Psychodynamic Approach And The Existential Approach

Counselling and psychotherapy are very different areas of speciality than psychiatry or psychology. Yet it is from these two health practices that counselling and psychotherapy practice emerged. The emergence and beginning of this takes us back initially to 1887, when the specialism of psychotherapy emerged in psychiatry. In the nineteenth century there was a general shift towards science and

Therapy can be a difficult, and even a painful process, wherein the client explores the good, the bad and the ugly within themselves, perhaps for the very first time in their lives. Their issues and personality may in fact shape the line of therapy provided to them by their therapist or in fact when they choose the therapist. Therapies that will be compared and contrasted in this essay will be person centred therapy, cognitive behavioural therapy and existential therapy. Each therapy style has different views on what is deemed important for therapeutic movement. Each of these therapy styles has found a place for the therapeutic relationship but each has separate views of the importance of the relationship (Lambert & Barley,

When comparing and contrasting the differences in the three approaches, I will review the relationship between client and counsellor. I will attempt to discover how the relationship is formed and how it is maintained during the therapeutic process. Once this has been established, I will then look at how the changes occur in the therapeutic relationship and which techniques will be used. I will compare and contrast the approaches of Carl Rogers, Sigmund Freud and Albert Ellis. I will look at how their theories have impacted on the counselling processes in modern times and throughout history.

Counseling is a relatively young profession when compared to other mental health professions. In my brief personal and professional experience with the field, I have come to define counseling as a process of engagement between two people, both of whom are bound to change through a collaborative process that involves both the therapist and the client in co-constructing solutions to concerns.

Psychoanalysis was first given its name in the 1980’s by Sigmund Freud. The theory was both founded and developed by Freud and plays a significant role in our understanding of Psychology and the human mind in this present modern day. Freud held a strong interest within the unconscious mind and believed unconscious thoughts and feelings to be at the root of psychological distress (Cabaniss, 2011). The aim of psychodynamic therapy is to bring forward the thoughts that hide deep within the unconscious, into the conscious mind to allow for psychological and self-awareness to develop within the client. The Psychodynamic paradigm is seen to hold a rather deterministic view towards humanity. According to the theory, humans are made up of inner instinctive drives (Rizq, 2010) and forces of which our thoughts, emotions, and thus our behaviour is motivated and driven by. Freud theorised that humans repressed certain emotions, desires and thoughts in infanthood (not childhood??). It therefore became an aim of

There are a number of historical theories in counseling which have been used to assist clients during the counseling process. This week’s readings provided quite a few concepts from counseling theories which were valuable and interesting to me. Many coincided with my views on the reasons for people’s behavior and human nature. These concepts are also meaningful to me for various reasons. Each of these psychological concepts might be useful when having a counseling relationship with a client in a variety of ways.

Counseling is a process that enables a person to sort out issues and reach decisions affecting their life. Often counseling is sought out at times of change or crisis, it need not be so, however, as counseling can also help us at any time of our life” (Woods, 2005). Counseling theories are used by counselors as part of their treatment plan for clients. There are many types of theories that counselors can choose from. These theories are usually hosen based on the client needs and what the counselor feel will be most effective. Counselors are not limited to just one theory when it comes to treating their clients. Theories can be used in conjunction with one another to effectively treat clients. Counseling does not just involve theories

Second, the therapeutic sides explore a ray of techniques from a psychodynamic approach, with an umbrella for therapeutic approaches using Psychoanalysis,

Theories within psychotherapy guide interactions between the therapist and client, providing a process by which the client can come to understand and resolve their problems. However, these theories can often be conflicting with opposing techniques and goals. Existential therapy is best considered as a philosophical approach to the therapeutic process, which gives prominences to the themes of freedom, self-determination, self-awareness and anxiety (Yalom & Josselson, 2011, p. 310). It emphasises the individual’s capacity to make free choices regarding the person they become, and focuses less on the use of techniques. In contrast, Freudian psychoanalytic therapy considers ways to change problematic behaviours or thoughts by examining their concealed unconscious motivations and meanings (Corey, 2013, p. 63). Past experiences are significant in determining the distinctive behaviour of the individual, which is analysed by the therapist through techniques such as dream analysis and free association. Whilst both theories view the individual and their difficulties as unique, existential and psychoanalytic therapy have opposing views of human nature and therapeutic goals.

