Therapy, Counseling and its Goals - Article Example

Introduction There are various kinds of therapy and counseling approaches which are all aimed at developing, if not treating, the intellectual, emotional and psychological state of every man. Among these counseling methods there is a question about empathizing with the patients. it should be noted that counselors do need to empathize with the patients so as to really understand what they been undergoing through and to recognize the possibilities for their cure. But when do the counselors draw the line from over empathizing? Is there any danger from over empathizing and how can we prevent it? Counseling and its Goals Counseling aims to help and teach people how to direct their own lives, make more effective choices, and how to develop the strength to handle the stresses and problems of. Its core revolves around the idea that regardless of what has "happened" in the people’s lives, or what a certain individual has done in the past, one can choose specific behavior that will help him / her meet his/her needs more effectively in the future (http://indigo.ie/~irti/whatis.htm, 2004). Also, according to the guidelines for effective counseling approaches, dissatisfying or non-existent relationships with others are the active ingredient when it comes to most psychological problems. The focus is on developing and maintaining healthy interpersonal relationships, as well as on accepting personal responsibility for one’s behavior and making better choices (http://www.cognitive-therapy-associates.com/therapy/reality-therapy.php, 2003). This just reflects on how counseling works. It uses the person’s past as the source of his need and ways of behaving. Nevertheless, the discussion of the therapist and the ‘patient” stays related to the present as much as possible, as the key issues for a person are rooted in current relationship problems (http://www.cognitive-therapy-associates.com/therapy/reality-therapy.php, 2003). Furthermore, counseling is considered a practice involving two major components: (1) Creating a trusting environment; and (2) Using techniques which help a person discover what they really want, reflect on what they are doing now, and create a new plan for fulfilling that “want” more effectively in the future (http://indigo.ie/~irti/whatis.htm, 2004). In counseling sessions, the person’s thoughts and actions are considered the most appropriate material to actively work on, as these are within a person’s control, rather than feelings or symptoms, which are affected by changes in made in the relevant thoughts and actions. Blame and externalizing control are avoided, as these are viewed as impediments to developing healthy relationships. Regardless of the particular complaint, the best possible solution lies in improving connections with others, and specific changes in thoughts and behavior are made in the service of this goal (http://www.cognitive-therapy-associates.com/therapy/reality-therapy.php, 2003). Counseling is viewed as a useful a powerful tool because it enhances one’s ability for personal growth, accomplishing goals, and measuring progress. Moreover, more counselors find it a user-friendly technique of asking key questions on each individual. These key questions help an individual to self-examination. This process way of questioning compliments the idea of good goal setting in a way that these questions create or reinforce motivation as well as emphasizing the time that is passing and the level of progress made (http://ms.essortment.com/therapyreality_rabt.htm, 2002). Some specific benefits that one can derive form counseling are being able to (http://home.ptd.net/~chcon/benefits.html, 2004): Learn the five basic needs present in all human beings Learn how to create an effective need satisfying environment for yourself and others Learn the eight specific procedures that lead to personal change Develop an understanding of why and how we behave Learn how the human brain works as a control system Understand the concept of behavior of one's personal choice, thus increasing your own sense of personal power Understand the relationship between our thoughts, feelings, actions and our physiology Practice skills in asking key questions that elicit thoughtful responses Practice skills helping others evaluate their behavior Practice skills to reduce or eliminate anger, criticism or defensiveness Develop skills in helping to set goals and make plans Develop skills in dealing with discipline problems at home with the family or management problems in your employment with employees or colleagues Learn the concepts of process of counseling for immediate use in your personal and professional life There are ten basic tenets of counseling. These tenets will guide the counselors on what to do and how to deal with his/her clients’ “problems”. This includes: First, focusing on the present and avoid discussing of the client’s the past. This tenet is because counselors believes that almost all human difficulties are rooted in current relationship problems, hence meddling into the client’s past will never do anything (Whitefield, 2004). Second is avoidance of discussing symptoms and complaints as much as possible. Again, this is to reiterate the fact that counseling deals with clients’ current relationship problems (Whitefield, 2004). Third, understanding the concept of total behavior. This means that the counselors will focus on the client or patient’s ability to directly control his / her actions and thoughts. Needless to say, counselors need to spend lesser time on what the patients cannot control directly – such as the feelings and physiology. Feelings and physiology can be changed, but only if there is a change in the acting and thinking (Whitefield, 2004). Fourth, avoiding criticizing, blaming and/or complaining. At the same time, the counselors should motivate the counselees