Counselling Psychology

UNIT-I
 Unit I: Introduction
• Counselling
• Guidance
• Psychotherapy: Definition and Purpose
• Counselling Specialties: Career Counselling, Marriage, Couple and family
Counselling, School and college counselling, Abuse and Disability
Counselling
 Helping-Different Approaches
• Direct Action
• Teaching
• Training
• Giving advice
• Providing information
• Counselling
 Counselling
• Counselling is a face to face situation in which a counsellor, by virtue of her
training and skill, helps the client to face, perceive, clarify, solve and resolve
his problems/issues
 Counseling
• Profession grew out of progressive guidance movement of the early 1900s
• Emphasis was on prevention and purposefulness
• Today, apart from focusing on the avoidance of problems and the promotion
of growth, the focus is much more than that
• Wellness, development, mindfulness, meaningfulness and remediation of
mental disorders is the hallmark of counseling for individuals, groups,
couples and families across the life span
 Why Counselling Skills?
The counsellor must So that the client can The counsellor may So that the client can
Listen Develop his/her Ask questions Develop his/her own
thinking thinking

Not judge Feel safe and respected Summarize Hear his/her thoughts
and know he/she is
Pay attention Know you care understood

Accept the client’s Know he/she is not

feelings being judged

Think about the client Get the best help

possible
 Aims of counselling
• Provides emotional security and comfort
• Promotes insight
• Generates awareness
• Facilitates confidence
 When counselling?
Counselling is definitely worth considering when:
• Feeling overwhelmed or depressed
• Need someone to listen to you and help you work out what’s most important
• An issue or situation is seriously affecting your day-to-day life
• Cannot make important decisions and are not sure what to do next
 Steps to remember while using basic
counselling skills
• Building rapport
• Ensuring trust issues and confidentiality
• Attending
• Listening
• Responding
• Showing genuineness
• Providing empathy
• Being transparent to self (to be aware of own emotional issues)
 Qualities of a counselor
• Self-aware
• Respect
• Trustworthiness
• Competence
• Suspend critical judgment
• Genuineness
• Being concern/being there
• Empathy
Essentials of an effective counselling session
Listen attentively Being non-judgmental

Empathy Being non-hurting

Warmth Being non-threatening

Respect Being non-pushing

Confidentiality
 Requisites of Counselling
• Open questions
• Active listening
• Body language
Tone of the voice
• Paraphrasing
• Summarizing
• Notetaking
• Homework
 Active Listening
Non-verbal signs
• Smile
• Eye contact
• Posture
• Mirroring
• Distraction
Verbal Signs of Active Listening
• Positive reinforcement
• Remembering
• Questioning
• Reflection
• Clarification
• Summarization
 Body Language

• Sit squarely
• Open posture
• Lean forward
• Eye contact
• Relaxed attitude
 Intonation
• High/low
• Loud/soft
• Fast/slow
• Accommodating/demanding
• Light hearted/gloomy
 Open-ended Question
• An avenue to express
• Seek information
 Paraphrasing
• Paraphrasing is when you restate what the speaker said
• Often different words are used and the listener may be using this to draw
attention to a particular concern or aspect
 Summarizing
• Summarizing is focusing on the main points of a presentation or
conversation in order to highlight them
• At the same time you are giving the “gist”, you are checking to see if you are
accurate
 Note Taking
• Practice of writing down pieces of information, often in an shorthand
• The listener needs to be discreet and not disturb the flow of thought, speech
or body language of the speaker
 Homework
• When the person identifies a need or concern, she or he must be willing to
work hard at addressing it
• Term counseling has eluded definition for years
• In 2010, 29 counseling associations including the American Counseling Association
(ACA) and all but two of its 19 divisions, along with the American Association of
State Counseling Boards (AASCB), the Council for the Accreditation of Counseling
and Related Educational Programs (CACREP), the National Board for Certified
Counselors (NBCC), the Council of Rehabilitation Education (CORE), the
Commission of Rehabilitation Counselor Certification (CRCC), and the Chi Sigma
Iota (counseling honor society international) accepted a consensus definition of
counseling
• According to the 20/20: A Vision for the Future of Counseling group,
counseling is defined as follows:
• “Counseling is a professional relationship that empowers diverse
individuals, families, and groups to accomplish mental health,
wellness, education, and career goals”
• Counseling deals with wellness, personal growth, career, education,
and empowerment concerns
• Counseling is conducted with persons individually, in groups, and in
families
• Counseling is diverse and multicultural
• Counseling is a dynamic process
• ACA has defined a professional counseling specialty, which is an area (within
counseling) that is “narrowly focused, requiring advanced knowledge in the field” of
counseling
• Among the specialties within counseling are those dealing with educational settings
such as schools or colleges and those pertaining to situations in life such as
marriage, mental health, rehabilitation, aging, addiction, and careers
• According to the ACA, becoming a specialist is founded on the premise that “all
professional counselors must first meet the requirements for the general practice of
professional counseling”
 Case Study 1
Jocelyn works as a Human Resources Manager for a large international organization.
She is becoming more and more stressed at work as the company is constantly
changing and evolving. It is a requirement of her job that she keeps up with this
change by implementing new strategies as well as ensuring focus is kept on her main
role of headhunting new employees.
She finds that she is working twelve-hour days, six days a week and doesn’t have time
for her friends and family. She has started yelling at staff members when they ask her
questions and when making small mistakes in their work. Concerned about her stress
levels, Jocelyn decided to attend a counselling session.
 Transcript from counselling session
• Counsellor: So let’s spend a few minutes talking about the connection between
your thoughts and your emotions. Can you think of some times this week
when you were frustrated with work?
• Jocelyn: Yes, definitely. It was on Friday and I had just implemented a new
policy for staff members. I had imagined that I would get a lot of phone
calls about it because I always do but I ended up snapping at people over the
phone.
• Counsellor: And how were you feeling at that time?
• Jocelyn: I felt quite stressed and also annoyed at other staff members because
they didn’t understand the policy.
• Counsellor: And what was going through your mind?
• Jocelyn: I guess I was thinking that no-one appreciates what I do.
 Guidance
• Guidance focuses on helping people make important choices that affect their
lives
• One distinction between guidance and counseling is that guidance centers on
helping individuals choose what they value most, whereas counseling helps
them make changes
• Guidance is only one part of the overall services provided by professional
counseling
 Difference between Guidance and Counseling

• Advice or a relevant piece of information given by a superior/expert/professional,

to resolve a problem or overcome from difficulty, is known as guidance
• Counseling refers to a professional advice given by a counselor to an individual to
help him in overcoming from personal or psychological problems
• Guidance is preventive in nature, whereas counseling tends to be healing, curative or
remedial
• Guidance assists the person in choosing the best alternative. But counseling,
tends to change the perspective, to help him get the solution by himself
or herself.
• Guidance is a comprehensive process; that has an external approach. On the
other hand, counseling focuses on the in-depth and inward analysis of the
problem, until client understands and overcome it completely.
• Guidance is taken on education and career related issues whereas counseling
is taken when the problem is related to personal and socio-
psychological issues.
• Guidance is given by a guide who can be any person superior or an expert in
a particular field. As opposed to counseling, which is provided by counselors,
who possess a high level of skill and have undergone through professional
training.
• Guidance can be open and so the level of privacy is less. Unlike counseling, wherein
complete secrecy is maintained.
• Guidance can be given to an individual or group of individuals at a time. On the
contrary, counseling is always one to one until and unless it is group, couple or
family counseling
• In the guidance, the guide suggests the decision to the client. In contrast to
counseling, where the counselor empowers the client to take decisions on his own.
 Psychotherapy
• Traditionally, psychotherapy (or therapy) has focused on serious problems
associated with intrapsychic, internal, and personal issues and conflicts
• It has dealt with the “recovery of adequacy” (Casey, 1996, p. 175)
• Psychotherapy, especially analytically based therapy, has emphasized
a) The past more than the present
b) Insight more than change
c) The detachment of the therapist, and
d) The therapist’s role as an expert
• Psychotherapy has historically involved a long-term relationship (20 to 40
sessions over a period of 6 months to 2 years) that concentrated on
reconstructive change as opposed to a more short-term relationship (8 to
12 sessions spread over a period of less than 6 months)
• Psychotherapy has also been more of a process associated with inpatient
settings-some of which are residential, such as mental hospitals-as opposed
to outpatient settings- some of which are non-residential, such as
community agencies
• Psychotherapy and counseling are interactions between a
therapist/counselor and one or more clients/patients. The purpose is
to help the patient/client with problems that may have aspects that are
related to disorders of thinking, emotional suffering, or problems of
behavior. Therapists may use their knowledge of theory of personality
and psychotherapy or counseling to help the patient/client improve
functioning. The therapist’s approach to helping must be legally and
ethically approved
 Difference between Psychotherapy and
Counseling
• Counseling is used with normal individuals and psychotherapy with those
who are severely disturbed
• Problem with this distinction is that it is difficult to differentiate severity of
disturbance, and often practitioners use the same set of techniques for
clients of varying severity levels
• Another proposed distinction is that counseling is educational and
informational while psychotherapy is facilitative (Corsini, 2008)
• Another attempt at separating counseling and psychotherapy suggests that
psychotherapists work in hospitals, whereas counselors work in such settings
as schools or guidance clinics
• Because the overlap of patient problems is great regardless of work setting,
such a distinction is not much helpful
• Gelso and Fretz (2001) describe a continuum from relatively brief work that
is situational or educational on one end (counseling) and long-term, in-depth
work seeking to reconstruct personality on the other end (psychotherapy)
• Traditionally, the term psychotherapy has been associated with psychiatrists and
medical settings, whereas the term counseling has been associated with
educational and, to some extent, social-work settings
• Although there is much overlap, theories developed by psychiatrists often use
the word psychotherapy, or its briefer form, therapy, more frequently than they
do counseling
 Patient or Client
• A related issue is that of the terms patient and client. Patient is used most often
in a medical setting, with client applied more frequently to educational and
social service settings
Psychotherapies
 Psychoanalytic Therapy
• Key figure: Sigmund Freud
• A theory of personality development, a philosophy of human nature, and a
method of psychotherapy that focuses on unconscious factors that motivates
behavior
• Attention is given to the events of the first 6 years of life as determinants of
the later development of personality
 Examples
• April broke up with Adam, and three months later went on a date with Mark.
While at the restaurant, April accidentally called Adam by Mark’s name.
While this could have just been a simple accident, psychoanalytic theory says
that there is a deeper reason for April’s slip – for example, she still has
feelings for Mark and her mind is on him, and therefore she called her new
date by her old boyfriend Mark’s name.
• Mary’s therapist believes that Mary’s current relationship difficulties stem
from the unstable relationship she had with her father while growing up.
• Every time the vehicle she is riding in stops suddenly, Mrs. Smith panics. She thinks
this is because she was in a car accident when she was a child, and in each new
situation the fear of another accident crashes over her like a wave.
• Jack’s mother left his family when he was a child. Ever since then, he has had a very
difficult time trusting people because he is afraid they will abandon him.
• Tom and Ashley were participating in pre-marital counseling. It came up during one
session that Ashley may have difficulty really believing that Tom loves her because
she never felt that her parents loved her.
 Techniques
• Free association
• Dream analysis
• Analysis of transference
• Analysis of resistance
 Free Association
• Involves exploring a person's unconscious through spontaneous word
association. Clients are encouraged to say whatever comes to mind when the
therapist presents them with a word, no matter how trivial, illogical, or
irrelevant the response may seem. It is the therapist's job to interpret the
responses as patterns in the associations that are identified.
• Bob has recently gone through a divorce. Dealing with this is what led him to seek
therapy. Since Bob's therapist, Jane, knows this, she will ask Bob to do some free
association with words he may relate to relationships or marriage. It would look
something like this:
• Jane says 'wife,' and Bob says 'mine.'
• Jane says 'wedding,' and Bob says 'promise.'
• Jane says 'husband,' and Bob says 'power.'
• Jane says 'love,' and Bob says 'obedience.'
• Jane says 'commitment,' and Bob says 'important.'
• Jane had hoped this technique would uncover a theme to explore further in
Bob's therapy, and she wasn't disappointed. A number of Bob's responses
indicate that he associates marriage with control over someone. This is
