Counseling Perspectives

Counseling Introduction

Definition: to advise, recommend, guide, and exchange ideas and opinions

GOAL OF COUNSELING: facilitate changes in a person’s behavior– concerned with individuals whose problem

relate directly to role definition

Counselor’s Task

Essential task of a counselor:” assisting individuals work toward an understanding of themselves in order to learn new ways of coping with and adjusting to either negative life situations or those to which they may respond negatively or unrealistically

Counseling Process

Counseling process is supportive, insight re-educative, and usually short term

Used to help individuals make practical changes in their lives without necessarily modifying established personality patterns– based on a WELL-MODEL of mental health

Counseling Theories

Major theories– 1. Information Educational– 2.Client centered, Rogerian Therapy– 3. Rational Emotive Therapy, Ellis– 4. Cognitive-Behavioral, Skinner– 5. Family Systems Counseling– 6. Psychotherapy

Variations and combinations

1. Informational/Educational

A Professional Obligation Providing information when requested

– part of the therapy process– related to Ryan’s Model because of …….

Planned as part of therapy intervention– in Therapy Plan called: _______________– plan time in the therapy session

Resources

Resources– ASHA– other professional organizations– pamphlets– web-sites– video tapes

2. Client-Centered Approach orSelf-Help theory of Carl Rogers

Rogers views change in the client to be the direct result of the dynamic way in which the client and therapist experience their relationship– structure of personality is based on 3 major

elements:• phenomenal field• the organism• the self

Roger’s 3 Major Elements:

1. Phenomenal Field– people are in the center of an ever-

changing phenomenal field that is ever changing

• how we respond to events depends on how we perceive reality

• when our perception of reality changes, so do our reactions to that reality

– example: if a stutterer perceives their stuttering as the essence of their reality, it becomes that alone on which they focus ads react to negatively

Client-Centered Approach: Organism 2. Organism

– total individual – acts as a complete, organized system in which

modification of any part of that system produces changes in any other part or parts

– consists of all thoughts, behaviors, and physical attributes making up the individual

– self-actualization -to have our needs expressed or satisfied

• the more we are willing to acknowledge our reactions and identify them consciously, the more we are likely to grow positively

Client-Centered Approach: the SELF

Roger’s most important principle as an individual strives to maximize potential,

that person must differentiate and discriminate the object of one’s feelings and perceptions and in the interrelationship among them– personal environment, experiences– as the structure of the self continues to re-

organize, the concept of self becomes more congruent with individauls’s experi3efnces

Application to Communication Disorders A stutterer may focus on the disability to the

exclusion of other aspects within their phenomenal field ( person’s unique perceptual reality)

How a person perceives their subjective realities depends on the nature and quality of their own interrelated past experiences– includes family, culture, social, physical

intelligence, health– totality of the person’s particular perception

becomes fixed within the phenomenal field

Conclusion of Rogerian Therapy

– the individual who fixates on the disorder itself will tend to identify the disorder as representing the totality of his being

Major importance: potential of CHANGES exists because, we as humans are constantly striving to expand, extend, and develop=mature

Entails the opportunity, motivation, the will and courage to become more fully aware of self-being and self-functioning

3. Rational Emotive Therapy Model Albert Ellis RET therapy approach model: essentially control our own

destinies as long as we believe in and act on values that are impotent and significant to us

RET is a self-help tool– most emotional disturbance is a function of

basic irrational beliefs that are self-defeating and absurd

RET as Self-Help Tool

RET is a self-help tool to discover our irrational beliefs and learn to use logical methods to convince ourselves of the irrationality of those beliefs

RET is a logicoempirical method of questioning and confronting IRRATIONAL BELIEFS

ABC’s of RET

A energizing event or experience B Choices based on beliefs C Consequences

framework includes generic predisposition, prior interpersonal learning, innately predisposed habit patterns

Selected Cultural Irrational Beliefs 1. It s simpler to avoid confronting lie’s

difficulties and our responsibilities than to take on more rewarding modes of self-discipline

2. Difficulties in life should not exist, and people and events should be different from what they are

3. We should be very concerned and use by other people’s problems

4. Maximum human happiness can be achieved by inaction or by passivity

Cognitive, Emotive, and Behavioral Techniques and the Counseling Process RET is a logicoempirical method of

questioning and confronting IRRATIONAL BELIEFS

Common therapy techniques– Detecting self-defeating behaviors– Debating to help person relinquish irrational beliefs

• “What evidence is there that this always happens?’

