Theory of Change and Growth - Essay Example

THEORY OF CHANGE AND GROWTH Life can produce problems and difficulties in a person’s life that hinder the natural flow of their relationships and their lives creating problems in their psychological development. If these difficulties are not resolved they can produce distortions in a person’s reality, and their perception of their self, their place in this world, and the emotional structure and stability of their family lives. This leads to distortion in their emotions and behaviour, creating problems in their emotions and everyday lives (Greenburg, 2004). Cognitive change and emotional growth need to occur for these problems to be solved. This theory of change and growth is based within an eclectic mix of theories from different paradigms within psychology. The theory works on the idea that cognitive change and emotional growth and understanding, along side support and motivation from an empathetic and compassionate therapist and the involvement of the client’s partner and immediate family members, will create an environment where the client can heal, and move past their problems or difficulties. It is an integration of the principles of cognitive behavioural therapy, emotion focused therapy, and structural family therapy. For the client to be able to effectively move away from their personal and family problems and to understand the problems, its causes and effects, they must firstly be able to admit to the problem in the first place. Denial is not possible if therapy is to be successful. The eclectic theory first focuses on the client, using a theory based in cognitive behavioural therapy. Cognitive behavioral therapy has been shown to an effective treatment for many disorders, including depression, panic disorders, alcoholism and substance abuse (Wakefield, Williams, Yost & Patterson, 1996). Changing behaviour is a complex psychological process. For change to occur therapy and its preceding theory must give the client the ability to become who they really are, and not what they think they are. The therapy needs to enable the client to understand how their cognitive beliefs of themselves and their world, affect their reactions to situations and events. Cognitive behavioural therapy suggests that you can change how you think or change cognitive processing, which in turn will change what you do - or your behavior. Within an eclectic theory of change, if the therapist firstly helps the client to start to change their cognitive malfunctions, thereby changing their sense of self, by taking the client from the emotional trauma of their problem the client may be able to see the problem more clearly. This helps end denial of the problem that the client may be experiencing (Wakefield et al, 1996). The second step of the theory is to integrate emotion-focused therapy with the inclusion of the client’s significant other in the therapy sessions. This theory has shown that with the therapist and client working actively together, the experience of acceptance and positive emotional change for the client is a powerful force in their recovery (Greenburg, 2004). In this step the therapist, the client and the partner can work towards a strong, trusting collaborative relationship. This enables a sense of safety and security that is paramount for an effective change of thinking and growth of emotion. By helping the client to make positive emotional choices, and helping them to strengthen their relationship, the therapist allows for self-healing and positive reconstruction of the self (Greenburg, 2004). Emotion focused therapy aims to firstly understand emotions held at that time, identify unhealthy emotions, and express these emotions in order to help identify these problems. Secondly, to transform the unhealthy emotions and to learn how to discover different healthy emotional responses where and when necessary (Greenburg, 2004). In step three, which encompasses the children of the couple (if any) or indeed any significant family members, would further enhance the well being of the family and insure a greater likelihood of success for the family and the client to move forward into positive relationships. It endeavors to anchor the new positive cognitions, and a greater understanding of emotions and their role in interpersonal relationships, within the family system. The theory of structural family therapy suggests that for a family to be balanced, there needs to a positive flow of energy and communication. The therapist plays a very important part in this. Research has shown that the empathy shown by the therapist during therapy is an important part of establishing the change for this balance to occur (Hammond & Nicols, 2008). Negative alignments and coalitions can be resolved, and the family can achieve flexible boundaries, rearrangement of structures and an appropriate balance of power (Hammond & Nicols, 2008). This part of the theory allows the family to evaluate how the clients ‘symptoms’ are maintained within the families structure, and to move past these unhelpful rigid structures. Within this theory and resulting therapy, a couple in their thirties with two young daughters are counselled. The woman is an alcoholic, and is co-dependent on the husband, reaffirming for her that she unable to cope. In turn, the husband is enabling his wife’s condition as he continues to protect her from the consequences of her drinking. The eldest child is aware however that her mother is ‘unwell’, the stepfather’s response is to make excuses for the wife’s behaviour. Within eclectic theory that has been outlined, an understanding of the woman’s alcoholism and the enabling actions of her family can be understood. From within this framework it can be seem that the woman’s problems with alcohol started as an inability to cope with