Object Relations Therapy Essay

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Object Relation Therapy In order to understand where a client is at presently one must take a look back into their childhood. Object relation therapy is one such therapy in which the focus starts at childhood and work up to the client at adulthood. Through object relation therapy, clients who experience anxiety, depression, and PTSD (posttraumatic stress disorder) counselors can find ways to find out about the human nature of the client, establish a counseling process, efficacy of the process, ethical issue, and multicultural issues and whether or not this particular therapy meets the criteria for a crisis situation. Before one can break down the therapy for treatment one must know the foundation of object relation therapy. The Background …show more content…

Psychotic features, borderline disorder, and autistic have all been study with the treatment being object relation therapy. The three disorders share in the issues that object relation therapy focus on such as a balance between internalization, externalization and modulation of affect (Henley, 1991). Research is also done on the “good” and the “bad” of splitting material which is a key subject is object therapy. Viktor Lowenfeld also used object relation in his research with clay modeling. He established in his research that children with multiple impairments could use clay modeling to create self-awareness, self-image, self-concept, and as a means to strengthen the relationship between self and others (Henley, 1991). He concluded that the use of art as an object in object relation therapy significantly helped in building self-awareness, strength, and image. Family therapy is another field of research in which object relation therapy have yielding tremendous results in help strengthen those who seek help. Efficacy in object therapy can bridge the gap between counseling and multicultural issues. Studies indicate that belief in a higher being and involvement in organized religion enhances feelings of personal efficacy among African Americans (Gurney & Rogers, 2007). It is believed that by using object relation clients can have a sturdier root in life. When ones grounding are sturdy through spirituality one can stand in the midst of mental

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