SOCIAL WORK AND

COUNSELLING 1
LECTURER: MR J. MAPARA
 THEORETICAL APPROACHES OF
COUNSELLING: PSYCHODYNAMIC
APPROACH
Psychoanalysis
 Psychoanalysis was developed in the late 1800s and early 1900s by Austrian neurologist
Sigmund Freud. The psychoanalytic perspective maintains certain assumptions about human
behaviour and psychological problems.
 Human behaviour is influenced by intrapsychic (within the mind) drives, motives, conflicts, and
impulses, which are primarily unconscious.
 Various adaptive and maladaptive ego defense mechanisms are used to deal with unresolved
conflicts, needs, wishes, and fantasies that contribute to both normal and abnormal behaviour.
 Conflicts between conscious view of reality and unconscious (repressed) material can result in
mental disturbances such as anxiety, depression etc.;
 Beside the inherited constitution of personality, early experiences and relationships, such as
the relationship between children and their parents, play a critical and enduring role in
psychological development and adult behaviour.
 THEORETICAL APPROACHES OF
COUNSELLING: PSYCHODYNAMIC
APPROACH
Role of the Counsellor
 To encourage the clients to talk whatever comes o their mind, especially the childhood
experiences.
 Help clients to gain insight by reliving and working through the unresolved past
experiences that come into focus during sessions.
 Encourage transference in order to help clients deal realistically with unconscious
material.
 THEORETICAL APPROACHES OF
COUNSELLING: PSYCHODYNAMIC
APPROACH
Goal
 Goals of psychoanalysis vary according to clients but the focus is mainly to
reconstruct the basic personality of the client.
 Primary goal is to help the client become aware of the unconscious aspect of his/ her
personality. The unconscious comprise of repressed memories or wishes that are
painful and threatening and the client is unable to handle it.
 Help client work through a developmental stage not previously resolved. Working
through unresolved developmental stage requires major reconstruction of the
personality. Once these conflicts are resolved client become more productive human
being.
 Strengthen the ego so that behaviour is based more in reality (ego) and not on the
instinctual cravings that the id wants to express.
 THEORETICAL APPROACHES OF
COUNSELLING: PSYCHODYNAMIC
APPROACH
Techniques
 Free Association: Psychoanalysts make the client lie on a couch and remains out of
view (usually seated behind the clients head and motivates them to recall early
childhood memories or emotional experience. The clients speak whatever comes to
the mind even if it seems silly, irrational or painful. The analyst maintains an attitude
of emphatic neutrality all through the session, maintaining a non-judgmental stance,
without appearing seemingly unconcerned. At times the clients resist free association
by blocking their thoughts. The analyst attempts to help clients work through their
resistance by assuring that even trivial thoughts are important and needs to be
expressed with a goal of leading the client toward better insights of the hidden
dynamics.
 THEORETICAL APPROACHES OF
COUNSELLING: PSYCHODYNAMIC
APPROACH
Dream Analysis
 In Freud’s view dreams are the fulfillment of a repressed wish and are main avenue to
understand the unconscious. Dreams are made by latent thoughts and manifest
content. The manifest content is what the client reports and latent content is the
unconscious meaning of the dream. The therapist works to uncover the disguised
meanings that are in the dream through dream interpretation include 1) Has the client
associate to the elements of the dream in the order in which they occurred. 2) Make
the client associate to a particular dream element. 3) Disregard the content of the
dream, and ask the client what events of the previous could be associated with the
dream. 4) Avoid giving any instructions and leave the client to begin. The analyst uses
the clients association to find the clue to the workings of the unconscious mind.
 THEORETICAL APPROACHES OF
COUNSELLING: PSYCHODYNAMIC
APPROACH
Analysis of Transference
 Transference is the process whereby emotions are passed on or displaced from one
person to another; during psychoanalytic therapy the displacement of feelings toward
others (usually the parents) is onto the analyst. Transference analysis is one of the
basic methods in Freudian psychoanalysis. The analyst encourages the transference
and interprets the positive or negative feeling expressed. The release of the feelings is
therapeutic and moreover the analysis increases the clients self knowledge.
 THEORETICAL APPROACHES OF
COUNSELLING: PSYCHODYNAMIC
APPROACH
Analysis of Resistance
 Resistance occurs when a client becomes reluctant to bring unconscious or repressed
thoughts to the surface and explore then. Once to therapeutic process may take many
forms such as missing appointments, being late for appointments, persisting in
transference, blocking thoughts during free association or refusing to recall dreams or
early memories. The counselor immediately needs to deal with resistance as it helps
clients gain insight into it as well other behaviours. The counselor educates the client
about how to better work with the unconscious material as opposed to resist it. If
resistance is not dealt with the therapeutic process might come to a halt.
 THEORETICAL APPROACHES OF
COUNSELLING: PSYCHODYNAMIC
APPROACH
Interpretation
 The analyst provides the client with interpretation about the psychological events that
were neither previously understood by the client nor were meaningful. Psychoanalytic
interpretation encompasses explanations and analysis of clients’ thoughts feelings and
actions, meaningful statement of current conflicts and historical factors that influence
them. Interpretations must be well timed. If it is employed early it may drive away the
client as the client may not be prepared because of anxiety, negative transference or
stress. On the other hand if it is not used at all or used infrequently the client may fail
to develop insight. The proper timing of interpretation requires great clinical skill.
 AFFECTIVE APPROACH