– Discriminating between unabsolutist values: likes, wants, desires and absolutist values: needs and personal demands

RET therapists offers client an opportunity to express emotions and offer ‘unconditional acceptance’

Main function of psychotherapy is to enhance the individual’s self-respect, self-confidence so person can solve the problem of self-evaluation

REBT

Behavioral techniques for RET which includes– homework assignments– desensitization techniques

• gradual or ‘flooded’

– use of rewards and punishment

Application to Communication Disorders Addressing the irrational attitudes that appear

to perpetuate stuttering behaviors and maintain the self-effacing and self-destructive attitudes of those who stutter

Reduction of negative emotions: depression, anxiety, guilt, anger, frustration

Discovering new ways to cope SUCCESFULLY with life

Cognitive Behavior Therapy

Cognitive Behavior Therapy

Website: : http://www.cognitive-behavior-therapy.org/ Age-Ranges: school age – adult Intent and Type of Program:

Behavior therapy to help you weaken the connections between troublesome situations and your habitual reactions to them. Reactions such as fear, depression or rage, and self-defeating or self-damaging behavior (also stuttering). It also teaches you how to calm your mind and body, so you can feel better, think more clearly, and make better decisions.Cognitive therapy to teach you how certain thinking patterns are causing your symptoms — by giving you a distorted picture of what's going on in your life, and making you feel anxious, depressed or angry for no good reason, or provoking you into ill-chosen actions.When combined into CBT, behavior therapy and cognitive therapy provide you with very powerful tools for stopping your symptoms and getting your life on a more satisfying track.

Features of the Program

CBT is active therapy- In CBT, your therapist takes an active part in solving your problems. He or she doesn't settle for just nodding wisely while you carry the whole burden of finding the answers you came to therapy for.- You will receive a thorough diagnostic workup at the beginning of treatment — to make sure your needs and problems have been pinpointed as well as possible.- This crucial step — which is often skimped or omitted altogether in traditional kinds of therapy — results in an explicit, understandable, and flexible treatment plan that accurately reflects your own individual needs.- In many ways CBT resembles education, coaching or tutoring. Under expert guidance, as a CBT client you will share in setting treatment goals and in deciding which techniques work best for you personally.

Features Cont. Structured and focused

- CBT provides clear structure and focus to treatment. Unlike therapies that easily drift off into interesting but unproductive side trips, CBT sticks to the point and changes course only when there are sound reasons for doing so.- As a CBT client, you will take on valuable “homework” projects to speed your progress. These assignments — which are developed as much as possible with your own active participation — extend and multiply the results of the work done in your therapist's office.

- You may also receive take-home readings and other materials tailored to your own individual needs to help you continue to forge ahead between sessions.

Features Cont. The levers of change

- The two most powerful levers of constructive change (apart from medication in some cases) are these . . .- Altering ways of thinking — a person's thoughts, beliefs, ideas, attitudes, assumptions, mental imagery, and ways of directing his or her attention — for the better. This is the cognitive aspect of CBT. - Helping a person greet the challenges and opportunities in his or her life with a clear and calm mind — and then taking actions that are likely to have desirable results. This is the behavioral aspect of CBT. - In other words, CBT focuses on exactly what traditional therapies tend to leave out — how to achieve beneficial change, as opposed to mere explanation or “insight.”

Features Cont. CBT is usually brief

- Most CBT patients are able to complete their treatment in just a few weeks or months — even for problems that traditional therapies often take years to resolve, or aren't able to resolve at all.

- Meanwhile, for people with complex problems, or who are forced to live in adverse conditions beyond their control, longer-term treatment is also available

Peer Reviews Betsy Jacobson of Brewster, N.Y., had grappled

with the crippling effects of depression and a deflated ego almost her entire life. Reared in a domineering family with a controlling father, she was unable to fulfill her ambitions and use her talents as an actress.

"I was scheduled to fail at everything I did," she recalled in an interview. Years of psychotherapy, including analysis, did nothing to ease her psychic pain -- nothing, that is, until she began seeing a cognitive therapist.

Peer Review Cont. Cognitive therapy helps to improve people's moods and

behavior by changing their faulty thinking, how they interpret events and talk to themselves. It guides them into thinking more accurately and realistically and teaches them coping strategies to deal with their problems.

"He saved my life," Mrs. Jacobson said emphatically of her cognitive therapist.

"At age 52, I was suddenly able to grow an ego. The difference in the therapeutic approach was dramatic, and the relief I felt was immediate. Instead of dwelling on the negative, which the other therapists did, and which only ground my ego further into the ground, the cognitive therapist treated me like a decent, respectable human being with valid feelings. A healthy sense of myself was drummed into my head while I learned how to change my thoughts and feelings."

Peer Review Cont.

"In midlife, I finally became a free woman, a person with self-respect," she continued. "I could start a brand-new life and do things Betsy wanted to do, not just what my family wanted me to do."

Conclusion In conclusion, there are many types of

treatment methods out to facilitate fluency. Of all the methods discussed, it is clear

that no matter what, there is no quick fix. All methods are going to take hard work

and determination to be successful. Likewise, the type of treatment approach

must depend on the person and their support system.

Paper Requirements

Topics– explaining a counseling theory– application to a theoretical case study – can discuss combined therapies

• example: counseling & biofeedback, counseling & relaxation therapy, counseling & pharmacology

Table of contents– use table of contents to organize paper

End of Lecture