Psychodynamic Counselling Essay

975 Words4 Pages
Imagine that you have cause to attend counselling. Out of the models covered so far on the module identify one which you would prefer to have counselling in. Justify your choice of model by reference to the key theoretical concepts of that approach. Psychodynamic counselling would be the approach I would choose if I had cause to attend counselling. The reason for this will be highlighted throughout the essay: making it important to analyse the basic concepts of the model and understand how the principles and theories of psychodynamic counselling relates to other counselling models. It is also important to identify why this particular model’s attributes would suit me as a potential client. There are several branches of Psychodynamic approach such as; Ego Psychology, which tends to focus on enhancing and maintaining the client’s ego function in accordance with the demands of reality: Object Relations psychology identifies how people are shaped in relation to the people around them, again this focusses on relationships children have throughout their developmental stages: Self Psychology observes that a person encounters problems when they lack self-esteem, and that subsequently effects their relationships (Gross, 2010). A key principle of a Psychodynamic counsellor is that people tend to have bad relationships because they repeat destructive patterns from their past. Clients will transfer feelings from the past onto new people in their lives and therefore repeat the pattern over and over again. It is important for the counsellor to be aware of their feelings and responses in order to recognise counter transference. This can be a valuable source of evidence for the counsellor regarding their client’s life and relationships, past and present (McLeod, 2009). The relationship between psychodynamic counsellor and client is an unusual one compared to other forms of
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