something that they can explore further in therapy. This is a central
technique in psychoanalytic therapy. It is used to uncover unconscious
desires or intense emotions that have been blocked by the client.
 Dream Analysis
• Investigation of repressed feelings that can be expressed in our dreams
• Dreams have two levels of content:
Latent content, or hidden motives, wishes, or fears
Manifest content: This refers to the dream as it actually appears
• Jane has asked Bob to write down any dreams he has had and to bring it with
him to his next therapy session. The night before his therapy session, Bob
had a dream that he was trying to bury something. No matter how deep he
dug the hole or how much dirt he put back in, the object could not be
covered up. He also could not see what it was he was trying to bury
• Jane asks Bob to do some free association with her about the dream. Jane
says 'hole,' and Bob says 'endless.' Jane says 'bury,' and Bob says 'failure.' The
responses continue in a similar manner. This leads to an interpretation of the
dream. It appears that Bob is repressing feelings of failure and hopelessness.
Interpreting a dream's meaning not only uncovers repressed material but
provides insight into a person's present functioning.
 Analysis of Transference
• Transference is the transfer of feelings from the past to someone in the
present. Usually, it involves these feelings being transferred from the client
onto the therapist. This situation is considered valuable to the therapeutic
process because it allows the client to re-experience feelings that need to be
resolved
• Jane is trying to direct the therapy session toward a discussion about Bob's
feelings toward his ex-wife. Bob becomes angry with Jane and asks her why
she always wants to be in control. Bob feels that because he is a man, he
should be in control of the situation. As Bob begins to realize he is really
expressing his feelings toward his ex-wife, he begins to talk about why he
feels strongly about being in control and how it affected his marriage.
• Exploring transference can often open the discussion of a topic that a client
has been trying to avoid. It can also demonstrate the influence of the past on
a person's current functioning.
 Analysis of Resistance
• Resistance is any attitude, idea, feeling, or action that interferes with a change
from the present situation. The therapist needs to help the client see that this
resistance is not helpful to them. Do they want to continue on a path that is
not working for them or do they want to try something new?
• Bob is having difficulty believing that he does not have to be in control of
everything in his life. After all, if he is in control, things will go the way he
wants them to. Jane must help him realize that he is blaming himself for
things that he cannot control. For Bob to make progress in therapy, he must
realize that he cannot control the actions or choices of others.
• The analysis of resistance is essential to successful therapy. If a client is
unable to resolve the issue that is interfering with a change in their present
situation, they are unlikely to be successful at changing it.
 Adlerian Therapy
• Key figure: Alfred Adler
• Following Adler, Rudolf Dreikurs is credited with popularizing this approach
in the United States
• This is a growth model that stresses assuming responsibility, creating one’s
own destiny, and finding meaning and goals to create a purposeful life
• Key concepts are used in most other current therapies
• Alderian therapy is a short-term, goal-oriented, and positive psychodynamic therapy based
on the theories of Alfred Adler
• Adler focused much of his research on feelings of inferiority versus superiority,
discouragement, and a sense of belonging in the context of one’s community and society at
large
• Feelings of inferiority can result in neurotic behavior but, in the right setting, can also be
used as motivation to strive for greater success
• Adlerian therapy focuses on the development of individual personality
while understanding and accepting the interconnectedness of all humans
•
 Therapeutic Goals
• The therapeutic process includes forming a relationship based on mutual respect
and identifying, exploring, and disclosing mistaken goals and faulty assumptions
within the person's style of living
• The main aim of therapy is to develop the client's sense of belonging and to assist
in the adoption of behaviors and processes characterized by community feeling and
social interest
• Adlerians do not see clients as "sick", instead they view clients as being discouraged.
So the goal would be to reeducate clients so that they can live in society as equals,
both giving and receiving from others.
• Adlerians believe that encouragement is the most powerful method of
changing a person's belief.
• Mosak(2000) listed these goals for the educational process of therapy:
o Fostering social interest
o Helping clients overcome feelings of discouragement and inferiority
o Modifying clients' views and goals
o Changing faulty motivation
o Assisting clients to feel a sense of equality with others
o Helping people to become contributing members of society
 Therapist's Function and Role
• Major function of the therapist is to make comprehensive assessment of the client's
functioning
• Therapist gather information by means of a
• 1. Questionnaire on the client's family constellation; parents, siblings, and others in
the house. This gives the therapist an idea of the client's early social world.
• 2. The counselor also uses early recollections as a diagnostic tool.
• 3. Lifestyle assessment- This is created after the early recollections are
summarized and interpreted, and this gives a target for therapy
 Client's Experience in Therapy
• In the therapy clients explore what Adlerian's call Private Logic- the concepts about
self, others, and life that constitute the client's philosophy of life
• The core of the therapy experience consists of clients' discovering the purpose of
behavior or symptoms and the basis mistakes associated with their coping
• After a lifestyle assessment is complete the therapist should be able to help the
client identify their mistaken ideas about life
• Through therapy, the client will discover that he of she has resources and options to
draw on in dealing with significant life issues and life tasks
Relationship Between Therapist and Client
• Adlerian's consider a good client-therapist relationship to be one between
equals that is based on cooperation, mutual trust, respect, confidence, and
alignment of goals.
 Therapeutic techniques and procedures
• Establish the proper therapeutic relationship
• Explore the psychological dynamics operating in the client (an assessment)
o The family constellation
o Early recollections
o Integration and summary
• Encourage the development of self-understanding (insight into purpose)
• Help the client make new choices (reorientation and reeducation)
o The encouragement process
o Change and the search for new possibilities
o Making a difference
 Techniques for change
• A lifestyle analysis helps the Adlerian therapist to gain insights into client
problems by determining the clients' basic mistakes and assets. These insights
are based on assessing family constellation, dreams, and social interest. To
help the client change, Adlerians may use a number of active techniques that
