Counseling Therapies and Their Usage

Running head: Counseling Therapies and Their Usage
Counseling Therapies and Their Usage
Name of Student
Name of University
Author Note

1COUNSELING THERAPIES AND THEIR USAGE
Response to qusetion1:
The other day I was travelling in the train from Sydney to Perth for my vacation. I was
early in the station and was waiting eagerly for the journey to start. Once the train arrived, I
boarded the train, got my luggage in order and decided to enjoy the journey. The day had started
to end by the time the train rolled out of the station. As the night rolled deeper, my mind started
to panic. Firstly, the vacant carriage aggravated my fear of the lonely traveler; I tried to make
myself cozy and comfortable in the corner of my berth, looking out of the window to avoid the
hallucination of the vacant carriage, which was aggravating my fear. It felt like the train might
meet with an accident, after a certain tie I also started feeling that something might happen to
me, I might be robbed or killed due to an encounter with any stranger. I wanted to face the
situation and hence, went up to use the bathroom and take a brisk walk along aisle of the
carriage, to my utter surprise I found myself walking briskly up and down the aisle several times,
which I realized that it aggravated my anxiety even more than I had been experiencing before. I
eventually tried my best to remain calm but the rumbling noise and the empty compartment was
difficult to bear.
From the experience I feel, I was Catastrophizing, which is actually the exaggeration of
the negative thoughts that were bothering me. The vacant carriage was not even an actual
problem, yet I was just stressing myself with exaggerated thoughts. The thought became so
intense that I was unable to overcome them.
Through CBT, this cognitive distortion could be taken care of and several therapies might
be applied to address this distortion, I feel validity testing would be most fruitful in this case
(Heden 2018).

2COUNSELING THERAPIES AND THEIR USAGE
For the Validity testing procedures, I made a list of issues that validated my fears during
the journey. The validity statements of my catastrophizing distortions are summed up as:
 The carriage was empty, which triggered my fear.
 The train was travelling in an unraveling speed that made me anxious.
 There were very strange fellow passengers who might have harmed me.
The above validations do not justify my fear, which I later realized that those were just an
exaggeration of my thoughts and I had been anxious due to the reasons, which do not validate
my fear (Bach et al. 2016). The self-justification of the validations later made me believe that my
fear and anxiety was only due to the exaggeration of my thoughts.
Response to question no.2
The behavior that I would like to change is the passive-aggressiveness within me. I
mostly interact with a passive-aggressive manner and I feel I need to change this behavior within
me and become more assertive in nature. The treatment plan below will guide through the
process of the treatment and achieve the required results.
Background and patient history: Patient name; age; gender
Chief complaint: Patient showed signs of reluctance to communicate.
Establishment of base line: The disorder as identified with DSM-IV manual (Armour,
Műllerová and Elhai 2016).

3COUNSELING THERAPIES AND THEIR USAGE
Treatment measure used:
 Start a journal to keep an account of my passive aggression.
 Accept the emotions and develop healthier emotional behavior.
Short-term goals:
 Increase awareness of anger expression patterns.
 Identify pain and hurt of past or current life that fuels anger.
 Expression of anger in a controlled and assertive way.
 Practicing a process of forgiveness of others and self to reduce anger.
Long-term goals:
 Reduce the intensity, frequency, and feelings of anger and increase ability to recognize
them and appropriately express them as required (Bach et al. 2016).
 Develop an awareness of angry behavior and identify alternatives to aggressiveness.
Strategies of treatment:
 Expression of anger in written form.
 Assigning anger management classes and techniques
 Clarifying the outbursts by empathizing with the incidents
Self-rewards:
 Successful controlling of anger must be rewarded with self-rewards.
 Giving own self a treat on neutralizing outburst or anger in situations.

4COUNSELING THERAPIES AND THEIR USAGE
Response to question 3
ACT or Acceptance and Commitment Therapy is a recent treatment tool to treat anxiety.
This therapy is generally applied to treat anxiety disorders, through which patients learn to cope
with their struggle and their anxiety-related issues, take responsibility by accepting them,
appreciate, and reflect on negative or depressing thoughts thereby changing them into positive
outcomes. A patient with anxiety will be asked to express his anxiety and reasons for depression
at first. Once they are clearly outlined, the patient will be made aware of the situation by
explaining the scenario. With effective interaction, the patient will be conceived to accept the
fact and face them. I would try to instill more confidence in the patient by molding his/her
thoughts through ACT since it instills more psychological flexibility and allows the mind to
prepare for the worst situations by enhancing their will power (Castilho, Pinto‐Gouveia and
Duarte 2015).
Response to question no. 4
Few years back I was bothered with a troubling person called Mr Dig, always attired in
Blackish grey. Mr Dig had a sulking sarcastic look, with extremely long and obnoxious nose and
irritating eyes. The glances of Mr Dig were always very depressing and demotivating. He used
pay a visit when I used to be all alone with myself. Mr Dig was very annoying with his instincts
and never did he encourage me. He was always a pessimistic person nagging about the
incapacities of my life. I at times wanted to be preoccupied to avoid Mr Dig, since he said he
only pays visit to those who are lonely and alone with themselves. He even mentioned that he
pays a regular visit to his companions, who are lonely and keeps them company, but the only

5COUNSELING THERAPIES AND THEIR USAGE
price that is to be paid is to listen to his depressing stories about his companions, to whom he
gives a depressing company.
Response to question no. 5
Among the various counselling therapies such as CBT, motivational interviewing, ACT,
resource therapy, narrative therapy and others, the ACT or the acceptance and commitment
therapy will be discussed.
The ACT is comparatively a newer concept of treatment and is categorized in the third
wave or third generation of approaches to behaviorism (Safren 2013). Steven C. Hayes, an
eminent psychologist of the University of Nevada, introduced this treatment therapy. It takes a
different mode of approach than cognitive behavioral therapy. The therapy has been derived
from the classical approach of behavioral therapies and was later developed as a separate process
of psychological treatment.
The ACT teaches people to have a better control of their thoughts, inner feelings,
emotions and other personal memories. ACT believes in accepting and embracing the drawbacks
and crises and situations of an individual and thereby preparing a mechanism to address the
insecure mind. It follows the principle of cognitive diffusion, acceptance and expansion,
connection and contact and with the present moment, the observation of the self, clarification of
values, and committed action (Öst 2014). ACT helps in creating a rich and a meaning full life
and addressing the negative responses that trigger the crisis. It enables an individual to develop