compare and contrast three core theories of counselling

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy – is concerned with helping people form realistic expectations and challenging negative assumptions that have been accepted too readily. Work is given to service users so they can test elements of this intervention themselves between sessions, practice their skills and test out conclusions in their real life situations. This model of intervention is also mixed with client centred counselling, which operates on the thinking that people tend to move towards healing on their own especially if the counsellor;

Discuss how current counselling and psychotherapy practice emerged from psychiatry and psychology. Use critical evaluation of theoretical evidence to support discussion points. 2, Analyse the similarities and differences between psychotherapy and counselling practices using evidence, aims and objectives relevant to practice and therapeutic need.

I believe counseling is a collaborative partnership between client and counselor. Furthermore, this collaborative partnership is built from trust and acceptance of both client and counselor. I hope in conjunction with clients to understand the issues and concerns so to help them tap into their wisdom, creativity, and strengths to meet their current challenges. I believe in a comprehensive perspective through which clients can better comprehend themselves in the framework that our thinking about events can lead to emotional and behavioral upset. Moreover, counselors are to provide a safe environment for clients to explore their challenges and identify ways to move differently in overcoming these challenges.

As a counseling student, it is very important to formulate a counseling theory tailored to ones’ own personality and beliefs. A counselor may choose a single theory to model when practicing therapy or pick and choose components and techniques from various theories, otherwise known as eclecticism. No theory is considered right or wrong. Understanding the different therapeutic approaches are important to effective counseling, however, counselors must also understand their own personal value, view of human nature, human behavior, counseling techniques and the purpose and goals of counseling. Understanding these components along with the different theoretical approaches will provide the counselor with a 9 knowledge of their own counseling, orientation and is essential to not only the productivity of counseling but the growth of the counselor as well.

Cognitive therapy, now called cognitive behavioral therapy was developed by Aaron Beck. Beck believed that dysfunctional thought processes and beliefs are responsible for an individual’s behaviors and feelings. He also believed that individuals’ have the ability identify these distorted thoughts and change them to more realistic thinking in order to relieve their psychological discomfort. This type of therapy is designed to be a short-term, straight-forward and structured approach to counseling in which counselors and clients work together. I strongly identify with cognitive behavioral therapy because I believe all behaviors are a result of incorrect thoughts and beliefs. Irrational and negative thinking can influence an individual’s ability to cope and deal with any difficulties they may be experiencing. I also like cognitive behavioral therapy because it briefly includes a client’s historical background in its approach to counseling. I feel that counselors should include a client’s past experiences when trying to understand at what point the client’s incorrect assumptions developed. I believe that everybody in this world always has a choice on how they handle and behave in their given situation and circumstances. In cognitive behavioral therapy, once the counselor and client have identified the irrational thoughts and evaluated whether there is any evidence to its validity, the client has the ability to choose whether or not they desire to change their distorted ways of

In the first part of this essay I will summarise the main features of humanistic counselling and the

Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is a short-term, empirically valid amalgamation of facets from cognitive and behavior therapies. Cognitive-behaviorists believe that psychological problems stem from maladaptivity in both thought and behavior patterns, whether self-taught or learned from others. Therefore, changes have to take place in both thoughts and actions. Cognitive-behavioral therapy is structured as collaboration between client and therapist, focusing on the present. A prominent aspect of CBT is the client’s duty to be an active participant in the therapeutic process (Corey, 2013).

Ensuring the client understands the purpose, process and boundaries of the counselling relationship with advisement of confidentiality with the limits around duty of care and ensuring written permission from the client, for purposes of advocacy, before disclosure of information or contacting parties. Recognising that counsellors need to be committed to ongoing personal and professional improvement/development and undertaking regular supervision/debriefing to develop skills, monitor performance and accountability. Additionally, assisting peers by being supportive and responsive, in a helping environment, to achieve their professional development. Moreover, making suitable referrals where competent service cannot be provided and endeavouring to be client focussed at all times. Overall, the expectations are to be committed to the code of ethics and the code of practice applies those values and ethical principles to situations which may arise in the practice of

The theories we learned provided a broad-based understanding of numerous factors related to the evolution of counseling and therapy theories and practices, along with new counseling and therapy skills. The important premise that underscores one of the central challenges of counseling and psychotherapy is that we are all in the same world, but each of us makes different sense of what we see and experience. That is, to understand the different ways that clients perceive their strengths and problems as well as the way they make meaning of the world in which they are situated.

