CHRP O19

THEORIES OF COUNSELING
Prepared by:
Winnie Mugomati
August 2020

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THEORIES OF COUNSELING

WHAT IS A THEORY?

It is a complete and coherent characterization of a well articulated domain of

investigation.( Robert 1985)

IMPORTANCE OF THEORIES

 It is the base from which new counseling approaches are constructed.

 Theories help counselors to educate themselves on both new and old approaches
in the process of counseling.
 Helps counselors operational guidelines from which to work and help them
evaluate their professional development
 It helps counselors assist clients in the effective modification of their behavior
 Theories help counselors to focus on relevant data and tells them what to look
for

ELEMENTS OF THEORIES

 A statement of the basic assumption underlying the theory e.g. for Carl Rogers
person centered theory people are basically good and can be trusted
 An explanation of acquisition of helpful and unhelpful behaviors e.g. for
person centered theory individuals are operating from the external locus of
evaluation.
 An explanation of the maintenance and perpetuation of helpful and unhelpful
behaviors.
 An explanation of how clients change their behaviors and consolidate their
gains when counsel

A GOOD THEORY MUST BE:

 Testable
 Empirical support
 Simple
 Fruitful (room for further research)
 Practical

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CLASSIFICATION OF THEORIES

There are four classifications of theories

 Psychoanalytic approach
 Cognitive approach
 Humanistic approach
 Family system approach

PSYCHOANALYTIC APPROACH (Psychoanalysis)

This theory was founded by Sigmund Freud. He was physician of Jewish

origin who worked with neurotic patients. As a doctor he felt that medicine
was default and he wanted to interact with his patients from a social and
physiological perspective. He realized that most of them did not need
prescribed medicines because they presented themselves with neurological
problems that were Psychosomatic (Psychological problems that manifest
themselves physically). Through his own personal analysis he discovered
intra psychic conflicts from his childhood whereby he had incestuous
feelings towards his mother that made him suffer a lot of anxieties. He
discovered that his patients too had childhood traumas.

He made his patients lay on the couch face the ceiling and freely talk about their
concerns without being censored. He discovered that by doing so they were able to
release pent up feelings and gained the healing. He also realized that he had deep
hatred for his father because they were competing for the same object. He said that his
neurotic problems e.g. migraine, anxiety and deep fear for death emanated from these
sexual conflicts pent up feelings. He also found out that the Therapeutic community
had pent up sexual related conflicts and when they freely talked about them they got a
healing .It was the Victorian period when sex was a taboo and by freely talking about
sex Freud opened a can of worms.

The clinic was closed down by the authorities and Freud was isolated. During the
period of isolation he subjected himself to the same type pf treatment he had given his
patients

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Psychoanalysis is viewed in 3 perspective:

1: As a model of personality development.

2: As a philosophy of human nature.

3: As a method of psychotherapy.

Key concepts
View of human nature-

a) The view of human nature is deterministic. ( Your behaviour has already

been determined by other forces)

b) Unconscious motivation- materials in the unconscious that are largely out

of control and one is not aware of.

c) Irrational forces- Thinking in an illogical way

d) Early childhood experiences- The first six years of life influence

personality development

e) Biological and instinctual drives- under instincts we have: death instincts-

thanatos the aggressive behaviour one has and Life instincts: eros- concerned
with growth and perpetuation.

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 Structure of personality
According to Psychoanalytic view, Personality consists of three systems;

Id- the Id is a biological trait that one is born with. It is immoral, selfish. It does not
tolerate pain and is insistent

Ego- it is an executive arm of personality. It functions on reality principle. It also deals

with the demands of the Id in a realistic way. It is rational, logical and incorporates
problem solving skills.

Super ego- it is the judicial branch of personality. It is concerned with the right or
wrong and generates guilt when people do not follow rules (morals), values, ideas and
moral precepts all of which are derived from parents or other authority figures.

For some people super-ego can develop as excessively punishing so that attitude of perfection
are fostered which can in turn lead to depression. Ego maintains a balance. Integrated behavior
depends on the balance between the three

Anxiety:

It is a state of tension that compels one to do something. According to Freud

it develops out of a conflict between the Id, Ego and Super ego. Over control
of the available Psychic energy. There are three types of anxieties states:

i. Reality anxiety- this is based on something real and threatening one’s existence
ii. Moral anxiety- the feeling that comes when one breaks values and beliefs (when
you transgress)
iii. Neurotic anxiety- fear of unknown or fear of losing one’s sanity.

NB: to cope with these fears the ego defence mechanisms are put in place

Ego defence mechanism

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 These are psychological mechanisms that people use to protect themselves
from extreme tension and discomfort. Ego defense mechanisms either deny or
distort reality and they operate on the unconscious level. Examples are:

i. Denial- it is distorting reality and preventing it from awareness. It is the rejection

of reality.
ii. Repression- traumatic experiences are pushed out of consciousness.
iii. Regression- this is the act of going back to behaviours that are comfortable e.g.
crying when there is failure.
iv. Displacement- .directing energy to an object or an individual who is less
threating when the original one is either too threating or inaccessible.
v. Projection- when internal anxieties or discomforts are directed towards other
people. It is a way of attributing one’s failure to another.
vi. Reaction formation- this when conscious feelings and thoughts are directly
opposite the feared unconscious impulse.
vii. Rationalization- explaining away failures or loses. This helps to justify
behaviour and aids in softening the blow of disappointment.