focus to a great extent on changing beliefs and reorienting the client's view
of situations and relationships.
 Life tasks
• There are five basic obligations and opportunities: occupation, society, love,
self development, and spiritual development. These are used to help
determine therapeutic goals.
 Interpretation
• Adlerians express insights to their clients that relate to clients' goals.
Interpretations often focus on the family constellation and social interest.
 Immediacy
• Communicating the experience of the therapist to the client about what is
happening in the moment.
 Encouragement
• An important therapeutic technique that is used to build a relationship and to
foster client change. Supporting clients in changing beliefs and behaviors is a
part of encouragement.
 Acting as if
• In this technique, clients are asked to "act as if" a behavior will be effective.
Clients are encouraged to try a new role, the way they might try on new
clothing.
 Catching oneself
• In this technique, patients learn to notice that they are performing behaviors
which they wish to change,. When they catch themselves, they may have an
"Aha" response.
 Aha response
• Developing a sudden insight into a solution to a problem, as one becomes
aware to one's beliefs and behaviors
 Avoiding the tar baby
• By not falling into a trap that the client sets by using faulty assumptions, the
therapist encourages new behavior and "avoids the tar baby" (getting stuck in
the client's perception of the problem).
 The question
• Asking "what would be different if you were well?" was a means Adler used
to determine if a person's problem was physiological or psychological
 Paradoxical intention
• A therapeutic strategy in which clients are instructed to engage and
exaggerate behaviors that they seek to change. By prescribing the symptom,
therapists make clients more aware of their situation and help them seek to
change. By prescribing the symptom, therapists make clients more aware of
their situation and help them achieve distance from the symptoms. For
example, a client who is afraid of mice may be asked to exaggerate his fear
of mice, or a client who hoards paper may be asked to exaggerate that
behavior so that living becomes difficult. In this way individuals can become
more aware of and more resistant from their symptoms.
 Spitting in the client’s soup
• Making comments to the client to make behaviors less attractive or desirable.
 Homework
• Specific behaviors or activities that clients are asked to do after a therapy
session
 Push button technique
• Designed to show patients how they can create whatever feelings they what
by thinking about them, the push-button technique asks clients to remember
a pleasant incident that they have experienced, become aware of feelings
connected to it, and then switch to an unpleasant image and those feelings.
Thus clients learn that they have the power to change their own feelings.
• One of the core tenets of Adlerian therapy is that individual behavior must
be explored within the context of a client’s sense of “fitting in” with their
community, and society at large
• In some cases, this extends to birth order and how one’s role within the
family affects the development of one’s personality and future relationships
 Person-centered Therapy
• Founder: Carl Rogers; Key figure: Natalie Rogers.
• This approach was developed during the 1940s as a nondirective reaction
against psychoanalysis
• Based on a subjective view of human experiencing, it places faith in and
gives responsibility to the client in dealing with problems and concerns
 Therapist Attributes
(1) congruence (genuineness, or realness),
(2) unconditional positive regard (acceptance and caring), and
(3) accurate empathic understanding (an ability to deeply grasp the subjective world
of another person)
 The Necessary and Sufficient Conditions for
Client Change
1. Psychological Contact
2. Incongruence
3. Congruence and Genuineness
4. Unconditional Positive Regard or Acceptance
5. Empathy
6. Perception of Empathy and Acceptance
 The Client’s Experience in Therapy
• Experiencing the responsibility
• Experiencing the therapist
• Experiencing the process of exploration
• Experiencing the self
• Experiencing change
 The Process of Person-Centered
Psychotherapy
Seven stages of therapeutic progress that ranged from
• Being closed,
• Not open to experience,
• Not self-aware,
• To the opposite—openness to experience,
• Self-awareness,
• And positive self-regard
 Existential Therapy
• Key figures: Viktor Frankl, Rollo May, and Irvin Yalom
• Reacting against the tendency to view therapy as a system of well-defined
techniques, this model stresses building therapy on the basic conditions of
human existence, such as choice, the freedom and responsibility to shape
one’s life, and self-determination
• It focuses on the quality of the person-to-person therapeutic relationship
• Being-in-the-world
• Human beings exist in the Umwelt, Mitwelt, Eigenwelt, and Überwelt simultaneously
• The Umwelt refers to the biological world or the environment
• The Mitwelt means “with- world” and concerns the area of human relationships
• The Eigenwelt is the “own-world” and refers to the relationship that individuals have
to themselves
• The Überwelt refers to one’s relationship with spiritual or religious values
• The first three were introduced by Binswanger; the last has been recently added by
van Deurzen.
• Authenticity is the basic goal of psychotherapy
• In therapy, clients learn how their lives are not fully authentic and what they
must do to realize the full capa- bility of their being (Cooper, 2003; Craig,
2009)
• Frankl states, “Clients must find a purpose to their existence and pursue it.
The therapist must help them achieve the highest possible activation” (1965,
p. 54)
• Work of existential therapists has as its focus existential themes
• Issues of death, freedom, responsibility, isolation, and meaninglessness are
important, not the techniques or methods used to deal with them
• Initial assessment
• Dreams as assessment
• Use of objective and projective tests
 Therapeutic Relationship
• Therapeutic love
• Resistance
• Transference
• Therapeutic process
• Living and dying
• Freedom, responsibility and choice
• Isolation and loving
• Meaning and meaninglessness
 Gestalt Therapy
• Founders: Fritz and Laura Perls
• Key figures: Miriam and Erving Polster
• An experiential therapy stressing awareness and integration, it grew as a
reaction against analytic therapy
• It integrates the functioning of body and mind
• Best understood in relation to their current situation as he or she experiences
it
• Perls (1969b, p. 26) stated that the goal of therapy is to help individuals mature and
grow
• Implied in this definition (Passons, 1975) is the emphasis on self- responsibility,
helping patients depend on themselves rather than on others (Perls, 1969b)
• Therapy should assist patients in seeing that they can do much more than they think
they can
• Much assessment is through the therapist’s moment- to-moment observation of the
patient
• Therapists focus on ways to understand the client and to communicate this
understanding to the client
• Traditionally, gestalt therapy has not addressed itself in a systematic way to
diagnosis or assessment
• Gestalt therapists can use a cyclical approach to assessment (Clarkson, 2004)
