Vocational Counselor – came up with Parsons’ Model of Career Counseling (Match knowledge of self to knowledge of work)

Choose a career – began during Industrial Revolution – gained in importance AGAIN after WWII to deal with returning vets

1. Focus on “intact” personalities

2. Attention toward assets and strengths as opposed to deficits

3. Emphasis on relatively brief interventions – counseling vs psychotherapy

4. Person-Environment interactions (PE Fit; Culture)

5. Educational and Career development

 Remedial

Preventive

Educative-Developmental

Constructs and behaviors that are specific to an individual socio-cultural context, not generalizable

The Scientist-Practitioner Model

Three levels of being a scientist-practitioner (Gelso)

– 1) Conduct empirical research.

– 2) Ability to review and apply research findings to counseling practice.

– 3) The way s/he thinks about practice and conducts counseling --> Observe, Hypothesize, Test, Repeat if necessary.

what goes on during a counseling intervention

– e.g., counselor behaviors, client behaviors, the interaction between counselor and client

the effects of counseling interventions

– Absolute Efficacy: Is X treatment effective?

– Relative Efficacy: Is X treatment more effective than Y treatment?

Qualitative, no a priori, emic, idiographic

-  Examine complex questions

– Rich, in-depth, idiographic knowledge

– Acknowledge the researcher’s biases and assumptions

– Empowerment of the participant

Qualitative Disadvantages:

– Limited generalizability

– Variability in analysis

– Feasibility of carrying out procedure

The Bubble Hypothesis

 Inevitable trade-offs exist at all stages of research

 Knowledge is most powerfully advanced through the use of a variety of methods

         Example: rigor vs. relevance

– Rigor: internal validity

– Relevance: external validity

            Experience-near research

Rigor

 internal validity

Potential problems of Multi-Role Relationships (i.e Teacher-Therapist, Boss-therapist)

 Erosion/distortion of therapy

 Conflicts of interest

 Adverse effects on client rights

Informed Consent

Two central aspects:

 1) Disclosure

 2) Ability of the client to freely reflect and

consent/not consent

Limits to Confidentiality

 Client request for release of information

 Court orders for confidential information

 Not the same as a subpoena

 Illicit substance use while pregnant

 Knowledge of abuse or exploitation by another health professional

 Child abuse or abuse of a vulnerable adult

 Danger to oneself

 Danger to others

         -“Duty to warn”

 Paperwork

 Clinical interviews: e.g., Intake interview; gather general data, presenting issues

 Psychological testing

 Validity

 Reliability

 Standardization

 Usability

Intelligence test

Criticisms and Cautionary Factors of Assessment Methods

 Appropriate norm groups and use

 Classifications and labels have potentially harmful effects

 Construction of tests and diagnostic systems is an imperfect science

 There are potential gender and racial biases in many tests

 Test results and diagnoses may limit client’s potential, goals, and vision

Purposes of Closed-Ended Questions:

 To obtain specific information

 To identify parameters of a problem or issue

 To narrow the topic of discussion

 To interrupt an overly verbose client

 For clarification

 To begin an interview

 To encourage client elaboration

 To elicit specific examples

 To motivate clients to communicate

Subconscious

Repression

Denial

Regression

Projection

Rationalization

Reaction-Formation

Displacement – onto a safe target

Freud thought all issues were related to crises that occurred at different stages of psychosexual development (mostly childhood)

Freud thought all issues were related to crises that occurred at different stages of psychosexual development (mostly childhood)

Goals of Psychoanalytic/Psychodynamic Therapy

 Restructure personality

 Develop new insights

 Identify and correct old patterns of behavior

Psychodynamic Therapist’s Role

 To understand the client’s motives

 To interpret to the client his/her thoughts, feelings, and behaviors

 To help clients work through unresolved conflicts and gain insight

 Function= expert

 Stance= Neutral, Anonymous

 Utilize principles from classical psychoanalysis

1. Focus on affect and expression of emotion

2. Exploration of attempts to avoid disturbing thoughts and feelings

3. Identification of recurring themes and patterns

4. Discussion of past experiences (developmental influence)

5. Interpersonal relationships

6. Focus on the therapy relationship

7. Exploration of fantasy life

 Shedler’s (2010) meta-analysis of psychodynamic therapies

 Effects just as large (in some studies, larger) as other empirically supported treatments

 Other tx may include components central to psychoanalysis

 Long term gains

 Problems with research and psychoanalysis

 Unconscious motives, transference (e.g.,

the coffee)