Consciousness and Unconsciousness

Freud’s greatest contribution was the concept of consciousness versus

unconsciousness. He asserted that the unconscious stores 90% of all
experiences, memories and repressed materials. According to this theory we
are only 10 % conscious while 90 % is unconscious. He brought up the
concept of iceberg as an example. Just like an iceberg lies below the water
surface so is our mind. Most of the therapeutic work is making the
unconscious come conscious by creating awareness and establishing how the
unconscious affects the present behaviour. Clinical evidence for postulating
the unconscious include:

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 i. Dreams: They are royal road to unconsciousness. They help us to get to
unconscious needs, wishes and fears.
ii. Through slips of the tongue
iii. Using free association- letting the client speak without censoring
iv. Hypnosis- the client is half asleep, half awake and a guided imagery is used to
help the counselor analyse the client’s hidden information.
v. Material derived from projective techniques

The aim of Psychoanalytic therapy is to make the unconscious motive conscious through
helping the client to get insight. Understanding the role of the unconscious is central to
grasping the essence of Psychoanalytic model of behaviour.

Personality development

Freud came up with 5 stages in personality development. This was to focus

on child’s behaviours considering sexual maturity and the stages which they
pass through to achieve this. Sexuality evolves through stages that he called
psychosexual stages of developments. The stages are;

i. Oral stages (0-1 and 1/2) years- the child finds pleasure in the mouth (sexual
pleasure). After some time, they enjoy biting their mother’s breast. They find
pleasure by suckling. If they do not negotiate in this stage, they might have
‘fixations’ in adulthood. If the child did not breastfeed enough, they will have
moral incorporate such smoking, greed, alcoholism, and drug addiction. They
might also have oral aggression with behaviours such as sarcasm, gossip.

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ii. Anal stage-(1 and1/2 years to 2 years) at this stage the sexual pleasure moves
from the mouth to the anus. They enjoy defecating on themselves. If the
caregivers are not strict with potty training the child may develop anal aggression
behaviour characterised by disorderliness, arrogance and temper tantrums. If the
parents are strict the child may develop anal retentive behaviour characterised by
hoarding, perfectionism, very strict with routine and orderliness
iii. Phallic stage (3-6 years).At this stage the sexual pleasure moves form the anus to
genitals. Here the children manipulate their genitals and masturbate. Girls develop
a penis anxiety called electra complex. Boys develop oedipal complex (fear of
castration). The children also develop unconscious infatuations to opposite
parents, thus competing with their parents for love. If they fixate, they may have
homosexual issues.
iv. Latency (6-12 years)-at this stage there are no sexual feelings and the children
are busy playing games and forming relationships with people of the same sex. If
the children don’t play enough and do not socialise enough, they may become
anti-social and lack social skills.
v. Genital stage- (13-18 years) feelings of phallic stage are actualised. Boys and
girls from relationships. If they are fixated, they also lack social skills and thus
cannot maintain long term relationships.

HOMEWORK: READ THE EIGHT PSYCHOSOCIAL STAGES BY

ERICK ERICSON.

Goals of psychoanalysis

1. Creating insights
2. Making the unconscious become conscious
3. Reduce the impulses of the ego
4. Helps clients manage and deal with anxiety.

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 Techniques

1: Maintaining analytical framework

The client lies on a coach looks up to the ceiling without distractions, other
environmental factors are left constant. For example marital status, time of session
and job

2: Free association

The client is helped to relax and just talk about anything that comes to their mind.
The counsellor extracts key points they need to discover where the client is stuck or
fixated.

3: Interpretation: It consists of the Counsellor pointing out, explaining and teaching

the client the meaning of behaviour manifested, it speeds up the process of
uncovering the unconscious material.

4: Dream analysis

Clients are required to remember all their dreams so that the analyst the can analyse
and try to interpret them. Clients are also required to try and interpret them. Dreams
are royal road to unconscious wishes. It is about our unmet wishes, desires, conflicts
and motivations.

5: Analysis and interpretation of resistance

Resistance is anything that works against the client's progress in therapy and
prevents the client from producing the unconscious material. Freud saw resistance as
unconscious way that people use to defend the intolerable anxiety and pain that would
rise if they were to be aware of their repressed feelings.

6: Analysis and Interpretation of transference

Clients often react to their therapists as they did to their significant person.
Manifestation of transference is significant because it provides the client the
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opportunity to re-experience a variety of feelings that would otherwise have been
inaccessible.

Contributions

 Helps understand how past experiences influence current behavior

 The psychosexual stages contribute to good parenting
 Provides counselors with a conceptual framework for understanding behavior
 It is the backbone of many other theories

Limitations

 It ignores the environmental, social economic factors affecting behavior

 It takes too long
 It removes responsibility from the client
 It only takes the client up to the understanding level
 It makes research difficult since it deals with the unconscious

HOMEWORK: DO A FURTHER RESEARCH

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