always "becoming," that we're
always moving toward the future, and our concerns are geared toward our
subjective goals rather than an objective past. We are constantly aiming
towards what Adler calls superiority. When we have unrealistic or
unattainable goals, this can lead to self-defeating behaviors and
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discouragement which may foster neurosis, psychosis, substance abuse,

criminal behavior, or suicide.
The role of the therapist is to help the client identify mistaken goals, and to
help the client do away with self-centeredness, egotism, and isolation, and to
develop positive, meaningful interpersonal relationships. Generally, a long
term therapy, sessions involve the therapist listening and questioning
towards the goal of knowing the client as fully as possible, so that the
therapist can feedback the faulty objectives and behaviors of the client.
Person-Centered (Rogerian): Founded by Carl Rogers in the 1940's, like
Adlerian therapy, a basic premise is that we are all "becoming;" we are all
moving towards self-actualization. Rogers believed that each of us has the
innate ability to reach our full potential. As infants we are born with it, but
because of early experiences, we may lose our connection to it. The self
concept we develop in response to our early experiences may tend to
alienate us from our true self. In this theory there is no such thing as mental
illness. It is just a matter of being disconnected from our self-potential. This
therapy is often considered the most optimistic approach to human potential.
This often lengthy therapy is based on developing the client-therapist
relationship. The therapist is to provide the conditions necessary for the
client's growth: genuineness, unconditional positive regard, and empathic
understanding. To be genuine the therapist must strive to be transparent,
open, willing to express at opportune times their own identity in the
relationship. There is no hiding behind expertise or degrees. Therapists must
be constantly doing their own inventory. Unconditional positive regard is
synonymous with acceptance and appreciation of the client for who the
client is in the present. Empathic understanding is based on the therapist's
ability to see the world through the client's eyes, to move into the client's
world at the deepest levels and experience what the client feels. If the
process works, the client moves back toward self-actualization.
Gestalt Therapy: This term was first used as the title of a book in 1951,
written by Fritz Perls,et. al. The therapy did not become well known until the
late 1960's. "Gestalt," a German word meaning "whole," operates as a
therapy by keeping the person in what is known as the here and now.
Therapists help clients to be attentive to all parts of themselves: posture,
breathing, methods of movement, etc. Unresolved conflicts are worked out in
the therapy session as if they are happening in that moment. An emphasis is
placed on personal responsibility for one's own well-being through being as
aware as possible at all times of one's interactions with the environment.
This usually lengthy therapy is accomplished by the therapist asking
questions and suggesting experiments which will increase the awareness and
sensitivity to the many parts of the client's total self.
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Shoudae Brown

Gestalt Therapy is a powerful experiential psychotherapy focusing on contact

and awareness in the here and now. By following their client's ongoing
process, with special attention to both the therapeutic relationship and the
client's style of interrupting that process, the Gestalt Therapist can help their
client to both work through and move beyond their painful emotional blocks.
This frees them to begin to explore new behavior, first in the "safe
emergency" of the therapeutic relationship and/or group and then, as
appropriate, in the outside world. The emphasis of the therapy is not on
talking about what has happened but on fully experiencing both what is, and
what can be.
Unlike psychoanalysis, Gestalt therapy does not focus on talking about the
client's past. The past is not neglected, but its importance, including that of
one's childhood, is not in what happened then, but in how it affects now.
What we experienced as we developed, and how we adapted to that
experience, come into the present as both our "unfinished business" and our
character styles, or ways of being in the world. Gestalt therapists deal
directly with these elements in the "here and now", working with contact
styles and focused awareness to help their clients complete and work
through unfinished business and learn to experience and appreciate their full
beingness. By learning to follow their own ongoing process, and to fully
experience, accept, and appreciate their complete selves, Gestalt Therapy
clients can free themselves to move past pain, fear, anxiety, depression or
low self-esteem. They can then discover who they really are, and allow
themselves to develop in the ways appropriate for them.
The origins of Gestalt Therapy derive from several sources, including
psychoanalysis (by way of Wilhelm Reich), field theorists (such as Lewin),
experimental Gestalt psychologists (studying the nature of visual
perception), and the Humanist-Existential movement. Each has made its own
unique contribution to Gestalt Therapy. From the work of Reich, we get an
awareness of the impact of our early development on our current being, the
tendency to hold our feelings in our bodies through tightening our muscles
and constricting our energy flow, and the formation of character structure.
The field theorists have helped us to see our interconnectedness, that we
exist as part of our environmental field, and can only be understood in
relation to that field. The Gestalt psychologists have demonstrated the
holistic nature of our relationship with the world, "Gestalt" referring to the
whole form or configuration which is greater than the sum of its parts.
Psychodrama brought the use of role play and active experiential techniques.
In the late 1940's, Fritz and Laura Perls guided the integration of these and
other elements into a powerful and effective therapeutic model.
The existential roots of Gestalt Therapy come especially through the work of
the philosopher Martin Buber and his emphasis on the "I-Thou" relationship.
According to this view, often now referred to as the "Dialogic" or "Relational"
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approach, it is within the context of the healing relationship, in which the

therapist practices "presence", "inclusion" and the "I-Thou attitude" that true
healing takes place. Gestalt Therapy has in recent years been moving
strongly in the direction of emphasizing this powerful therapeutic dialogue,
as well as the importance of providing support for the client during the
therapeutic process. Combining the power of the healing dialogue, in which
the client can experience understanding and validation, with directed
awareness and appropriately designed "Gestalt experiments", has enabled
Gestalt Therapy to prove a highly effective approach to psychotherapy.
Brief Therapies: While most therapy approaches have developed short
term versions (often in response to the demands of managed care), one
specific model is called SOLUTION-FOCUSED BRIEF THERAPY. This short term
work is based on 1. focusing on solutions instead of problems, 2. Exceptions
suggest solutions, i.e. "We fight all the time." "Think of a time recently when
you weren't fighting." 3. Change is occurring all the time. 4. Small changing
leads to large changing. 5. Cooperation is inevitable between therapist and
client. 6. People have all they need to solve their problems. The premise is
that if one does a step by step process, following these and six other
assumptions, the client can find quick solutions to whatever may be facing
them. Like the cognitive-behavioral therapies this is short term therapy
usually involves homework and clearly defined goals.
Eclectic Therapy: When therapists are asked their theoretical orientation,
this is the answer most often given. This is essentially a common sense
approach to helping people by tailoring therapy to the needs of the individual
client. While this seems like a good idea, there is so much to know to
become an adequate therapist in any one of the schools, it is unlikely that
any practitioner knows enough to utilize and integrate the vast complexities
of the many theories of therapy out here. Instead, if you look just below the
surface, there is probably a primary therapeutic orientation that is simply not
strictly adhered to by the therapist. For instance, he or she may start out as
a person-centered therapist, but has found a way to add cognitive or reality
therapy techniques to their personal approach. It's probably a good idea to
check this out with the therapist. Certainly some practitioners would argue,
however, that "no theory means poor theory." Therefore, the therapist may
take the client down a number of blind alleys to dead ends because she/he
doesn't have a clear idea where therapy's going themselves.
http://www.wholeperson-counseling.org/ndoc/approach.html
http://counsellingresource.com/types/traditional.html#behavioral

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