 Early childhood experiences

 Interpersonal issues

 Stance= Neutral, Anonymous

Adler - Constructivist Approach to Personality: Fictional Finalism

Individuals construct their own life pursuits or fictional finalisms (ideal life narrative of self)

A person’s life and lifestyle will be influenced primarily by their fictional finalisms

Adlerian Life Style or Style of Life

How our motives, thoughts, feelings, beliefs come together to inform and provide cohesion to our behaviors --> cohesive

Primarily in first 6 years of life, ending with development of fictional finalism

Our subjective interpretations of the events in early life shape the lifestyle

 phenomenology or phenomenological approach

-         Humans want to be as good as they can be AND concern about the welfare of others (not necessarily positively) – self-improvement and social connectedness

Basic mistakes (According to Adler)

• Overgeneralization

• False sense of security/insecurity

• Misperception of life and life’s demands

• Minimization or denial of one’s basic worth

What components of Adler’s theory have received empirical support?

Goals of Existential Therapy

 Purpose: To raise consciousness

 Face defense mechanisms

 Engage in action that is based on the authentic purpose of creating a meaningful existence

There are no uniform roles

To understand the subjective world of the client (phenomenology)

The therapeutic relationship is key

The core of the therapeutic relationship

          -Authenticity

          -Confront clients

 Deemphasis of techniques

 The therapeutic relationship is the most effective and powerful technique

Person-Centered therapy was a reaction against psychoanalytic therapy

– The assumption that “the therapist/counselor knows best”

– The validity of advice, suggestion, persuasion, teaching, diagnosis, and interpretation

– The focus on problems over persons

 Human beings possess positive goodness and the desire to become fully functioning

 Contrasts with Freud

 Self-theory

         – A person’s perception of self and environment are reality for that person

– When you give into conditions of worth (i.e. what other people think you should be) rather than being who you really are

– Gap between the ideal self and the real self

Main Goal of Person-Centered Therapy

 To provide conditions that permit self-discovery and promote personal growth

             – Empathy

             – Unconditional positive regard (acceptance)

             – Congruence (genuineness)

 To serve as a role model of how a fully functioning individual relate with others

Techniques of Person-Centered Therapy

 Active listening

 Appropriate self-disclosure

 Here and now

 Concreteness – not a focus on interpretation

Proportionate to the situation

  Does not require repression

Feelings of despair and anxiety that result from inauthentic living, a failure to make choices, and an avoidance of responsibility - described as anxiety or dread associated with the "dizziness of freedom" and suggested the possibility for positive resolution of anxiety through the self-conscious exercise of responsibility and choosing

Exceeds or minimizes the situation

  It is repressed

Neurotic anxiety is a blocking of normal anxiety which interferes with self-awareness. Rather than facing and dealing with the threat causing the normal anxiety, the individual cuts him or herself off from it

 Autonomy

 Nonmaleficence

 Beneficence

 Justice

 Fidelity

Shoveler:

 S: Face the other Squarely

 H: Head nods

 O: Adopt an Open Posture

 V: Verbal Following

 E: SpEech

 L: Lean toward the other

 E: Make Eye Contact

 R: Be Relatively Relaxed

Ravens Progressive Matrices test

Intelligence test

Low cultural bias

Good for detecting Aspies

Attitudes: Extraversion (E) / Introversion (I)

Functions (S/N): Sensing (S) / iNtuition (N)

Functions (T/F): Thinking (T) / Feeling (F)

Lifestyles: Judging (J) / Perception (P): Judging types prefer to have matters settled.  P types would rather keep options open.

Meyers-Briggs

MMPI

What theory was the MBTI based on?

unconscious redirection of feelings from one person to another

"During transference, people turn into a 'biological time machine.'" A nerve is struck when someone says or does something that reminds you of your past. This creates an "emotional time warp" that transfers your emotional past and your psychological needs into the present.

the patient represents for the analyst an object of the past on to whom past feelings and wishes are projected

the therapist's emotional entanglement with the patient

-Knowledge: History, values, practices of various cultures

-Awareness: Own identity, biases, values, limitations,

privileges

-Skills: Culturally adapted interventions, Culturally appropriate microskills (e.g., cultural

empathy)

1. Counselors should attempt to understand the client’s unique frame of reference.

2. Nomothetic, normative information does not always fit particular individual clients.

3. People are a dynamic blend of multiple roles and identities.

4. The idiographic perspective is compatible with the biopsychosocial model of mental health.

5. The idiographic perspective is transtheoretical.

What are some values, assumptions, and characteristics of traditional Western models of counseling and psychotherapy? 

-Healthy functioning = autonomy and independence

-Clients can and should master and control their own lives and the universe

-Self-awareness and personal growth are goals of the therapeutic process

-Individual centered

-Verbal/emotional/behavioral expressiveness

-Clear distinction between physical, mental wellbeing

-Nuclear family

Adlerian Therapeutic Techniques

1) Assessment

• Family Constellation

• Dreams

• Priorities

• Earliest Recollections

2) Catching oneself - In this technique, patients learn to notice that they are performing behaviors which they wish to change,. When they catch themselves, they may have an "Aha" response.

3) Acting “As If” - requests the client to presume the successful result of a not yet attempted action

4) Paradoxical Intention - clients are instructed to engage and exaggerate behaviors that they seek to change. By prescribing the symptom, therapists make clients more aware of their situation and help them seek to change.

In Adlerian therapy, what is the purpose of asking clients to give their earliest recollections?

What is the Adlerian view of the role of dreams in therapy?

How does this differ from the psychoanalytic view of dream analysis?

Adler considered a dream to be an attempt to solve a future oriented problem. Dreams should be interpreted to help you understand your problems. Less dreams means you're more mentally healthy.

Sigmund Freud first argued that the motivation of all dream content is wish-fulfilment, and that the instigation of a dream is often to be found in the events of the day preceding the dream, which he called the "day residue." - tended to focus on the past

Ultimate Concerns (in Existentialist Theory) – conflicts?

 Freedom (and responsibility) - Conflict is between groundlessness and desire for ground/structure – the more you choose, the more responsible you are for what happens

 Death - Conflict between awareness of death and desire to live - Psychopathology in part is due to      failure to deal with the inevitability of death

 Meaninglessness - Conflict stems from “How does a being who requires meaning find meaning in a universe that has no meaning?”

 Isolation - Each of us enters existence alone and must depart from it alone

an internally held idealistic belief about the future. 

the idea that there might be a "win-state" if we could just X, Y, Z

in reality, even if you XYZ, life continues on afterwards and still has issues

Staff assignment and treatment modality

Assessment and diagnosis: may be misdiagnosed due to cultural differences

Drop out, underutilization, and over-representation

Attitudes: distrust of services by racial/ethnic clients, and the perspective that therapy “can be used as an oppressive instrument by those in power to . . . mistreat large groups of people”

incorporates the learned ability of the counselor to accurately understand the C’s cultural experience, but also communicate understanding effectively and with an attitude of concern

Experimental Analogue

(and Advantages/Disadvantages)

simulation of real counseling situations in an experimental methodology

Advantages

– Specific variables can be

 Controlled

 Isolated

 Manipulated

– Allows for strong causal inferences

Disadvantages

– Risks oversimplification of counseling phenomena

– Are the results generalizable to real life counseling?

Correlational Analogue

(example + advantages + disadvantages)

Simulation

 No manipulation of IVs or random assignment

 Example: Latts & Gelso (1995)

– Participants were counselors who self-rated their

awareness of their own personal conflicts/issues (i.e.,

Countertransference awareness) and use of

counseling theory. They then were asked to respond

to a videotaped session of “client” who survived a

date rape; dependent variable was involvement in

session

Advantages

– Allows for greater control than the field study

– More realistic than the experimental analogue

– Offers greater convenience

Disadvantages

– Artificiality

– Generalizability

– Causal inferences cannot be drawn

Experimental Field Study

(plus advantages and disadvantages)

Manipulation of IVs, random assignment

Intervention

– Involves real-life activity

– Occurs in natural setting

Advantages

– Empirical rigor

– Clinical relevance

Disadvantages

– Difficult to accomplish

– Often not possible to examine specific

variables

Correlational Field Study

(plus advantages and disadvantages)

Examines relationships between or among variables as they occur naturally

Advantages

– Allows for simultaneous study of many

variables

– Permits a relative lack of interference with

natural processes of the counseling

phenomena

– High external validity

Disadvantages

– Causal inferences cannot be drawn

For the existentialist, how are freedom and responsibility related? What implications do freedom and responsibility have for counseling?

Freedom and Responsibility are directly related. Freedom = Responsibility. When you do something, you are responsible for the outcomes.

Implications: train them to be more self-aware of what their actions do. Get them to be less afraid of that responsibility. If they cannot take responsibility for what they've done to contribute to where they now find themselves, they will have little ability to work for change.

What do the Multicultural Guidelines recommend for culturally-appropriate skills in clinical/applied psychological practices?

focu on the client within his or her cultural context

use culturally appropriate assessment tools,

having a broad repertoire of interventions

Erickson’s Psychosocial Stages vs. Freud’s Psychosexual Stages