THEORIES OF COUNSELING

Theories of Counseling

Theories of Counseling

The profession of counseling is dynamic, adaptive, and centered on meeting the needs of individuals in their particular environment. The goals of the counseling profession are directed toward assisting individuals to become self-sufficient and capable of managing their problems in efforts to lead productive, fulfilling lives. Moreover, the counseling process provides a therapeutic context to help individuals recognize and effectively use unused or underused resources and opportunities. Hence, through the process of counseling, individuals become effective and empowered self-helpers as they learn how to manage problem situations and develop life-enhancing opportunities.

Psychoanalytic Therapy

Psychoanalytic theory is simultaneously a developmental theory, a personality theory, and a theory of intervention. Freud's original instinctual theories emphasized the role of sexuality and aggression. Since that beginning, psychoanalysis has evolved in significant new directions. Significant developments include object relations theory (which emphasizes the way in which people's history of relationships form part of their psychology and shape them in profound ways), ego psychology (which emphasizes the complex relationship between the evolving ego and reality), separation-individuation theory (which describes the trajectory from psychological symbiosis to a sense of autonomy), self psychology (which theorizes about narcissism as a normal developmental line and about the emotional forces that create and shape people's sense of self), and relational and interpersonal models (which emphasize the interpersonal context of the therapeutic situation and its role in resolving conflicts).

Psychoanalytic therapies tend to share certain core assumptions, such as the importance of the dynamic unconscious, the role of psychological defenses in mental functioning, and the importance of childhood experiences in shaping personality, including the conflicts that are the basis for psychopathology. The most central and fundamental of these shared constructs is the concept of the dynamic unconscious. One of Freud's earliest observations, the dynamic unconscious centers on the idea that there are thoughts, feelings, memories, and experiences about which people are unaware or not fully aware that form part of their psychology. Unlike some theories of unconscious perception and cognition, however, the key to the psychoanalytic use of this concept is its emphasis on psychodynamic processes.

In other words, it is not only that there are memories, thoughts, and feelings that exist outside of conscious awareness, but also that these influence human motivation and behavior. Furthermore, individuals have a powerful need to keep these thoughts and feelings out of awareness because their emergence into consciousness is all too often associated with problematic feelings such as anxiety, guilt, and shame. Thus, unconscious conflicts form the basis of our motivational processes and they play a complex role in every person's life.

Frued's Psychoanalytic Approach

The central goal of psychoanalysis (a term Freud coined in 1896) was to bring one's unconscious thoughts and desires into conscious awareness, thus gaining insight into one's problems or behaviors. As there was no single method for achieving this, Freud experimented with hypnotism, used especially with highly hysterical and neurotic patients. Eventually, he felt that hypnotism was not dependable, and he switched to having his patients lie on ...