• Melnick and Nevis (1998) explain how the experiencing cycle can be used to
diagnose types of disorders by attending to five phases: sensation/awareness,
mobilization, contact, resolution/closure, and withdrawal
• Sensation/awareness involves taking in experience through the senses
• Mobilization refers to moving from awareness to forming a desire or want
• Contact produces emotional arousal and implies contact with self and others
• Resolution/closure takes place as individuals disengage from an experience
• Withdrawal takes place as the experiencing cycle draws to a close and moves
toward other contact experiences
 Role play
• Role-play can help individuals to experience different feelings and emotions
and better understand how they present and organize themselves
 The ‘empty chair’ technique
• The empty chair technique involves two chairs and role-play, and can give rise to emotional
scenes.
• The client sits opposite an empty chair and must imagine someone (usually himself/herself
or parts of him or her) in it
• They then communicate with this imaginary being - asking questions and engaging with
what they represent
• Next, they must switch chairs so they are physically sitting in the once empty chair. The
conversation continues, but the client has reversed roles - speaking on behalf of the
imagined part of his or her problem. This technique aims to enable participants to locate a
specific feeling or a side of their personalities they had 'disowned' or tried to ignore. This
helps them to accept polarities and acknowledge that conflicts exist in everyone
 Dialogue
• A gestalt therapist will need to engage the client in meaningful and authentic
dialogue in order to guide them into a particular way of behaving or thinking
• This may move beyond simple discussion to more creative forms of
expression such as dancing, singing or laughing
 Discussing dreams
• Dreams play an important role in gestalt therapy, as they can help individuals
to understand spontaneous aspects of themselves
• Fritz Perls frequently asked clients to relive his or her dreams by playing
different objects and people in the dream
• During this they would be asked questions like: "What are you aware of
now?" to sharpen self-awareness
 Attention to body language
• Throughout therapy, a gestalt therapist will concentrate on body language, which is
considered a subtle indicator of intense emotions
• When specific body language is noticed, the therapist may ask the client to
exaggerate these movements or behaviors
• This is thought to intensify the emotion attached to the behavior and highlight an
inner meaning
• For example, a client may be showing signs of clenched fists or frowning, to which
the therapist may ask something along the lines of: "What are you saying with this
movement?"
 Behavior Therapy
• Key figures: B. F. Skinner, Arnold Lazarus, and Albert Bandura
• This approach applies the principles of learning to the resolution of specific
behavioral problems
• Results are subject to continual experimentation
• The methods of this approach are always in the process of refinement
• Goals of Behavior Therapy: Situationally specific, depending on the desired
behavior change
 Functional analysis
• Behavioral assessment
 Behavioral interviews
 Behavioral reports and ratings
 Behavioral observations
 Physiological measures
 Systematic Desensitization
• Relaxation
• Anxiety hierarchies
• Desensitization
 Imaginal Flooding Therapies
• Whereas the process of systematic desensitization is a gradual one, flooding
is not
• In imaginal flooding, the client is exposed to the mental image of a
frightening or anxiety-producing object or event and continues to experience
the image of the event until the anxiety gradually diminishes.
 In Vivo Therapies
• The term in vivo refers to procedures that occur in the client’s actual
environment
• Basically, the two types of in vivo therapy are those in which the client
approaches the feared stimuli gradually (similar to systematic desensitization)
and those in which the client works directly with the feared situation (similar
to imaginal flooding)
 Virtual Reality Therapy
• Therapy that takes place in a computer-generated environment (North,
North, & Burwick, 2008; Wiederhold & Wiederhold, 2005)
 Modeling Techniques
• Live modeling
• Symbolic modeling
• Self Modeling
• Participant modeling
• Covert modeling
 Self-Instructional Training: A Cognitive
Behavioral Approach
• Self-instruction is one of several methods of self-management
• Self-instructional training is a way for people to teach themselves how to deal
effectively with situations that had previously caused difficulty
• The basic process is that the therapist models appropriate behavior, the client
practices the behavior (as in participant modeling), and then the client
repeats the instructions to herself
 Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy
• Developed by Albert Ellis
• Rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT) focuses on irrational beliefs that
individuals develop that lead to problems related to emotions (for example, fears
and anxieties) and to behaviors (such as avoiding social interactions or giving
speeches)
• Although REBT uses a wide variety of techniques, the most common method is to
dispute irrational beliefs and to teach clients to challenge their own irrational beliefs
so that they can reduce anxiety and develop a full range of ways to interact with
others
• Essential to his theory is his A-B-C model, which is applied to understanding
personality and to effecting personality change
• This model holds that individuals respond to an activating event (A) with emotional
and behavioral consequences (C)
• The emotional and behavioral consequences are not only caused by the activating
event (A), but partly by the individual’s belief system (B). When the activating event
(A) is a pleasant one, the resulting beliefs are likely to be innocuous.
• When the activating events are not pleasant, irrational beliefs may develop. These
irrational beliefs (B) often cause difficult emotional and behavioral consequences
(C)
• A major role of the therapist is to dispute (D) these irrational beliefs (B) by
challenging them through a variety of disputational techniques
• Also, a number of other cognitive, emotive, and behavioral techniques are
used to bring about therapeutic change
• General goals of REBT are to assist people in minimizing emotional
disturbances, decreasing self-defeating self-behaviors, and becoming more
self- actualized so that they can lead a happier existence (Ellis, 2003d, 2004b,
2005b)
• Major sub goals are to help individuals think more clearly and rationally, feel
more appropriately, and act more efficiently and effectively in achieving goals
of living happily
• REBT assessment is of two overlapping types
• First is assessment of cognition and behaviors that are sources for the problems, as
well as themes of cognition, emotions, and behaviors
• The second is the use of the A-B-C theory of personality to identify client
problems
• In addition to therapy-oriented assessment, a wide variety of scales and tests can be
used to assess client concerns
• Ellis believed that the best way to develop a therapeutic relationship is to help solve
the client’s immediate problem (Ellis, 2004d; Ellis & Dryden, 1997)
 The A-B-C-D-E Therapeutic Approach

C
A B
Emotional and
Activating event Irrational Belief
behavioral consequences

D
E F
Dispute the irrational
New effect New Feeling
belief
 A-B-C-D-E Model Illustrated
Assessment of feeling and activating event
[Client:] Boy, am I down.
[Therapist:] What are you feeling?
[Client:] Don’t know ... sorta rotten ... sick, like someone kicked me in the stomach.
[Therapist:] Did someone?
[Client:] Well, I did what we said last week. I went to the disco at my school last night. I went
over my little speech that we did last week about how to ask Jane for a dance. I didn’t feel as
uptight ’cause I had something to say. And so I finally went over to Jane and before I could
even ask her she walked away to dance with someone else. And she ignored me for the rest of
the night.
 Empathic reflection of feelings by practitioner
[Therapist:] Sounds like you feel depressed because Jane didn’t dance with you
and you really want her to like you. Is that about it?
[Client:] Yeah.
 Assessment of the ABC relationship
[Therapist:] Well, can you explain using the ABC method why you are still fairly
upset?
[Client:] Starting with C, I guess I am sorta depressed. And A was Jane dancing
with this other guy.
 Assessment of behavioral consequence
[Therapist:] Good, how did you react then?
[Client:] That was it! I just gave up. Didn’t dance, didn’t talk to her. I just waited
around outside until my dad picked me up.
 Assessment of cognition
[Therapist:] Okay, what about B? What is B again?
[Client:] B are my thoughts ... especially those ... I can’t remember ...
[Therapist:] Irrational?
[Client:] Right. Rational and irrational thoughts about A.
[Therapist:] Okay, now what are you thinking about A? See if you can focus on
some of the nutty things you might be saying.
(reflective pause)
[Client:] Well, I sorta feel embarrassed. You know, she must not like me at all.
She probably thinks I’m a jerk. I hate it when she did it. Makes me feel like a
dill.
[Therapist:] See if you can start your sentences with I’m thinking.
[Client:] I’m thinking what a dill I am ... and I’m thinking how much I want her.
[Therapist:] How much?
[Client:] More than anything.
 Practitioner summarizes ABC assessment data
[Therapist:] Okay, that’s great, Mark. You’ve done some good thought detection.
You are feeling down and depressed not because you were rejected, but because
you keep saying to yourself that you can’t stand being rejected. You also are
probably saying not only how much you want her, but that you’ll die if you
don’t get her. And finally, as is your way, you are putting yourself down, down,
down, down, down, lower and lower, to square zero, and even lower, because
of what happened.
[Client:] Uh-huh.
Practitioner guides client toward solving problem—the D E link:
[Therapist:] Well, how does the good book say we can think our way out of misery?
[Client:] I can see on your wall ... that’s right ... D. I can challenge my thoughts.
[Therapist:] Where shall you start?
[Client:] Huh?
[Therapist:] It seems to me that you can start to feel better by challenging and changing any
one of three thoughts. That you are a dill because you have been rejected. That you need
Jane to be happy. That you can’t stand it when you are rejected. Shall I pick one?
[Client:] Okay.
[Therapist:] How about, and we’ve discussed this before, your tendency to put yourself down
and rate yourself zero because of some personal failure?
[Client:] I know I shouldn’t do it. I know it’s stupid to say I’m a dill because I do other
things well.
[Therapist:] Like?
[Client:] I work well with my Dad’s horses, and I’m pretty good at working with
machines.
[Therapist:] Good. So you can never be a dill. Ever! And when you catch yourself
saying you’re a dill or some other lousy thing, say to yourself something like “While I
don’t like it when I fail, it doesn’t matter all that much; I do other things well.”
[Client:] It’s nutty to put myself down for what I do wrong.
[Therapist:] That’s the message! Now how about nutty thought number two: That you
must have the lovely, glamorous and scintillating Jane. Come on Tarzan, why must
you have her? (Bernard & Joyce, 1984, pp. 89–91)
 Other Cognitive Approaches
• Coping self-statements
• Cost-benefit analysis
• Psychoeducational methods
• Teaching others
• Problem solving
 Emotive techniques
• Imagery
• Role playing
• Shame-attacking exercises
• Forceful self-statements
• Forceful self-dialogue
 Behavioral Methods
• Activity homework
• Reinforcements and penalties
• Skill training
 Cognitive Therapy
• Belief systems and thinking are seen as important in determining and affecting
behavior and feelings
• Aaron Beck developed an approach that helps individuals understand their own
maladaptive thinking and how it may affect their feelings and actions.
• Cognitive therapists use a structured method to help their clients understand their
own belief systems.
• By asking clients to record dysfunctional thoughts and using questionnaires to
determine maladaptive thinking, cognitive therapists are then able to make use of a
wide variety of techniques to change beliefs that interfere with successful
functioning. They also make use of affective and behavioral strategies.
 Goals of Therapy
• Remove biases or distortions in thinking so that individuals may function
more effectively
• Changing cognitive schemas is an important goal of cognitive therapy
 Assessment in Cognitive Therapy
• Interviews
• Self-monitoring
• Thought sampling
• Scales and questionnaires
 The Therapeutic Relationship
• Collaborative
 The Therapeutic Process
• Guided discovery
• The three-question technique
1. What is the evidence for the belief ?
2. How else can you interpret the situation?
3. If it is true, what are the implications?
Dr.: Jim, you told me a few minutes ago that some people will scorn you when they
learn about your illness. (reflection) What is your evidence for this belief ?
Jim: I don’t have any evidence. I just feel that way.
Dr.: You “just feel that way.” (reflection) How else could you look at the situation?
Jim: I guess my real friends wouldn’t abandon me.
Dr.: If some people did, in fact, abandon you, what would the implications be?
Jim: I guess it would be tolerable, as long as my real friends didn’t abandon me.
• Specifying automatic thoughts
• Homework
• Session format
• Termination
Therapeutic Techniques
 Understanding idiosyncratic meaning

[Client:] I’m a real loser. Everything I do shows that I’m a real loser.
[Therapist:] You say that you’re a loser. What does it mean to be a loser?
[Client:] To never get what you want, to lose at everything.
[Therapist:] What is it that you lose at?
[Client:] Well, I don’t exactly lose at very much.
[Therapist:] Then perhaps you can tell me what you do lose at, because I’m
having difficulty understanding how you are a loser.
 Challenging absolutes
[Client:] Everyone at work is smarter than me.
[Therapist:] Everyone? Every single person at work is smarter than you?
[Client:] Well, maybe not. There are a lot of people at work I don’t know well at
all. But my boss seems smarter; she seems to really know what’s going on.
[Therapist:] Notice how we went from everyone at work being smarter than you
to just your boss.
[Client:] I guess it is just my boss. She’s had a lot of experience in my field and
seems to know just what to do.
 Reattribution
• Clients may attribute responsibility for situations or events to themselves
when they have little responsibility for the event
[Client:] If it hadn’t been for me, my girlfriend wouldn’t have left me.
[Therapist:] Often when there is a problem in a relationship, both people
contribute to it. Let’s see if it is all your fault, or if Beatrice may also have
played a role in this.
 Labeling of distortions
• All-or- nothing thinking, overgeneralization, and selective abstraction
• Labeling such distortions can be helpful to clients in categorizing automatic
thoughts that interfere with their reasoning
• A client who believes that her mother always criticizes her might be asked to
question whether this is a distortion and whether she is “overgeneralizing”
about her mother’s behavior
 Decatastrophizing
• Clients may be very afraid of an outcome that is unlikely to happen
• A technique that often works with this fear is the “what-if ” technique
• It is particularly appropriate when clients overreact to a possible outcome
 Challenging all-or-nothing thinking
• Therapist uses a process called scaling, which turns a dichotomy into a
continuum
 Listing advantages and disadvantages
• Sometimes it is helpful for patients to write down the advantages and
disadvantages of their particular beliefs or behaviors
• Listing the advantages and disadvantages of a belief helps individuals move
away from an all-or-none position.
 Cognitive rehearsal
• Use of imagination in dealing with upcoming events can be helpful
Career Counseling
 Career Counseling
• Frank Parsons (1909) outlined a process for choosing a career and initiated
the vocational guidance movement
The Importance of Career Counseling
Crites (1981) lists important aspects of career counseling:
1. The need for career counseling is greater than the need for psychotherapy
2. Career counseling can be therapeutic
3. Career counseling is more difficult than psychotherapy
Career Counseling Associations and Credentials

