Counselling and Psychotherapy without Research is Just a Listening Relationship - Essay Example

Counseling and Psychotherapy without Research is Just a Listening Relationship Table of Contents 0. Introduction--------------------------------------------------------------------------------3 2.0 Impact of Research on Counseling and Psychotherapy------------------------------4 2.1 Importance of Research on Development of Counseling and Psychotherapy----6 3.0 Areas of Research Still Required in Counseling and Psychotherapy--------------7 4.0 Conclusion---------------------------------------------------------------------------------8 1.0 Introduction Psychotherapy and counseling are just a few application areas in psychology that need practitioners and other psychologists to spend long periods of research on. They must have both scientific and life-experience facts on their finger tip if they wish to give invaluable treatment to their clients. Otherwise, a counseling relationship or psychotherapy turns out to be just a listening rapport. Research is a methodical, logical inquiry that probes existing hypotheses and tries to prove their relevance. Research may prove present theories and ideas wrong or it may uphold others while adding value to them. It suggests new explanations of texts or data and presents fresh queries for future researchers to investigate. Research involves investigating issues that have never been probed before, and carrying out the task of finding the answer. The rest is to share the knowledge gathered to the relevant audience or even the public (Marks, 2005). This paper aims at examining the relevance of research to psychotherapy and counseling, how it influences the processes and what more should be done to improve their quality. Since there are several types of research, the paper shall also unearth other areas of research needed in the psychotherapy and counseling field. Research methods used in psychology are different from those applied in other areas. It is, therefore, to know the various types of research that exist. First, there is observational research that includes case studies, ethological and ethnographic studies. It just involves literary observation of phenomena and recording. Mark (2005) cites that they are mostly qualitative in nature. For instance, a mental case study would require extensive remarks from interviews with and observations with a client. Co-relational research is another method. It examines the relationship between two or more variables. For example, a research may be carried out in an area with a high rate of lung diseases. The researcher may study the smoking habits of the people. If the higher the number of smokers translates to high numbers of those suffering of lung diseases, then the two are said to co-vary directly (Timulak, 2008). The other research method is true experiments. It is where other variables are controlled, leaving the one under study. It is mostly easier to control them in a laboratory setting. Quasi-experiments are very close to true experiments but they use naturally pre-existing groups. Russion (2003) gives an example that if one wanted to compare old and young subjects on the capacity of their lungs, it is impracticable to arbitrarily allocate subjects to either the old or the young. When one has natural groups, the variable being studied is a subject variable, like age in this case. 2.0 Impact of Research on Counseling and Psychotherapy Research has influenced several areas of psychology, from theories to the relevance of psychology in society. One way in which research has assisted in impacting counseling and psychotherapy is its efficiency in dealing with food disorders that are more common among adolescents. Research helped to establish that eating disorders are mostly as a result of one’s identity and self-esteem. Beliefs, misleading ideas and irrational reasons that people have about them contribute to the disorders. That is why some become anorexic, believing that they are too big for their age. Others are compulsive eaters (Robertson, 2010). They cannot resist the sight of food but they still want to stay slim. Hence cognitive behavioral therapy was developed as a result of the findings. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy was created by Ellis Albert in the fifties and engages a client in a talk. It merges cognitive and behavioral therapy that focuses on what the client thinks about what is happening in their life and how this is affecting their attempts to deal with the issues emotionally and behaviorally. It seeks to advice the client on how they can make changes to their harmful thinking patterns or behavior. Robertson (2010) advises that it can in turn help towards solving the complexity and the way they eventually feel. The therapy is often short lasting starting from four weeks to six months. That is in case of a session once a week and advocates that it is not the real events in one’s life that cause the distress to the client but the meanings they actually give to them. The materialization of the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) enabling programmes would not have taken place without clear research as to the helpfulness of therapy as measured up to medication. More so, particular levels of research can describe what types of psychotherapy might work in different types of client, may they be children or older persons. Research has also assisted psychotherapists and counselors to diagnose various types of problems their clients might be suffering from. It helps institutions that offer therapeutic services to familiarize themselves with the requirements of local people (Aziz, 2007). Research plays an exceedingly essential role in therapy and psychology as a whole. Were it not for research, therapists would not have an idea of what makes citizens think, feel, act and feel in certain situations. It permits them to classify psychological disorders so that they can understand the impact and indications on the client and society. According to Russion (2003), research aids the therapeutic fraternity to comprehend how personal relationships, family, religion, development, schools, and peers, affect human beings as a society and individuals. It has also helped counselors to come up with effective healing that improves the value of life of groups and individuals. 2.1 Importance of Research on Development of Counseling and Psychotherapy The world is turning out to be a stressful place with disturbing situations occurring daily. The number of people turning to the National Health Service shows that psychotherapy and counseling are vital. Research has helped the area to move forward and to handle the citizen’s need for successful treatments. It has not helped only the individuals who need the health services but also the NHS that depends on the work of the psychology practitioners. There are several other reasons why research is beneficial to counseling and psychotherapy. In the absence of research, only a discussion involving the counselor and the client would be happening. Research is the solution that has aided to push counseling from a service one would merely get from a member of the family to that which is based on scientific facts and proven therapy. It has moved the effectiveness of therapy to greater levels and has also taken the whole helping relationship area forwards and to fight the ever growing need for therapy (Aziz, 2007) . Advances in technology have made enormous advances in combating ill health conditions -that are mostly turning out to be normal sicknesses- such as anxiety, depression, hyperactivity and panic disorders. The progress has been made better by research. Eating and food disorders have required many researches to support the allegations of what might be the main root causes and which therapies will work when. Aziz (2007) has come to a conclusion that without research, the old outdated Freudian theories would still be in use, and might have possibly rendered the practice of psychotherapists useless because they have been proven to be ineffective.  Psychological research is normally used to study growth, development, genetic and environmental factors and the function they play on an individual’s mental health. It also gives the insight learning of the people with particular psychological disorders, characteristics and symptoms. Development of tests to determine other psychological phenomena such as the Diagnostic Manual has been made possible by research. Many treatment advancements to recover or understand people’s mental health have been enabled by the several approaches used in psychological research (Russion, 2003). Counseling and psychotherapy research should be about a relationship-based and deep investigation that, in its values and methods, should be made parallel to therapist’s therapeutic relationships with clients. Mark (2005) enlightens that as a counselor sits and listens to clients describing their thoughts and feelings of immersion, aliveness and troubles, they experience a sensation of profound connection with the rapport they have created with the client. It is a feeling they learn to get during their classes so that their clients feel comfortable around them. It could not have come to practice without research. 3.0 Areas of Research Still Required in Counseling and Psychotherapy Psychologists and other scientists, either social or pure, should include pure experiments as a method of research in psychology to enlighten the world on various natural behaviors of human beings. In the twentieth century, twins were separated from each other for a long time and their development cycles studied. There was a child who was secluded from the human population. It was reared together with apes. At the end, it could only hum and chirp like the animals. It proved to the scientists that language and human social behavior is nurtured and is not innate. Researches in counseling and psychotherapy should also use pure experimenting method to help the world explain other mysterious sources and causes of mental disorders and illnesses. Advanced researches linked to the reason why people cannot heal completely when they keep information to themselves till they share it with therapists should be carried out. Perhaps it could bring forward a complete self-treatment strategy that does not include other parties who pose a risk to the rule of confidentiality. 4.0 Conclusion Eventually, the matter of research is the least in this paper. It is about its influence on and the effect it has had on psychotherapy. It is not all about methodological or philosophical ideologies. It is more on the rights for people in mental distress, in whatever their social status, and how it has enabled them access modern and relational types of therapy. It has been found that research has shaped the relevance of the whole psychological field. More so it should be enhanced to bring more techniques of saving people from mild illnesses that kill them. Heart attacks and blood pressure are simply some of the health hazards that are preventable by counseling and psychotherapy. References Aziz, R. (2007). The Synthetic Paradigm: The Un-trodden Path beyond Jung and Freud. S.U, N.Y Press. Marks, D., (2005). Health Psychology: Theory, Practice and Research. London: Sage Publications. Robertson, D., (2010). The Philosophy of Cognitive & Behavioral Therapy: Stoicism as Rational and Cognitive Psychotherapy. London, Karnac. Russon, J. E, (2003). Human Experience: Philosophy, Neurosis, and the Elements of Everyday Life. S.U, New York Press. Timulak, L. (2008). Research in Counselling and Psychotherapy. London., Sage publications. Read More