Counseling Theories

Part 1: Adlerian Theory of Charts

Theory 2: Name History Theory

Alfred Adler founded it, and it is frequently utilized by educators and counselors.

Feud and Adler had a rivalry soon after Adler began releasing several books that were strongly supportive of social theory.

They appeared to be in opposition to Feud’s deterministic theory.

This theory is a wonderful guide for people on how to increase their social connectedness as well as their psychological health.

It supports the notion that the majority of people are unaware of the different elements that contribute to their unpleasant feelings and maladaptive behaviors. The manner in which the early childhood experiences influence the formative aspects of the development of personality is showed during the psychoanalytic treatment.

Both Jean-Martin Charcot and Josef Breuer pioneered the establishment of this theory.

However, Sigmund Freud later adapted, refined and popularized the primary components of this theory.

According to Freud, most of the psychological conditions tend to improve once the talking care is used to express repressed trauma and their related emotions.

Human Nature

According to Adler, the formation of an individual’s lifestyle is attributed to the developmental process.

A person’s relationship with the universe, others and self are the critical components of one’s lifestyle.

He was of the opinion that it is easy to establish the personality and lifestyle of an individual when he or she is around the age of 5 or 6.

Family constellation, birth order, and early recollections are the three concepts that Adler introduces to help in the compelling interpretation of the different behavioral patterns used by any child as a way of giving an action towards his or her likely lifestyle in future.

This theory suggests that unconscious motivations, irrational forces, and instinctual or biological drives tend to determine the kind of behavior portrayed by an individual.

The early life experiences tend to shape and create a framework that can be used by the mind to interpret social interactions.

Moreover, the ability of an individual on a subconscious level to cope healthfully influences subsequent functioning (Redekop, Luke & Malone, 2017).

Major Constructs

The Adlerian theory uses logical and straightforward constructs in comprehensively addressing the normal and abnormal development of an individual.

According to Adler, an individual is always a complete being who strives to create self instead of the self-being generated by one’s inner and outer forces that or mostly beyond his or her control.

He suggests that the inferiority feelings in an individual can be used as an excellent source to overcome the numerously existing feelings of inferiority.

By being a social being, an individual can influence and interpret events in the society.

According to Adler, avoidant, dominant, socially useful and dependent are the four basic types of individuals that exist in the community with respect to instructive purposes.

Psychoanalytic Theory uses the Id, ego, and superego to try and show the results of the early childhood experiences on the later stages of the adulthood of a person.

Feud suggests that the series of childhood stages contribute to the development of personality.

During this period, specific erogenous areas become the key focus points of the pleasure-seeking energies of the Id.

Erotic and sexual stimulation of specific sensitive parts of the body such as genital region, mouth, and anus typically take place during the psychosexual development process.

A healthy personality is always achieved whenever the psychosexual stages are completed.

According to Feud, both life and death instincts form the two major classes in which all human instincts can be categorized (Redekop, Luke & Malone, 2017).

Moreover, ego acts as the defense mechanisms whereby it protects people from experiencing guilt and anxiety that is caused by the discord between superego and id.

Some these possible defense mechanisms include projection, intellectualization, repression, denial, regression and reaction formation.

Again, both transference, countertransference, object relations and attachment are some of the crucial concepts that are associated with psychoanalysis.

The self-psychology approach suggests that the development of cohesive and healthy personality structure is facilitated by the quality of the relationship that exists between the caregiver and the child.

Applications

The counseling process that is put forward by the Adlerian theory is designed in such a way that it helps in facilitating the growth of the client.

A proper understanding of the customer followed by detailed explanation of visible behavior to the client and lastly strengthening his or her social interest are the three critical phases of counseling.

Both psychotherapy and counseling are aimed at achieving different goals.

Firstly, the counselor helps the client discover his or her immediate targets that play a crucial role in determining everyday behaviors and those contributing to his or her unique lifestyle.

Secondly, the client able to understand his or her mistaken beliefs about life, others, and self and make proper adjustments.

Moreover, the process of change in the client involves the counselor using both encouragement and empathy to develop a healthy relationship with him or her.

The continued gain of insight by the client that is provided to him or her by the counselor results in the development of healthy relationships.

Some of the traditional strategies that can be used in intervening with the clients include family atmosphere lifestyle analysis, family constellation, gender roles in the family and encouragement among others.

Lastly, the Adlerian theory can be used by counselors through using the social constructionist viewpoint to diagnose those clients who seem to have mental health issues.

Adler claims that the height of final goal, the depth of inferiority feelings and lack of empathy towards the community all form part of the critical factors that distinguish severe disorders from the mild psychological disorders.

Psychodynamic counseling helps in the achievement of various goals.

For instance, the client can understand how past experiences influence the present behavior.

Secondly, it helps in reducing the reliance of the customer on the various defense mechanisms that are supported by ego in enabling one to function in different social contexts effectively.

That is because the clients become in a better position to understand how id brings about consciousness.

Some of the psychoanalysis traditional techniques and strategies that are used by the counselors include analysis of resistance, dreams, defenses, and transference which assist the client in coping with new experiences more productively and healthfully.

The initial, middle and ending phases form the three critical stages in which the psychodynamic approach can be conceptualized (Redekop, Luke & Malone, 2017).

Evaluations

There exists different criticism of the Adler’s theory regarding its confounding variables and the manner in which it was conducted.

Rule’s Early Recollections Questionnaire, Eckstein’s Lifestyle Self-Assessment, and Crandall’s Social Interest Scale are some of the examples of the assessment instruments that have been developed to study this theory.

Moreover, this theory has in the past been criticized by some practitioners and researchers for its lack of depth.

Again, this theory is also considered to lack a strong foundation that can be used to deal with the existing vast array of psychological issues adequately.

Lastly, lack of comparative analysis and empirical evidence are some of the limitations of this theory.

The effectiveness of the psychodynamic psychotherapy towards diverse populations and diagnosis continues to be supported by the emerging evidence.

Some studies and reviews on meta-analytic treatment outcomes help the efficacy of this theory towards schizophrenia, anxiety and somatoform disorders.

Moreover, one of the limitations of this theory is that it lacks enough evidence and empirical research on its techniques.

Additionally, a lot of training is required for those counselors aiming at using this theory to undertake their counseling practices.

Lastly, some of the critics of this theory claim that this theory is based more on the clinical case study method rather than experimental and qualitative research.

Chapter 5,

Roxane L. Dufrene

Kathryn L. Henderson

Emeline C. Eckart,

2016

Chapter 3,

Adrianne L. Johnson

2011

Part Two: Reflection

As a counselor, I look forward to counseling the teenagers who are between ten and twenty years of age bracket. Most of the adolescents are persistently in the process of improving the development of their emotional intelligence and social skills as they strive to lead happy and healthy lives (Carlson & Len, 2012). The population formed by individuals who belong to the teenage group have proven to be the most delicate individuals in the society due to the numerous changes that they undergo in their lives while transitioning from childhood to adulthood. That is the age gap in which most of the people have multiple challenges in trying to discover their real selves and trying to fit in the society. It is highly recommended that parents should regularly take their children belonging to the teenage group to go and see counselors and therapists to help them in overcoming the numerous development changes that they tend to undergo during this particular period (Carlson & Len, 2012). The effectiveness of the future of the society, country and the world, in general, is highly determined by the manner in which teenagers maneuver the shortcomings that they tend to face during their development. For this reason, one would be of great help to the community, the country and the world in general if he or she can change the lives of the millions of the teenagers existing in the nation through his or her counseling practices to this particular group of the population.

To efficiently work and serve this particular client population, one would need to employ the act of using the Adlerian Theory which is one of the many counseling theories that are at the disposal of the therapists and counselors to use while undertaking their professional practices. The main reason for choosing this theory as a counselor in counseling the teenagers is because of the numerous benefits it provides towards the successful, healthy development of the client and ability to facilitate persistent achievement of the counseling goals (Carlson & Len, 2012). The counseling process that is put forward by the Adlerian theory is designed in such a way that it helps in promoting the growth of the client. A proper understanding of the customer followed by detailed explanation of visible behavior to the client and lastly strengthening his or her social interest are the three critical phases of counseling. Both psychotherapy and counseling are aimed at achieving different goals.

Firstly, the counselor helps the client discover his or her immediate targets that play a crucial role in determining everyday behaviors and those contributing to his or her unique lifestyle. Secondly, the client can understand his or her mistaken beliefs about life, others, and self and make proper adjustments (Carlson & Len, 2012). The continued gain of insight by the client that is provided to him or her by the counselor results in the development of healthy relationships. Lastly, the Adlerian theory can be used by counselors through using the social constructionist viewpoint to diagnose those clients who seem to have mental health issues. Adler claims that the height of final goal, the depth of inferiority feelings and lack of compassion towards the community all form part of the critical factors that distinguish severe disorders from the mild psychological disorders.

Some of the traditional strategies that can be used in intervening with the clients include family atmosphere and values, gender roles in the family, lifestyle analysis, encouragement and family constellation among others. Numerous interventions are supported by this theory that would be of great assistance to the teenagers as the client population in the attempts of attaining all the counseling goals (Carlson & Len, 2012). Firstly, the use of the early developmental experiences by the counselor as an intervention strategy would help the client population develop positive perceptions about its social setting and most of all the family that one identifies with through analyzing the past experiences. Such analysis would be aimed at helping the client population embrace both the positive and negative early experiences and use them as learning lessons towards improving their self-beings as they continue undergoing numerous developmental changes.

Encouragement is yet another crucial intervention strategy that can be used by the counselors to help their client population in stimulating courage in them to face the problems as they surface themselves and change their negative beliefs which they have adopted while developing. Moreover, therapists and counselors can use Socratic questioning to help the client population acquire more insight into the numerous developmental changes that he is likely to face and how to overcome them (Carlson & Len, 2012). Lastly, for those teenagers that may be traumatized by past incidents such as domestic violence, rape, abuse and disasters, the counselors may use the play therapy with trauma as an intervention strategy in investigating the various possible mistaken beliefs that such client population may be having. The therapists or counselor may then use the findings from those investigations to help in creating a sense of social belonging to those teenagers hence helping them lead a healthy life.

References

Carlson, J., & Len, L. (2012). Adlerian Counseling Theory and Practice. The Handbook of Counseling, 6(4), 171-180. doi:10.4135/9781452229218.n11

Redekop, F., Luke, C., & Malone, F. (2017). From the Couch to the Chair: Applying Psychoanalytic Theory and Practice in Counseling. Journal of Counseling & Development, 95(1), 100-109. doi:10.1002/jcad.12121

Johnson, A. (2011). Psychoanalytic theory. Counseling and psychotherapy: Theories and interventions. (5th ed., pp. 97- 76). Alexandria, VA: American Counseling Association.

Dufrene, R. L., Henderson, K. L., & Eckart, E. C. (2016). Chapter 5. Adlerian Theory, 3(1), 1-28. Retrieved December 30, 2017.