A brief description of the different types of psychotherapy and counseling

1. A Brief Description of the Different Types of Psychotherapy and Counseling
1.Acceptance and Commitment psychotherapy counseling
2. Adlerian psychotherapy counseling
3. Behavioral Analysis psychotherapy counseling
3. Body Centered psychotherapy counseling
5. Cognitive Behavioral or CBT psychotherapy counseling
6. DBT or Dialectical Behavioral psychotherapy counseling
7. Emotion Focused psychotherapy counseling
8. Family Systems psychotherapy counseling
9. Gestalt psychotherapy counseling
10. Gottman Relationship psychotherapy counseling
11. Hakomi psychotherapy counseling
12. Humanistic psychotherapy counseling
13. Imago Relationship psychotherapy counseling
15. Interpersonal psychotherapy counseling
14. Jungian psychotherapy counseling
15. Logotherapy psychotherapy counseling
16. Mindfulness psychotherapy counseling
17. Narrative Based psychotherapy counseling
18. Neurolinguistic Programming or NLP psychotherapy counseling
19. Psychoanalysis psychotherapy counseling
20. Psychodynamic psychotherapy counseling
21. Satir psychotherapy counseling

2. 22. Sensorimotor psychotherapy counseling
23. Solution Focused psychotherapy counseling
24. Transactional Analysis psychotherapy counseling
25. Transpersonal psychotherapy counseling
26. Integrative psychotherapy counseling
1. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) psychotherapy counseling
As a branch out of Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, differs
from the traditional CBT approach of teaching people to better control their thoughts and feelings to focus
on an individuals’ ability to directly control their own movement, speech and actions. ACT uses an
educational approach to teach client’s to "just notice", accept, and embrace their life experiences. ACT
introduces the client to strategies of ‘mindfulness’, ‘acceptance’, ‘commitment’ and ‘behavior change’ to
enhance psychological flexibility. ACT helps the individual get in contact with a transcendent sense of self
known as ‘self-as-context’ — the part of the mind that observes and experiences while remaining distinct
from one's thoughts, feelings, sensations, and memories.
2. Adlerian Therapy psychotherapy counseling
Alfred Adler was among the co-founders of the psychoanalytic movement along with Freud and others.
He was the first major figure to break away from psychoanalysis to form an independent school of
psychotherapy and personality theory. His most famous concept is the inferiority complex that speaks to
the problem of self-esteem and its negative compensations. His emphasis on power dynamics is rooted in
the philosophy of Nietzsche. Adler argued for holism, viewing the individual holistically rather than
reductively. Adler is considered, along with Freud and Jung, to be one of the three founding figures of
depth psychology, which emphasizes the unconscious and psychodynamics. Adlerian Therapy is a
growth model. It stresses a positive view of human nature and that we are in control of our own fate and
not a victim to it. The goal of Adlerian Therapy is to challenge the cl ients' premises and to encourage
goals that are socially useful and help them to feel equal. These goals maybe from any component of life
including, parenting skills, marital skills, ending substance-abuse, and most anything else. The therapist
may also assign homework, setup contracts between them and the client, and make suggestions on how
the client can reach their goals.
4. Behavioural Analysis psychotherapy counseling
The term ‘behavior analysis’ coined by B. F. Skinner, focuses on the science of behavior as a subject in
its own right while relegating the concept of mind to philosophy. Behavior therapists tend to accept the
underlying assumptions of behavior analysis and through the use of Pavlovian procedures focus on
problems involving covert behavior, such as anxiety disorders, depression, and unwanted thoughts and
feelings. Applied behavior analysts tend to focus on overt (publicly observable) behavior. Applied

3. Behavioral Analysis (ABA) is the most widely used method to help autistic children and adults. It teaches
them to be able to communicate through a system of rewards and consequences.
5. Body-Centered Therapy psychotherapy counseling
Body Centered Therapy Also known as mind-body or somatic therapy, combines the strengths of talk
therapy with bodywork to help people become more aware of their bodily sensations as well as their
emotions, images and behavior. Clients are guided to become more conscious of how they breathe,
move, speak, and where they experience feelings in their bodies. This increased awareness about how
the body holds physical stress and emotional injury informs and directs the therapy process, allowing
clients to work through patterns of limitation that are not often resolved on the level of the mind alone.