Gestalt Therapy
 Gestalt counselling is an existential/experiential form of counselling that emphasises personal responsibility,
and that focuses upon the individual’s experience in the present moment. The word ‘gestalt’ means whole
figure. Gestalt counselling is associated with Gestalt psychology, a school of thought that emphasises upon
perception of completeness and wholeness. The approach was popularised by Fritz Perls in 1960’s.
 Gestalt thinking stresses the importance of one’s relationship to the environmental field. In Gestalt view an
individual cannot be understood in isolation. Since people are continually engaged with their environment,
they are fully comprehendible only when viewed in context. An individual is seen as part of an ever-
changing field which includes not only one’s immediate surroundings but also his or her culture, beliefs, and
past experiences.
 At any particular moment an individual’s attention is devoted to exactly one primary figure from the field;
the ignored and undifferentiated remainder of the field is called the background, but it is vital that the
individual experiences that figure with full awareness, for if the individual fails to completely express
feelings in the present, the unexpressed emotions would recede into the background as unfinished
business, exerting a harmful influence and causing self-defeating behaviour
 AFFECTIVE APPROACH

Gestalt Therapy
 Gestalt thinking also emphasises upon the present moment, “now”, as what an individual feels and perceives in the
“now” is far more significant than explanations and interpretations of the past. Similarly, how someone behaves in
the present is of more importance than is understanding why he or she behaves that way.
 Gestaltian thinking teaches that individuals only know what they experience. Therefore to learn or to solve a
problem an individual must discover something in his/her field, which can be of help. The whole of the human
experience is greater than the sum of its parts, and any individual is meant to experience this wholeness rather
than encountering its components in a piecemeal fashion.
 As per Gestalt thinking a well adjusted individual is the one who has the capacity to organise his or her field into
well-defined obligations which can be dealt with appropriately. He or she revels in the now, living it fully, making
choices, freely experiencing and expressing emotion, and leaving behind no unfinished business. This self-
awareness leads to the realisation of happiness, fulfillment, and wholeness.
 Gestalt model emphasises, that dysfunction occurs when the natural flow of the figure/background process is
disrupted. Unfinished business is the result of figures receding into the background before they are completely
experienced and dealt with in the now. Painful feelings, never fully and properly expressed, lurk in the background
and grow stronger as time passes. Eventually they grow powerful enough to hinder an individual’s present
moments, and self-defeating behaviour results. This condition persists until the person finally faces and deals with
the unfinished business.
 AFFECTIVE APPROACH

Role of the Counsellor

 The role of the counselor is to create an atmosphere that promotes client’s exploration of what
is needed in order to grow as it is believed that the clients ultimately change through their own
activities. The counselor works towards restoring the personality to its gestalt, its organised
whole by being honest and personally and intensely involved with the clients. Counselor tries
to help the client better understand the relationship between himself or herself and his/her
environment. i.e. awareness of now.
 Gestalt counsellors follow several rules while helping client become more aware of the now:
 The principle of now: Always using the present tense. I and thou: always addressing someone
directly instead of talking about him or her to the counselor. The use of I: substituting the word
I for it especially when talking about the body. The use of an awareness continuum: focusing on
HOW and WHAT rather than WHY. The conversion of Question: Asking Client to convert
question into statements.
 AFFECTIVE APPROACH

Goals
 Gestalt counselling is an existential encounter between people, out of which clients tend to
move in certain directions. As an outgrowth of genuine therapeutic encounter it is expected
that clients would move towards increased awareness of themselves, be cognisant of every
aspect of the present moment, every sensation and emotion, every facet of the environment,
and fully experience and respond to every situation in the now
 Gradually assume ownership of their experience • Become more aware of all their senses •
Learn to accept responsibility for what they do, including accepting the consequences of their
actions. • Therapeutic relationship help clients resolve the past (unfinished business) in order
to become integrated.
 AFFECTIVE APPROACH

