Theory and Practice - Counseling and Psychotherapy

Theory and Practice - Counseling and Psychotherapy

Psychotherapy

The term psychotherapy refers to a therapeutic treatment or interaction which is contracted between a professional and his client who might be an individual patient, a group, a couple or a family. The problems that are addressed are psychological in their nature, and they are of no particular degree or kind, as a matter of fact it depends on the area of expertise of the practitioner. The purpose of psychotherapy is to try to boost and enhance the feeling of well-being of an individual. Psychotherapists employ a variety of different techniques which are based on a range of experiential building of relationship through dialogue, communication and a change in behavior which is designed so as to improve and recover the mental health of the patient or client, or to improve or develop relationships within the group for example, in a family.

There are a number of different qualifications and conditions that is performed and used by the practitioners which includes clinical psychology, mental health counseling, psychiatric or clinical social work, counseling psychology, psychiatry, school counseling, rehabilitation counseling, family and marriage therapy, occupational therapy, movement therapy, music or art therapy and a lot more.

Approaches and Techniques

There is also a very vast range of approaches or techniques available that is used by the psychotherapists for the treatment of their clients. The most conventional approaches are behavior therapy, psychoanalysis, positive psychotherapy, group psychotherapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, body oriented psychotherapy, expressive therapy, integrative psychotherapy, narrative therapy, interpersonal therapy, hypnotherapy and much more. Below is a case of psychotherapy in which the practitioner has used the cognitive behavioral approach.

Case Study

Brett is 36 years old and an accountant of a small business. His business is failing, and it looks like that very soon he would have to wind it up. Brett is experiencing severe level of stress due to his commitment and obligation to the business, to the owners of the business and to his family and friends. He is feeling so stressed that he decided to take a week off and to go to a counselor.

On visiting the counselor, Brett told him that eight years back he had worked with some other business that needed him to close that down. He described that experience as very distressful. He also felt that, that particular procedure had involved great loss of loyalty from all the parties who were associated with that business. Brett used to consider that episode as a personal attack on him. Moreover, he also felt that he had been purposefully exposed to such people who were capable of doing anything in order to get out maximum from a company that was on the verge of crumbling down.

Brett attended four sittings with his consultant and during his appointments he reported various symptoms such as a much decreased degree of motivation especially in relation to his work life, unusual and unexpected outburst of anger most of the time, an increasing level of anxiety and unease whenever ...