Therapeutic Styles of Counselling
Case Study: George
George is a 40 year old senior executive in a large company, a position he has only recently taken up. He was referred to counseling by his general practitioner to explore his mood swings. He has been married for nearly 5 years to a ‘warm and wonderful person’. There were no children yet, and the couple was wondering about the right time for having children. This has been an area of disagreement between George and his wife and has led to a number of heated arguments between the two of them.
George described himself as fairly conservative and not a risk taker, and said that sometimes he couldn’t believe he had accepted a job in such a large company. On questioning, George said that he sometimes felt OK and reasonably good about himself, but that these good feelings frequently gave way to incredible doubts and feelings of hopelessness, that he often felt ‘not good enough’ and ‘not worthy’. He had experienced these feelings before, but he felt they were more intense and more frequent since moving to his current position. He commented, “I’m not the person I thought I would turn out to be” and “I’m disappointed in myself”.
He reports being able to keep it together at work and that his work in not suffering at this stage. He has become more restless and irritable with people, especially in social situations which he describes as excruciating and pointless.
Introduction
There are a number of potentially valuable therapies that vie for attention as possible curative options for George and his symptoms. However, gestalt therapy and REBT are the two approaches that I have decided to implement here. I will give a very brief synopsis of each approach before offering in-session therapeutic techniques that I will apply with George. In closing I will discuss some of the differences between the two chosen approaches, as well as offering a justification for a preferred approach for treating George.
The gestalt approach is a psychological
George is a 40 year old senior executive in a large company, a position he has only recently taken up. He was referred to counseling by his general practitioner to explore his mood swings. He has been married for nearly 5 years to a ‘warm and wonderful person’. There were no children yet, and the couple was wondering about the right time for having children. This has been an area of disagreement between George and his wife and has led to a number of heated arguments between the two of them.
George described himself as fairly conservative and not a risk taker, and said that sometimes he couldn’t believe he had accepted a job in such a large company. On questioning, George said that he sometimes felt OK and reasonably good about himself, but that these good feelings frequently gave way to incredible doubts and feelings of hopelessness, that he often felt ‘not good enough’ and ‘not worthy’. He had experienced these feelings before, but he felt they were more intense and more frequent since moving to his current position. He commented, “I’m not the person I thought I would turn out to be” and “I’m disappointed in myself”.
He reports being able to keep it together at work and that his work in not suffering at this stage. He has become more restless and irritable with people, especially in social situations which he describes as excruciating and pointless.
Introduction
There are a number of potentially valuable therapies that vie for attention as possible curative options for George and his symptoms. However, gestalt therapy and REBT are the two approaches that I have decided to implement here. I will give a very brief synopsis of each approach before offering in-session therapeutic techniques that I will apply with George. In closing I will discuss some of the differences between the two chosen approaches, as well as offering a justification for a preferred approach for treating George.
The gestalt approach is a psychological
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