Contemporary Theory Presentation Topic Selection Assignment Instructions

EDCO 715

Contemporary Theory Presentation Topic Selection Assignment Instructions

Overview

You are picking a topic for the Discussion: Contemporary Theory Presentation. Below are some sample theories you can select. Note that some of these theories are broad, general ones, while others are targeted to particular disorders:

Instructions

1. Select a topic from the below list that you will use for your presentation:

· Cognitive Behavioral Analysis System of Psychotherapy (James P. McCullough, Jr.)—A new approach to deal with Chronic Depression

· Behavior Activation Therapy for Depression (Christopher Martell, Michael Addis, & others)—An approach to deal with depression

· The Unified Protocol for Transdiagnostic Treatment of Emotional Disorders (David Barlow and colleagues)

· Emotion-Focused Individual Therapy (Leslie Greenberg, etc.)

· Emotion-Focused Couple’s Therapy (Sue Johnson, etc.)

· Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (Steven Hayes, etc.)

· Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing

· Cognitive Processing Therapy (a treatment for trauma)

· Prolonged Exposure Therapy

· Trauma-Focused CBT for children and adolescents

· Sensorimotor Psychotherapy for attachment and trauma issues (Pat Ogden and Janina Fisher main developers, be sure not to confuse this with body work that involves touch. Ogden & Fisher’s approach does not involve touch)

· Dialectical Behavior Therapy (Marsha Linehan)—A new approach to address Borderline Personality Disorder

· Everette Worthington & Jennifer Ripley’s Hope-Focused Marriage Counseling

· Robert Enright’s Forgiveness Counseling Model

· Everette Worthington’s Forgiveness Counseling Model

2. Write down the topic along with a reason for your selection. This should be no longer than a paragraph and does not have to follow current APA format.

Please see the Contemporary Theory Presentation Topic Selection Assignment page under the Contemporary Theory Presentation Topic Selection Resources on how to avoid “death by PowerPoint.”

Note: Your assignment will be checked for originality via the Turnitin plagiarism tool.

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Contemporary Theory Presentation Topic Selection Resource

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iwpi1Lm6dFo

 Biblical Considerations of Philosophy in Counseling

https://canvas.liberty.edu/courses/816237/pages/watch-biblical-considerations-of-philosophy-in-counseling?module_item_id=84651700

Ways of Relating Secular Counseling Models and Scripture

https://canvas.liberty.edu/courses/816237/pages/watch-ways-of-relating-secular-counseling-models-and-scripture?module_item_id=84651702

Freud's Classical Psychoanalysis

https://canvas.liberty.edu/courses/816237/pages/watch-freuds-classical-psychoanalysis?module_item_id=84651705

Trauma Therapists' Critique of Freud's Theory

https://canvas.liberty.edu/courses/816237/pages/watch-trauma-therapists-critique-of-freuds-theory?module_item_id=84651707

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Read: Tan: Chapters 1 – 4

Chapters 1

Overview of Counseling and Psychotherapy

Theory, Research, and Practice

Sigmund Freud (1856–1939), the founder of psychoanalysis, is often credited with the birth of psychotherapy, or the “talking cure.” However, the deep roots of counseling and psychotherapy go back many centuries before Freud. Today the field of counseling and psychotherapy is large and diverse. There has been a proliferation of major therapies in the past fifty years: from thirty-six systems of psychotherapy identified by R. A. Harper in 1959 to over five hundred today (Prochaska & Norcross 2018, 1), with some authors even estimating over a thousand current approaches to counseling and psychotherapy (J. Sommers-Flanagan & Sommers-Flanagan, 2018, 391). Even the definitions of counseling and psychotherapy differ from author to author and from textbook to textbook. Most people think of counseling and psychotherapy as involving a professional counselor or therapist helping clients to deal with their problems in living. Let us take a closer look at some definitions of counseling and psychotherapy in this introductory overview chapter.

Definitions of Counseling and Psychotherapy

There are many different definitions of psychotherapy, none of which is precise (Corsini & Wedding 2008). James Prochaska and John Norcross (2018) have chosen to use the following working definition of psychotherapy (from Norcross 1990, 218): “Psychotherapy is the informed and intentional application of clinical methods and interpersonal stances derived from established psychological principles for the purpose of assisting people to modify their behaviors, cognitions, emotions, and/or other personal characteristics in directions that the participants deem desirable” (2).

