Hope and Placebo in Counselling

Running head: COUNSELLING THEORY AND PRACTICE
Hope and Placebo in Counselling
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COUNSELLING THEORY AND PRACTICE
Counselling can be defined as the professional assistance and guidance provided in
resolving psychological or personal problems. In the words of Bedi et al. (2011), counselling
refers to the support and assistance provided to people dealing with different types of personal,
professional or psychological problems. In the modern world, counselling has become highly
necessary as people are going through various types of stress and that leads to behavioural issues.
People go through different types of trauma or shocks, which they cannot overcome on their
own. Hence, counselling is required to help these people to overcome the challenge and live a
normal life (Young & Lalande, 2011). There are different types of approaches of counselling,
such as, cognitive therapy, behavioural therapy, cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT),
psychodynamic therapy, interpersonal therapy, humanistic theory, dialectical behaviour therapy,
eclectic therapy, substance abuse theory and many more (King et al., 2012). One of the
approaches is the application of hope and placebo effect in counselling. It can be said that almost
all the counselling approach has the common goal of instilling hope among the clients about a
better life, however, in some cases, placebo intervention is required to get effective outcome.
Many mental problems lead to health complications for the patients and thus, along with verbal
counselling, the placebo effect is also required. This essay will highlight the hope and placebo
effect in counselling and its impact on the patients. This is a common practice among the
counsellors as it is quite effective, especially in the cases where medical intervention is required.
Thus, in this essay the importance and advantages and disadvantages of the hope and placebo
effect in the counselling will be addressed and the way of relevant application of this approach
will be recommended.
Hope and the placebo effect are considered to be elements of effective counselling. This
approach aims to improve the mental health of the patients by addressing some physical health

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COUNSELLING THEORY AND PRACTICE
challenges. Effective therapists have the ability to display skills like appreciating the clients to
raise their self-confidence and self-respect, which is known as the propagation of hope and this
improves the condition of the clients (Navidian & Bahari, 2014). The main aim of the
counsellors are to address the mental health issues of the clients non-medically, however,
medical treatment, that is, placebo is required when the situation becomes too complicated and
the mental health has started affecting the physical health. The placebo effect works at the
psychological level of the patients with the help of a placebo given to the patients in the form of
inert medicine. The most distinguished mental health complications include anxiety, depression,
mental stress and insomnia (Hofmann et al., 2012). However, it has been found that in
addressing these mental health complications, the pharmacological interventions are proving to
be ineffective, and hence, the non-clinical approaches of treatment are becoming increasingly
important. Counselling is a non-medical approach for treating the mental health issues. However,
sometimes both non-medical treatment and placebo effects are required to address the mental
health challenges of the patients. The health practitioners use positive language and supportive
attitude, display confidence in the treatment plans, and facilitate therapeutic relationships while
attending the patients with various physical and mental health complications (O'Hara, 2013). The
hope and placebo therapy is one such approach in counselling that includes the application of
non-medical treatment.
Koehn, O’Neill & Sherry (2012) highlighted that according to the Australian Counseling
Association, the hope and placebo effect has been quite effective in comparison to the only
pharmacological interventions. Hope therapy is considered to be highly effective approach for
addressing the mental health issues like anxiety and depression. It has been found that the
hopeful patients demonstrate a better and speedy recovery than the patients without much hope.

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COUNSELLING THEORY AND PRACTICE
The patients who have hope are seem to be better aware about the health issues, types and
severity of the stress among the other elements and they also display better self-care. These
aspects are mostly missing for patients with low hope. Thus, according to experts, hope therapy
has incremental positive impact on the mental health of the patients along with awareness and
their ability in coping with the mental disorders, which in turn helps in reducing the issues like
anxiety and depression of the individuals.
According to Rustøen, Cooper & Miaskowski (2011), hope therapy was highly useful in
effectively reducing the mental stress among the patients having tumor. The authors found that
the impact of the hope therapy remain for 3 to 12 months after the implementation. The findings
of the study says that around 95% of the oncology patients claimed that hope therapy helped
them to cope with the extremely mental stress. The findings are similar to the findings in the
study by Shekarabi-Ahari et al. (2012), which showed that hope therapy has a significant positive
impact on the mental health of the parents of children suffering from cancer and after the
therapy, the parents were in a better condition to cope with the stress. Thus, hope is quite
significant in influencing the mental health issues like anxiety, depression and insomnia and
thereby positively improves the quality of life.
Thus, it can be said that hope therapy is beneficial in influencing the perceptions of the
patients regarding their treatments and health care, and hence, the outcome of the treatment
becomes faster and effective while the progression of the chronic diseases can be limited.
However, the effectiveness of the hope therapy can be best understood from its impact on the
psychological approach of people for addressing the weaknesses and frailties of the individuals
(Larsen et al., 2014). It is also proved that hope therapy in counselling can create protection