Counseling Approaches

Reality Therapy approaches counseling from a confrontational perspective. The counselor confronts the individual with the facts of life, expecting him to face up to the issues. It is true that we are to confront people with the truth in love as directed by the Holy Spirit. However, the problem is that most troubled people are running from the issues. Some professionals have categorized some forty defense mechanisms that people use to avoid facing the truth. Often people run from the issues because they don't see any solution for their issues; therefore the counselor must also offer true solutions to the issues.

Gestalt Therapy: This term was first used as the title of a book in 1951, written by Fritz Perls,et.al. The therapy did not become well known until the late 1960's. "Gestalt," a German word meaning "whole," operates as a therapy by keeping the person in what is known as the here and now. Therapists help clients to be attentive to all parts of themselves: posture, breathing, methods of movement, etc. Unresolved conflicts are worked out in the therapy session as if they are happening in that moment. An emphasis is placed on personal responsibility for one's own well-being through being as aware as possible at all times of one's interactions with the environment.
This usually lengthy therapy is accomplished by the therapist asking questions and suggesting experiments which will increase the awareness and sensitivity to the many parts of the client's total self.
Gestalt Therapy is a powerful experiential psychotherapy focusing on contact and awareness in the here and now. By following their client's ongoing process, with special attention to both the therapeutic relationship and the client's style of interrupting that process, the Gestalt Therapist can help their client to both work through and move beyond their painful emotional blocks. This frees them to begin to explore new behavior, first in the "safe emergency" of the therapeutic relationship and/or