Counseling psychology essay example

Counseling is a method of that allows change or choice to reduce uncertainty but it does not necessitate the directing or giving of advice to a client to take a certain course of action. Counseling happens when a psychotherapist counsels a patient in a confidential and private setting to investigate, loss of a purpose and direction, a problem the patient has or distress they may perhaps be experiencing or their frustration with life. Counselors’ do not exploit or judge their patients in any particular way. Nevertheless, counseling is all the time done at the request of the patient as no individual may appropriately be compelled to go for counseling. By paying proper attention and being patient, the counselor may start to identify the difficulties from the patient’s point of view and may assist them to perceive things more undoubtedly, perhaps from a different viewpoint. There are many kinds of counseling’s which various people prefer to term as therapy. For instance, there is family counseling, which is termed as family systems therapy, couple and family therapy, is a division of psychotherapy that deals with couples and families in intimate relationships to cultivate development and change in terms of relations between the family members. It as well gives emphasis to family relationships a significant aspect in psychological health (Barlow, 2007).

The diverse disciplines of family counseling have in general a conviction that, in spite of the cause of the problem, and regardless of if the patients regards it as a family or individual issue, involving the families to get results is frequently valuable. Family counseling or therapy has for long been made use of successfully in numerous varieties of human dilemmas and there is no class of psychological or relationship problem that has not been dealt with by using this approach. The theoretical frameworks which were developed by family counselors, in particular those of family systems theorists have been utilized to a wide variety of human behavior, comprising the study of greatness and organizational dynamics (Yalom, 2003).

Counseling psychology is a particular field which focuses on a broad diversity of mental health matters. Even though counseling psychologists’ chiefly deal with patients suffering from anxiety, depression, vocational, social or family problems, they are in addition trained to treat all mental problems that may be regarded as more severe than schizophrenia. Counseling psychologists are at variance from other kinds of psychology because of the way they deal with mental illnesses as they principally focus on the strengths and wellness of individuals instead of the mental deficiencies. They moreover place themselves apart from clinical psychologists as they put more pressure preventative care with communities and individuals as well. While clinical psychologists basically focus on treating the symptoms and or problems, the counseling psychologists prefer to prevent the problems from happening (Burns, 2000).

Psychodynamic psychology

Psychodynamic counseling is a kind of depth psychology, whose principal focus is to expose the unconscious matter of a patient’s psyche in an endeavor to lessen psychic pressure and in this regard, it is akin to psychoanalysis. It relies on the interpersonal association involving the parent and counselor unlike any other types of depth psychology and its approach, has a tendency to be more diverse than others, as it takes techniques from a multiplicity of foundations, instead of relying on a single method of intervention. This focus has been used in family counseling, group psychotherapy and individual psychotherapy, to work and identify with the organizational and institutional contexts (Heppner, 2008). Counseling psychology has scores of antecedents which makes it complicated to explain its origin. For instance, it utilizes lots of of the techniques and theories of famous but deceased psychologists such as Eric Erickson and Sigmund Freud (Barlow, 2007). However, vocational psychology played a very important part in the advancement of counseling psychology.

Rational emotive behavior

Rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT), which was in the past termed as rational emotive therapy and rational therapy, is an active-directive comprehensive, empirically and philosophically founded psychotherapy which focuses on determining behavioral and emotional disturbances and problems that enables individuals to lead more fulfilling and happier lives. REBT was developed after being formed by the American psychologist and psychotherapist Albert Ellis who was motivated by the teachings of Roman, Greek, Asian and contemporary philosophers and is a kind of cognitive behavior therapy (Prochaska, 2010).

Theoretical assumptions

One of the basic principles of REBT is that humans do not simply get upset by unfortunate hardships, but by how they construct their observations of reality through evaluative beliefs, their language, philosophies and meanings about themselves, the world, and others. This perception has been attributed as way back to the Greek Philosopher Epictetus, who is frequently cited as having utilized comparable ideas in ancient times. The billion dollar question that many people ask is; what are the weaknesses and strengths of the behaviorists’ approach? One of the major strengths of the behaviorists’ approach is that it deals merely on behavior that may be manipulated and observed. Consequently, this approach has been established as being very essential in experimentation under laboratory settings where behavior may be manipulated and observed, in particular in regarding dependent variable (DV) and the independent variable (IV).

The behaviorists’ main belief of knowledge has been, and keeps being, tested in the laboratory where learning may be objectively considered and their approach focuses on the ‘here and now’ instead of exploring the individual’s medical history. This is an advantage since lots of people are not aware of the causes of their abnormal behavior in the past since getting rid of these undesirable behaviors may perhaps be more significant than understanding the foundations of such behavior. For instance, a patient with an irrational urge to wash his hands needlessly a lot of times every day may be contented by simply getting rid of the abnormal behavior. But if an approach is unable to treat the fundamental causes of the behavior, it is probable the behavior will recur after a period of time. Behavioral treatments for instance token economies and systematic desensitization are effective for particular disorders, including phobias and obsessive-compulsive disorders but do not work on schizophrenia, which is a more serious disorder. The behaviorists’ approach has been disapproved of for suggesting that most human behavior is mechanical, and is basically the result of stimulus-response behaviors which gives it the impression of an exceptionally reductionist attitude (Yalom, 2003).

Conclusion

Career counseling can comprise of terms of written skills, investigation of plans and goals, and occupational information. It can as well involve the utilization of career or personality interest assessments, like the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator which is founded on Carl Jung’s theory of psychological kind. These assessments of skills, values and abilities are generally evaluated in all career counseling. Counseling psychologists are taught in graduate programs where nearly all award a PhD, while others grant EdD or PsyD. These doctorate programs require 5-6 years to graduate. The students are required to write and origination dissertation at the completion of their studies and they have to go through a one-year full time internship at an accredited establishment before qualifying to earn their doctorate. To enable the counseling psychologists to be licensed to practice, they are required to achieve clinical experience under strict supervision and also pass a consistent standardized examination.

Barlow, D. H. (2007). Clinical handbook of psychological disorders (4th ed.) Guilford Press, New York.

Burns, D. D. (2000). Feeling good: The new mood therapy. Quill, New York.
Prochaska, J. O. & Norcross, J. C. (2010). Systems of Psychotherapy: A Transtheoretical Analysis (7th ed.). Brooks/Cole, Belmont, CA.
Yalom, I. (2003). The gift of therapy: An open letter to a new generation of therapists and their patients. Perennial Currents, New York.

Heppner, P. (2008). A Growing Internationalization of Counseling Psychology. Handbook of Counseling Psychology. John Wiley & Sons: New York