Nin Josefowitz and David Myran (2005) provide examples of how the conditions of person-centered therapy can be combined within the structure of cognitive behavior therapy to produce a safe, non-judgmental environment where clients can identify and explore their thoughts, affects, and behaviors. One example is that therapists can use a combination of empathetic questioning along with the “Socratic questioning” of CBT. Combining the two forms of questioning strengthens the therapeutic alliance because it creates an environment where the client can feel understood and not judged. Another example given is a person-centered CBT therapist would emphasize empathy and the importance of accurate reflection of content and feelings along with reflecting clients’ automatic thoughts and meaning. A key feature of this integrative therapy would be that clients would be given the opportunity to explore for themselves the meaning of specific situations rather than being instructed or “told” the meaning of those situations. Integrating these two forms of therapy creates an environment where clients can feel safe, not judged, where they can be validated, not feel pressured, where they can have a sense of self-worth, and where they can have a supportive therapeutic relationship. A study done in 1999 revealed

Cognitive behavioral therapy is a type of psychotherapy developed by Aaron Beck in the early 1960s (Beck, 2011). Its roots lay in famous theories and models, such as: Pavlov and his dogs, Albert Bandura, and Albert Ellis. (Coady & Leeman, 2008). CBT is directed towards solving existing problems and modifying dysfunctional thinking by therapist using structured, goal oriented, short term sessions. The goal of CBT is to change the client’s patterns of thinking or behavior that are the root of the client’s difficulties. By changing the client’s thinking and behavior, the results change how they feel.

Since Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) emerged, it has become one of the most popular and widely taught therapeutic modalities. It is currently dominating psychological therapies, especially in the UK following the introduction of the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) government initiative in 2008. Modern CBT has its roots in cognitive therapy (Beck, 1976) and behaviour therapy as developed by Wolpe (1958). CBT focuses on a relatively simple idea: the way we think about the things going on in our lives – our thoughts, images, beliefs, and attitudes – and how this may impact on the way we behave and deal with emotional problems. CBT then looks at ways of changing negative patterns of thinking or behaviour,

The aim of this assignment is to compare and contrast two theories or theorists of counselling from psychodynamic, humanistic or cognitive behavioural traditions and also to assess their strengths and weaknesses. This essay will focus on exploring the contrasting ideas and approaches of Carl Rogers who is a key figure associated with the person-centered approach and Fritz Perls who developed Gestalt therapy. Although they are both regarded as humanistic counsellors, they share a very different approach when working with clients. I have chosen to analyse these two theorists because of their contrasting styles, in particular my curiosity was sparked after viewing both Perls and Rogers sessions with Gloria. I found it fascinating how such different styles could still be successful in therapy. In particular fritz perls style really grabbed my attention as at first, I was really put off by his seemingly rude demeanour. However, after reading information on gestalt therapy and the ideas behind it I started to understand how it works.

Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) place focus on the present and takes a problem solving approach, where interventions for specific problems involve identifying, modifying and fixing problematic behaviours (Gray & Webb, 2013). It developed in response to growing dissatisfaction with behaviourism that had simplistic notion of people as being merely passive recipients to stimuli and psychodynamic theories that was considered as lacking evidence and non-scientific (Connolly & Harms, 2013). There was growing discontent with long-term therapy and ambiguous interventions and this theory viewed people as autonomous agents of their own environments (Connolly & Harms, 2013). According to CBT, personal problems are generated by unrealistic, negative