Theories of Counseling

A theory is a set of interrelated concepts, definitions, and

propositions that explains or predicts events or behaviors.
Importance of Theories in Counseling
Help us to understand human behavior.
Help us to identify what needs to be achieved.
Guide beliefs and practices of counselors
Help to identify an appropriate strategy of handling the
problem.
 Theories of Counseling
In counseling, theory impacts how:
Communication is conceptualized
 Interpersonal relationships develop
Professional ethics are implemented
 Counselors view themselves as professionals
 Psychoanalytic Theory (Sigmund Freud)

This theory involves analyzing the root causes of behavior and

feelings by exploring the mind and childhood experiences.
Conscious mind (attuned to an awareness of the outside
world)
Preconscious mind (contains hidden memories or
experiences that can be remembered)
Unconscious mind (containing the instinctual, repressed,
and powerful forces)
 Psychoanalytic Theory (Sigmund Freud)

Personality Structure
Id operates according to the pleasure principle

Ego operates according to the reality principle

Superego operates according to the morality principle

 Psychoanalytic Theory (Sigmund Freud)
Psychosexual stages of development
Oral stage where the mouth is the chief pleasure zone and
basic gratification is from sucking and biting;
Anal stage where delight is in either withholding or
eliminating feces;
Phallic stage where the center of pleasure is the sex organs,
and members of both sexes must work through their sexual
desires;
 Psychoanalytic Theory (Sigmund Freud)
Latency where energy is focused on peer activities and
personal mastery of cognitive learning and physical skills;
and
Genital stage where if all has gone well previously, each
gender takes more interest in the other and normal
heterosexual patterns of interaction appear.
 Use of immature defense mechanisms (i.e., ways of
coping with anxiety on an unconscious level by denying or
distorting reality).
 Psychoanalytic Theory (Sigmund Freud)
Basic Psychoanalytic Defense Mechanisms
Repression is the unconscious exclusion of distressing or painful
thoughts and memories.
Denial is where a person refuses to see or accept any problem or
troublesome aspect of life. Denial operates at the preconscious or
conscious level.
Regression is when individuals return to a less mature way of
behaving under stress
Projection is where instead of stating what one really thinks or feels,
he or she attributes an unacceptable thought, feeling, or motive onto
another.
 Psychoanalytic Theory (Sigmund Freud)
Rationalization involves giving an “intellectual reason” to
justify a certain action. The reason and the action are connected
only in the person’s mind after the behavior has been completed.
Reaction Formation is when an individual behaves in a manner
that is just the opposite of how he or she feels. This type of
behavior is usually quite exaggerated, such as acting especially
nice to someone whom one dislikes intensely.
Displacement is a redirection of an emotional response onto a
“safe target.” The substitute person or object receives the feeling
instead of the person directly connected with it.
 Goals of Counseling using Psychoanalysis
Awareness: A primary goal is to help the client become more aware of
the unconscious aspects of his or her personality and to work through
current reactions that may be dysfunctional
Fixation management: Help a client work through a developmental
stage not previously resolved. If accomplished, clients become unstuck
and are able to live more productively.
Copying: Help clients cope with the demands of the society in which
they live. Psychoanalysis stresses environmental adjustment, especially
in the areas of work and intimacy. The focus is on strengthening the ego
so that perceptions and plans become more realistic.
 Counseling using Psychoanalysis should;
Help the client understand his/her behavior.
Help the client discover why they behave that way.
Stress the importance of free association.
Use several techniques
 Techniques in Psychoanalytic Counseling
 Free association. Give the client a chair and tell them to
close their eyes and say many things freely without
thinking about the environment. Pick out few stories
about the past and the current life. The counselor should
listen very attentively with “Third Ear”.
 Dream interpretation. The counselor must be trained in
dream analysis and connect the problem with the dream
she had.
 Techniques in Psychoanalytic Counseling
 Interpretation Method: Point out and explain to the
client the meaning in the story they narrated to help them
understand their problem (connection between the past
and present events). E.g., You said that they hate you.
Why do you think they do so.
 Techniques in Psychoanalytic Counseling
 Analysis of Transference. Transference is the client’s
emotional response to a counselor as if the counselor
were some significant figure in the client’s past, usually a
parent figure. The counselor professionally encourages
this transference and interprets the positive or negative
feelings expressed.
 Techniques in Psychoanalytic Counseling
 Analysis of resistance: This may take many forms:
 Keeping quite/no response of the client.
 Missing appointments,
 Being late for appointments,
 Not paying fees,
 Persisting in transference,
 Blocking thoughts during free association, or refusing to
recall dreams or early memories.
The counselor must be trained to understand resistance.
Behavioral Theory (Watson, Pavlov,
Skinner)
 Human beings are born neither good nor bad
 Behavior is a function of the environment
 To understand people well, we should focus on their
observable behaviors.
 Most behaviors are learned from the environment and
can also change with the environment.
 Behavioral Theory (Watson, Pavlov, Skinner)
 Behaviors can also be influenced by social learning
principles.
 We tend to repeat behaviors which we find satisfying
to us/ pleasing to us.
 Bad behaviors can be promoted by reinforcement
 Counseling Techniques
 Operant learning (reinforcing good behavior)
 Modeling (be a role model),
 Cognitive learning (use of the mind),
 Emotional learning (relaxing the mind and the muscle),
 Systematic desensitization (imagined gradual exposure
of the client to the feared stimulus),
 Flooding (gradual exposure of the client to the real
feared stimulus)
 Rational Emotive Therapy (Albert
Ellis)
 It advances that human beings are born with the
capacity to think.
 They are both rational and irrational
 People possess high degree of suggestibility. We can
plan what to do, how to do it and we won’t do it.
 People behave in the deliberate and irrational ways
due to the assumptions they have all about life.
 Rational Emotive Therapy (Albert
Ellis)
 Counseling services should;
 Help the client to develop the ability to think
objectively.
 Maximize the client’s intellectual power to remove
illogical thinking.
 Help the client to appreciate his problem by using the
ABC formula. (Actual problem, belief about the
problem, consequence of belief)
 Humanistic/Person-centered Theory
(Maslow and Carl Rogers)
 The world is as an individual perceives it.
 People have rights to their opinions
 People struggle to achieve their goals/ self actualization.
 People are unique and their problems are felt with their
uniqueness
 A human being is made up of three individuals / persons;
Organism i.e. what a person is, Self concept; i.e. what
one thinks of one self, Phenomenology i.e. what one does.
 Humanistic/Person-centered Theory
(Maslow and Carl Rogers)
 The role of counselling should be to;
 Identify the uniqueness of individuals and treat them
as unique persons.
 Focus on helping the client to make the right choices
in life.
 Counselling should actually help the client achieve self
actualization.
 Trait and Factor Theory (Williamson)
 A Trait is an attribute within us (we are born with).
 The theory advances that;
 Personality correlates with certain behaviors.
 Personality can mature and be energized
 Human beings are rational with the potential that may
develop in either direction
 Every individual has a unique capability.
 Trait and Factor Theory (Williamson)
 Therefore the role of counseling should be to;
 Identify the capability of the individual and help them
along those capabilities.
 Counseling should focus on helping the client to develop
self understanding.
 Counseling should actually influence the positive
environment of the client.