COUNSELLING THEORIES

Requirement

Question: COUNSELLING THEORIES

Solution

Introduction

Psychoanalytic therapy is treatment on the basis of the Sigmund Freud Theory. Sigmund Freud is considered as the forefather of psychology the founder of psychoanalysis. The psychoanalytic therapy is useful in exploring how the thoughts and behavior of an individual are influenced by the unconscious mind and further aims to offer an insight as well as a resolution towards the person seeking therapy.
The Psychoanalytic therapy usually identifies with the early childhood experiences for predicting how these event can influence the life of an individual or can contribute to the current concerns. This therapy is usually of a long-term choice and might be able to continue for various months, weeks, and even years on the basis of the concern and its gravity. This therapy differs from various other types as it is highly aims towards making deep-seated changes in the emotional as well as personality development. (Bucci, W., 1997). 

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The most general step towards this therapy is to spend time listening to their patients and learn about their lives. This is one of the reason the method is known as “the talking cure”.  The therapist take into consideration the various patterns in order to identify the reason behind the current difficulties of the client.  It has been believed by the childhood events as well as their unconscious feelings, motivation, thoughts play a vital role in the maladaptive behaviors and the mental illness. The other techniques being used by the psychoanalytic therapy include the exploration of the transference, observing defenses, free association and patient’s feeling etc. like interpretation of his dreams.
The psychoanalytic therapy fails to account for the external as well as societal forces. Therefore the psychoanalytic constructs should be intertwined with various structures therapies so as the psychoanalytic therapy to have more depth. This can be done by combining it with psychodynamic and cogitative-behavioral approaches. For example the Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy (REBT) can be combined with the therapy for allowing the client to deal with their emotions. Therefore it is the method to fit other psychotherapeutic and counseling approaches, along with this therapy so that it can adapt to various cultures. (Firestone, 2002; Tori and Blimes 2002,).  

Discussion

The Psychoanalytic therapy has been divided into four parts namely the opening phase and the development, working through, and resolution of the transference. (Arlow, pp. 31—33, 1995)
STAGES OF THERAPY

EARLY: The opening phase 

The initial phase has two parts. In the first phase Peter would be asked to undergo a set of interviews so as to determine his problems and further the therapists would decide on the conclusion on the basis of the appropriateness of analysis. Explanation towards the structure of the analytic situation is provided specially for the delineation of the responsibilities between Peter and his therapist. After few sessions of this part of the therapy, the therapist will guide Peter to proceed towards next phase.
In this phase, Peter would be asked to continue his position on the couch and all his talks and observations would be recorded (Arlow, 1995, pp. 31--32). A comprehensive file will be compiled using the conscious as well as unconscious material. These dreams, projections, fantasies, early memories, free associations and the emergent life themes will be used by the therapist during the subsequent phases of therapy.

MIDDLE: The development of transference

The transference received plays a very important role in the therapeutic phase after being developed and analyzed. Peter will feel connected to his therapist and this will develop their relationship making it easier for the therapist to interpret, perceive and even respond to the queries in a manner Peter was open to other people in the past. The therapist will make Peter understanding the relationship between past behavior and the present behavior helping him to make the proper decision for himself.  The therapist would be made aware of the various possibilities of the countertransference by analyzing all the transference which includes the situation where the unresolved feelings of the therapist might get transferred to Peter. 
It is the responsibility of the therapist to analyze all the countertransference and to work them out. This stage would be highly necessary due to the unresolved feelings of the therapist which might interfere with Peter’s analysis (Arlow, 1995, p. 32). 
This initial stage will be beneficial for therapist and Peter for gaining a conscious awareness regarding the developing transference as well as the countertransference in their relationship. 

LATE: Working through transference

The previous phase is then overlapped by this phase. It is usually seen in this stage that one transference gets precipitated due to the recalling of any vital and important event for receiving further insights. This part of the analysis is a highly evolving process as it helps in further understanding as well as clarification (Arlow, 1995, pp. 32--33). Resistance is manifested among the clients during the process of the therapy. Peter might go through the same and as the therapist will attain his therapeutic objectives he might observe resistance either as an active or as passive opposition from Peter. The therapist will have to work towards Peter’s resistance as it is the primary aspect of the psychoanalytic process. Peter at his conscious level wants help from his therapist but he might use defense mechanisms for avoiding the surface unconsciousness regarding being repressed because of some painful memories and guilt feelings. 

FINAL: The resolution of transference 

In this step, the major conflict of the relationship between the client and the therapist are worked through in this step and a date is set for the termination of the therapy. Peter’s neurotic attachment with the therapist will be resolved in this phase. However, in this step Peter might find it difficult to detach from his therapist and would want to maintain a dependency with his therapist. In this aspect of the therapy, the therapist will finish the touch. However in some of the cases the memories related to all the interpretations might emerge, which might also be seen in Peter’s case. Peter would be responsible for working through his grandiose wishes or even fantasies once the therapy is terminated (Arlow, 1995, p. 33). 
In the nutshell, the working of Peter’s mind will determine the psychoanalytic therapy (Chodorow, N. J., 1999). The views of the therapist would not be imposed on Peter whereas the therapy would highly be centered on the interpretation of the related to the transference (p. 19). 
One of the most powerful and unique characteristic of psychoanalysis is the ability and the willingness for allowing the transference so as to develop along with the objectives of increasing the Peter’s autonomy. This can be done by extending his control over all the inner as well as primitive forces (p. 39).

