Counseling With Gloria Paper

The three therapies with Gloria were with the same patient but adopted different approaches and techniques. The approaches had both some similarities and differences. All three psychotherapy approaches focus on the client and guiding them through identifying the source of their issues and the solutions to addressing them. Dr. Carl Rogers’ session focuses on the client-centered approach, where he focuses on helping Gloria to talk more about her problems without providing any advice based on the perspective that she knows herself better than anyone else and is, therefore, the one with the answers to her questions (Folmo, 2019). Dr. Frederick Perls also takes a somewhat similar approach with his Gestalt therapy, which focuses on showing his clients the inconsistency between their verbal and non-verbal behavior and how that relates to their psychological state (Folmo, 2019). Further, Dr. Albert Ellis also approaches rational emotive therapy from the client’s perspective, such that all three therapies try to direct the client towards realizing their own challenges, the sources of these issues, and the solutions. However, while each therapy focused on the client, there were various differences that one could notice.

The major difference between the three therapies was their approach to making the client aware of their issues and finding solutions to them. Dr. Carl Rogers took a more laid-back approach where he paraphrased what Gloria was saying to get her to talk more about the problem, its causes, and potential solutions. Dr. Rogers rarely talked from his own perspective and focused on giving Gloria a conducive environment for discussing her issues and finding her way through solutions. However, Dr. Frederick Perls and Dr. Albert Ellis took a more involved approach where they actively indulged the client in conversations about themselves. Dr. Perls’ approach was much more similar to Dr. Carl’s because it also focused on helping the client be more aware of their feelings, the sources of these feelings, and solutions to the challenges raised by them. Dr. Ellis’ approach was different from the others because he offered Gloria exercises and assignments that would assist her in attaining her desired emotional state. Dr. Ellis’ approach highlighted the relationships between Gloria’s childhood and her use of simple irrational language, resulting in negative feelings about herself and her actions (Folmo, 2019). Therefore, one can notice various similarities and differences between the three therapies that Gloria sits through.

Sigmund Freud and Erik Erikson’s psychosexual and psychosocial development theories suggest that childhood trauma significantly impacts the child’s development. I agree with Freud and Erikson that childhood trauma significantly affects development. According to Freud’s theory, the first to the fifth stages of development is all about passing the stages and satisfying the requirements of the stages before successfully going to the next. Childhood trauma has the ability to prevent the successful movement of the stages by causing problems such as limiting the child’s oral pleasure through fear or abandonment, hence resulting in an oral fixation (Cherry, 2022). Erikson’s theory shows the negative of childhood trauma more effectively. In the first stage of trust versus mistrust, Erikson suggests that children who do not receive enough and dependable care may lack a sense of trust for others, which is the case for children who experience childhood trauma from their parents and fail to recover from it hence a lack of mistrust for others (Cherry, 2022). Similarly, the second stage of autonomy versus shame and doubt and the third stage of initiative versus guilt also suggest that childhood trauma has the ability to negatively impact the children’s development, independence, guilt, a sense of purpose, and confidence (Cherry, 2022). Since childhood trauma has the ability to negatively affect children’s ability to attain the necessary skills for each stage of development, it seems that childhood trauma has a direct impact on overall development and the kinds of adults children turn out to be.

Suppose I was in a similar situation as Gloria’s. In that case, I believe that Dr. Carl Rogers’ client-centered approach would work best for me compared to Gestalt and rational emotive behavioral therapies. Dr. Roger’s approach seemed calmer and more focused on the patient. I felt I would be more responsive to his approach as compared to the confrontational approach by Dr. Perls and the lesson-oriented approach of rational emotive behavioral therapy. The client-centered approach allows the client to explore their own issues from their own perspective, which allows a natural flowing of discovery and awareness such that one enters the therapy looking from the outside in and leaves with an inside-out perception of their emotions and feelings. I feel like solutions that clients discover on their own and from their own exploration are more effective and impactful than techniques taught to address the issues. As Dr. Rogers notes, the client is the one who knows themselves best and is, therefore, the most reliable person to identify the issues present and how to deal with them. Therefore, I think the client-centered approach would benefit me the most.

When explaining to a client the major differences between humanistic and cognitive behavioral therapy, I would focus on highlighting the difference in their approaches and intended outcomes. I would highlight that humanistic therapy prioritizes the patient’s strengths as compared to their symptoms, such that the strengths are used to increase one’s self-awareness until one attains self-actualization. Cognitive behavioral therapy addresses a patient’s maladaptive thinking patterns and behaviors and how they can be altered to achieve desired outcomes. Additionally, I would inform the client that the humanistic approach is better for phobias. At the same time, CBT is more reliable for mental issues like anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, and substance dependence.

References

Cherry, K. (2022). Freud vs. Erikson: Comparing theories of development. Key differences and similarities between the two theories. https://www.verywellmind.com/freud-and-erikson-compared-2795959

Folmo, E. (2019). The Gloria films – Three approaches to psychotherapy – All three sessions 1965 [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFT89grAUOI