Gestalt Techniques
 The Gestaltian therapist engages in a dialogue with his or her client, proposing both
experiments for the client to perform and therapeutic exercises to be used as interventions.
Experiments are creative and spontaneous, with a particular outcome neither expected nor
encouraged. For example, a client may be asked to engage in a seemingly odd activity such as
“becoming” an object from a dream. Experiments force the client to face emotions in the
present. Exercises are readymade techniques such as role-playing and face-to-face encounters
between group members. Again, the goal is to elicit emotions and thereby raze the barriers
preventing resolution of unfinished business.
 Dream work: Dreams are considered to be the messages that represent a person’s place at the
certain time. Dreams are not interpreted as in psychoanalysis rather the client’s present
dreams and are then directed to experience what it is like to be each part of the dream. In this
way, the clients get in touch with the more multiple aspects of the self. A person with repetitive
dreams is encouraged to realise that there is some unfinished business that is being brought
into awareness.
 AFFECTIVE APPROACH

Gestalt Techniques
 Empty Chair Technique: In this procedure, the clients talks to their various parts of their personality
(dominant and passive part). A client may simply talk to an empty chair considering it to be a
representative of one part of the self. The client may switch from chair to chair as a representation of
different parts of personality. Through this exercise both rational and irrational parts of the clients
comes into focus and enables him or her to deal with the dichotomy within the self.
 Confrontation: Counselors point out to client’s incongruent behaviours and feelings. Confrontation
involves asking clients WHAT and HOW questions instead of WHY.
 Making the Rounds: It is implemented when the counselors feel that a particular theme or feeling
expressed by a client should be faced by every person in the group. For example the client may say “I
can’t stand anyone.” Then the client is instructed to say this sentence to each individual in the group,
adding some remarks about each group member. The rounds exercise is very flexible and may include
non verbal and positive feeling too. Through this exercise the client becomes more aware of inner
feelings.
 I take responsibility: The client makes statement about perception with the phrase “and I take
 AFFECTIVE APPROACH

Gestalt Techniques
 Loosening and integrating techniques: Often the patient is so fettered by the bonds of the
usual ways of thinking that alternative possibilities are not allowed into awareness. This
includes traditional mechanisms, such as denial or repression, but also cultural and learning
factors affecting the patient’s way of thinking. One technique is just to ask the patient to
imagine the opposite of whatever is believed to be true.
 Role Playing: In this clients are asked to play the other persons role. For example asking a
client to be his mother and say what his mother would say if he/she comes back at 2.00 a.m. In
this way the client develops full awareness of himself and others.
 Enactment: Here the patient is asked to put feelings or thoughts into action. For example, the
therapist may encourage the patient to “say it to the person”. “Put words to it” is another
example. The patient with tears in his eyes might be asked to “put words to it.” Enactment is
intended as a way of increasing awareness, not as a form of catharsis.
 AFFECTIVE APPROACH

Gestalt Techniques
 Exaggeration is a special form of enactment: A person is asked to exaggerate some feeling,
thought, movement, etc., in order to feel the more intense (albeit artificial) enacted or
fantasized vision. Enactment into movement, sound, art, poetry, etc., stimulates both
creativity and is therapeutic. For instance, a man who had been talking about his mother
without showing any special emotion was asked to describe her. Out of his description came
the suggestion to move like her. As the patient adopted her posture and movement, intense
feelings came back into his awareness.
 May I feed you a sentence? : The counselor who is aware that certain implicit attitudes or
messages are implied in whatever the client is saying, ask if the client will say a certain
sentence provided by the counselor that make the clients thought explicit. If the counselor is
correct the client will gain insight.
 BEHAVIOURAL APPROACH

Behavioural Counselling
 The behavioural approach has developed from a strong scientific base, starting with Pavlov’s
early work on classical conditioning. Other major influences on the development of behaviour
therapy have been Skinner’s work on operant conditioning and Bandura’s work on
observational or social learning. The behavioural approach focuses on overt (i.e., observable)
behaviours acquired through learning and conditioning in the social environment. Basic
assumptions of behavioural approach include that all behaviour is learned whether adaptive or
maladaptive. Maladjusted person is one who has a) failed to acquire competencies required for
coping with the problems of living or; b) has learned faulty reactions or coping patterns that
are being maintained by some kind of reinforcement.
 BEHAVIOURAL APPROACH

Behavioural Counselling
 Behavioural perspectives include principles of operant conditioning, classical conditioning, and
social learning. i) Classical Conditioning: This refers to the changing of the meaning of a
stimulus through repeated pairings with other stimuli. ii) Operant Conditioning: In this type of
conditioning the person’s actions produce a consequence that either increases or decreases
the probability of the recurrence of behaviour. iii) Social Learning: In this form of learning an
individual acquire new behaviour by observing other people and events.
 BEHAVIOURAL APPROACH

Role of the Counselor

 Behavioural counselor is active in counselling sessions and involves the client in every phase
of counselling .The client learns, unlearns, or relearns specific ways of behaviour. In that
process the counselor functions as a consultant teacher adviser, reinforcer and facilitator.
Goal of Behavioural Counselling
 The goal of behavioural counselling is to modify or eliminate maladaptive behaviour and help
clients acquire productive behaviour.
 BEHAVIOURAL APPROACH

Behavioural Techniques
Behavioural counselling is the most technique oriented of all counselling approaches.
 Contingency Management The behaviour to be performed, changed or discontinued and the
rewards associated with the achievement of these goals are stated.
 Token Economy It is based on operant conditioning in which desired behaviours necessary
for day-to-day functioning are specified and a unit of exchange (the token) is presented to the
client contingent upon the occurrence of the desired behaviours. The tokens accumulated can
be exchanged for other objects or privileges.
 Shaping It is a form of operant conditioning in which rewards are given for successive
approximations towards the desired new behaviour e.g. a mentally retarded child dressing
himself. The desired behaviour is broken into many steps, and often the therapist also acts as a
model for the child to follow. It is a laborious process, and used only if a new behaviour is
totally absent from the patient’s repertoire.
 BEHAVIOURAL APPROACH

Behavioural Techniques
 Modelling It refers to the acquisition of new behaviours by the process of imitation. The
person models himself after another’s behaviour.
 Extinction In extinction reinforcement is withhold/discontinued of a previously reinforced
behaviour, resulting in the decrease of that behaviour. The behaviour is then set to be
extinguished. In using extinction technique there is a temporary increase in the frequency,
intensity, and/or duration of the behaviour targeted for extinction.
 Punishment Punishment is a process by which a consequence immediately follows a
behaviour which decreases the future frequency of that behaviour. Punishment can either be
positive (stimulus added) or negative (stimulus removed).
 Broadly, there are three types of punishment: Presentation of aversive stimuli such as
spanking, pinching, electric shock, ammonia vapor loud or harsh sounds hair tugging etc.
 BEHAVIOURAL APPROACH

Types of Punishment
 Response cost This involves the removal of a specified amount of reinforcer (for e.g. tokens)
that the individual has already earned following a undesirable behaviour
 Time out This is a technique in which the individual is removed from the area where the
inappropriate behaviour is reinforced. This is done either by transferring him/ her to a non-
reinforcing situation or removing the source of reinforcement from the present situation, for
example a child is separated from classmates when he/ she misbehaves.
 Habit Reversal It involves the use of a competing action, which is incompatible with the habit.
A nail biter can grasp an object while a person with motor tics may be taught to contract the
muscle of his upper limb isometrically.
 BEHAVIOURAL APPROACH

Systematic Desensitisation
 Systematic desensitisation This desensitisation is a form of classical conditioning in which the
anxiety evoking situations are paired with inhibitory responses (relaxation), based on the
premise that a person cannot feel anxious and physically relaxed at the same time, a
phenomena known as reciprocal inhibition. The client is asked to describe the situation that
causes anxiety and then with the help of the counselor prepare a list of anxiety evoking
situations in order of intensity on a hierarchical scale of 0-100.
 For example an individual may have a fear of flying in the plane and the hierarchy would
comprise of driving to the airport, waiting in the lounge, boarding the plane, taking off, being in
the airplane etc. To help the client overcome the anxiety the counselor teaches relaxation.
After this the client is asked to imagine the least anxiety provoking situation and indicate
his/her anxiety by raising index finger. Thereafter the counselor instructs the client to stop
imagining the scene and relax. The full sequence is: relax, imagine, relax, stop imaging
relax….. The same procedure continues for the rest of the items prepared in the list.
 BEHAVIOURAL APPROACH

Exposure
 Exposure This is similar to systematic desensitisation except that no attempt is made to relieve
the anxiety during the period of exposure. It is based on the premise that with time, the
anxiety would subside or disappear through the psychological process of habituation. The
deliberate exposure aims at confronting the feared the situation instead of avoiding it.
Exposure is either done gradually (graded exposure) or the client is made to face the most
feared situations all at once (flooding).
 COGNITIVE APPROACH

