/ Published in Academic Writing

What are the definitions of counseling?

  1. What are the definitions of counseling?

It can be defined as a professional guidance that is offered by the counselors to the clients to help them resolve emotional challenges and personal conflicts. It can be referred as a professional relationship that aims at empowering different people to achieve mental health, career and education objectives.

  1. What are the distinctions between counseling and psychotherapy? List 5 points
  2. Counseling refers to consultations offered by counselors in the short-term.
  3. Psychotherapy is a long-term treatment.
  • Counseling addresses current issues that can be resolved with ease.
  1. Psychotherapy conducts intensive and extensive examinations of the psychological history of clients.
  2. Counseling assists people in processing powerful emotions whereas psychotherapy is an evolutionary procedure that helps clients to look at long-term standing behaviors that result from the present quality of life.
  3. What is the role of counselor?

The role involves guiding clients in discovering their answers to the problems affecting them.

  1. Discuss five (5) personal characteristics of effective counselors?

Counselors should be patience with their clients as they process the discussion during a talk therapy. They should be good listeners in that they can offer significant time to their clients to speak as they listen. They should be compassionate to help clients feel that they are caring. They should be nonjudgmental since they listen to a lot of private information from their clients. Counselors should be empathetic in that they can understand share feelings of their clients with them.

  1. Personality, according to Freud, is composed of three systems: the id, ego, and superego. Discuss the three systems and how they are interrelated and behavior is a function of the interaction among them.

The Id is a component of personality that is exclusively unconscious and triggers primitive and instinctive behaviors of a person from the birth. Ego helps in addressing the reality of life and makes certain that impulses of id are expressed in satisfactory manners. Superego ensures that people hold to their internalized moral standards when making judgments.

  1. Discuss Freud’s Ego-Defense Mechanisms.

Freud used the mechanisms in explaining that people have to tackle various problems and conflicts in life. The ego defense mechanisms function at an unconscious level and help to discourage unpleasant feelings. The mechanisms help people to ward off feelings of anxiety.

  1. Freud considers the first five years of life to be quite important in the development of the child’s personality. Discuss the first five stages of development. Each development stage is dominated by a specific zone of the body.

The oral stage starts from birth to eighteen months and the sources of gratification during this period is the mouth that is used when sucking. The anal stage starts from 18-36 months and is associated with the need for independence. The phallic stage commences from 3-5 years, and it is characterized by the development of sexual interest and excitement in the genital area. Latency stage is linked to inactivity, separation from parent’s attachments and involves increased social contacts as well as gender role identity.

  1. Discuss the following on Alfred Adler:
  2. Key theoretical concepts

The personality theory explains behaviors of persons using concepts used child development stages, personality systems, and defensive mechanisms.

  1. Goals of the therapist approach

The goals were in determining the person’s behavior to help in solving personal conflicts and challenges.

  1. Therapy technique

The therapy applies the development stages, the three systems of personality and the defensive mechanisms.

  1. Limitations and criticisms

The criticism and limitations of the theory are based on its perceived sexism and its relevance in today’s world.

  1. Discuss the following on Carl Rodgers and Person-Centered Therapy:
  2. Key theoretical concepts

They include existentialism and humanistic psychology that explains that people are trustworthy and they can solve personal conflicts without involving therapists.  Other concepts include congruent, empathetic and unconditional positive regard from therapists.

  1. Goals of the therapist approach

The goals are to offer opportunities to clients to understand ways that their behaviors and attitudes are being affected.

  1. Therapy technique

It involves refraining from challenging the clients directly and develops their confidence level of expressing their feelings.

  1. Limitations and criticisms

The theory provides a conditional relationship. Behaviorists have criticized it for the lack of structure and cannot be used by non-verbal clients.

  1. Discuss the following on Albert Ellis and Rational-Emotive Therapy:
  2. Key theoretical concepts

They include unconditional self-acceptance and inherently imperfect nature of human beings.

  1. Goals of the therapist approach

To help clients understand the ways that they have learned. It also aims at teaching them on ways of un-upsetting and empowering themselves to live happy lives.

  1. Therapy technique

It integrates cognitive-philosophic, behavioral and emotive-evocative-dramatic techniques in disputing irrational and self-defeating constructs of a client.

  1. Limitations and criticisms

It does not measure the ability of a client to staying better after therapy. It has been criticized for its primary focus on cognitive restructuring aspects.