to the same. By doing this, they learn to avoid these extremely harmful external control behaviors that encumber the development of healthy relationships (Whitefield, 2004). Fifth, remaining being non-judgmental and non-coercive. Counseling encourages everyone that any individual should ask him/herself the question: "Is what I am doing getting me closer to the people I need?” (Whitefield, 2004). Sixth, if their choice of behaviors is not helping them with current relationships, then help them find new behaviors that foster better relationships (Whitefield, 2004). Seventh, counselors should teach their counselees that legitimate or not, excuses stand directly in the way of helping them maintain need satisfying relationships with other people (Whitefield, 2004). Eight, counselors should maintain their focus on the specifics. This can be done by finding out about their counselees’ current relationships and eventually work with them in coming to terms with all needs frustrating relationships in their life. If they are completely disconnected from people, focus on helping them find new connections (Whitefield, 2004). Ninth, aside from counselors’ effort to be on the specific side, they should also encourage their counselees to make specific, workable plans which are aimed at improving the relationships they currently have or establish new relationships, and then follow through on what was planned by helping them evaluate their progress. Based on counselees’ experience, counselors may suggest plans, but should not give the message that there is only one plan. A plan is always open to revision or rejection by the counselee (Whitefield, 2004). And lastly, counselors should be very patient and supportive, but keeping focused on the source of the difficulties: current relationship problems. Counselees with long term unsatisfying relationships will find this difficult to do. They are often so involved in the symptom they are choosing that they have lost sight of the fact that they need more satisfying relationships. Thus, it is the counselor’s duty to help the counselees to understand that whatever their complaint, better relationships are the best possible solution to their problem (Whitefield, 2004). Empathizing in Counseling As the goals and professional objectives of counselors are stated, it should not be taken for granted that counselors do need to empathize with their counselees in order to provide better judgment and proper counseling methods. Empathizing is said to be an important part of any counseling approach and counselees normally expect their counselors to be empathizing with them. For Self-Disclosure It is worth noting that the role of a person's initial expectations about counseling can influence her or his decision about whether to seek professional help (Tinsley, Brown, de St. Aubin, & Lucek, 1984). In particular, the anticipated utility of and risks associated with seeking therapy have been suggested as two of the most important influences on a person's decision to seek counseling. Anticipated utility refers to the perceived usefulness or lack thereof regarding seeking services from a counselor. Researchers have suggested that individuals who do not seek counseling services may have lower expectations about the benefits of seeking help than do individuals who seek such services. Anticipated risk, on the other hand, refers to an individual's perception of the potential dangers of opening up to another person. By seeking help from someone, the person risks feeling "misunderstood, judged, or even ignored" and, thus, may choose not to seek help. Other researchers have suggested that if the anticipated utility of seeking counseling is not outweighed by the anticipated risk, the individual may decide not to continue seeing the counselor (Vogel & Wester, 2003). Another reason why counselees prefer that their counselors do empathize with them is because of some concerns regarding comfort in disclosing distressing or personal information (Jourard, 1964). Jourard (1964) first described how empathizing affects the counselees’ ability to self-disclose the ability to self-disclose because in order to be helped, the person must choose to reveal to another person private feelings, thoughts, and attitudes. Since Jourard's study, several researchers have suggested that empathizing is detrimental for self-disclosure. It was also found out that one's desire to conceal personal information is related to past help-seeking behavior and current help-seeking intentions. Kelly and Achter found that high concealers reported less positive attitudes about seeking help, although these individuals did report greater intentions to seek mental health services. Cepeda-Benito and Short (1998) found that self-concealment interacted with social support to predict help-seeking intentions. They also found that self-concealers were 3 times more likely to have not sought therapy when they were experiencing a problem (Cepeda-Benito and Short, 1998). There are more and additional studies also reported that an individual's comfort in self-disclosing to a therapist was linked with her or his attitudes and intentions to seek help. It was determined that the interaction of an individual's willingness to self-disclose to a counselor and the severity of her or his problem predicted the most variance associated with a willingness to seek help. More so, it was revealed that one's comfort in disclosing distressing information was a unique predictor of attitudes and intent to seek help. They also found that self-disclosure was an even stronger predictor of help seeking than was self-concealment. Diala et al. (2000) reported that people who were not comfortable talking about personal issues with a professional who do not empathize were 5 times less likely to seek help. Clearly, a person's comfort with self-disclosure is a factor that is considered as the