Similarly, there are also several possible definitions of counseling. Christian psychologist Gary Collins has defined counseling as “a relationship between two or more persons in which one person (the counselor) seeks to advise, encourage and/or assist another person or persons (the counselee[s]) to deal more effectively with the problems of life” (1972, 13). He further states: “Unlike psychotherapy, counseling rarely aims to radically alter or remold personality” (14). Some authors therefore try to differentiate counseling and psychotherapy on a continuum, with psychotherapy dealing with deeper problems and seeking to significantly change personality. However, most authors in the mental health field today do not differentiate between counseling and psychotherapy (see, e.g., Corey 2021; Day 2004; Fall, Holden, & Marquis 2017; Parrott 2003; J. Sommers-Flanagan & Sommers-Flanagan 2018), agreeing with Charles Truax and Robert Carkhuff (1967), who, years ago, already used the two terms interchangeably. In fact, C. H. Patterson emphatically asserts that no essential differences exist between counseling and psychotherapy (1973, xiv). This is the view I take in this textbook on counseling and psychotherapy from a Christian perspective.

John Sommers-Flanagan and Rita Sommers-Flanagan also use counseling or psychotherapy interchangeably and define it as

(a) a process that involves (b) a trained professional who abides by (c) ethical guidelines and has (d) competencies for working with (e) diverse individuals who are in distress or have life problems that led them to (f) seek help (possibly at the insistence of others), or they may be (g) seeking personal growth, but either way, these parties (h) establish an explicit agreement (informed consent) to (i) work together (more or less collaboratively) toward (j) mutually acceptable goals (k) using theoretically based or evidence-based procedures that, in the broadest sense, have been shown to (l) facilitate human learning or human development or reduce disturbing symptoms. (2018, 7, emphasis in original)

Psychotherapy and Psychological Treatments

David Barlow (2004, 2005, 2006) has attempted to differentiate psychotherapy from psychological treatments, which may add more confusion rather than clarity to the already diverse definitions available for counseling and psychotherapy. He suggests that “psychological treatments” should refer to those dealing primarily with pathology, while “psychotherapy” should refer to treatments that address adjustment or growth (2006, 216). Psychological treatments are therefore those that are clearly compatible with the objectives of health-care systems that address pathology. He further stresses that the two activities of psychological treatment (which is more specific) and psychotherapy (which is more generic) would not be distinguished based on theory, technique, or evidence, but only on the problems they deal with. He is aware that these are controversial recommendations. However, I believe Barlow’s (2006) recommendation is not only controversial but also potentially confusing and may not really help to clarify the definition of terms. Examples of psychological treatments provided by Barlow include “assertive community treatment, cognitive-behavioral therapy, community reinforcement approaches, dialectical behavior therapy, family focused therapy, motivational interviewing, multisystemic interpersonal therapy, parent training (for externalizing disorders in children), personal therapy for schizophrenia, and stress and pain management procedures” (2004, 873, emphasis in original). We can see that many of these examples of psychological treatments are already part and parcel of counseling and psychotherapy.

Overview of Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theory

Although over five hundred varieties of counseling and psychotherapy presently exist, most of them can be subsumed under the major schools of counseling and psychotherapy that are usually covered in textbooks in this field of people-helping. There are usually eleven to fifteen major ones, depending on the author and the text. In this book the following thirteen major theoretical approaches to counseling and psychotherapy will be covered in some detail (in chaps. 4–16), based on the theories and techniques developed by their founders and practitioners: psychoanalytic therapy, Adlerian therapy, Jungian therapy, existential therapy, person-centered therapy, Gestalt therapy, reality therapy, behavior therapy, cognitive behavior therapy and rational emotive behavior therapy, mindfulness and acceptance-based cognitive-behavioral therapies, constructivist therapies, integrative therapies and positive psychotherapy, and marital and family therapy.

Psychoanalytic Therapy. The key figure within the field of psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic therapy is Sigmund Freud. He originated a theory of personality development focused on experiences in the first six years of life that determine the subsequent development of personality. Freudian or psychoanalytic theory emphasizes unconscious factors, especially sexual and aggressive drives motivating human behavior. Psychoanalytic therapy employs techniques such as free association (allowing the client to say whatever comes to mind without censorship); dream analysis (interpreting the latent or hidden meaning of the dream mainly through the use of symbols that have consistent significance for almost every person); and analysis of transference (when the client responds to the analyst or therapist as a significant person of authority in their life, thereby revealing childhood conflicts the client has experienced). The goal of psychoanalytic therapy is to help make the unconscious to be conscious and strengthen the ego. Contemporary versions of psychoanalytic therapy, such as object-relations theory, focus more on attachment and human relationship needs rather than on sexual and aggressive drives. Attachment theory and therapies are therefore covered in more detail, as are supportive therapy, brief psychodynamic therapy, and the recently developed mentalization-based therapy.

