Running header: Theory Integration Paper Theory Integration Paper Sydney Schneckloth University of Iowa December 14, 2016
Theory Integration Paper 1 Abstract No single theory can help all kids. Each theory has its own strengths and weaknesses. Because of this, it is important to know many different theories and their interventions. This paper will outline five different theories strengths, weaknesses and how I plan on integrating them into my own counseling process.
Theory Integration Paper 2 Theory Integration Paper Theoretical orientation is an important part of counseling. By practicing a theory, the counselor has the tools they need to counsel their clients. Choosing the theory is the hard part. The theory should reflect the counselor s values and their beliefs. It s important for the counselor to believe in the theory they are working with, or the methods won t be effective. As a counselor goes through their life, their values might change, which means that the theory they practice changes too. Due to this, and the realization that one theory won t work for all children, it is important to know many different theories and their interventions. Being in the process of becoming a counselor, choosing a theory to use for my career is a scary challenge for me. Integrating a few theories into something I could use is something that seems much easier for me. I chose to discuss integrating person-centered theory, object-relations theory, choice theory, Gestalt, and solution focused counseling. With these theories I will demonstrate what I believe to be their strengths, their weaknesses, and how I will integrate them into my own practice. Person-Centered Theory Person-centered theory is a theory that centers on the idea that the client is the expert on their life. Carl Rogers, the original theorist behind the person-centered theory, assumed that people are essentially trustworthy, and that they can resolve their problems without a direct intervention from the counselor (Corey, 2015, p. 165). A person-centered theorist will listen to the client openly. They will ask the client to give advisement in their own life. Strengths In my opinion, much of this theory is a strength. The first is that this is a passive approach to counseling. While that might sound like a negative, I think that it is a positive. I
Theory Integration Paper 3 don t think that a counselor should force a way of thinking onto their client. Person-centered counselors will allow their client to explore their own thoughts, beliefs, and feelings, and will allow them to come to many of their own conclusions. The counselor can reflect what they believe is true and what they believe they know, but they also allow for the client to contradict what they think they know. The second strength is Roger s characteristics of a counseling relationship. According to this theory there are three characteristics to the relationship that help it develop. These three characteristics are, congruence and genuineness, empathy, and unconditional positive regard. Congruence and genuineness mean that the counselor shares their own experiences in the moment; empathy is being attuned to the client s feelings and beliefs; unconditional positive regard is having nonjudgmental and non-possessive respect for the client (D. Duys, personal communication, November 14, 2016). These traits tell me that the counselor is willing to listen to their clients and that there will be more trust throughout the relationship. The last strength I will write about is immediacy. Immediacy is the idea that a counselor responds as quickly as possible to whatever the client has said or done. I think this is a very strong trait, because it allows the client to understand how invested the counselor is in the relationship. Responding as quickly as they can allows the counselor to point out discrepancies they see in the client. They can confront the client, further deepening the session and their relationship. Weaknesses A weakness I have found while working with person-centered theory is that it has little to no structure. The client chooses which way the conversation goes, and the counselor only has
Theory Integration Paper 4 their interventions to dictate where the session takes them. If a client isn t talking, the counselor doesn t have much to do to other than wait for them to begin speaking. Integration I believe that I will use many aspects of this theory daily while I am a school counselor. It serves as a basis for other theories to work off of. In my mind, it lays the groundwork to build a relationship, and it allows other theories to be integrated into it. I also plan on integrating the values of unconditional positive regard into my daily practice. I believe that all people have the ability to be good. They might make poor choices sometimes, but they can always make better ones. I believe that the person is not their decisions. Object-Relations Theory Object-relations (O-R) theory emphasizes how we internally represent others and how we are affected by these internalized relationships (Corey, 2015, p. 79). An O-R theorist will analyze relationships that their client has had in the past, and how that client internalized that relationship. They will then begin to try to understand how this internalized relationship affects the client in their everyday life. Strengths The first thing I see as a strength in the O-R theory is the idea of objects and introjects. Objects are the internalization of a person, or a construct of someone in our mind, while an introject is the complete construct of a person (D. Duys, personal communication, September 9, 2016). It is the hope that the counselor will become an introject for their client. The relationships that the client has with these objects affect how they develop relationships in their life. If the client has a poor relationship with his mother and meets someone that looks similar to her, he might project his relationship with his mother on to her. How the client reacts to their introjects
Theory Integration Paper 5 can reveal what kind of relationships they are looking for, and what relationships they want to avoid. The second strength that I found in this theory was Winnicott s stages. Donald Winnicott created different stages to describe the development of children and young adults. These three stages were holding environment, contradiction, and staying put. Holding environment is the first stage, and the easiest to understand. It is in this environment that the child s caretakers create a safe and welcoming place for the child. It is also in this environment that the child develops their attachment (D. Duys, personal communication, September 9, 2016). According to Winnicott it is possible to over hold, under hold, and to hold good enough. A good enough holding environment means that the environment isn t perfect, but it is consistent and responds to what the child needs. The second stage is contradiction. In contradiction the child is learning what boundaries are and they are learning what they can and cannot do in different places. A good enough contradiction stage allows the child to see some autonomy begin to take place, but their caretaker shouldn t be giving them full control yet (D. Duys, personal communication, September 9, 2016). The final stage is staying put. In this stage the child should be able to talk about who they ve become and the process they ve gone through to get there. The last thing I found as a strength in O-R theory was the concept of splitting. Splitting is the idea that everyone has a true self which contains everything about themselves, and a split occurs when you don t like an aspect of yourself and try to remove it from your personality. The splits can come from how one feels about certain aspects of themselves, or even how society views traits (D. Duys, personal communication, September 9, 2016). It is easy to see what we ve split from ourselves in others. For example, one client doesn t like that she is very outgoing. It is not customary in her family to be outgoing, so she is ashamed of her outgoing nature. She cuts
Theory Integration Paper 6 this trait from her personality, and when she sees her counselor for the first time, she thinks that the counselor is too outgoing. Weaknesses While I believe those aspects to be strengths of the O-R theory, I have noticed some weaknesses. The first of these weaknesses is that O-R theory is a very time consuming approach. It takes time to build enough of a relationship with your client to be able to speak about their relationships. It also takes time to delve into all of the client s past relationships and develop a vocabulary that the client understands to talk about the stages of that relationship. This approach can be a very slow and tedious one. Due to its slow nature, the O-R theory does not give back immediate results. Since I will be going into school counseling, immediate results are more appealing. I know that there are many cases that the child will have to come back to my office for a second, third, or fourth time. However, in most cases the teachers are looking for immediate results. Even if the teachers didn t expect immediate results, there is not enough time in a school counselor s week to meet with each kid in their school, which could be well into 400, once a week. This theory also mentions replication of the client s past relationship patterns. As a school counselor, I can see this being an important thing to note and a difficult aspect to dissuade. I will be working with many kids, and it might be hard to stay out of the mom-zone or, since I am not very tall or old looking, sister-zone. Another weakness I see is not using biological anomalies (D. Duys, personal communication, September 9, 2016). This theory focuses mostly on relationships, but those relationships can be heavily influenced by things going on inside of a person s body. A child could be very poor or very willing while making relationships.
