Counseling

This essay will outline the key points of psychodynamic and person centred approaches to counselling. It will show ways of how the approaches understand the person and also what the psychological distress is experienced by the individuals. I will also reflect on which model appeals most to me after comparing and contrasting the two models. Person Centred and Psychodynamic counsellors have a lot to offer clients, however the differences between the approaches when they are examined, there are significant areas of contradiction and incompatibility’. Wheeler and McLeod (1995) briefly compare the key principles of Person Centred and Psychodynamic approaches and critically evaluate where these approaches part company with one another. Person centred and psychodynamic counsellors, both have one main aim to help people develop in a positive way and to move forwards , however the methods they use to reach this goal varies Psychodynamic psychotherapy is formed from psychoanalysis and is based around a number of concepts based on the Freudian theory which bases the idea that these traumatic experiences are actively repressed and therefore clients are likely to repeat behaviours. The key concepts are psychosexual stages that occur in the childhood stages of development, eg, Id, ego and super ego and defences mechanisms. Freud believed all of these unconscious thought processes lead to a person’s present behaviour. Feud also based his theory that human behaviour and relationships are shaped by the conscious and the unconscious. What Freud meant by ‘sexual’ in his own native German language he used the concept that might be more accurately be translated as ‘life force’ or ‘emotional energy’(Bettelheim 1983). Joseph Breuer and of course Sigmund Freud were the two pioneers of psychodynamic treatment. Breuer favoured the hypnosis and where Freud did not agree with this he insisted and relied on the method of talk theory more known as free association. Freud demanded agreement with his ideas but several of his closest and dearest psychoanalysis disputed important aspects of his theory, including Carl Jung (favourite son) and Alder. They were known to be frustrated by the lack of question to a technique. However there is common ground in that they all shared the view of the importance of the unconscious mind. Psychodynamic approaches to counselling can take many forms. However there are key principles that are the best tools these are as follows: * Psychotherapy begins from early experiences as a child. * Internal experiences relate to relationships with other people which means that when the person meets someone new they treat them like someone from their past (transference). * Defence mechanisms such as transference, projection and denial, may cause the person to have difficulty in hiding or controlling their internal desires. * Free association and other techniques can provide more information and understanding to explore these problems. * Acknowledgment is essential to achieve positive progress in success of this form of counselling. The psychodynamic counsellors goal is to make the client aware of their unconscious and dive into their early childhood conflicts .Interpreting transference is often used to link these past conflicts to the present problems, Free association and possibly transference is used to unlock past conflicts. The psychological distress experienced by individuals being seen in psychodynamic counselling, are assumptions around that rooted problems are in the unconscious mind. Manifested symptoms by hidden disturbances and typical causes included around unresolved issues during development or repressed trauma or loss. Psychodynamic counselling aims to explore the types of emotional feelings and relationship troubles that are causing troubles in the everyday life of the client. The person centred approaches to counselling were developed by Carl Rodgers in the 1940s. It focuses on the here and now and encourages clients to explore and make positive changes. It is a non-directive method of therapeutic support, and enables the client to use free association. It is said to be based on the humanistic philosophy that every individual has the ability to create a more positive and satisfying, way of living, by actively listening and mirroring. During their one-to-one counselling session, the counsellor provides the client with positive feedback to encourage them to further explore their difficulties. It also focuses on the personal relationship between a counsellor and the client. The development of trust and understanding within client relationship encourages self-realisation, and this teaches the client to acknowledge the problems and issues that they are disclosing, and to also think about solutions, with gentle encouragement and guidance from their counsellor. The person-centred approach has three core conditions to provide a climate conducive to growth and change. The three core conditions are: - Unconditional positive regard - Empathic understanding - Congruence These three core conditions are believed to enable the client to develop and grow in their own way to strengthen and expand their own identity and to become the person that they ‘really’ are independently of the pressures of others to act or think in certain ways. As a result, person-centred theory takes these core conditions as both necessary and sufficient for therapeutic movement to happen. (Indeed, the achievement of identifying and articulating these core conditions and launching a significant programme of scientific research to test hypotheses about them was one of the greatest contributions of Carl Rogers, the American psychologist who first began formulating the person-centred approach in the 1930s and 1940s.) Although counselling in a person centred manner does not have as much structure, it is said to be a highly effective way of encouraging personal growth and understanding. It has also been referred to as a non-judgmental, non-directive approach to helping the client to find personal solutions, and avoids analysis. The benefits a client receives from a counsellor during person centred therapy, include unconditional positivity, empathy and genuineness.