Support Client

1. List the common aspects of effective counselling therapies.
Client/extra therapeutic factors.
Relationship factors.
Placebo hope and expectancy.
The Therapy Model. (Australian College of Applied Psychology, Manual, 2012).

2. Identify five common counselling therapies and briefly explain the principles of each.
1/ Cognitive Behaviour Therapy. CBT the focus is on cognitions (thoughts), emotions, behaviour and physical response that may be associated with the client’s problems. 2/ Gestalt Therapy. The goal is for clients to become aware of what they are doing, how they are doing it and how they can change themselves.
3/Brief Counselling. Solution focused and deals with the presenting issues in the here and now. The counsellor is proactive in goal setting to help the client make changes to their thoughts or limiting behaviour patterns.
4/Family Counselling. Family counsellors see the client as part of a system. The behaviour of one member in the group has an impact on each person. The counsellor will investigate the dynamics of a client’s family and how this impacts on the problem of the individual and the family as a whole.
5/ Person Centred Counselling.
The belief that the client has the ability to solve their problems once they have a clear understanding of them and all they need is the correct environment for this to happen (ACAP, Manual, 2012).

3. Identify the key techniques used in each of the five common counselling therapies listed in question 2 and briefly explain their impact on the client.
1/ Cognitive behaviour therapy. Socratic Dialogue Helps the client understand and make connections between thoughts and behaviour. Exposure techniques, the counsellor can use systematic desensitisation – The client is trained to have an automatic relaxation technique in place to alleviate fear or anxiety when faced with a situation that invokes a physical limiting reaction.
Social skills and assertiveness training, the counsellor helps the client to respond to social situations. Role-playing or modelling, the counsellor allows the client to act out certain scenarios, the client is encouraged to discuss their thoughts and feelings while doing this to help resolve any issues in dealing with these situations in their everyday life. 
2/Person Centred Counselling.
Congruence –Genuine with the client- builds rapport, provides safe environment for the client to express feelings etc.
Accurate emphatic understanding – Conveys to the client that they have understanding or their situation and how it affects them.
Unconditional positive regard – Allows the client to feel that they are valued and they are safe from discrimination.  3/Gestalt Therapy.
Here and now experiencing, assist the client to stay in the present. Engage the client with how and what questions getting them to experience the present moment.
Experiments. These are designed to bring whatever the client is experiencing into the present, to identify any internal conflict they may have.
Language. Encouraging the client to keep their thoughts and feelings in the here and now.
Dream Work - The client is encouraged to enact the dream out and to discover the meaning for themselves. 
4/Family Counselling.
In family counselling the counsellor can work in multi-disciplinary teams. These often include a range of experts, social workers, psychologists, psychiatrists and advocacy workers. A therapeutic team offers a much broader view than an individual counsellor. A family counsellor needs to be flexible in their approach and have an understanding of the dynamics of the family, the position that the client holds and the impact of the actions on the whole group. The client is helped to recognise how the behaviour of an individual impacts on the family as a whole.
Genogram. This is a map of the family history of the client. These can high light patterns of behaviour within family systems. This can show how family traits including feelings and behaviours may be passed from one generation to another. 
5/Brief Counselling.
The Miracle Question Asking the client how they would feel if they woke up and all their problems had disappeared and discussing their feelings around this.
Exception-finding questions Asking for times in the client’s life when issues where not present.
Scaling questions – getting the client to discuss their feelings within a range of 1 – 10.
Coping questions Asking the client if they have had any similar experiences and how they had managed.
Tasks this can involve goal setting or activities such as keeping a record of how they felt or reacted to various situations between sessions. (ACAP, Manual, 2012). 

4. Identify the benefits of each of the five common counselling therapies listed in question 2 in working with clients.
CBT – This is been shown to be effective for issues such as depression, phobias and anxiety. It may also be useful in the treatment of personality disorders.
Person Centred Counselling – person centred counselling allows for the fact that all people are individuals and that they have the ability to be in control of their own lives.
Gestalt Therapy- clients are equipped with a variety of ways to understand themselves better and to deal with inner conflict.
Family Counselling – Counsellors can interact with the entire family instead of just having a single point of view. This also helps to reduces social isolation and leads to stronger family units and self esteem as family members once they are aware of a problem will work together to have it resolved.
Brief Counselling - Due to time and financial restraints on clients or organisations this is beneficial to have situations dealt with quickly (ACAP, Manual, 2012). 

5. Identify the limitations of each of the five common counselling therapies listed in question 2 in working with clients. CBT- The main draw back in this therapy is the concern that it may not produce long term change.
Person Centred Therapy – The main criticism of this type of therapy is that it is considered to have no structured techniques and that the client would need more direction during the counselling process by the counsellor to help with necessary changes.
Gestalt therapy – For this to be affective the counsellor needs to be fully trained, due to the strong emotions that it may invoke in the client.
Family Counselling – The fact that we all belong to a family system it is considered more beneficial some theorists argue to look at the client on an individual basis.
Brief Counselling – This can be frustrating for the client who wants to know the impact what has been happening to them on a deeper level (ACAP, Manual, 2012). 

Reference List.
Australian College of Applied Psychology, Diploma of Counselling Manual, Sydney, 2012.