Different Methods of Counseling and Psychotherapy
Introduction
In counselling and psychotherapy there are more than 400 distinct models with methods of practice ranging from one to one counselling, group therapy, couples or family therapy, online therapy and over the telephone counselling. Depending on which school of thought the therapist is following, each therapy engages the client from a different angle. Each school has its own rationale and specific techniques but there are common components which are shared across all approaches
Research has shown that there is little evidence for the superiority of one school over another (Assay and Lambert, 1999). It is the similarities rather than the differences that account for the observation that all psychotherapeutic approaches are effective (in general). These similarities can be combined into four factors that are common to all forms of psychotherapy. These four factors include: technique (15%), extratherapeutic change (40%), therapeutic relationship (30%) and hope or expectancy (15%). Wampold (2010) further strengthened the argument that psychotherapy is an effective intervention nut that no one theory has been proven to be more effective over all of the others.
The four main schools that influence contemporary counselling and psychotherapy practice are the psychodynamic school, the humanistic-existential school, the cognitive behaviour school and the post modern school. Within each school come a variety of theories with its own factors which make them all unique.
This paper will briefly present an account of the four main schools mentioned above whilst taking into consideration the effect of post modernism and demonstrating the effects of an enhanced eclectic and integrated approach to psychotherapy in our society today
The Psychodynamic school
Psychodynamic therapy is a general name for therapeutic approaches which try to get the patient to bring to the surface their real feelings, so that they can experience them and understand them.
This approach
In counselling and psychotherapy there are more than 400 distinct models with methods of practice ranging from one to one counselling, group therapy, couples or family therapy, online therapy and over the telephone counselling. Depending on which school of thought the therapist is following, each therapy engages the client from a different angle. Each school has its own rationale and specific techniques but there are common components which are shared across all approaches
Research has shown that there is little evidence for the superiority of one school over another (Assay and Lambert, 1999). It is the similarities rather than the differences that account for the observation that all psychotherapeutic approaches are effective (in general). These similarities can be combined into four factors that are common to all forms of psychotherapy. These four factors include: technique (15%), extratherapeutic change (40%), therapeutic relationship (30%) and hope or expectancy (15%). Wampold (2010) further strengthened the argument that psychotherapy is an effective intervention nut that no one theory has been proven to be more effective over all of the others.
The four main schools that influence contemporary counselling and psychotherapy practice are the psychodynamic school, the humanistic-existential school, the cognitive behaviour school and the post modern school. Within each school come a variety of theories with its own factors which make them all unique.
This paper will briefly present an account of the four main schools mentioned above whilst taking into consideration the effect of post modernism and demonstrating the effects of an enhanced eclectic and integrated approach to psychotherapy in our society today
The Psychodynamic school
Psychodynamic therapy is a general name for therapeutic approaches which try to get the patient to bring to the surface their real feelings, so that they can experience them and understand them.
This approach
References: Assay and Lampert (1999). The empirical case for the common factors in therapy: Qualitative findings. In M.A. Hubble, B.L, Duncan & S.D. Miller (eds.)., The hearth and soule of change: What works in therapy (pp.33-56). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Corey, G. (2008). The art of integrative counselling. (2nd ed.). Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks Cole. de Shazer, S., Dolan, Y., Kornan, H., Trepper, T., McCollum, E & Kim Berg, I. (2009). More than Miracles; The stsate of the are of solution focused brief therapy. Hickman, E.E., Arnkoff, D.B., Glass, C.R., & Schottenbauer, M.A. (2009). Psychotherapy integration as practiced by experts. Psychotherapy Theory, Reserarch, Practice, Training. Vol 46, No 4, 486-491. Lin, Y.N. (2005). Conceptualizing Common Factors in Counseling. Journal of Guidance and Counseling, 27(1), 1 -22. McLeod, J. (2011). An introduction to counselling. 4th Edition, Open University Press. Norcross, J.C and Goldfried, M.R. (2005). Handbook of Psychotherapy Integration. New York: Oxford University Press. Stiles, W.B., Barham, M., Mellor-Clark, J & Connell, J. (2008). Effectiveness of cognitive-behaviour, person centred and psychodynamic therapies in UK primary care routine practice: replication in a larger sample. Psychological Medicine, 38, 677-688. Wampold (2010) Wampold, B. E. (2010). The research evidence for common factor models: A historically situated perspective. In B. L. Duncan, S.D. Miller, B. E. Wampold & M. A. Hubble (Eds.), The heart & soul of change: Delivering what works in therapy (2nd ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Westbrook, D., Kennerly, H. and Kirk, J. (2007). An introduction to cognitive behaviour therapy: Skills and applications, London:Sage.