Adlerian Therapy. Alfred Adler founded Adlerian therapy, originally called individual psychology. Another major figure in this approach is Rudolph Dreikurs, who was responsible for making it better known in the United States. Adlerian therapy is based on a growth model of the human person. It emphasizes the need for the client to take responsibility in making choices that help determine their own destiny and that provide meaning and direction for their life. Adlerian therapy uses techniques, such as investigating the client’s lifestyle or basic orientation toward life, by exploring birth order, early recollections from childhood years, and dreams; encouragement; acting “as if” (trying a behavior or action the client is afraid of failing in, acting as if it will succeed); and paradoxical intention (encouraging clients to do or exaggerate the very behaviors they are attempting to avoid).

Jungian Therapy. The key figure of Jungian therapy, or analytical psychology, is Carl Jung. Jung’s interest in mystical traditions led him to conclude that human beings have a significant and mysterious potential within their unconscious. He described both a personal unconscious as well as a collective unconscious. Jungian therapy encourages clients to connect the conscious and unconscious aspects of their mind in constant dialogue, with the goal of individuation or becoming one’s own person. Jungian therapy techniques include the extensive use of dream analysis and the interpretation of symbols to help clients recognize their archetypes (ordering or organizing patterns in the unconscious). Examples of archetypal images include major ones such as the persona, the shadow, the anima and animus, and the Self, as well as others such as the earth mother, the hero, and the wise old man.

Existential Therapy. The key figures of existential therapy include Viktor Frankl, the founder of logotherapy; Rollo May; Ludwig Binswanger; Medard Boss; James Bugental; and Irvin Yalom. It focuses on helping clients experience their existence in an authentic, meaningful, and responsible way, encouraging them to freely choose or decide, so that they can create meaning in their lives. Existential therapy therefore emphasizes more the relationship and encounter between therapist and client rather than therapeutic techniques. Core life issues often dealt with in existential therapy include death, freedom, meaninglessness, isolation, and the need to be authentic and real in responsibly choosing one’s values and approach to life. Existential therapists can be optimistic or pessimistic to the point of being nihilistic, and they include those who are religious as well as those who are antireligious. Although techniques are not stressed in existential therapy, Frankl developed several techniques in logotherapy, a specific approach to existential therapy. Some examples are dereflection (encouraging the client to ignore the problem and focus attention on something more pleasant or positive); paradoxical intention (asking the client to do or exaggerate the very behavior the client fears doing); and modifying the client’s attitudes or thinking (especially about the past, which cannot be changed, so that more meaningful or hopeful ways of looking at things become the focus).

Person-Centered Therapy. Carl Rogers founded person-centered therapy, which was previously called nondirective counseling or client-centered therapy. Person-centered therapy assumes that each person has a deep capacity for significant and positive growth when provided with the right environment and relationships. The client is trusted to lead in therapy and is free to discuss whatever they wish. Person-centered therapy is therefore not focused on problem solving but aims instead to help clients know who they are authentically and to become what Rogers calls “fully functioning” persons. According to Rogers, three therapeutic conditions are essential for facilitating client change and growth; these are the major person-centered therapy “relationship techniques”: congruence or genuineness; unconditional positive regard (valuing the client with respect); and accurate empathy (empathic understanding of the client’s perspective or internal frame of reference). Motivational interviewing is a more contemporary therapy that has Rogerian or person-centered foundations, especially empathy, but goes beyond that to using problem-solving and specific interventions for therapeutic change.

Gestalt Therapy. Frederick (Fritz) Perls and Laura Perls founded Gestalt therapy, an experiential therapy that emphasizes increasing the client’s awareness, especially of the here and now, and integration of body and mind. The Gestalt therapist assumes a quite active role in helping clients become more aware so that they can solve their problems in their own way and time. Examples of Gestalt therapy techniques that focus on doing include dream work, which is experiential; converting questions to statements; using personal nouns; assuming responsibility; the empty chair; exaggeration; and confrontation.

Reality Therapy. William Glasser founded reality therapy, which focuses on the present and emphasizes the client’s strengths. It is based on choice theory as developed by Glasser, which asserts that people are responsible for choosing their own thinking and actions, which then directly influence their emotional and physiological functioning. Choice theory also posits five basic needs of all human beings: survival, love and belonging, power, freedom, and fun. Reality therapy helps clients to become more responsible and realistic and therefore more successful in achieving their goals. Examples of reality therapy techniques include structuring; confrontation; contracts; instruction; role-playing; support; skillful questioning (e.g., “Does your present behavior enable you to get what you want now? Will it take you in the direction you want to go?”); and emphasizing choice (e.g., by changing nouns and adjectives into verbs).

Behavior Therapy. The key figures of behavior therapy include Joseph Wolpe, Hans Eysenck, Arnold Lazarus, Albert Bandura, B. F. Skinner, and Donald Meichenbaum. Behavior therapy applies not only the principles of learning but also experimental findings from scientific psychology to the treatment of specific behavioral disorders. It is therefore an empirically based approach to therapy that is broadly social learning oriented in theory. Behavior therapists view human beings as products of their environments and learning histories. The behavior therapist plays an active and directive role in therapy. Behavior therapy has developed many techniques that continue to be refined through systematic empirical research. Examples of therapeutic techniques used in behavior therapy include positive reinforcement (reward for desirable behavior); assertiveness training (role-playing with clients to help them learn to express their thoughts and feelings more freely); systematic desensitization (pairing of a neutral or pleasant stimulus with one that has been conditioned to elicit fear or anxiety); and flooding (exposing the client to stimuli that elicit maximal anxiety for the purpose of eventually extinguishing the anxiety).

Cognitive Behavior Therapy and Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy. The key figures of cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) and rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT) are Aaron Beck, the founder of cognitive therapy (CT), and Albert Ellis, the founder of REBT. Donald Meichenbaum, mentioned in the preceding discussion of behavior therapy, is also often noted as an important figure in CBT because he developed cognitive behavior modification (CBM) and stress inoculation training (SIT), which are incorporated into CBT. Beck’s CT approach focuses on how maladaptive and dysfunctional thinking affects feelings and behavior. It attempts to help clients overcome emotional problems such as depression, anxiety, and anger by teaching them to identify, challenge, and modify errors in thinking or cognitive distortions. Similarly, Ellis developed REBT as an active and directive approach to therapy that focuses on changing clients’ irrational beliefs, which are viewed as the root of emotional problems. CBT and REBT assume that clients have the capacity to change their maladaptive thinking and hence to change problem feelings and behaviors. CBT and REBT employ a wide range of therapeutic techniques, many of which have been empirically supported by documented results or systematic research. Examples of CBT techniques include coping skills training (helping clients use cognitive and behavioral skills to cope more effectively with stressful situations); cognitive restructuring (helping clients change or modify maladaptive, dysfunctional thoughts); and problem solving (helping clients explore options and implement suitable solutions to specific problems and challenges). Examples of REBT techniques include use of the A-B-C theory of REBT (A refers to Activating Events, B to Irrational Beliefs, and C to Consequences—emotional and/or behavioral—of such beliefs) and more specifically keeping an A-B-C diary of daily experiences; disputation (of irrational beliefs); and action homework.

Mindfulness and Acceptance-Based Cognitive-Behavioral Therapies: DBT, MBSR, MBCT, and ACT. Mindfulness and acceptance-based CBT approaches in the third wave of behavior therapy have sprung into prominence, especially in the last couple of decades. Mindfulness refers to focusing attention on one’s immediate experience in the here and now, the present moment; acceptance means having an open, receptive, and curious mindset without censure and a judgmental attitude. The four major approaches are as follows:

Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) was originally developed by Marsha Linehan for helping people with borderline personality disorder and has four major components: regulating affect, tolerating distress, improving interpersonal relationships, and training in mindfulness.

Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) was developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn, originally using a group intervention to teach clients sitting meditation, mindful yoga, and a body-scan meditation for observing and experiencing all their body sensations, with daily practice of mindful meditation for forty-five minutes.

Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) was developed by Zindel Segal, J. Mark Williams, and John Teasdale; it is a combination of MBSR (mindfulness training) and CBT, originally conducted in an eight-week group treatment for clients who experienced recurrent depression.

Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) was developed by Steven C. Hayes and his colleagues to help clients embrace and accept painful experiences rather than try to control or avoid them, and to live with committed action according to one’s values. ACT has six major components: acceptance, cognitive defusion (flexibility instead of rigidity), being present, self as context with a transcendent sense of self, values, and committed action (according to one’s values).

Constructivist therapies are based on social constructionist theory that emphasizes the client as expert instead of the therapist as expert, so that the therapist assumes a not-knowing stance in affirming and with curiosity supporting the creative ways that clients develop to solve their problems themselves, often by restorying their lives from fresh perspectives. Constructivist approaches are therefore postmodern in orientation and include two major therapies: solution-focused brief therapy (SFBT), usually brief, was developed by Steve de Shazer and Insoo Kim Berg in the context of family therapy but is also applicable to individual and couple therapy; and narrative therapy, developed by Michael Kingsley White and David Epston for therapy with families and couples, but also with individuals, groups, and even communities. SFBT emphasizes solutions and what works for the client, for example, by asking key questions such as the miracle question: “Suppose that one night while you were asleep, there was a miracle and this problem was solved. How would you know? What would be different?” Narrative therapy helps clients to re-author their lives in less oppressive and more constructive ways, with more options, often using a process called externalization, in which they see their problems as being outside of themselves.

Integrative Therapies and Positive Psychotherapy. Integrative therapies represent several approaches to counseling and psychotherapy that are based on integration of different theories and techniques to treat certain clients with specific problems in a flexible and responsive way, following outcome research. The four major models or pathways of integrative therapies are (1) theoretical integration (e.g., integrative psychodynamic-behavior therapy, developed by Paul Wachtel); (2) technical eclecticism (e.g., multimodal therapy, developed by Arnold Lazarus; transtheoretical psychotherapy, developed by James Prochaska and Carlo DiClemente originally with ten change processes and six stages of readiness to change; and prescriptive psychotherapy or systematic treatment selection, developed by Larry Beutler and John Norcross); (3) common-factors approaches (e.g., common-factors integrative therapy developed by Sol Garfield, and a contextual model for psychotherapy developed by Bruce Wampold that emphasizes therapist empathy, congruence, and positive regard, plus goal collaboration between client and therapist); and (4) assimilative integration (e.g., psychodynamically based integrative therapy developed by George Stricker and Jerry Gold that is essentially psychodynamic therapy integrated with some techniques from Gestalt therapy or experiential therapy, and more recently from ACT). Positive psychotherapy is not a new school or genre of psychotherapy but a more recent approach to counseling and therapy that can be considered an integration of more traditional therapy focusing on fixing what’s wrong with a positive psychology perspective emphasizing building what’s strong, including character strengths and virtues of the client. Based on positive psychology, positive psychotherapy helps clients to grow in flourishing with positive emotions, positive relationships, good work, and a deep sense of personal meaning and purpose, and not just to alleviate negative symptoms. Key figures in the development of positive psychotherapy are Tayyab Rashid and Martin Seligman. Seligman helped found the positive psychology movement at the turn of this millennium.

Marital and Family Therapy. Marital and family therapy is an umbrella term referring to over twenty systemic therapies. The important figures in this approach include Salvador Minuchin, the founder of the structural approach; Jay Haley and the Milan Group, who developed the strategic approach; Murray Bowen, who developed family systems theory and transgenerational (multigenerational) family therapy; and Virginia Satir, who developed conjoint family therapy. More recently, Susan Johnson and Leslie Greenberg have become well known for their development of emotionally focused therapy for couples. Other key figures include Nathan Ackerman, Carl Whittaker, Ivan Boszormenyi-Nagy, Steve de Shazer, Michael White, Neil Jacobsen, John Gottman, Alan Gurman, and Richard Schwartz. Marital and family therapy approaches assume that the crucial factor in helping individuals to change is to understand and work with the interpersonal systems within which they live and function. In other words, the couple and the family must be considered in effective or efficacious therapy for individual problems as well as marital and family issues. Examples of marital and family therapy techniques that seek to modify dysfunctional patterns of interaction in couples and families and effect therapeutic change include reframing (seeing problems in a more constructive or positive way); boundary setting (either to establish firmer limits or lines of separation or to build more flexible boundaries for deeper connection); communication skills training; family sculpting (asking a couple or family members to physically put themselves in specific positions to reflect their family relationships); and constructing a genogram (a three-generation family tree or history).

A more detailed discussion, including biblical perspectives and critiques, appears in the chapter devoted to each of these thirteen major theoretical approaches to counseling and psychotherapy. Counseling theory is important. It provides a framework of understanding and practice that guides the counselor and psychotherapist in their attempts to help clients (see Truscott 2010). Each of us has our own implicit, if not explicit, theory of counseling. We may or m

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