Theory Overviews Flashcards
Psychoanalytic Therapy
Major Figure(s): Sigmund Freud
Main Focus: Client’s past history and childhood, inter-relationship of parts of personality, and relationship between client and therapist
Goals: bring clients unconscious to conscious, work through repressed conflicts, reach intellectual awareness, restructure basic personality
Specific Techniques: interpretation, dream analysis, free association, analysis of resistance, analysis of transference
Suitable for: individuals, groups, those in pain, those who have received intensive therapy and want to progress further, those who want to become counselors
Not suitable for: self-centered clients, impulsive clients, severely impaired psychotics
Adlerian Therapy/Individual Therapy
Major Figure(s): Alfred Adler, Rudolf Dreikurs, Donald Dinkmeyer, Sr.
Main Focus: humans are goal oriented and motivated by social urges and desire to overcome inferiority; conscious rather than unconscious mind is foundation of personality development
Goals: develop healthy self-esteem and lifestyle through reeducation and restructuring; question and challenge perception of self, life beliefs, and goals; cultivate healthy social interests; provide encouragement toward meaningful goals.
Specific Techniques: collecting life history information, interpretation, confrontation, encouragement, asking “the question”, “spitting in the client’s soup”, task setting, “catching oneself”, acting “as if”, and paradox
Suitable for: individuals, child guidance, parent-child counseling, family and couples therapy, groups, rehabilitation/correctional, substance abuse, brief counseling.
Not suitable for: cultures that disapprove of revealing family background; clients preferring authoritarian counselors.
Other Neo-Freudians or Psychodynamic Analysis
Carl Jung - Analytical Psychology Erich Fromm Otto Rank Erik Erikson Harry Stack Sullivan Karen Horney
Existential-Humanistic Therapy
Major Figure(s): Abraham Maslow, Rollo May, Victor Frankl
Main Focus: emphasize existence, the present, and the meaning of existence; called the “third force of psychology” as it was a reaction from the two initial forces at the time - psychoanalysis and behaviorism
Goals: greater self-awareness through exploring possibilities and by identifying factors that block awareness and freedom; increase view of freedom to make choices and create meaning; validate the importance of responsibility, freedom, awareness, and potential
Specific Techniques: authentic and mutually personal relationship between client and therapist; confrontation used to spur clients toward self-responsibility; techniques from other approaches used when deemed helpful; action is preceded by self-awareness
Suitable for: individual, group, couples, family, crisis, and community counseling; use with the following issues: increased personal awareness and self enhancement, transitions in life, guilt or anxiety, making choices or decisions, balancing freedom and responsibility, determining values, finding meaning
Not suitable for: clients preferring directives regarding surviving life; cultural values that yield to authority, have a regard for tradition, collectivism, etc.; clients preferring well-defined specific techniques
Person-Centered Therapy
Major Figure(s): Carl Rogers
Main Focus: Basic principle of “an open and accepting attitude”, therapy is flexible as client directs movement of their own treatment
Goals: No predetermined goals are outlined other than increasing self-awareness and trust in one’s own actualizing process; includes exploring roadblocks to growth and recognizing parts of self that were previously denied or distorted; relationship with counselor as springboard to transfer learning into other relationships
Specific Techniques: Counselor’s attitude is biggest technique; reflection, active listening, confrontation, open-ended questions, summarization, clarification, support, reassurance; no diagnosis or interpretations; no judgements, advice giving, suggesting solutions, or moralizing, etc.
Suitable for: individuals, groups, crisis, community, couples, family, management, human relations training, culturally diverse groups
Not suitable for: cultures with other core values; clients seeking immediate help and direct answers; culture groups expecting more counselor activity
Gestalt Therapy
Major Figure(s): Fritz Perls
Main Focus: Insight Learning, Zeigarnik Effect, Phi-phenomenon
Goals: Emphasis to help client live a fuller life in order to feel fully integrated; “here and now” should be fully experienced, including confronting unfinished business and other forms of resistance and blocked energy; Client taught to be self-supporting and take responsibility for feelings, thoughts, and actions; insight is prized
Specific Techniques: confrontation, the “empty chair”, reliving, exaggeration, “making the rounds”, role-playing or psychodrama, stay with the feeling, rehearsal exercise, dream work, “I statements”, “how” and “what” questions, interpretation by client
Suitable for: Individuals, groups, couples, family, children’s behavior issues, awareness training, crisis, psychosomatic disorders, teaching and learning
Not suitable for: those not willing to accept connection btw. “being aware of present experiencing” and solving problems; those who have been emotionally reserved due to cultural conditioning
Transactional Analysis (TA)
Major Figure(s): Eric Burne, Thomas A. Harris
Main Focus:
Goals: assist client in becoming a script-free, game-free, autonomous personal who is capable of choosing how they want to be; assist client in examining early decisions and making new decisions based on awareness.
Specific Techniques: Confrontation; questioning; explanation and illustration; interpretation; contracts - four step process of structural analysis of personality, transactional analysis, game analysis, and script analysis; “I’m Okay - You’re Okay”, etc.
Suitable for: parent-child relations, classroom, group and individual, couple and family; passive-aggressive personality disorders and anorexia nervosa
Not suitable for: cultures desiring directive, authoritarian counseling; cultures that value yielding to authority and holding traditions
Behavioral Therapy
Major Figure(s): Classical - Ivan Pavlov, Joseph Wolpe, William H. Masters and Virginia Johnson, Andrew Salter, Hans Selye; Operant - BF Skinner, David Premack, Neal Miller, Edmund Jacobson; Vicarious - Albert Bandura and Richard Walters, Julian Rotter, Josh Dollard and Neal Miller, George Kelly
Main Focus: behavioral approaches include classical (respondent) conditioning, operant (instrumental) conditioning, social learning, and cognitive behavior therapy
Goals: eliminate inappropriate or maladaptive behaviors and teach more efficient ones; meeting treatment goals which counselor and client have set and evaluated, baseline measurement is requirement of behavioral therapy
Specific Techniques: consider “what”, “how”, and “when” of the behavior, but not the “why”; cognitive restructuring and dealing with the “why” are left to CBT and multi-model approaches; diagnosis and assessment are important to establish baseline; includes EMDR
Suitable for: individual, group, family and marital; helps with stress and anxiety, psychosomatic ailments, anorexia nervosa, depression, compulsions, trauma, assertion training, addictions, and sexual disorders
Not suitable for: clients needing to deal with underlying emotional issues; clients in cultures which behavior changes are discouraged
Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy (REBT)
Major Figure(s): Albert Ellis
Main Focus: One’s feelings and actions are determined by his/her cognitions.
Goals: attempts to “lead” the client to a “healthier” perspective; learn reperceive or rethink life events and philosophies to change unrealistic and illogical thought, emotion, and behavior; empower the client to analyze introspectively and connect distortion of the world; apply scientific model to thought processes and behaviors; recognize and change “automatic thoughts”
Specific Techniques: Cognitive - confrontation, analyzing interpretations and forming alternative ones, socratic dialogue, debating or disputing irrational beliefs, gathering data validating assumptions or misassumptions, therapeutic cognitive restructuring, humor to point out absurd ideas, homework assignments; Emotive - role playing, modeling, unconditional acceptance, exhortation, imagery, shame attacking exercises, forceful and vigorous responses; Behavior - regular behavior therapy procedures, failing on purpose at something, keeping a diary of activities, changing thoughts and language, practice new coping skills
Suitable for: Individual, couples, family, group counseling; problems include character disorders, depression, psychotic disorders, anxiety, hostility, child rearing, social skills, and problems of love, sex, and marriage, etc.; used in many self-help programs