CONTEMPORARY PSYCHOANALYTIC STRATEGIES 

Various treatment strategies have been developed over the time by the modern psychoanalytic therapists. These strategies have been developed using the Freudian formulations and help in representing all the innovative refinements of classical psychoanalytic practice. Some of the important strategies are included below: 

UNIQUE EPISODES OF SELF-CHANGE 

The self-change episode can easily be identified as a psychoanalytic strategy for promoting positive as well as therapeutic outcomes in people engaged in this therapy. In an active episode therapy experiences psychological events that are highly emotionally charged. These active episodes help in catalyzing the recognition process in the unconscious psychic material. In the case of chaotic episodes where the internal psychic occurrences are emotionally charged but are entirely confusing are seen to become positive turning point in the process. (J. S. and D. E. Scharff, 1998). The therapist needs to have a supportive framework for Peter so as to empower him in attaining psychologically forward leaps.

INTROSPECTION AND SELF-UNDERSTANDING

It has been suggested that the whole process of psychoanalytic inquiry is directly related to the subjective experience (Kohut and Adroer, 1998). Therefore, introspection and the empathy are two tools for psychoanalytic understanding.

EFFECTS OF PLAY IN PSYCHOANALYTIC THERAPY 

According to Freud, the process of transference must be related to the playground and similarly the assertion made by Winnicott that psychotherapy is a subspecies of play. These ideas were called as an intermediate space where Peter might realize the various methods for interpreting meaning to the inner thought, feelings as he will engage with his therapist. A specialized form of service for playing was developed for communicating as well as relating with the other people by Sanville who brought about various innovative eclectic elements from the smattering of psychodrama and various cognitive and gestalt therapies as well as a smattering of psychodrama. 

VALIDATION OF THE PSYCHOANALYTIC PROCESS 

A variety of economic, political and scientific forces were used by Gunderson and Gabbard (1999) for marginalizing in these psychoanalytic therapies in psychiatry. Therefore it was advised by Gunderson and Gabbard that the efficacy of psychoanalytic therapy is explained by systematically assessing all the available knowledge as well as potential database and then explicating efforts can be put for locating the role of psychoanalytic therapies. Four major steps must be taken for lending greater credibility to psychoanalytic therapies:
1.    The distinguishing features must be defined
2.    Identification of clear contradiction as well as indications
3.    Collecting various case histories in a systematic manner for treated mentally ill
4.    Vigilance should be increased for assessing progress in treatment.

WRITTEN FACILITATION OF FREE ASSOCIATION 

One of the best method for facilitating free association is to keep a diary. Peter might be asked by his therapist to write down everything in a diary in case he engages in self-examination or free association. (Riordan, R. J., 1996).

LIMITATION OF THIS APPROACH

One of the major drawbacks of this theory, is that the analysts in Freud’s day did not inextricably intertwined with the managed care. The major drawbacks of this approach is that it is takes various years for completion. In this fast paced lifestyle, the time requirement can be considered as it suited. Further due to long duration, the expense is high making this approach only limited to the affluent. One of another limitation of this theory is that the analysts are not trained enough for their therapy and further the counsellors were also less trained. Because of this long duration, some problems are not ideally suited for this approach. (Guimón, J., 2001).
The approach has is known highly for its applicability towards, vocational, marital, assertiveness, sexual, parenting, divorce, loneliness problems, shyness, etc. which are highly suited towards the therapeutic approaches providing short-term help than comparative traditional psychoanalysis. It has been pointed out that the theoretical model arising from a homogenous sample group composed of exclusively upper-class Austrian women in late 19th century (Gray, P., 1965).
Therefore it has been argued by many psychologists that the prime focus of Freud was on sex as a determinant. Furthermore, a psychoanalyst requires various sessions with the client over a long period of time due to which the prohibitive costs of these methods have compelled clients to see assistance from other methods. (Socrates.berkeley.edu, 2016)
Traditional psychoanalysis was involved in keeping a distance between client and therapist but recently the clients are demanding interactive experiences. Although the psychoanalysis is still being practiced, but the cognitive psychology has overshadowed the demand for psychoanalysis. All these modalities mentioned above can easily be overcome by using all the techniques provided above (Wolff, H. H., 1968).
But one of the major problem with psychoanalytic approach is the age of elitism. Its concept and the way it has been founded, it held a belief that the approach is valid only for the elite people and is not applicable to the people from lower socioeconomic classes due to extended timeliness and high cost. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the government and the funded agencies to create awareness among the people regarding this misconception and further to fund some of the sessions for the helping the clients (Westen, D., 1998). One of the best measure to combine the cognitive therapy with this therapy so as to overcome all the limitations and get best results in limited time.

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References

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  • Bucci, W. (1997). Psychoanalysis and cognitive science: A multiple code theory. Guilford Press.

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