Short-term or Brief CounselingTherapy and the Current Mental Health System Abstract “Short-term” or “Brief Counseling/Therapy” and the current mental health system seem to be inexorably linked for at least the foreseeable future. This paper discusses the history, objectives, appropriate clientele, efficacy, and the other benefits, and short comings, of this therapeutic/counseling modality and its relevance to my present career direction, College Counseling. Cognitive-behavioral, Psychodynamic, and Gestalt applications of brief therapy/counseling methods will be addressed. For a working definition of short-term or brief therapy/counseling I would like to quote a couple of authors on the subject. Wells (1982) states that, “Short -term treatment, as I shall use the term, refers to a group (or family) of related interventions in which the helper deliberately and planfully limits both the goals and duration of contact”(p. 2). Nugent (1994) says that, “In contrast to traditional therapies, brief counseling and therapies (or time-limited therapies) set specific goals and specify that the number of sessions will be limited.” He then adds that, “Counselors using brief therapy approaches help clients develop coping skills that will enable them to anticipate and manage future problems more effectively”(p. 96). In short, brief counseling/therapy is more directive and time-limited, regardless of the particular therapeutic theory being employed. The counselor assumes an active instead of a passive role in his relationship with the client. Due to budget constraints, the rising cost of mental-h... ... middle of paper ... ...st, 28, 4-7. Gurman, A. S., & Kniskern, D. P. Research on marital and family therapy: Progress, perspective and prospect. In S. L. Garfield and A. E. Bergin (Eds.), Handbook of psychotherapy and behavior change: An empirical analysis (2nd ed.). New York: Wiley, 1978. Nugent, F. A. An Introduction to the Profession of Counseling (2nd ed.). New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 5, pp. 96-98, 16, pp. 356-358. Saposnek, D. T. Short-Term Psychotherapy. In Personality And Behavioral Disorders (2nd ed.). New York: John Wiley, 33, pp. 1031-1068 Small, L. The briefer psychotherapies. (Rev. ed). New York: Brunner/Mazel, 1, pp.5. Stone, G. L., & Archer, J., Jr. (1990). College and university counseling centers in the 1990s: Challenges and limits. The Counseling Psychologist, 18, 539-607. Wells, R. A. Planned Short-Term Treatment. New York: The Free Press, 1, pp. 1-20.
Seligman, L., & Reichenberg, L. W., (2010). Solution-focused brief therapy. In J. Johnston (Ed.), Theories of counseling and psychotherapy: systems, strategies, and skills.Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education
A brief historical view of the counseling profession with a concentration of the philosophies on the wellness model will be discussed.
Kottler, A. J., (2010). On being a therapist. San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons.
Dr. Aubrey has also been working closely with Marjane Maton, (Faculty Chair of Counseling Dept. at GCC), Paul Romo (Assistant Chair of the Counseling Dept. at GCC); and Dr. David Gerkin (Residential Faculty for the Counseling Dept. at GCC) have expressed the need for this program and has provided full
Restraint: The individual could use this response as an active strategy by waiting for “the right moment” to act or a passive strategy by not acting at all.
Sometimes individuals consider becoming counselors after overcoming some major life challenge such as addiction or a history of bad relationships. Perhaps an individual has encountered a particularly effective counselor or therapist and has a desire to follow in those footsteps. Others may have had a bad experience with counseling and concluded that it can be done better. People do not think of this work so much as a job, or even as a career. More typically, a constellation of life experiences that demand explanation and a sense that others seek one out for assistance and emotional sustenance become driving forces leading one toward the counseling profession” (An invitation to). .
Using Kurland and Salmon’s model of planning for social work with groups, most of the eight components have been considered and covered adequately. This has ensured that MD has been able to run smoothly without much hiccup in between (Kurland and Salmon, 1998). However, I feel that three areas that need to be further addressed are those of purpose, structure and pre-group contact.
Roger, Patricia R, and Stone Gerlad Counseling vs Clinical" Society of counseling psychology, n.d. Web. 13 Feb 2014.
In this approach the practitioner learns more from the client as which tasks are more efficient to goal accomplishment, because the client chooses the goals they wish to accomplish. As cited by Bavelas et al (2013), the process of the solution-focused brief therapy is “listen, select, and build” (p.5). Assumptions are often made in this approach; the best way to help a client is to work in collaborative relationship to discover options for coping. In addition, focusing on the past may not be helpful to the client, it may however hinder the progress of the intervention and may even create distrust in the
1) Corey, Gerald Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy, 6th edition, Brooks and Cole, Stamford, CT p. 153.
The therapist can then develop the correct course of treatment for the client’s individual needs (Gerig, 2007).
The counseling session began with the introductions where I introduced myself as the counselor and later introduced my client. This stage is important in any counseling session since it is the time of exploration and focusing according to Gerard Egan as quoted by Wright (1998) in his essay on couselling skills. It is in this session that I was able to establish rapport and trust with my client in order to come up with a working and fruitful relationship with him. During this stage I made use of skills like questioning, where I would pose a question directly to my client, sometimes I would choose to just listen to what the client wanted to speak out while in some instances I would be forced to paraphrase the question if I felt the client did not understand the question I had asked previously. There were also other times when I would reflect through silence. During such a period, I got time to study the client and the information he had given. This being a difficult area, since some clients may not be able to volunteer information to you as the counselor, I decided to assure the client of confidentiality of any information he was willing to share with me with a few exceptions which I also told him about. Being open to him about the only times the information may not be confidential was part of my building rapport and establishing trust with him. I therefore, decided to ask the client what information he wanted to share with me and lucky enough he was ready to speak to me about different issues that he was going through.
Corey, G. (2011). Theory and practice of counseling and psychotherapy. (ninth ed., pp. 291-301). Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole.
Educators need to be properly educated since they are teaching the next wave of counseling students. Students need a proper foundation in order to succeed in the counseling career and it starts with the educators. Training programs can use the CCSR as a comprehensive assessment tool aimed at evaluating trainees’ ability to execute counseling skills, phases of a counseling session and sessions within a counseling relationship (Flynn & Hay, 2015). There was no literature to suggest that counseling students were conducting effective counseling sessions in their internship. The numbers were staggering low as the students could not perform the basic counseling skills or proper counseling techniques. In cases like this, the CCSR would definitely be beneficial in providing a consistent assessment to counseling