stresses in her life. Emotionally, she did not have or thought she did not have the emotional skills to overcome the stressors in her life at that time. This produced cognitive malfunction in her sense of self. Therefore, she began to self-medicate with alcohol instead. It is believed that alcoholism is a learnt behaviour, that is ‘reinforced and maintained from a variety of sources’ (Wakefield et al, 1996, p.1). As her husband maintained this behaviour by not confronting his wife with this problem their emotional interaction become malfunctioning. As the problem was not identified and resolved quickly, the change and growth of the person and the relationship was stunted. Finally this negative interaction between the parents led to a change in the family structure resulting in the balance of power moving completely to the father, and creating unhealthy coalitions between the children and their father, and further isolating the mother. This produced a further deterioration of the family structure, and their emotional interactions, thereby further increasing a distorted sense of self and negative cognitive processes in the wife. Therefore, the therapy within this eclectic theory of change can help to restore the balance within this family with a three-step process. The first of the therapy sessions would be used to access and identify the problems which the client has. The next session, would bring in the whole family and to observe and assess family interactions and the balance of power. The further sessions would be dedicated to the wife. These would be used to help the client to start understanding why she drank, to implement cognitive behavioural strategies to reduce stress and to manage stressful situations differently, in a positive way, such as deep breathing techniques and positive cognitive reinforcement (Wakefield et al, 1996). Once the client has learnt how to understand the internal cues that cause her to drink, and the external ones, the therapy can move to step two. . The first step, with its cognitive behavioural principles will have addressed the alcohol dependency, and the reason why the wife drank and the steps she can take to stop using alcohol and to resolve stressful situations in a positive way. The sessions in step two will involve the husband in the therapy as well. This part of the therapy concentrates on their emotional interaction, and their ability to adapt to the world around them. The therapist will help the clients to understand and increase awareness of their emotions, and to make sense of their personal emotional experiences, giving their lives together a greater meaning and understanding (Greenburg, 2004). Step two with its focus on emotional interaction between the couple will help them to recognize the unhealthy emotional state of co-dependency and re-address the issues, by supporting and interacting together in a positive and healthy way. Now that the wife and husband have started to re-think their cognitive beliefs about each other and their relationship, and they will have started the process of re-addressing their emotional interaction, certain problems, initially identified by the therapist, such as the need for alcohol and co-dependency between the couple will be in the process of being resolved. The last step will be to bring in the children. The essence of this last step is in structural family therapy. By addressing the unhealthy coalitions and balances of power that have developed between the mother and father, and the two children, the balance of the family can be reinstated. Without this last step to include the children the family would not be able to free itself from the destabilizing effect of the woman’s alcohol dependency and the resulting problems and power disruptions it caused between the children and their mother. By the father giving unreasonable power to the children and none to their mother the hierarchy of the family was disturbed. This has to be readdressed for the mother’s power within the hierarchy of the family to be reinstated, and for a true balance within the family to be formed. For the theory of change to be effective in its therapy, an eclectic theory has been advocated. For a person to move from a state of negative thinking, dysfunctional relationships, addictions and anxiety troubles, change and growth on a positive level need to be implemented by therapy. A person cannot change their lives for the better without emotional growth. This theory of change advocates a three-step therapy program. It starts with the individual undergoing cognitive therapy treatment sessions to start the initial change. The second step moves to integrating emotion focused therapy with the client’s significant other. This enables the couple to change the way they relate to one another, to identify unhealthy emotions, and to learn how to grow positively and emotionally within their relationship. The last step integrates structural family therapy, and adds the rest of the family into the therapy sessions. This completes the therapy, and the value is to have the balance of the whole family readdressed. Issues of power and negative coalitions are rebalanced, and the family all benefit from positive and healthy interactions and emotions. For the theory of change to be effective and long-term recovery obtained, it is vital that the whole family are positively changed by this therapy. REFERENCES: Greenburg, L. S. (2004). Emotion-focused therapy. Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, 11, 3-16. Hammond, R. T. & Nicols, M. P. (2008). How collaborative is structural family therapy? The Family Journal, 16(2), 118-124. Wakefield, P. J., Williams, R. E., Yost, E. B & Patterson, K. M. (1996). Couple therapy for alcoholism: A cognitive-behavioral treatment manual. New York: Guilford Press. Read More