Body Centred therapists may draw upon a wide variety of techniques such as: breath work, touch,
postural alignment, dance, tai chi, qi gong, yoga, imagery, massage, mindfulness, relaxation techniques
and other exercises to increase body awareness.
6. Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) psychotherapy counseling
Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy is a form of psychotherapy that emphasizes the important role of thoughts
and perception in shaping feelings and behaviors. CBT uses a problem-solving approach that teaches
people skills to change their thinking and manage their reactions to stressful people and situations.
Developed out of Behavior Modification, Cognitive Therapy and Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy, CBT
is used to treat various kinds of neurosis and psychopathology, including mood and anxiety disorders.
CBT is considered a cost-effective treatment for many disorders and psychological problems due to it’s
short-term and time-limited approach that focuses on quantifiable results. CBT is highly instructive and
makes use of assignments, homework and trying out new ways of behaving and reacting to identify and
change "distorted" or "unrealistic” ways of thinking, and therefore to influence emotion and behaviour.
7. DBT or Dialectical Behavioral psychotherapy counseling
Dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT) is a psychosocial treatment developed by Marsha M. Linehan
specifically to treat individuals with borderline personality disorder along with other diagnoses. In the
1990’s Linehan advocated that psychosocial treatment of those wi th Borderline Personality Disorder was
as important in controlling the condition as treatment with pharmaceutical drugs. Due to invalidating
environments during a person’s upbringing and due to biological factors as yet unknown, some people,
react in erratic and unmanageable ways to emotional stimulation. The DBT therapist actively teaches
patients how to manage emotional trauma rather than reducing it or taking them out of crises. The main
treatment combines behaviorist theory along side training and pract ice in the Buddhist technique of
mindfulness. DBT treatment will always include two components: weekly individual psychotherapy
sessions with the aim to manage self-injurious and suicidal behaviours, discussion of current concerns
and development of the client’s coping skills. And secondly, a weekly group session in mindfulness
practice, emotion regulation skills, interpersonal effectiveness skills and distress tolerance skills. The
purpose of the DBT is to help the client stabilize their own experience of the middle ground between
rational and emotional mind states.

4. 8. Emotion Focused Therapy psychotherapy counseling
EFT is a short-term approach to couples therapy formulated by Drs. Sue Johnson and Les Greenberg in
the 1980’s. Relationship distress is a very common reason for seeking therapy and is strongly associated
with depression, anxiety disorders and addictions as well as generally undermining family health.
Emotionally Focused Therapy recognizes that relationship distress results from a perceived threat to
basic adult needs for safety, security and closeness in intimate relationships. EFT offers an experiential
and systemic approach to helping partners restructure the emotional responses that maintain their
negative interaction patterns. Through a series of nine steps, the therapist leads the couple away from
conflict toward forming new bonding interactions. EFT is used broadly with many different kinds of
couples including partners suffering from depression, post traumatic stress and chronic illness.
9. Family Systems psychotherapy counseling
Family Systems therapy is a form of psychotherapy that considers a family as an organism or system with
its own internal rules, patterns of functioning, and tendency to resist change. The treatment involves all
the members of a nuclear or extended family and may be conducted by a pair or team of therapists of
both genders for a short-term treatment. Family Systems therapy uses ‘systems theory’ to evaluate family
members in terms of their position or role within the system as a whole. Rather than focusing on traits or
symptoms in individuals, Family Systems emphasizes the importance of changing the way the system
works. The theory developed when it was discovered that schizophrenic patients often improved when
their whole family went into treatment together as opposed to focusing on the hospitalized member. The
aim of Family Systems Therapy is for family members to understand and accept their individual
responsibility in the emotional functioning of the family unit. By learning to recognize the emotional
relationship patterns and how anxiety is handled in the family, individual family members can manage
themselves in more functional ways.
10. Gestalt Therapy psychotherapy counseling
Developed by Fritz Perls’ and others in the 1940’s, the basic premise of Gestalt is that “life happens in the
present – not in the past or the future – and that when we are dwelling on the past or fantasizing about
the future we are not living fully”. Perls, originally a Freudian analyst, was influenced by the principles of
Gestalt psychology and existential philosophy. The Gestalt process models the way in which what is
directly experienced and felt is more reliable than explanations or interpretations based on pre-existing
experiences or attitudes. It is a therapy that takes into account the whole individual and is concerned with
both mind and body. The behaviours or symptoms that are deemed undesirable or unsatisfactory are
essential elements in the therapy process. The role of the Gestalt therapist is to bring the more obvious
discrepancies in the client’s presentation of themselves and their response to others to the client’s
attention. Out of this material the therapist develops creative ways to challenge the client to accept the
responsibility of taking care of themselves rather then excepting others to do so. As a process, Gestalt
facilitates the client’s awareness of personal responsibility, how to avoid problems, to finish unfinished
matters and experience life with moment-by-moment awareness.
11. Gottman Relationship psychotherapy counseling

5. Gottman Method Couples Therapy is a structured, goal-oriented, scientifically-based therapy. Intervention
strategies are based upon empirical data from Dr. John Gottman’s three decades of research with 3,000
couples. From this research Gottman Relationship Therapy can pin point the factors that distinguish
happy, stable couples from unstable couples and provides supportive methods to assist couples in
creating the quality of relationship that they have been unable to attain through their own efforts.
12. The Hakomi Method psychotherapy counseling
Hakomi is a body-centered, somatic approach that combines the Eastern traditions of mindfulness and
non-violence within a unique Western methodology. In a therapeutic context, the body's structures and
habitual patterns serve as the doorway to unconscious ‘core material’, including the hidden beliefs,
relationships, and self-images that shape how we see ourselves. Core material is composed of memories,
images, beliefs, neural patterns, and deeply held emotional dispositions. This core material shapes the
styles, habits, behaviors, perceptions, physical postures and attitudes that define us as individuals. The
Hakomi Method accesses core material, allowing it to emerge safely into consciousness. Once conscious,
it can be re-evaluated, and where appropriate, transformed. New awareness can be integrated, helping
the individual to build a more satisfying and effective life.
13. Humanistic psychotherapy counseling
Humanistic psychology is a school of psychology that emerged in the 1950s in reaction to both
behaviorism and psychoanalysis. The Humanistic Psychologists were concerned with advancing a more
holistic vision of psychology and drew upon roots in existentialist philosophy to foreground the human
context for the development of psychological theory. James Bugental (1964), summarized the humanistic
approach in five points: 1. Human beings cannot be reduced to components; 2. Human beings have in
them a uniquely human context; 3. Human consciousness includes an awareness of oneself in the
context of other people; 4. Human beings have choices and non desired responsibilities; 5. Human
beings are intentional, they seek meaning, value and creativity. The major theorists considered to have
prepared the ground for Humanistic Psychology are Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers, Rollo May and
Wilhelm Reich. Other noteworthy in the movement include Roberto Assagioli, Gordon Allport, Medard
Boss, Martin Buber, R. D. Laing, Fritz Perls, Anthony Sutich, Erich Fromm, Kurt Goldstein, Clark
Moustakas, Lewis Mumford and James Bugental.
14. Imago Relationship psychotherapy counseling
Derived from the Latin word for image, Imago addresses romantic love and provides a framework for
couples in therapy. Developed by Harville Hendrix, Ph.D., author of Getting The Love You Want: A Guide
For Couples, The Imago Therapy Process teaches couples the stages of romantic love and the ensuing
stages of power struggle within relationships to assist clients in developing conscious, intimate, and
committed relationships. Imago theory posits that couples unconsciously choose partners who have both
the positive and negative attributes of both of their parents. The core practice of Imago therapy is the
"Couple's Dialogue," in which a couple engages in a structured conversation, with or without an Imago
Therapist to re-align our conscious mind (which usually wants happiness and good feelings) with the
agenda of the unconscious mind (which wants healing and growth) Other techniques include mirroring,
validating and empathizing.

6. 15. Interpersonal psychotherapy counseling
Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT) is a time-limited psychotherapy that was developed in the 1970s and
80s as an outpatient treatment for adults who were diagnosed with moderate or severe clinical
depression. The IPT framework considers clinical depression as having three components: the
development of symptoms, which arise from biological, genetic and/or psychodynamic processes; social
interactions with other people, which are learned over the course of one's life; and personality, made up
of the more enduring traits and behaviors that may predispose a person to depressive symptoms. IPT has
been modified for use with adolescents and older adults, bipolar disorder, bulimia, post-partum
depression and couples counselling. Interpersonal therapy descended from psychodynamic therapy and
like psychoanalysis emphasizes the unconscious and childhood experiences. However, IPT is structured
more like cognitive behavioral approaches both in that it is time-limited and also in its use of homework,
structured interviews and assessment tools. IPT emphasizes the ways in which a person's current
relationships and social context cause or maintain symptoms rather than exploring the deep-seated
sources of the symptoms. Treatment with IPT is often combined with drug therapy, particularly when the
client suffers from such mood disorders as depression, dysthymia, or bipolar disorder.
16. Jungian psychotherapy counseling
Jungian analysis is a method of psychotherapy developed by C.G. Jung, the eminent Swiss psychiatrist
(1875-1961). The purpose of Jungian analysis is to transform the psyche, by establishing effective
relations between the ego and the unconscious.The process can treat a broad range of emotional
disorders such as depression and anxiety, and it can also assist anyone who wishes to pursue
psychological growth. Analysis requires both intensity and regularity and requires a serious commitment
on the part of both analyst and client. In current practice it extends over a period of several years or
longer. Dream interpretation is integral to Jungian analysis. According to Jung, the attitudes of the ego
are partial and prejudicial and at times utterly defective. In dreams, the unconscious challenges the ego
by presenting alternative perspectives to maladaptive or dysfunctional attitudes. Jung coined such terms
as "archetype," "complex," "introvert" and "extravert," "shadow," "anima" and "animus," "collective
unconscious," "synchronicity," and "individuation."
17. Logotherapy (Existential Analysis) psychotherapy counseling
Logotherapy sometimes referred to as Existential Analysis originated in the work of psychiatrists who
were influenced by existential philosophers such as Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, and Heidegger. Existentialist
philosophy examines the essential aloneness of human beings in the world. This aloneness leads to
feelings of meaninglessness, which can be overcome by creating one's own values and meanings .
Logotherapy emphasizes a person’s responsibility and freedom to choose while, acknowledging the
limitations imposed by real life conditions. Looking deeply into the issues of our aloneness,
meaninglessness, and mortality the client’s self-awareness is enhanced. By helping the client to discover
why they are overburdened by the anxieties of aloneness and meaninglessness, the Logotherapist
assists the client to find better ways to manage these anxieties, to make new and healthy choices, and to
take responsibility for their freedom.

7. 18. Mindfulness psychotherapy counseling
Mindfulness is a technique that can be applied with just about any therapeutic approach. For this reason
Mindfulness is currently being referred to as the ‘third wave’ in psychology. Mindfulness is a term that
comes from various contemplative traditions including Buddhism. Mindfulness is an awareness that
intentionally observes the field of immediate experience. The early proponents of a mindfulness approach
saw its main benefit as being for the therapist who would be more effective if they were to be mindful in
their therapeutic work. More recent work has emphasized the benefit for the client in learning and
practicing Mindfulness. In the therapeutic process, Mindfulness facilitates staying present with
experiences a little longer. Looking at our experiences from the vantage point of mindful non-judgment
enables us to stay present rather than attempting to fix or run away from whatever arises, especially
where there is pain or difficulty. When we can stay present and allow experience to deepen without
alteration, change naturally unfolds. This technique is especially helpful for stress reduction and work with
physical and energetic symptoms.
19. Narrative Based psychotherapy counseling
Drawing upon postmodern theory, Narrative Therapy was initially developed during the 1970s and 1980s,
largely by Michael White and David Epston. Two underlying principles that guide treatment in Narrative
Therapy are: reality and identity are social constructions; the problems people experience are within the
story, not the person. Acting as an investigator, the Narrative Therapist, uses deconstructive questioning
to challenge the assumed realities within a client’s story and assist the client in the creation of a new
story, which solves the problems inherent in the original story. Narrative Therapy uses the processes of
externalization and objectification of the client’s problems to makes it easier to investigate and evaluate
the problem's influences. In some instances outsider witnesses (friends of the client or previous client’s of
the therapist) may be invited to participate in the treatment process. The Narrative Therapy process
encourages the client to see how their problems are fed by societal constructs that are much larger than
themselves as another means to creatively empower the client in the authorship of their lives.
20. Neurolinguistic Programming or NLP psychotherapy counseling
Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) is an interpersonal communication model and provides a brief
solution focused alternative to psychotherapy. Developed in the early 1970s out of research conducted by
John Grinder and Richard Bandler at the University of California, NLP is modeled on their research of
highly effective people. In studies on how successful people communicated (verbal language, body
language, eye movements) patterns of thinking that assisted in the subject's success were identified. The
basic premise of NLP is that the words we use reflect an inner, subconscious perception of our problems.
If these words and perceptions are inaccurate, they will create an underlying problem as long as we
continue to use and to think them. The neuro-linguistic therapist analyzes the client’s use of language
(and body movement) in describing their life and works to replace counterproductive reactions and
negative thinking patterns with healthier practices. NLP models and tools have been used in business
communication, management training, teaching and motivational seminars.

8. 21. Psychoanalysis psychotherapy counseling
The theory and practice of psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy as developed by Sigmund
Freud, is based on his vast theory and research on personality and psychic life dating back to the ear ly
1900’s. Psychoanalysis is a process of uncovering and making explicit a patient’s emotional and
psychological history with the aim of supporting people to become more fully who they are and overcome
psychological distress as well as physical symptoms. Psychoanalysis is a therapeutic method, which
investigates the interaction of conscious and unconscious elements in the patient's mind and using
techniques such as dream interpretation and free association works to bring repressed fears and conflicts
into conscious awareness. According to Freud, all behavior is motivated by the desire to feel pleasure
and anxiety is a direct result of the repression of conflicts. The psychoanalytic therapist helps the client to
‘work through’ their conflicts and find ways to resolve them by interpreting the ‘resistance’ and
‘transference’ operating in the therapeutic relationship. Psychoanalysis is an intensive and long -term
therapy process and it differs from other psychotherapies on the basis, of the training of its therapists, the
frequency of sessions, and the use of the couch.
22. Psychodynamic psychotherapy counseling
Psychodynamic psychotherapy is a form of depth psychology that encourages the exploration of
conscious and unconscious emotional issues, the primary focus of which is to alleviate psychic tension.
Sigmund Freud used the term dynamic to conceptualize the human psyche. The concept and application
of psychodynamics was further developed by Carl Jung, Alfred Adler, and Melanie Klein. Psychodynamic
therapy relies on the interpersonal relationship between client and therapist to reveal patterns in the
patient's outlook and behaviors. This relationship is unique because the therapist maintains a uniform,
neutral and accepting stance. Psychodynamic Therapists are trained to listen objectively and without
criticism and this attitude is meant to promote the client’s ability to speak freely about their life
experiences. This therapist analyses an individual's present responses to relationships, including the
relationship with the therapist, and links this to the way they have come to see the world and themselves.
Psychodynamic psychotherapy is used with individual, group and families as well as a way to understand
and work with institutional and organizational contexts.
23. Satir psychotherapy counseling
Virginia Satir was an author and psychotherapist, known especially for her approach to family therapy. As
a therapist she developed process-oriented systems such Family Therapy, Satir Systemic Brief Therapy
and the Satir Growth Model. With an emphasis on personal growth, she believed that all behavior was
learned and therefore could be unlearned making change possible. She believed that people's internal
view of themselves, their sense of self-worth, was the underlying root of their problems. Satir noted that
the presenting issue itself was seldom the real problem; rather, how people coped with the issue created
the problem. In the 1950’s Satir began promoting the treatment of families rather than individuals in
psychiatric institutions in Illinois, USA. She posited that, to heal the self, to heal the family, was ultimately
to heal the world. A family therapist usually meets several members of the family at the same time for 5 or
more sessions. Family therapy is relational and focuses more on what goes on between people than what
goes on in their head. Patterns observed during a therapy session frequently mirror habitual interaction
patterns and changes to one element have repercussions throughout the whole family system.

9. 24. Sensorimotor psychotherapy counseling
Sensorimotor Psychotherapy is a body-centred psychotherapy that addresses habitual and automatic
attitudes, both physical and psychological. A synthesis of Somatic Therapy and the Hakomi Method,
founder Pat Ogden developed Sensorimotor Psychotherapy which places particular emphasis on the
relationship between trauma and developmental issues. It is particularly helpful in working with the effects
of trauma and abuse, emotional pain, and limiting belief systems. Clients are taught strategies to develop
awareness about and track their bodily and emotional responses to triggering sensory cues they
experience in day to day.
