Engel's Biopsychosocial Model

Introduction
Counsellors and psychotherapists play a significant role in alleviating mental disorders in society. The definition, organisation, and intervention of mental health are dependent upon the present context of a culture and society. There are various professional roles in the mental health sector such as psychiatrists and psychologist who are responsible for different aspects of alleviating mental health; however psychotherapists and counsellors mainly take on the professional helper role in the biopsychosocial context. Mental health and wellbeing is an essential part of an individual’s life and the community that they are a part of; alleviating mental disorders is part of supporting and helping an individual live a meaningful life.
612). Engel argues that the biopsychosocial model is merely a shift in how the biomedical framework is perceived by physicians in the sense that “the model serves to counteract the often wasteful reductionist pursuit of what often prove to be trivial rather than crucial determinants of illness,” (1980, p. 543). Therefore a biopsychosocial model is more inclusive than a biomedical model and well suited to social work, psychotherapy and
287). Coupled with therapeutic techniques, Fosha and associates (2009, p. 287) suggest that: “An empathy-based therapeutic relationship is the foundation to enlarging the trauma survivor’s perspective from preoccupation with danger and damage to a fuller experiencing on oneself as alive and of one’s life and relationships as having fundamental worth and