• National Career Development Association or NCDA (formerly the National

Vocational Guidance Association, or NVGA)
• National Employment Counselors Association or NECA
• Two divisions within the American Counseling Association (ACA) primarily
devoted to career development and counseling
 Scope of Career Counseling and Careers
• Career counseling is defined as a “process of assisting individuals in the
development of a life-career with a focus on the definition of the worker
role and how that role interacts with other life roles” by the NCDA of the
United States
• Vocational guidance, occupational counseling and vocational counseling
• Career counselors clearly must consider many factors when helping persons
make career decisions
• McDaniels (1984) formula C= W + L
 Career Information
• NCDA has defined career information as “information related to the world
of work that can be useful in the process of career development, including
educational, occupational and psychosocial information related to working
e.g., availability of training, the nature of work, and status of workers in
different occupations” (Sears, 1982)
• Career data “a collection of facts about occupational and educational
opportunities” (Niles & Harris-Bowlsbey, 2009)
• Guidance is usually reserved for activities that are primarily educational
• Career guidance involves all activities that seek to disseminate information
about present or future vocations in such a way that individuals become
more knowledgeable and aware about who they are in relation to the world
of work
• Guidance activities can take the form of
• Career fairs (inviting practitioners in a number of fields to explain their jobs)
• Library assignments
• Outside interviews
• Computer-assisted information experiences
• Career shadowing (following someone around on his or her daily work routine)
• Didactic lecture
• Experiential exercises such as role playing
• Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT) transformed into the Occupational
Information Network (O*Net)
• A number of computer based career planning systems (CBCPSs) and
computer-assisted career guidance systems (CACGS) offer career
information and help individuals sort through their values and interests or
find job information in developed countries
• Ministry of Labor and Employment of GOI runs a vocational guidance and
employment counseling program which is an integral part of its National
Employment Service
• Job seekers can register on the National Career Service website
(www.ncs.gov.in)
 Career Development Theories and Counseling

• Trait and Factor Theory

• Developmental Theories
• Social Cognitive Career Theory
 Trait and Factor Theory
• This approach gives explicit attention to behavioral style or personality types as the
major influence in career choice development. This is described as structurally
interactive.
Common Themes:
• Occupation choice is an expression of personality and not random
• Members of an occupational group have similar personalities
• People in each group will respond to situations an problems similarly
• Occupational achievement, stability and satisfaction depends on congruence
between one’s personality and job environment
 Realistic Investigative

Conventional Artistic

Enterprising Social
 6 Holland Types (Holland, 1997)
• Realistic - work with hands, machines, tools, active, practical, adventurous High
traits - practical, masculine, stable Low traits - sensitive, feminine, stable
Occupations - construction, farming, architecture, truck driving, mail carrier
• Investigative – thought, analytical approaches, explore, knowledge, ideas, not social
High traits – scholarly, intellectual, critical Low traits – powerful, ambitious,
adventurous Occupations – biologist, chemist, dentist, veterinarian, programmer
• Artistic – literary, musical, artistic activities, emotional, creative, open High traits –
expressive, creative, spontaneous Low traits – orderly, efficient, conventional,
social,Occupations – artist, musician, poet, interior designer, writer
• Social – train, inform, educate, help, supportive, avoid technical skills, empathy,
relationships High traits – cooperative, friendly, humanistic Low traits – ambitious,
creative, strong, Occupations – social work, counseling
• Enterprising – verbally skilled, persuasive, direct, leader, dominant High traits –
ambitious, adventurous, energetic Low traits – intellectual, creative Occupations –
lawyer, business executive, politician, TV producer
• Conventional – rules and routines, provide order or direct structure, great self
control, respect power and status, punctual, orderly High traits – stable, efficient,
dependable, controlled Low traits – intellectual, adventurous, creative Occupations –
bank teller, clerk typist, cashier, data entry
• Ranked according to prestige, investigative (I) occupations rank highest,
followed by enterprising (E), artistic (A), and social (S) occupations, which
have roughly the same level of prestige
• Lowest levels of prestige are realistic (R )and conventional (C ) occupations
(Gottfredson, 1981)
• According to Holland, a three letter code represents a client’s overall
personality, which can be matched with a type of work environment
• Three-letter codes tend to remain relatively stable
• A profile of SAE would suggest a person is most similar to a social type,
then an artistic type, and finally an enterprising type
• It is the interaction of letter codes that influences the makeup of the person
and his or her fit in an occupational environment
• Trait-and-factor career counseling is sometimes inappropriately caricatured as
“three interviews and a cloud dust”
 Developmental Theories
• Two of the most widely known career theories are associated with Donald
Super and Eli Ginzberg, both based on personal development
• Super’s Developmental Self-Concept Theory
• Vocational development is the process of developing and implementing a
self-concept. As the self-concept becomes more realistic and stable, so does
vocational choice and behavior. People choose occupations that permit them
to express their self-concepts. Work satisfaction is related to the degree that
they’ve been able to implement their self-concepts.
• Career Maturity - Similarity between one’s actual vocational behavior and
what is expected for that stage of development. Career maturity includes
readiness to cope with developmental tasks at a given stage. It is both
affective and cognitive.
• Most career education programs have been affected by Super’s ideas. They
provide gradual exposure to self-concepts and work concepts in curriculum
that represents Super’s ideas of career development/vocational maturity.
(National Career Development Guideline Standards)
 Social Cognitive Career Theory
• The concept of self efficacy is the focal point of Albert Bandura’s social cognitive
theory. By means of the self system, individuals exercise control over their thoughts,
feelings, and actions. Among the beliefs with which an individual evaluates the
control over his/her actions and environment, self-efficacy beliefs are the most
influential predictor of human behavior. The level and strength of self-efficacy will
determine:
• whether coping behavior will be initiated;
• how much effort will result;
• how long the effort will be sustained in the face of obstacles.
• Self-Efficacy - the belief in one’s capabilities to organize and execute the courses of
action required to produce given attainments- is constructed on the basis of:
• Four most influential sources where self-efficacy is derived:
• Personal Performance - Accomplishments-previous successes or failures (most influential)
• Vicarious Experience - Watching others, modeling, mentoring
• Verbal Persuasion - Verbal encouragement or discouragement
• Physiological and Emotional Factors - Perceptions of stress reactions in the body
• Self-Efficacy plays the central role in the cognitive regulation of motivation,
because people regulate the level and distribution of effort they will expend
in accordance with the effects they are expecting from their actions.
• It is important to understand the distinction between Self Esteem and Self
Efficacy.
• Self esteem relates to a person’s sense of self worth.
• Self efficacy relates to a person’s perception of their ability to reach a goal.
 How Self Efficacy Affects Human Function

• Choices regarding behavior

• Motivation
• Thought Patterns and Responses
• The Destiny Idea
 Efficacy vs. Outcome Expectations
• Outcome expectation refers to the person’s estimate that a given behavior
will lead to particular outcomes.
• Efficacy expectation is an estimate that one can successfully execute the
behavior required to produce the outcomes sought.
• Self-beliefs about abilities play a central role in the career decision-making
process
• People move toward those occupations requiring capabilities they think they
either have or can develop
• People move away from those occupations requiring capabilities they think
they do not possess or they cannot develop
• Personal goals also influence career behaviors in important ways
• Personal goals relate to one’s determination to engage in certain activities to
produce a particular outcome
• Goals help to organize and guide behavior over long periods of time.
• The relationship among goals, self-efficacy, and outcome expectations is complex and
occurs within the framework of:
• Bandura’s Triadic Reciprocal Model of Causality – these factors are all affecting each other
simultaneously
 personal attributes,
 external environmental factors
 overt behavior
• In essence, a person inputs (e.g. gender, race) interact with contextual factors (e.g. culture,
family geography) and learning experiences to influence self-efficacy beliefs and outcome
expectations.
• Self-efficacy beliefs and outcome expectations in turn shape people’s
interests, goals, actions, and eventually their attainments.
• However, these are also influenced by contextual factors (e.g. job
opportunities, access to training opportunities, financial resources).
• Another important aspect is that self-efficacy and interests are linked and
interests can be developed or strengthened using modeling, encouragement,
and most powerfully by performance enactment
• Krumboltz (1979, 1996) has formulated an equally comprehensive but less
developmental social-cognitive approach
• Four factors influence a person’s career choice:
 Genetic endowment
 Conditions and events in the environment
 Learning experiences and
 Task-approach skills (e.g., values, work habits)
• Career decisions are controlled by both internal and external processes
 Self-observation generalizations, an overt or covert self-statement of
evaluation that may or may not be true;
 Task-approach skills, an effort by people to project their self-observation
generalizations into the future in order to predict future events; and
 Actions, implementations of behaviors, such as applying for a job
Career Counseling with Diverse Population
• Career counseling with children
• Career counseling with adolescents
• Career counseling with college students
• Career counseling with adults
• Career counseling with women and ethnic minorities
• Career counseling with LGBT group
• Difficulties making career decisions
 Lack of readiness
 Lack of information, and
 Inconsistent information
 Career counseling with children
• Begins with preschool years
• Becomes more directive with elementary school years
• During the first 6 years of school, many children develop a relatively stable self-
perception and make a tentative commitment to a vocation
• Experiential activities- field trips
• Inviting parents
• Three key career development areas at the elementary school levels are self
awareness, career awareness and decision-making (Splete, 1982b)
 Career Counseling with Adolescents
• American School Counselor Association (ASCA) National Model (2005) emphasizes
the school counselors should provide career counseling on a school wide basis
• Service should involve others, both inside and outside the school, in its delivery
• Exploration of work opportunities and students’ evaluation of their own strengths
and weaknesses in regard to possible future careers (Cole, 1982)
• Career information delivery systems (CIDS)
• Four components of CIDS are assessment, occupational search, occupational
information and educational information
• Career counseling at high school level has three emphasis: stimulating career
development, providing treatment and aiding placement
• Cognitive techniques: guided fantasies, providing information or
occupational tree
• Experiential and comprehensive techniques: youth apprenticeships or
internships
• Mann’s (1986) four Cs (cash, care, computers and coalitions), can help at-risk
students become involved in career exploration and development
• According to Bloch (1988, 1989), successful educational counseling programs for students at
risk of dropping out should follow six guidelines:
1. They make a connection between a student’s present and future status (i.e., cash-students
are paid for attending)
2. They individualize programs and communicate caring
3. They form successful coalitions with community institutions and businesses
4. They integrate sequencing of career development activities
5. They offer age- and stage-appropriate career development activities
6. They use a wide variety of media and career development resources, including computers
 Career Counseling with College Students
• Helping with selection of a major field of study
• Offering self-assessment and self-analysis through psychological testing
• Helping students understand the world of work
• Facilitating access to employment opportunities through career fairs,
internships and campus interviews
• Teaching decision-making skills
• Meeting the needs of special population
• Life-career developmental counseling
• Such knowledge can help prevent, work-family conflicts
• Realistic Job Previews
 Career Counseling with Adults
• Emerging adults (young adults up to age 30)
• Late adulthood (adults 65 years and older)
• Differential approach: typology of persons and environment is more useful
than any life stage strategies for coping with career problems
• Developmental approach: experiences people have with events, situations
and other people play a large part in determining their identities
Developmental, comprehensive, self-in group, longitudinal, mutual
commitment and multimethodological (Gladstein and Apfel, 1987)
 Career Counseling with Women and Ethnic
Minorities
• Work/Family conflict
• Role overload
• Sex-role stereotyping
• Glass ceiling phenomenon
• Career plus life counseling
Cultural minorities
• Integrative Contextual Model of Career Development
 Career Counseling with LGBT
• Overt or Covert in disclosing the identity
• Discrimination
• Planfulness, creating positive social networks, and shifting from
marginalization to consolidation and integration
• Life style preferences and specific work environments
• Gender free language
• Lavender ceiling