COUN 5239 –
Theory and Practice of Counseling and
Psychotherapy Gerald Corey
UNIT ONE: Chapter 1, "Introduction and Overview," pages
2–16. Chapter 2, "The Counselor: Person and
Professional,"
pages 17–36
Chapter One:
• This book surveys 11 approaches to counseling and
psychotherapy, presenting the key concepts of each approach
and discussing features such
as the therapeutic process (including goals), the client-therapist
relationship, and specific procedures used in the practice of
counseling.
• By studying the models presented in this book, you will have a
better sense of how to integrate concepts and techniques from
different approaches when
defining your own personal synthesis and framework for counseling.
• Each therapeutic approach has useful dimensions. It is not a
matter of a theory being “right” or “wrong,” as every theory offers
a unique contribution
to understanding human behavior and has unique implications for
counseling practice.
• More approaches have been developing methods that involve
collaboration between therapist and client, making the
therapeutic venture a shared
responsibility.
• Social, environmental, cultural, and biological realities
oftentimes limit our freedom of choice.
• Feminist therapy has contributed an awareness of how
environmental and social conditions contribute to the problems
of women and men and how
gender-role socialization leads to a lack of gender equality. Family
therapy teaches us that it is not possible to understand the
individual apart from the context of the system. Both family
therapy and feminist therapy are based on the premise that to
understand the individual it is essential to take into consideration
the interpersonal dimensions and the sociocultural context rather
than focusing primarily on the intrapsychic domain.
• Psychotherapy is a process of engagement between two people,
both of whom are bound to change through the therapeutic
venture. At its best, this
is a collaborative process that involves both the therapist and the
client in co- constructing solutions regarding life's tasks. Most of
the theories described in this book emphasize the collaborative
nature of the practice of psychotherapy.
• Therapists are not in business to change clients, to give them quick
advice, or to solve their problems for them. Instead, counselors
facilitate healing
through a process of genuine dialogue with their clients. The kind
of person a therapist is remains the most critical factor affecting
the client and promoting
, change. If practitioners possess wide knowledge, both theoretical
and practical, yet lack human qualities of compassion, caring, good
faith, honesty, presence, realness, and sensitivity, they are more
like technicians.
• Administering techniques to clients without regard for the
relationship variables is ineffective. Techniques cannot
substitute for the hard work it
takes to develop a constructive client-therapist relationship.
Although you can learn attitudes and skills and acquire certain
knowledge about personality dynamics and the therapeutic process,
much of effective therapy is the product of artistry. Counseling
entails far more than becoming a skilled technician. It implies that
you are able to establish and maintain a good working relationship
with your clients, that you can draw on your own experiences and
reactions, and that you can identify techniques suited to the needs
of your clients.
• As a counselor, you need to remain open to your own
personal development and to address your personal
problems. The most
powerful ways for you to teach your clients is by the behavior
you model and by the ways you connect with them. I suggest
you experience a wide variety of techniques yourself as a client.
• Psychoanalytic therapy is based largely on insight, unconscious
motivation, and reconstruction of the personality. The
psychoanalytic model appears first because it has had a major
influence on all of the formal systems of
psychotherapy. Some of the therapeutic models are extensions of
psychoanalysis, others are modifications of analytic concepts and
procedures, and still others emerged as a reaction against
psychoanalysis. Many theories of psychotherapy have borrowed and
integrated principles and techniques from psychoanalytic
approaches.
• Adlerian therapy differs from psychoanalytic theory in many
respects, but it can broadly be considered an analytic perspective.
Adlerians focus on meaning, goals, purposeful behavior, conscious
action, belonging, and social
interest. Although Adlerian theory accounts for present behavior by
studying childhood experiences, it does not focus on unconscious
dynamics.
• experiential and relationship-oriented therapies: the existential approach,
the person-centered approach, and Gestalt therapy. The existential
approach
stresses a concern for what it means to be fully human. It
suggests certain themes that are part of the human condition,
such as freedom and responsibility, anxiety, guilt, awareness of
being finite, creating meaning in the world, and shaping one's
future by making active choices. This approach is not a unified
school of therapy with a clear theory and a systematic set of
techniques. Rather, it is a philosophy of counseling that stresses
the divergent methods of understanding the subjective world of
the person.
o The person-centered approach, which is rooted in a humanistic
philosophy, places emphasis on the basic attitudes of the
therapist. It maintains that the quality of the client-therapist
,relationship is the prime determinant of the outcomes of
the therapeutic process. Philosophically, this approach
assumes that clients have the capacity
, for self-direction without active intervention and direction on
the therapist's part.
o Another experiential approach is Gestalt therapy, which offers
a range of experiments to help clients gain awareness of
what they are experiencing in the here and now—that is, the
present. In contrast to person-centered therapists, Gestalt
therapists tend to take an active role, yet they follow the
leads provided by their clients. These approaches tend to
emphasize emotion as a route to bringing about change,
and in a sense, they can be considered emotion-focused
therapies.
• cognitive behavioral approaches, sometimes known as the action-
oriented therapies because they all emphasize translating
insights into behavioral action. These approaches include choice
theory/reality therapy, behavior
therapy, rational emotive behavior therapy, and cognitive therapy
o Reality therapy focuses on clients' current behavior and
stresses developing clear plans for new behaviors.
o Like reality therapy, behavior therapy puts a premium on
doing and on taking steps to make concrete changes. A
current trend in behavior therapy is toward paying increased
attention to cognitive factors as an important determinant of
behavior.
o Rational emotive behavior therapy and cognitive therapy highlight
the necessity of learning how to challenge inaccurate beliefs
and automatic thoughts that lead to behavioral problems.
These cognitive behavioral approaches are used to help
people modify their inaccurate and self-defeating
assumptions and to develop new patterns of acting.
• fourth general approach encompasses the systems and postmodern
perspectives. Feminist therapy and family therapy are systems
approaches, but they also share postmodern notions. The systems
orientation stresses the
importance of understanding individuals in the context of the
surroundings that influence their development. To bring about
individual change, it is essential to pay attention to how the
individual's personality has been affected by his or her gender-role
socialization, culture, family, and other systems
o postmodern approaches include social constructionism,
solution- focused brief therapy, and narrative therapy. These
newer approaches challenge the basic assumptions of most
of the traditional approaches by assuming that there is no
single truth and that reality is socially constructed through
human interaction. Both the postmodern and the systemic
theories focus on how people produce their own lives in the
context of systems, interactions, social conditioning, and
discourse.
Chapter 2:
Theory and Practice of Counseling and
Psychotherapy Gerald Corey
UNIT ONE: Chapter 1, "Introduction and Overview," pages
2–16. Chapter 2, "The Counselor: Person and
Professional,"
pages 17–36
Chapter One:
• This book surveys 11 approaches to counseling and
psychotherapy, presenting the key concepts of each approach
and discussing features such
as the therapeutic process (including goals), the client-therapist
relationship, and specific procedures used in the practice of
counseling.
• By studying the models presented in this book, you will have a
better sense of how to integrate concepts and techniques from
different approaches when
defining your own personal synthesis and framework for counseling.
• Each therapeutic approach has useful dimensions. It is not a
matter of a theory being “right” or “wrong,” as every theory offers
a unique contribution
to understanding human behavior and has unique implications for
counseling practice.
• More approaches have been developing methods that involve
collaboration between therapist and client, making the
therapeutic venture a shared
responsibility.
• Social, environmental, cultural, and biological realities
oftentimes limit our freedom of choice.
• Feminist therapy has contributed an awareness of how
environmental and social conditions contribute to the problems
of women and men and how
gender-role socialization leads to a lack of gender equality. Family
therapy teaches us that it is not possible to understand the
individual apart from the context of the system. Both family
therapy and feminist therapy are based on the premise that to
understand the individual it is essential to take into consideration
the interpersonal dimensions and the sociocultural context rather
than focusing primarily on the intrapsychic domain.
• Psychotherapy is a process of engagement between two people,
both of whom are bound to change through the therapeutic
venture. At its best, this
is a collaborative process that involves both the therapist and the
client in co- constructing solutions regarding life's tasks. Most of
the theories described in this book emphasize the collaborative
nature of the practice of psychotherapy.
• Therapists are not in business to change clients, to give them quick
advice, or to solve their problems for them. Instead, counselors
facilitate healing
through a process of genuine dialogue with their clients. The kind
of person a therapist is remains the most critical factor affecting
the client and promoting
, change. If practitioners possess wide knowledge, both theoretical
and practical, yet lack human qualities of compassion, caring, good
faith, honesty, presence, realness, and sensitivity, they are more
like technicians.
• Administering techniques to clients without regard for the
relationship variables is ineffective. Techniques cannot
substitute for the hard work it
takes to develop a constructive client-therapist relationship.
Although you can learn attitudes and skills and acquire certain
knowledge about personality dynamics and the therapeutic process,
much of effective therapy is the product of artistry. Counseling
entails far more than becoming a skilled technician. It implies that
you are able to establish and maintain a good working relationship
with your clients, that you can draw on your own experiences and
reactions, and that you can identify techniques suited to the needs
of your clients.
• As a counselor, you need to remain open to your own
personal development and to address your personal
problems. The most
powerful ways for you to teach your clients is by the behavior
you model and by the ways you connect with them. I suggest
you experience a wide variety of techniques yourself as a client.
• Psychoanalytic therapy is based largely on insight, unconscious
motivation, and reconstruction of the personality. The
psychoanalytic model appears first because it has had a major
influence on all of the formal systems of
psychotherapy. Some of the therapeutic models are extensions of
psychoanalysis, others are modifications of analytic concepts and
procedures, and still others emerged as a reaction against
psychoanalysis. Many theories of psychotherapy have borrowed and
integrated principles and techniques from psychoanalytic
approaches.
• Adlerian therapy differs from psychoanalytic theory in many
respects, but it can broadly be considered an analytic perspective.
Adlerians focus on meaning, goals, purposeful behavior, conscious
action, belonging, and social
interest. Although Adlerian theory accounts for present behavior by
studying childhood experiences, it does not focus on unconscious
dynamics.
• experiential and relationship-oriented therapies: the existential approach,
the person-centered approach, and Gestalt therapy. The existential
approach
stresses a concern for what it means to be fully human. It
suggests certain themes that are part of the human condition,
such as freedom and responsibility, anxiety, guilt, awareness of
being finite, creating meaning in the world, and shaping one's
future by making active choices. This approach is not a unified
school of therapy with a clear theory and a systematic set of
techniques. Rather, it is a philosophy of counseling that stresses
the divergent methods of understanding the subjective world of
the person.
o The person-centered approach, which is rooted in a humanistic
philosophy, places emphasis on the basic attitudes of the
therapist. It maintains that the quality of the client-therapist
,relationship is the prime determinant of the outcomes of
the therapeutic process. Philosophically, this approach
assumes that clients have the capacity
, for self-direction without active intervention and direction on
the therapist's part.
o Another experiential approach is Gestalt therapy, which offers
a range of experiments to help clients gain awareness of
what they are experiencing in the here and now—that is, the
present. In contrast to person-centered therapists, Gestalt
therapists tend to take an active role, yet they follow the
leads provided by their clients. These approaches tend to
emphasize emotion as a route to bringing about change,
and in a sense, they can be considered emotion-focused
therapies.
• cognitive behavioral approaches, sometimes known as the action-
oriented therapies because they all emphasize translating
insights into behavioral action. These approaches include choice
theory/reality therapy, behavior
therapy, rational emotive behavior therapy, and cognitive therapy
o Reality therapy focuses on clients' current behavior and
stresses developing clear plans for new behaviors.
o Like reality therapy, behavior therapy puts a premium on
doing and on taking steps to make concrete changes. A
current trend in behavior therapy is toward paying increased
attention to cognitive factors as an important determinant of
behavior.
o Rational emotive behavior therapy and cognitive therapy highlight
the necessity of learning how to challenge inaccurate beliefs
and automatic thoughts that lead to behavioral problems.
These cognitive behavioral approaches are used to help
people modify their inaccurate and self-defeating
assumptions and to develop new patterns of acting.
• fourth general approach encompasses the systems and postmodern
perspectives. Feminist therapy and family therapy are systems
approaches, but they also share postmodern notions. The systems
orientation stresses the
importance of understanding individuals in the context of the
surroundings that influence their development. To bring about
individual change, it is essential to pay attention to how the
individual's personality has been affected by his or her gender-role
socialization, culture, family, and other systems
o postmodern approaches include social constructionism,
solution- focused brief therapy, and narrative therapy. These
newer approaches challenge the basic assumptions of most
of the traditional approaches by assuming that there is no
single truth and that reality is socially constructed through
human interaction. Both the postmodern and the systemic
theories focus on how people produce their own lives in the
context of systems, interactions, social conditioning, and
discourse.
Chapter 2:
