Counselling Theory Paper

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Course: Counselling theories

1. According to the Nature Versus Nurture theory, it is the debate between whether our upbringing or our inheritances determine who we are. In Steven’s case, I feel he was over-nurtured by his parents which led him to consciously rebel against their wishes and then led to the decision to live a double life, his parents established nothing but boundaries and in his adolescence he thought of nothing but tearing through them. This shows us that closing your child off from the world and disabling him from making his own choices create hostility and resentment for his life, his parents and his future relationships. On the other hand, it could be said that Steven inherited his insensivity
The Freudian concepts deal with your personality at the core of it. It describes the different stages of your personality and how it relates to the way you feel about yourself and the decisions you make. In Steven’s case, his core layer of his personality, the ID which determines your pleasure seeking sense, Steven is fixated on seeking pleasure and will find it by any means necessary. The way I would apply the Freudian concept would be assisting Steven in re-evaluating his phallic stage of development, as I believe that he is lacking and needs to re-evaluate the characteristics of this period. In addition, reflecting on his thoughts and feelings associated with that period, in order to help him become aware of his fixation and how they coincide with him today, then to also help him to realise the negative impact these issues have with his life and present situation. We apply these by assessing Steven’s perception of the events unfolding around him, and from the technical standpoint, referring back to Freudian’s theories and forming an analysis accordingly. (Counselling Theories Manual
Erikson’s developmental stages, much like Freudian theories, it address development in psychosexual behaviour, Erikson expanded these concepts and went into great detail. By using Erikson’s developmental stages and then comparing those stages to his own experiences will allow Steven to reflect back on his past developmental issues and enable him to compare how they affected him in the past and his current situation. The development stages also enables me as the counsellor to determine what stage has conflicted with his life causing him to anguish and making it difficult to move to the next stage without any psychological issues. I believe he was lacking at the oral-sensory stage and building basic trust abilities, throughout his life he felt a sense of distancing from his mother and father, this has caused him to feel alone in the world and that he has to “fend for himself”, in saying this, he has made his decisions and effected his life in the wrong