The current practices of the clinical and counselling psychological streams are not entirely dissimilar as both are concerned with the application of psychotherapy, education, research, and instruction (Mayne, Norcross, & Sayette, 2000; Norcross, 2000). Clinical psychology is primarily concerned with the assessment, treatment, and study of populations who experience severe mental illness (Bechtoldt, Campbell, Norcross, Wyckoff, & Pokrywa, 2000; Norcross, 2000) clinical psychologists mostly employ behavioral and psychoanalytic theoretical orientations when treating clients (Norcross, 2000). In contrast, counselling psychologists generally aim

1.Rollo May's concept of care, love and will is based on his Existentialist theory that started to gain popularity in Europe after the Second World War. The main concept and aim of the Existentialist theory is that the modern people are less aware of their responsibilities, and are afraid to take up their responsibilities. The importance of the concept of care, love and will, as given by Rollo May is highly important. According to Rollo, care is an active process. The importance of this process lies in the fact that there is a certain level of importance associated with everything on the planet. People, relationships, family, and responsibilities; all require a certain level of care and worry. Love, on the other hand, means to show respect and care for the other person. The affirmation that the other person has some value in the heart of the other person. The third important part is the will. The will can be defined as the commitment that an individual makes to commit to another person. It is believed by Rollo May that a man is unable to understand the powers, origins and the relationships that love and will have. There may be some cases in which love and will could be superimposed (Ryckman, 2007, p. 423). The potential and heritage that the humanities have can only be appreciated by showing care and love. The importance of love and the will can only be understood in its proper form when an

Psychoanalysis was the name given by Sigmund Freud to a system of interpretation and therapeutic treatment of psychological disorders. (McLeod, 2007) In particular, we present five key concepts on psychoanalytic therapy: structure of personality, psychosexual stages, defense mechanism, anxiety, and the unconscious mind.

Existentialism when looked in a dictionary means a philosophical theory or approach which emphasizes the existence of the individual person as a free and responsible agent determining their development through acts of the will. This theory emphasizes on the existence of man as an individual and how every choices exerted by him determines a different course of action for him. Existentialism when looked in a lexicon implies a philosophical hypothesis or methodology which accentuates the presence of the distinctive individual as a free and capable executor deciding their particular advancement through demonstrations of the will. This hypothesis accentuates on the presence of man as a singular and how every decisions pushed by him decides an alternate approach for him. Existentialism is a philosophical viewpoint that anxieties the imperativeness of unrestrained choice, opportunity of decision, and moral obligation. This viewpoint underlines the exceptional encounters of every person and the obligation of every individual for their decisions and what they make of themselves. Since it picked up ubiquity at the end of the second world war , the expression "existentialism" has basically been connected with a social development that developed out of the wartime scholarly air of the Left Bank in Paris and spread through fiction and symbolization to the extent that logic. The hypothetical and different compositions of Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Albert Camus, and Frantz

This essay will attempt to highlight and evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the three main theories of counselling within the module covered this term. The three approaches in discussion are psychodynamics, cognitive behavioural and humanistic.

In this paper, two approaches to therapy will be described, evaluated and finally compared and contrasted with each other. The two approaches the author chose are psychoanalysis and person centered therapy. Psychoanalysis was developed by Sigmund Freud at the end of the nineteenth century and was one the very first integrated approaches to psychotherapy (Hergenhahn, 2000). Psychoanalysis works predominantly with the unconscious level of the mind and assumes that most mental disturbances stem from problems connected to the unconscious (Hough, 2012). On the other hand, the theory behind person centered therapy, developed by Carl Rogers mid-twentieth century, states that any person is able to find the resolution to his or her problems