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Theories in Counselling
Introduction
Counselling is a profession entails an important aspect of psychology in trying to
understand the behaviour of human beings. It is part of a broad specialisation within
psychology that is concerned with the application of psychological principles to promote the
growth and well-being of an individual’s mental health as well as those of their families and
the society as a whole (Stanley, 2013). As part of their study of the mental well-being of
individuals in society, counselling professionals apply the use of collaboration and
multiculturalism in their research and practice.
Counselling specialists work with different types of individuals who are going through
distress, difficult transitions, big decisions, as well as their relationships (Canadian
Psychological Association, 2009). The practice adheres to certain core values, among them
are viewing individuals as agents of their own change; the assessment, diagnosis, and
conceptualisation of the case is client-centred and the process is conducted with consideration
of the diverse sociocultural issues that affect each unique individual.
These core values are founded on theoretical approaches fundamental to the practice
of counselling psychology. These theories provide counselling practitioners a framework to
be able to interpret an individual's behaviours, thoughts, and feelings. It also enables the
practitioner to guide the client seeking counselling from diagnosis to post-treatment
(Colledge, 2017) There are several integral counselling theories currently in use and each
theory works differently in understanding behaviour. This paper will analyse two of these
theories by highlighting their concepts, application and their cultural implications to an
individual.
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The Psychoanalytic Approach
Psychoanalysis, also known as the psychodynamic theory, traces its origins from
Sigmund Freud, who believed that there were unconscious forces that drive the behaviour of
an individual (Elliott, 2015). This therapy is used to explore how the unconscious mind
affects the thinking and conduct of a person and through this exploration, perhaps an insight
or resolution can be made to the issues the individual seeking counselling is going through.
The method has become quite useful in present-day counselling psychology as a
treatment for mental disorders. This is able to do through investigating or analysing the
conscious and unconscious elements in an individual's mind and how the two interact (Kabir,
2017). By seeking out these interactions, repressed fears and conflicts embedded in the
unconscious mind are brought to the conscious mind. These fears and conflicts are then
interpreted to fit what the individual is going through.
Freud, in this theory, developed techniques such as free association, which simply
means opening up to the therapist without holding back; dream analysis, which involves the
scrutiny of dreams that could highlight significant knowledge about the conscious mind
(Brandell, 2010) and transference, which refers to the literal transfer of emotions about
specific individuals in the patient’s life and let it out on the counsellor.
This theory of counselling looks into the early childhood experiences of an individual
to find a glimpse of any event that might have impacted the patient’s life or could have given
rise to current occurring issues (Fenichel, 2014). Psychoanalysis is usually conducted over a
long period of time and could last for several weeks, months or even years. The length of the
therapy, which seeks to create deep-seated changes in the personality and behaviour of a
person, depends on the depth of issues the individual seeking counselling has.
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