individual decides whether or not to seek help (Diala et al., 2000). For Self-Esteem Meanwhile, there are reports which state that with counselors who show empathy with the counselees, counselees, then easily develop or regain back their self-esteem. Researchers have generally not looked at the importance of self-esteem as a factor in an individual's decision to seek counseling services. However, self-esteem has been reported to be an important psychological barrier to seeking help from nonprofessional sources such as family and friends. Fisher, Nadler, and Whitcher-Alagna (1982) suggested that seeking help from another entails an implicit analysis of the costs and benefits to one's self-esteem, much more if the counselor will show the ability to empathize or not. Seeking help from another to some degree means admitting that one cannot deal with the problem on one's own and, as such, can be an admission of inadequacy. Thus, a person may decide not to seek help in order to maintain a positive self-image (Fisher, Nadler, and Whitcher-Alagna, 1982), but if the counselor will prove that he/she has the ability to empathize, it will be easier for the counselees to maintain or regain their self-esteem. A number of studies on nonprofessional help seeking have found evidence consistent with this. Help seeking has been found to occur less frequently when a participant is embarrassed to seek help, and self-esteem has been found to be directly associated with general help seeking for a problem described as serious. Fear of embarrassment and feelings of inferiority or incompetence have been linked with help-seeking decisions. Collective self-esteem negatively predicted attitudes toward counseling in an Asian population. However, more research is needed into the role of self-esteem and professional help-seeking decisions. For example, studies have shown that clients have lower self-esteem than non-clients; yet, what is not known is whether higher self-esteem protects the individual from needing help (i.e., they can handle problems better) or, as some researchers have suggested, that higher self-esteem increases individuals' feelings of threat (i.e., not being able to handle the problem is inconsistent with how they see themselves) and, thus, leads them to avoid counseling. Researchers may want to examine the relationship between self-esteem and other avoidance factors and help-seeking decisions (Fisher, Nadler, and Whitcher-Alagna, 1982). Conclusion Based on the information presented above, empathizing is detrimental to the success of counseling. Even from the lists of tenets of counseling, it cannot be denied that empathizing is a big part of the successful implementation of counseling approaches. With empathizing, counselees can easily disclose their thoughts, fears, aspirations and whatever ideas and thoughts that they have. With counselors who empathize, counselees do not have to worry about their self-esteem for they have the tendency to regain it back despite whatever negative thoughts and pasts they revealed. However, it should be noted that to these advantages of empathizing should also serve as the boundary from too much empathizing. If the purpose of empathizing is to help the counselees to self-disclose and regain his/her self-esteem, then it is just right and not dangerous. But if the counselor decide to empathize for the reason beyond these two, then it may be harmful for the counselees already. As stated above, counselees may stop seeing the counselor anymore, and much worst, they may encounter a relapse from the previous problems that they dealt with in the past. So how can be the danger of over empathizing be avoided? This will be a sole task of the counselor itself. He/she should also evaluate whther or not he/she is sticking to the tenets of counseling. He/she should take a note of why he is empathizing with the counselee, is it still for the purpose of self-disclosure or self-esteem or not? If it still under those two purposes, then the counselor can continue from doing so, but the reason is beyond those two already, then the counselor should start rethinking about his/her counseling strategies and focus on to other approaches. References: Beck, Henry. PhD. 2004. Frequently Asked Questions about Psychoanalytic Therapy. Retrieved from Benefits. August 2004.Retrieved from Cepeda-Benito, A., & Short, P. (1998). Self-concealment, avoidance of psychological services, and perceived likelihood of seeking help. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 45, 58-64. Corey, G. (2001). Theory and practice of counseling and psychotherapy (6th ed). Stamford Conn: Brooks/Cole Diala, C., Muntaner, C., Walrath, C., Nickerson, K. J., LaVeist, T. A., & Leaf, P. J. (2000). Racial differences in attitudes toward professional mental health care and in the use of services. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 70, 455-464. Fisher, J., Nadler, A., & Whitcher-Alagna, S. (1982). Recipient reactions to aid. Psychological Bulletin, 91, 27-54. Jourard, S. M. (1964). The transpersonal self. New York: Van Nostrand. Reality Therapy (2002). Pagewise Inc. Retrieved from Reality Therapy. (2003). Cognitive Therapy Associates. Retrieved from Tinsley, H. E., Bowman, S. L., & Ray, S. B. (1988). Manipulation of expectancies about counseling and psychotherapy: Review and analysis of expectancy manipulation strategies and results. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 3, 99-108. Thornton, Stephen PhD. (2001). Sigmund Freud (1856-1939). The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved from Vogel, D. L., & Wester, S. R. (2003). To seek help or not to seek help: The risks of self-disclosure. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 50, 351-361. What is Reality Therapy? 2004 WGII. Retrieved from Whitefield, Jim PhD. 2004 Reality Therapy. Austin center for Reality Therapy. Retrieved from Read More