EPSY 6325 THEORIES OF COUNSELING
STUDY GUIDE EXAM 2: Rogers, Existential, Gestalt, Behavior/Cognitive Behavior
Fall
Feminist, Solution Focused Brief Therapy
Existential
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Concept of man - phenomenological approach
Source of psychic conflict: Psychodynamic versus existential approach
Human conflict - the givens of existence (Death; Freedom-Responsibility; Isolation (Intrapersonal, Inter-personal, and Existential); defenses related to anxiety generated by each given
of existence; Boundary situation
Mental Health; normal/existential anxiety versus neurotic anxiety; normal/existential guilt
versus neurotic guilt.
Purpose, process and content of therapy.
Techniques: confrontation, here and now focus and use of the relationship; paradoxical
intention; situational reconstruction; compensatory self-improvement.
Contributions and limitations.
Gestalt
 Emphasis of therapy on Gestalt (process vs. content, awareness, contact)
 Important concepts Gestalt: The Now, Unfinished business and Contact/Resistance to contact
 Role of therapist; focus of confrontation in therapy
 Resistance to Contact: Introjection, Projection, Retroflection, Deflection, Confluence
 Gestalt experiments: empty chair, internal dialogue, making the rounds (group counseling),
exaggerating exercise, reversal exercise, staying with the feeling
 Contributions and limitations.
Behavioral
 Pavlov
 Wolpe
 Skinner
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Classical conditioning
Systematic desensitization (define-example)
Learning and behavior change S--->R = B; Operant conditioning
Reinforcement (positive & negative), Extinction, Punishment
Behavior therapy
Goal and characteristics: overt behavior, short, specific goals, active
therapist
Techniques
Systematic desensitization, flooding, aversive counter-conditioning,
contingency contracting (3 steps).
Contributions and limitations.
Cognitive Behavioral
 Ellis REBT: role of cognition and emotions in behavioral therapy; A B C D E F of personality
change; role of therapist
 Beck: automatic thoughts; cognitive structures (self-schemes) and how they relate to specific
disorders (depression, anxiety); confirmatory bias; distortions in processing information
(arbitrary inference, selective abstraction; overgeneralization; magnification; personalization;
polarized thinking); objective and process of therapy.
 Bandura: Social Learning Theory; Reciprocal determinism -- interaction between Stimulus
(E) - Cognition - Response (B).
 Techniques: role play-modeling; role play-behavioral rehearsal; disputing irrational thoughts
(Ellis); collaborative empiricism (Beck); self management programs (5 steps), stress
inoculation training (Michenbaum); skills training (social skills, assertiveness)
Feminist Approach Chapter 12; pp. 361-380
 Role of power and cultural perspectives on individuals’ identity; self-in relation models;
Expanded focus of Feminist approach; applicable to all oppressed groups
 Views of development: androcentric, gendercentric; gender socialization
 Goals of therapy: empowerment, societal change
 Therapy strategies/interventions: egalitarian relationship, therapist self-disclosure; gender role
analyses; power analyses; assertiveness training; bibliotherapy; social action
 Contributions; Limitations
Solution Focused Brief Therapy Chapter 13, pp. 400-408
 Focus: Solutions versus problems; characteristics of useful questions;
 Basic assumptions
 Therapy strategies/interventions: collaborative partnership; pre-therapy change; exception
questions; miracle questions; scaling questions; formula first session task; therapist feedback
(end of session)
 Contributions; Limitations