Rational Emotive Therapy

 The basic theory and practice of rational emotive therapy was formulated by Albert Ellis in
1962. Ellis posited that thoughts influence our emotions and behaviour.
 In his ABC model he explained that emotional symptoms or consequences: A) Are determined
by a person’s belief systems. B) Regarding particular activating experiences or events C) The
belief system of an individual may be either rational or irrational.
 Rational belief and behaviour is viewed as effective and potentially productive, whereas
irrational belief results in unhappiness and non-productivity and leads to many types of
emotional problems and stand in the way of achieving goals and purposes of an individual’s
live. Individuals holding unrealistic beliefs and perfectionist values often expect too much of
themselves leading to irrational behaviour and consequently feel worthless failures. For
example a person may continually think “I should be thoroughly adequate and competent in
everything I do”. Such unrealistic assumptions and self demands lead to ineffective and self-
defeating behaviour and an emotional response of self devaluation.
 COGNITIVE APPROACH

Rational Emotive Therapy

 Ellis identified the following irrational beliefs that might be the root of most psychological
maladjustment:
 i) It is absolutely essential for an individual to be loved or approved by every significant person
in his environment. ii) To be worthwhile a person must be competent, adequate and achieving
in everything attempted. iii) Some people are bad, wicked or villainous and these people
should be blamed and punished. It is terrible and catastrophic when things are not in the way
an individual wants them to be. v) Unhappiness is a function of events outside the control of
the individual. vi) If something is dangerous or harmful, an individual should constantly be
concerned about it. vii) It is easier to run away from difficulties and self-responsibility than
facing them. viii)A person must depend on others and have someone stronger on whom to rely
ix) Past events in an individual’s life determine present behaviour and cannot be changed. x)
An individual should be very concerned and upset by other individual’s problems. xi) There is
always a correct and precise answer to every problem and it is catastrophic if is not found.
 COGNITIVE APPROACH

Goals of Rational Emotive Therapy

 Goals of RET The goal of rational emotive counseling is to reduce or eliminate irrational
behaviour by restructuring the belief system and self evaluation especially with respect to the
irrational “should’s”, “musts” and “ought’s” that prevents a positive sense of self worth and
emotionally satisfying life.
Role of RET Counsellor
 Role of the RET Counsellor In RET approach counselors are active and direct. They teach the
clients how their thinking, emotions, and behaviour are interrelated. They actively challenge,
provoke and dispute the client’s irrational beliefs, agree upon homework assignments which
help the client to overcome their irrational beliefs, and in general ‘pushes’ the client to
challenge themselves and to accept the discomfort which may accompany the change process.
 COGNITIVE APPROACH

Techniques of RET
 Techniques of RET In order to challenge the clients’ irrational belief and to strengthen their
conviction in a rational alternative the counselor employs a variety of cognitive, behavioural,
emotive and imagery techniques.
 1) Disputation Cognitive disputation involves the use of direct questions, logical reasoning and
persuasion. Direct questions may challenge the client to prove that his/her belief is logical by
asking ‘why’. Such inquiries enable the client to distinguish between rational and irrational
thoughts.
 a) Coping Self Statements: By developing coping self statement rational beliefs are
strengthened. For example A person fearful of public speaking may write down and repeat” I
want to speak flawlessly, but it is alright if I don’t.
 COGNITIVE APPROACH

Techniques of RET
 b) Reframing: Re-evaluate bad events as ‘disappointing’, ‘concerning’, or ‘uncomfortable’,
rather than as ‘awful’ or ‘unbearable’. A variation of this procedure is to list the positives of a
negative event.
 2) Emotive Techniques a) Rational emotive imagery: A form of mental practice, in which the
client imagines a situation that would normally upset a great deal, to feel the inappropriately
intense feelings about that event and then change them to more appropriate feelings. The
client keeps practicing such a procedure ‘several times a week for a few weeks’ then reaches a
point where he/she is no longer troubled by the event.
 b) Shame attacking exercises: Include activities that are harmless but dreaded such as
introducing oneself to a stranger, wearing loud clothes to attract attention, asking a silly
question at a lecture. Through this the client learns that the world does not stop even if a
mistake is made and everything need not be perfect.
 COGNITIVE APPROACH

Techniques of RET
 3) Behavioural Techniques a) Biblio Therapy: In this client is asked to read a self-help book.
 b) Activity Homework: The client actually does activities he/she previously thought impossible
to do. For example rather than quitting a job a client may continue to work with unreasonable
boss and listen to the unfair criticism and mentally dispute the criticism.