1. ABC Counselling Concepts Week 6
Therapeutic Models of Counselling

2. Session Aims
To introduce and explore three major therapeutic models
Psychodynamic
Cognitive Behavioural
Person-centred

3. Session Objectives Check-in and reflect - speaking and listening
Identify and share some personal philosophies about helping
Recognise the nature and importance of counselling theories
Identify the key features of at least 3 major therapeutic models (unit 1:2.1)
Describe the client issues which could be helped by the models chosen (unit 1:2.2)
Outline potential barriers to the models chosen (unit 1:2.3)
Homework: complete the work sheet provided

4. Personal Philosophies about helping
Share your answers in small groups.

5. Personal philosophies about helping
Where do human thoughts, feelings, behaviours and personalities come from?
What are causes of human distress?
How can/do people change?
What is the best way to help someone?

6. Counselling Theories
“All people who counsel operate from theoretical frameworks about how clients become the way they are, how they maintain their problems and how they are helped to change”
Richard Nelson-Jones
Theory and Practice of Counselling

7. Why are Counselling Theories Important?
Providing conceptual frameworks
Providing languages
Generating research
Support the counsellor and client from unsafe or unhelpful practise

8. Theories as lenses
Allport (1962) described working with different counselling theories as like seeing the world through different coloured lenses

9. Psychodynamic
In the context of counselling and therapy, the word ‘psychodynamic’ refers to a Freudian approach or to an approach whose origins are firmly rooted in Freudian theory (Hough 2002:13)

10. The Big Idea
The main concept which underpins psychodynamic approaches is that our thoughts, feelings and behaviours are governed by processes which are out of our awareness.
Problems are caused by things which are happening in our unconscious mind.

11. Some key features, ideas and practices associated with the Psychodynamic Approach
An analytical approach
Unconscious motivation
Id, ego and superego
Psychosexual (and other) stages of development.
The significance of childhood experience
Connecting the past and the present
Anxiety and ego defence mechanisms
Transference and counter-transference
Working with dreams and symbols
Free Association
Interpretation

12. The role of the counsellor in psychodynamic counselling is to help the client to recover and interpret significant experience
“If I were to single out one feature which underpins all the method and the theory… …it is the quietly reflective but persistent question: What does it – (this word, that action, this memory, that feeling, this aspect of our relationship, that symbol, this defence, that explanation) – what does it all mean?”
Michael Jacobs in Psychodynamic Counselling in Action, p.126

13. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
A directive and structured approach
The origins of CBT are in behavioural and cognitive psychology
Behavioural psychology is about actions and responses and about how behaviour is learned and unlearned.
Cognitive Psychology is about how our minds work and how we think about things.
Aaron Beck and Albert Ellis are usually credited with founding CBT.

14. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy The Big Idea
The theoretical origins of CBTs can be traced back to the Stoic Philosopher, Epictetus, who in the first century AD noted that:
“People are disturbed not so much by events as by the views which people take of them.”

15. More Big Ideas - CBT
People’s problems are caused not by the things which happen to them, but by how they think about, or process, things which happen to them.
The role of the CBT, therefore, is to help clients by helping them to identify and change their unhelpful thoughts, beliefs and behaviours.

16. CBT – A Structured Intervention
Identify and describe the problem (e.g. a phobia, depression or anger issue) in some detail (e.g. when, where, how often , for how long, in what way, since when…)
Identify and challenge the irrational or illogical thoughts or beliefs which cause, justify or prolong negative feelings of behaviours
Learning, practicing and maintaining new and more positive ways of thinking and behaving.

17. Some Irrational Beliefs
I should always be loved and approved of by everyone
In order to be a worth while person, I need to be good at everything
Bad people, including myself, should be severely punished.
If things are not the way I want them to be, then it’s a disaster.

18. ABC and CBT A = Activating event (something happens)
B = Beliefs about what happened (rational or irrational)
C = Consequences (emotional and behavioural responses.

19. ABC, an example Sue invites her friend to the cinema.
A – Activating Event
Sue’s friend says that she wants to spend some time alone with her sister and her sister’s family.
B – Belief and Inference
Sue thinks, ‘she’s not really the friend I thought she was – she has rejected my offer. This always happens to me. I am not likeable.’
C - Emotional and Behavioural Consequences
Sue becomes depressed and avoids her friend.

20. ABC, an example continued
Sue invites her friend to the cinema:
A – Activating Event
Sue’s friend says that she wants to spend some time alone with her sister and her sister’s family.
B – Beliefs and Inference
Sue thinks: ‘I would really like to see the film with Jane and spend lots of time together, but what Jane says is reasonable, she has her family to think of too’
C – Emotional and Behavioural Consequences
Sue suggests that she and Jane see the film together later in the week and uses her free evening to catch up with college work and to spend time with her mum. Sue feels good.

21. Other practices associated with CBT’s
Homework
Keeping a diary
Rating scales
Systematic de-sensitization
Self-talk
Rehearsing
Relaxation exercises
Mindfulness

22. Person-centred Approach
A non-directive approach
Origins are in humanist psychology and philosophy
Main founder, Carl R Rogers

23. The Actualizing Tendency
Rogers suggested that human beings (and everything else in the universe) are subject to a growth force or “actualizing tendency”.
In favourable conditions people grow and become their true selves.
In unfavourable conditions, (internal or external) this growth or actualising tendency is inhibited.

24. More Big Ideas - PCA We each experience the world uniquely
We are experts in our own lives – we know best how we feel
The best way to understand how someone else is feeling is to listen.
Our behaviour represents our best effort to achieve fulfilment at any given time.

25. The role of the counsellor in the PCA
To create an environment in which the client feels safe to experience and share difficult thoughts and feelings
This relationship is based on the three Core Conditions of Congruence, Unconditional Positive Regard and Empathy.

26. Which Therapy?
Sometimes particular therapies are considered to be most helpful for particular problems e.g.
Psychodynamic – relationship issues, childhood abuse
CBT – Phobias, anxiety, anger
Person-centred – loss, bereavement, personal development
However, it is also argued that most therapies can help with a wide range of issues – anxiety, worry, depression, sadness, relationship issues, bereavement, addiction…

27. Which client?
Sometimes is argued that certain therapies suit different kinds of clients? e.g.
Psychodynamic – may suit those who are analytical, interested in the past and in the unconscious
CBT - may suit those who are practical, scientific, methodical, solution focussed
Person-centred – may suit those who are interested in feelings and in exploring responses with the counsellor as a companion.

28. Barriers – what gets in the way?
On your own (or in small groups) consider things which might prevent clients from accessing counselling or particular models of counselling.
E.g. lack of commitment might make it hard for a client to use CBT as they could struggle to do the homework.

29. Homework (see worksheets)
Complete the crossword provided, using information given during the power point presentation.
Identify three issues which may be helped by each of the three approaches.
Write down some barriers which may prevent clients form accessing each of the three therapies discussed.

30. Additional Reading (optional)
Tutor notes on CBT and Psychodynamic Counselling
Dr Mulhauser on Person-centred counselling. Available at
Patient UK on Cognitive Behaviour Therapy. Available at: