FAMILY SYSTEMS THERAPY

KEY CONCEPTS

• Focus is on communication patterns within a family, both verbal and non-verbal.
• Problems in relationships are likely to be passed on from generation to generation.
• The present is more important than exploring the past. (Corey,2009)

GOALS OF THERAPY

• To help family members gain awareness of patterns of relationships that are not working well and to create new ways of interacting. (Corey,2009)

TECHNIQUES

• Genograms, teaching, asking questions, joining the family, tracking sequences, issuing directives, use of countertransference, family mapping, reframing, restructing, enactments, and setting boundaries.
• May be experiential, cognitive, or behavioral in nature.
• Most are designed to bring about change in a short time.   (Corey,2009) 

FOUNDERS

• Alfred Alder
• Murray Bowen
• Virginia Satir
• Carl Whitaker
• Salvador Minuchin
• Jay Haley
• Cloe Madanes

Corey, G. (2009). Theory and practice of counseling and psycotherapy. Fullerton: Brooks/Cole Cengage Learning.

POSTMODERN APPROACHES

KEY CONCEPTS

• Therapy tends to be brief and addresses the present and the future
• The person is not the problem; the problem is the problem
• Externalize the problem and look for exceptions to the problem
• Therapist and client co-create solutions
• Identify when problem did not exist   
• Client can create new meanings for themselves and fashion a new life story (Corey,2009)

GOALS OF THERAPY

• To change the way clients view problems and what they can do about these concerns.
• To collaboratively establish specific, clear, concrete, realistic, and observable goals leading to increase positive change.
• To help clients create a self-identity grounded on competence and resourcefulness so they can resolve present and future concerns.
• To assist clients in viewing their lives in positive ways, rather than being problem saturated. (Corey,2009)

 TECHNIQUES

• Main technique is change talk, with emphasis on times in client's lives when a problem was not a problem.
• Creative use of questioning, the miracle question, and scaling question, which assist clients into developing alternative stories.
• In narritive therapy, specific techniques include listening to a client's problems and saturated story without getting stuck, eternalizing and naming the problem, externalizing coversations, and discovering clues to competence.
• Narrative therapists often write letters to clients and assist them in finding an audience that will support their changes and new stories. (Corey,2009)

FOUNDERS

• Insoo Kim Berg
• Steve de Shazer
• Michael White
• David Epston  (Corey,2009)

 

Corey, G. (2009). Theory and practice of counseling and psycotherapy. Fullerton: Brooks/Cole Cengage Learning.

FEMINIST THERAPY

KEY CONCEPTS

• Personal is political
• Therapist's have commitment to social change
•  Women's voice and ways of knowing are valued and honored
• Counseling relationship is egalitarian
• Therapy focuses on strengths and a reformulated definition of psychological distress
• All types of oppression is recognized (Corey,2009)

GOALS OF THERAPY

• To bring about transformation both in the individual client and in society.
• Assist clients in recognizing, claiming, and using their personal power to free themselves from the limitations of gender-role socialization.
• To confront all forms of institutional policies that discriminate or oppress on any basis. (Corey,2009) 

TECHNIQUES

• Feminist practitioners tend to employ consciousness-raising techniques aimed to helping clients recognize the impacts of gender-role socialization on their lives.
• Gender-role analysis and intervention,Power anaylsis and intervention, demystifying therapy, bibliographer, journal writing, therapist self-disclosure, assertiveness training, reframing and relabeling, challenging untested beliefs, role playing, psychodynamic methods, group work, and social action. (Corey,2009)

FOUNDERS

• Jean Baker Miller
• Carol Enns
• Olivia Espin
• Laura Brown  (Corey,2009)

 

Corey, G. (2009). Theory and practice of counseling and psycotherapy. Fullerton: Brooks/Cole Cengage Learning.

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REALITY THERAPY

KEY CONCEPTS

• Main focus is on what clients are doing and how to get them to evaluate whether their present actions are working for them. 
• People are mainly motivated to satisfy their needs, especially the need for significant relationships.
• Rejects the medical model, the notion of transference, the unconscious, and dwelling one's past. (Corey,2009)

GOALS OF THERAPY

• To help people become more effective in meeting all of their psychological needs.
• To enable clients to get reconnected with the people they have chosen to put into their quality worlds and teach clients choice theory. (Corey,2009)

TECHNIQUES

• This is an active, directive, and didactic therapy.
•  Skillful questioning is a central technique used for the duration of the therapy process.
• Various techniques may be used to get clients to evaluate what they are presently doing to see if they are willing to change.
• If clients decide that their present behavior is not effective, they develop a specific plan for change and make a commitment to follow through. (Corey,2009)

FOUNDERS

• William Glasser (1952)
• Robert Wubbolding (1936) (Corey,2009)

 

Corey, G. (2009). Theory and practice of counseling and psycotherapy. Fullerton: Brooks/Cole Cengage Learning.

 

COGNITIVE BEHAVIOR THERAPY
 Albert Ellis (1913-2007)

 KEY CONCEPTS

• Psychological problems may be rooted into childhood, they are reinforced by present ways of thinking.
• Person's belief system is the primary cause of the disorder.
• Internal dialogue plays a central role in one's behavior.
• Clients focus on examining faulty assumptions and misconceptions and on replacing these effective beliefs. (Corey,2009)

GOALS OF THERAPY

• To teach clients to confront faulty beliefs with contradictory evidence that the gather and evaluate.
• To help clients seek out their faulty beliefs and minimize them.
• To become aware of automatic thoughts and to change them. (Corey,2009)

TECHNIQUES

Therapist use a variety of cognitive, emotive, and behavioral techniques: 

• diverse methods are tailored to suit individual clients, an active, directive, time-limited, present-centered, psychoeducational, and structured therapy.
• engaging in Socratic dialogue, collaborative empiricism, debating irrational beliefs, carrying out homework assignments, gathering data on assumptions one has made, keeping a record of activities, learning new coping skills, changing one's language and thinking patterns, role playing, imagery, confronting faulty beliefs, self-instructional training, and stress inoculation training. (Corey,2009)

FOUNDERS

• Albert Ellis (1913-2007)
• Aaron Beck (1921-       )
• Judith Beck (1954-       )
• Donald Meichenbaum (1940-     ) (Corey,2009)

 

Corey, G. (2009). Theory and practice of counseling and psycotherapy. Fullerton: Brooks/Cole Cengage Learning.