Not suitable for: clients who tend to become dependent on counselor for direction; cultures which frown on questioning cultural beliefs and traditions; clients who do not want such a structured approach
Cognitive Therapy
Major Figure(s): Aaron Beck, Donald Meichenbaum
Main Focus: Negative thoughts are based on underlying dysfunctional assumptions and beliefs (cognitions)
Goals: new rules must be experimented with and tested; modify cognitive set and produce biochemical changes to influence cognitions; identify and discard cognitive distortions
Specific Techniques: Socratic dialogue, gathering data to validate or invalidate assumptions, keep diary of daily activities, formulate new and alternative assumptions or interpretations, homework, bibliotherapy
Suitable for: Individual, group, family, children, child abusers, parent training, substance abuse, divorce counseling, stress management, marital counseling; conditions treated include eating disorders, borderline PD, GAD, social phobias, performance anxiety, PTSD, adjustment disorder, chronic pain, suicidal behavior, narcissistic personality, and schizophrenic disorders
Not suitable for: clients with a tendency toward dependence on counselor; clients desiring less structure
Reality Therapy
Major Figure(s): William Glasser
Main Focus:
Goals: teach client to make appropriate choices, develop a sense of responsibility, interact constructively with others, and understand and accept the reality of existence
Specific Techniques: 8-step counseling process; counseling procedural strategies includes (W) wants and needs, (D) doing and direction, (E) evaluation, and (P) planning and commitment; active, didactic, directive, supportive, and confrontational.
Suitable for: Brief and short-term counseling, popular in institutional settings (schools, correctional facilities, hospitals, substance abuse facilities, etc.); individual, group, family, marital, social work, crisis, education, community
Not suitable for: Those unwilling to evaluate and acknowledge role of racism and discrimination in social and political arenas; those who insist on focusing on changing the environment
Eclectic Therapy/Integrative Therapy
Major Figure(s): Frederick Thorne, Arnold Lazarus, Gordon Allport, Robert Carkhuff, Gerard Egan
Main Focus: two basic types of eclecticism: counselor/therapist-centered eclecticism and process-centered eclecticism
Goals: emphasis is search for growth with focus on health; concern about reduction of symptoms, but more emphasis is placed on better functioning; accentuates positive
Specific Techniques: choose techniques that match personalities, skill levels, and needs of clients
Suitable for: different therapy models chosen to meet client’s needs
Not suitable for: different therapy models chosen to meet client’s needs
Feminist Therapy
Major Figure(s): No one person founded theory; evolved from work and efforts of many individuals in many disciplines (Karen Horney, Phyllis Chesler, Carol Gilligan, Nancy Chodorow, Sandra Bem, Jean Baker Miller, Carolyn Enns, Laura Brown)
Main Focus: Gender-fair therapy; address the oppression of women and advance the value of women’s perceptions and values; other therapy approaches can be enhanced with feminist principles and interventions
Goals: transform both the individual and society; empower individual to break free from gender-role expectations, reject societal expectations, etc.; force replacement of gender-role expectations in society, foster interdependence, cooperation, and mutual support for both women and men; emphasis on empowerment
Specific Techniques: any technique that promotes recognition of gender-role socialization; some Gestalt therapy and CBT techniques; consciousness-raising techniques
Suitable for: both women and men; individual, groups, family, relationship, community interventions, etc.
Not suitable for: clients who are not able to overcome criticism and isolation that new behaviors, roles, and attitudes will bring; cultures which reject self-determinism and individual empowerment
Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP)
Major Figure(s): Richard Bandler, John Grinder
Main Focus: based on linguistics and theories of personalities; concerned with how the processes of the brain perceive, store, and recall events
Goals: To discover the client’s method of perception, storage, and retrieval through observing the eye movements and listening to client’s language; teach client ways to consider the problem area using the same representational system pattern or another pattern that has not been used before
Specific Techniques: mirroring to establish rapport; pacing and leading; anchoring; reframing; metaphors and story telling
Suitable for: popular in business circles, and in interacting with foreign cultures
Not suitable for:
Example: A client uses mostly visual perception and not kinesthetics. The therapist may ask the client to visualize doing the new behavior, then look down and to the right to see how they “feel” about the behavior.
