Cognitive-Behavioral Aspect of Counselling - Case Study Example

Life is a series of challenges which helps people to develop; each stage in life presents people with a challenge to face and a lesson to learn. Failing to overcome any challenge in one stage of life dearly affects one in the next stage or later stages of life as the person would have missed out on an important lesson. The way people react to situations is highly linked to their personality. Very many theories were invented as an explanation of people’s behavior. These theories include the Trait, Psychodynamic, Phenomenological, Behavioral and Social cognition among others. This paper is discussing case study from a psychodynamic and a cognitive-behavioral position. (Freud, 1923) The case study is about a client who is aged thirty seven, married with two children. They are separated and currently entering a divorce process. The client tries to relate problems that he is facing in his marriage to his upbringing. He was brought up by very strict parents who did not listen to him. He was obliged to obey and this resulted in him living two lives. He describes them as being both a saint and a sinner. In this case he only did what was right in the presence of his parents but did many wrong things whenever his parents were not in the vicinity. Research reveals that psychodynamics is the study of human behavior in relation to drives and motivation. This also largely depends on emotion that is based on an individual’s personality. This theory concurs that a person’s reaction at a specific time are due to the existing interaction between his or her genetic constitution, unconscious or conscious mind and the environment that are around. In the case study, the client’s genetic constitution together with the interaction of his unconscious mind and his environment played a big role in shaping his behavior. Psychodynamics in medical practice is referred to as a study that is systematized and a theory that shows how psychological aspects affect human behavior. It is actually the study of the interrelationship of the diverse parts of personality, mind or the psyche and how they recount to the emotional, mental and motivational forces. (Freud, 1923) According to Freud, the energy in the psychological component of a person’s brain is normally constant. He says that the emotional changes just exist in the form of displacements. All these he says, tend to rest during discharge. Psychodynamics is also sometimes defined as a study of energy, motives and forces that are created by human needs that are quite deep in nature. (Freud, 1923) Psychodynamics is also referred to as psychology that is dynamic. It is actually the study of the interrelationship of the diverse parts of personality, mind or the psyche and how they recount to the emotional, mental and motivational forces. This mostly occurs at the unconscious level. These mental forces in most cases are divided into two parts. One of them is the emotional force interaction while the other one deals with inner forces that affect various behaviors. The emotional force interaction constitutes of the interaction of both the motivational and emotional forces that affect a person’s behavior. These factors also affect an individual’s mental states and in most case those that exist in the subconscious level of the brain. The inner forces include both the motivational and emotional forces that make a person to behave in a certain way. All these factors are based on the principles of closed systems and thermodynamics. Considering the client’s case, it is very clear that his behavior of binge drinking and extra marital sexual relationships has been affected by mental forces. Analysis of the emotional force that has affected the client’s life reveals that it was affected at an early age. When the client was young the motivational forces that were around him were the parents. During this early age, his mental state was shaped into living a double standard life. This was due to the fact that he was never given the time to air out his views but had to obey without question. That means at his subconscious brain level, he had double standard lifestyle engraved therein. This developed to maturity. According to Sigmund Freud, these emotional forces in his subconscious mind play a very big role towards his current behavior. It is quite evident that there are also inner forces within the client’s brain that are making him to drink too much and indulge in extra marital sexual behavior. (Freud, 1923) Psychodynamics deals with the exchanges and transformations of the psychic energy that exists in an individual’s personality. The main focus is the connection that exists between the emotional states and the energetic. The emotional states include the superego, ego and the id and their relation to the developments in a child during the early or the first days. Freud says that the ego fights with various forces. These include the outside world, super-ego and the id. The client’s ego is seen to fight with outside forces that emanate from the parents. It is very clear that the client’s current behavior emanates from emotional forces of processes that are highly related to the id, ego and the super-ego. In accordance to cognitive behavioral theory, the client has got distorted cognitions that make him to behave the way he is doing. It is very clear that the client has believes, evaluations and assumptions that are quite unrealistic in nature. This evaluation is that he was never heard by his parents and therefore ending up in drinking and sexual immorality. (Roazen, 1976) His assumption is that the fact that he is sexually immoral and he drinks a lot, his marriage cannot work. This is a distorted cognition because the fact that he has those behaviors that don’t mean that the marriage cannot work and they have to go through a divorce process. (Ellis, 2001) The other distorted cognition in the client’s mind is that he is the one to blame for the un-working marriage. While it may be true that he could have played a part in the problem it is wrong to assume that he is the one solely to blame for their marital predicament. It is quite clear that the client assumes that since he started his behavior of drinking and sexual immorality, then he cannot stop. That is why they are opting for divorce and not other positive options. This is quite wrong. (Ellis, 2001) It is quite clear that the thoughts that the client has are maladaptive. This is because they give the client emotions that are quite negative and not positive at all. This is especially that their marriage cannot work as long as he has those behaviors. These assumptions can be termed as being quite unhelpful, dysfunctional and inaccurate. It is very clear that the client believes that he cannot change his behavior and this has made him continue over drink, be incentive to his partner’s needs for closeness. This also includes having extra-marital sexual relations with many people. This believes have made it quite hard for the client to overcome the bad behavior. This has resulted in a problem cycle in the client’s life. Beck Aaron asserts that such believes got in early years of a person’s life always come up later in his or her daily life. It is quite evident that the client has allowed negative thoughts to dominate his mind. In this case, he thinks that these negative thoughts are beyond his ability to control them. This has made the thoughts in the client’s mind to be self-perpetuating. (Beck, 1993) This is part and parcel of cognitive distortions. Therefore the client’s thoughts are highly inclined towards interpretations that are very negative in nature. That is why he thinks the way he does concerning his childhood lifestyle and the current problems that he is facing in his marriage. (Beck, 1993) The theory of depression and its effects states that the negative schema that depressed people have is normally acquired during the person’s childhood years. In this case, any adolescent who undergo depression are known to have acquired the negative schemas in their early life. These negative schemas can actually be acquired through many ways. These include the loss of close relative, criticism and rejection from people close to the person. These may be parents, peers or even teachers. This results in giving the person an attitude that his depressive in nature. This theory asserts that in case the individual encounters such negative schemas later in life, there is activation of the schemas. In this case an individual’s cognitive biases or distortions have big correlation with the negative schemas. (Crain, 1985) In the case study, the client developed negative schemas from his strict parents who wanted him to be perfect and never gave him time to air out his views. That is why he started living a double standard lifestyle where he was a ‘saint’ in the presence of his parents and a ‘sinner’ when left alone. It is quite clear that as soon as his parents retired to sleep, he went out to drink alcohol and engage in sexual activities. After getting married, he gets negative schemas within his marriage which activate those negative schemas acquired during his adolescence. That is why he ends up having extra-marital sexual relationships and still continues with his alcoholic behavior. These negative schemas have made him to believe that he cannot change his behavior therefore opting for divorce. There are various actions that can be taken to help the client. It is very important that the client goes through professional counseling. This should be carried out so that the thoughts of the client should be professionally addressed. In this case the client has to get professional help in relation to the way he thinks and also responds to issues that affect him. (Dryden, 1994) Through this he will be able to avoid negative activities like over-drinking and indulgence in extra marital sexual activities slowly by slowly. Through this the client will be able to avoid destructive behavior and the patterns of thought that are negative. It is usually very important to note that the client should not be expected to go through a complete transformation overnight. This is whereby the counselor has to exercise a lot of patience. With the help of a counselor, the client can be helped to identify any thoughts in his mind that are mal-adaptive and irrational. This includes identification of any believes in life that are correlated to negative emotions that are debilitating. The client should also be helped to know how these believes are inaccurate and dysfunctional. Through this the client will be able to discard any cognition within his mind that is distorted. Through counseling the client will get help on how he can replace the negative cognitions with positive alternatives that are realistic and helpful. (Crain, 1985) Through counseling, the client will come to understanding that the fact that he made mistakes in his adolescent life doesn’t mean that he cannot do anything right throughout his lifestyle. The fact that he was forced by his parents to marry doesn’t mean that the marriage can never work. When the client is able to avoid thought patterns that are negative, these feelings that he can never do anything right will be overcome over time. This means that the client will start having positive behavior and with time positive character. It is also quite important that both husband and wife go through some counseling sessions together so that other underlying issues on the wife’s part can be professionally handled. In conclusion psychodynamics is the study of human behavior in relation to drives and motivation. There are inner forces within a person that makes him or her to behave in a certain way. It is evident that the client’s mental state was developed at early age. This is when he learnt to live a double standard lifestyle. In accordance to cognitive behavioral theory, the client has got distorted cognitions that make him to behave the way he is doing. The client believes that because he started drinking and engaging in sexual immorality in his tender age, he cannot stop such behavior. He also believes that he is solely responsible for the un-working marriage. This is not true. Through professional counseling, the client can be helped to identify the negative cognitions in his life. Through this the client will get to know that they are not true and therefore replace them with positive thoughts. Through this the marriage will work. Read More