Theory Integration Paper 7 Integration I don t see myself using this theory every day of my counseling profession. However, there are parts of it I did enjoy and thought were worth integrating into my theory. I will use splitting in my theory. I think that it is a strong visual and it is something that I think children can understand if given images. I will also be using the idea that relationships are very important in a child s life. I believe that who we are as adults has been groomed by the relationships we went through as children and the relationships we have now. Choice Theory Choice theory is a humanistic theory that believes we are the decisions we make. They believe that if a client is unhappy, it is because they choose, even if it s unconsciously, to be unhappy. Strengths Choice theory emphasizes what decisions the client is making. This theory makes it clear that the decisions we make directly impact our lives. It tells us that we choose to address a need/want and that decision is the reason we re suffering (D. Duys, personal communication, November 14, 2016). It s thought that we make decisions to fulfill our needs, for example a criminal activity. A man might need bread to feed his family, so he steals bread from a bakery. Choice theory also introduces the idea of needs. This theory says that needs drive all of our decisions. There are five different types of needs. Survival or safety is the opportunity to work, problem solve or gain security (D. Duys, personal communication, November 14, 2016). This need could be fulfilled by taking on and completing problems in everyday life. Love and belonging is the power to love, share, and cooperate with others (D. Duys, personal communication, November 14, 2016). This need could be fulfilled by sustaining personal
Theory Integration Paper 8 relationships. This is also the most need that brings clients to counseling. Power and achievement is also known as inner control (Corey, 2015, p. 314). This could be fulfilled by rising through the ranks at a company doing your best. Freedom or independence is the ability to be creative, expressive, and to cope with the unexpected (D. Duys, personal communication, November 14, 2016). This could be fulfilled by expressing ones self and becoming spontaneous. The final need is fun, an inherent need to play (D. Duys, personal communication, November 14, 2016). This can be fulfilled by enjoying what ones does and having fun daily. These needs fall on a spectrum, and not everyone needs have to be met the same way. The choice theory focuses on the client s strength and responsibility. It says that the client is responsible for all of their choices, even if there is not always conscious action, (Corey, 2015, p. 316). The client is responsible for what and how they choose. This also plays into the client s strength. The client must be strong enough to be able to make their own choices. If they are not, that is something that should be worked on in their sessions. Weaknesses Choice theory does not consider biological anomalies. For example, if a client is depressed, it means that they are choosing to be depressed. It is not my belief that we choose to be depressed or any other biological anomaly. We can choose our lives, but we cannot choose what has been laid out before us. Choice theory is also only concerned with things the client wants to change about themselves. This can be a weakness if the client was referred to the counselor or was mandated to be there. If a client doesn t think that there is anything wrong with the life they have been living, they won t want to change the decisions they ve been making. This works well when the
Theory Integration Paper 9 client is willing to work with their counselor, but it can be a problem when the client is not willing to fix things. Integration I will use different interventions from this theory. I will use the wants, direction and doing, evaluation, and planning process to help my clients make better decisions. I also will use the ideas of openness, optimism and honesty. These will help make my environment friendlier, and will help make my clients trust me more. Gestalt Theory The Gestalt theory is centered on becoming genuine and your whole self. It strives to be in the moment and focusing on what is happening now. This theory allows clients to think of the past, while feeling in the now. Strengths The first strength I ll discuss is being in the here and now. Gestalt therapists believe that being in the here and now is how to be in good health. In a Gestalt session the counselor might talk about something that has happened in the past to the client, but they will talk about how they feel about the situation now (Corey, 2015, p. 204). For example, the client might talk about a parent forgetting their birthday three years ago. The counselor would ask how they feel about that right now. They wouldn t want to go through what had happened in the past, because it is just a construct of our minds. They believe that the present is the only reality. Holism is the idea that we are a completed whole, which means that thoughts, feelings, behaviors and more are a part of the human experience and none more important than the other (Corey, 2015, p. 201). Following this thought, it is important to reclaim all of the aspects of ones self. If we can reclaim control over our behaviors and feelings, we have more control over what
Theory Integration Paper 10 we need to survive. A Gestalt therapist will try to help the client take control over the aspects of themselves that they currently have no control over. They will help them regain access to themselves and then they can focus on who they are now. Weaknesses Gestalt s field theory states that the client must be seen in their environment (Corey, 2015, p. 201). Theorists need to be able to understand what the difference is between the client and the setting of their story. This is a weakness because the client has viewed their situation differently, and, according to the theory, the situation is now just a construct being altered every time the client looks at it again. It also requires the counselor to notice how the client conducts themselves in the environment and how it is altered due to perception. Organismic self-regulation is what happens when an equilibrium is disrupted and the client, the organism in this case, must restore it (Corey, 2015, p. 202). For example, a client s equilibrium is disturbed by the presence of a need, fun. The client hasn t fulfilled their need for fun today, so in order to do so they go out and steal a car. This client enjoys stealing cars, which is why they are in talking to their counselor. They don t think they re doing anything wrong, so the client doesn t want to change and whenever they feel the need for fun they continue to steal. This self-regulation seems to be a way to explain the desire to fulfill the client s needs, but it doesn t carry further than that. Integration I will use the idea of here and now in my counseling theory. While I m not sure I feel as passive about the past as most Gestalt theorists, I too believe that the only time we can affect is our now. The past is history that we learn from and the future is a mystery with all the hope and fear that comes with all mysteries. Here and now is what we are truly feeling.
Theory Integration Paper 11 I also plan on using the concept of I statements. Using I statements forces the child or client to take responsibility for whatever they have done and it forces accountability on to what they are planning on doing. Forcing the client to rephrase a statement, such as It s hard to stick to a schedule to I have a hard time sticking to a schedule makes them realize the weight of the phrase and makes it real. Staying with the feeling is also an effective trait to integrate into my counseling. With this intervention when a client backs away from a feeling, I can pursue it. Not denying the feeling and not giving it control over them, but giving them the power to express the feeling and delve further into it is something that I plan on using during my counseling. This intervention gives clients the power they need to put a feeling into words and discover what else is hiding behind their initial feeling. Solution Focused Counseling Solution focused counseling focused on ways that the client can change their behaviors by following small goals. This strategy is capable of working in short terms and integrates multiple theories. Strengths To an aspiring school counselor, a short term strategy is idealistic. If I can fix the child in only a few sessions, I ll be happy, the administration will be happy, and the teachers will be happy. Short term means that there isn t much face time with the child, and that most of what you ve talked about takes effect after the term is over. This makes the conversation in the session even more important. Solution focused has interventions that are an easy way to make the session meaningful and to the point.
Theory Integration Paper 12 This strategy is also empowering to the client. It assumes that the client has a basic strength inside them, and that they can determine their own solutions (D. Duys, personal communication, December 5, 2016). When the counselor summarizes what they have talked about, they highlight the strengths of the client. The client gets to set their own goals, and they make them small and attainable. Solution focused theory looks at what has been working for the client. The counselor can ask for exceptions to the problem and look for a solution there. The client has survived up to this point, odds are that they ve encountered this problem before. What is different about this time? Why does the client need help now? These questions can help the client to decipher why they think they ve changed. When you know what is working, do more of it, (Corey, 2015, p. 372). Weaknesses Solution focused theory doesn t consider any history that came before the situation the client is in. This theory works better for procrastination than it does for long-term anxiety. It tries to solve the problem right in front of it, not necessarily looking at how the problem came about. This is a weakness because it will only help a certain amount of clients, but it can t help them all. This theory also guides under the assumption that if there is a problem, some change from the client can change it. In reality there are a number of systematic problems that the client cannot change. A counselor doesn t want to give false hope, but sometimes there is no solution to a problem. In these cases, this theory might be able to help change the client s outlook on life. They might be able to find another outlet for their feelings. However, in a systemic issue a single client conversing with their counselor probably cannot change the entire system. Integration
Theory Integration Paper 13 I find this theory to be very useful. Many of the clients I hope to be working with will only need a few sessions, and I will only be able to be with them a few sessions. I will use solution focused theory s idea of empowerment. I will empower my clients through their own contribution to the process. I will allow the client to help me determine the goals they want to accomplish because I won t be the one who has to go through with them. I believe that a child needs to be empowered. They should be told that they can make their own decisions and they can plan their own future. Conclusion A counselor s theoretical orientation changes throughout their career. With this in mind I know that I will change my mind multiple times over the course of my education. At this point I know general ideas of what kind of counselor I want to be. I want to be a counselor that always has her door open. I want to be kind and respected and I don t want the kids to fear me. I want to encourage the kids to grow and be creative and express themselves. I know that I want to integrate even more ideas from other theories into my practice. I want to use Adlerian s encouragement, and I want to remember Kegan s eras. I know that I have a long way to go before I choose an official theory, but until that time I have a solid base of ideas and interventions that will help me.
Theory Integration Paper 14 Resources Corey, Gerald. (2015). Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy: Tenth edition. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.