25. Solution Focused psychotherapy counseling
Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT) emphasizes the construction of solutions to problems, rather than
an examination of their causes or how they are maintained. SFBT developed out of the work of the Brief
Family Therapy, Family Center in Milwauke, USA and the husband wife team of Steve de Shazer and
Insoo Kim Berg in the 1980’s. As a brief alternative to psychotherapy, SFBT shifts the focus away from an
analysis of the problems and symptoms experienced by the client to identify tools the client already
makes use of to facilitate change and apply these toward small concrete goals. SFBT works on the
assumption that client’s can solve their problems by doing more of what has been successful for them in
the past and that solutions to larger problems can be unlocked by small changes. SFBT therapists make
use of lines of questioning that highlights the client’s strengths, positive statements about the client's
constructive behaviours, and suggest tasks or clues to guide the client toward accessible solutions.
26. Transactional Analysis psychotherapy counseling
Transactional Analysis is a social psychology and a method to improve communication developed by Eric
Berne, in the 1970’s. Focusing on external behavior, the process is both a brief form of psychotherapy as
well as a system for more effective communication. Transactional Analysis recognizes three ego-states
that govern the personality comprised of parent, adult, and child. Therapists examine the way these parts
interact within ourselves and with others and teaches the client to more clearly understand what is going
on and to make informed choices about the messages they send. The theory suggests that individuals’
dysfunctional patterns are created by the coalescence of patterns of communication, socially codified
‘games’ and ‘life-scripts’. By modeling direct and honest interaction with the client, Transactional Analysis
encourages the client to abandon dysfunctional ‘life-scripts’, ‘games’ and self-defeating patterns.
27. Transpersonal psychotherapy counseling
Transpersonal Psychology attempts to unify modern psychology theory and it roots in psychoanalysis,
behaviorism and humanistic psychology with frameworks from different forms of mysticism.
Transpersonal psychology draws it's methodology from the spiritual traditions of the world, including
eastern philosophies such as Buddhism, the Yogic traditions of India, and Western Contemplative
traditions and includes religious conversion, altered states of consciousness, trance and other spiritual
practices within its definition of human ‘wholeness’. From the perspective of Transpersonal
Psychotherapy, the therapist is recognized to be equal to the client and that on the level of pure
consciousness, there is no separation between them. This view of shared consciousness within the

10. psychotherapeutic encounter, where one person has a direct impact on the other and vice versa, radically
changes the role of the therapist as ‘projection screen’ that was delineated by Psychoanalysis. While it is
still important at times for the therapist to be discriminating and analyt ical, the therapist strives to be
‘authentic’ and coaches the client to do the same.
28. Integrative psychotherapy counseling
Drawing upon the various schools of psychotherapy: Psychodynamic, Client -centered, Behaviorist,
Cognitive, Family Therapy, Gestalt therapy, body-psychotherapies, Object Relations Theories,
Psychoanalytic Self psychology and Transactional Analysis, Integrative Psychotherapists blend different
schools of therapy together while remaining grounded in the theoretical underpinnings of both the original
theory as well as in the how and why of using it. The Integrative Psychotherapy approach delineates 4
different strategies of integration: common factors, technical eclecticism, theoretical integration and
assimilative integration. Alongside these questions of theoretical integration, Integrative Psychotherapists
work towards an integration of personality with their clients: taking disowned, unaware, or unresolved
aspects of the self and making them part of a cohesive personality, reducing the use of defense
mechanisms that inhibit spontaneity and limit flexibility in problem solving, health maintenance, and
relating to people and the world. The overall aim of an Integrative Psychotherapy is to facilitate wholeness
on many levels.
29. Reality Therapy
Based on his observations of patient's behaviour, William Glasser was a psychiatrist who developed
Choice Theory and Reality Therapy. He saw the basis of good mental health in an individuals’ ability to
take responsibility for themselves, establish meaningful relationships and fulfill their basic needs. Reality
Therapy takes an educational approach in which clients are taught skills and knowledge that will enable
them to take control of their lives. Reality Therapy places emphasis on the actions a person can
realistically take rather than focusing on changing thoughts and feelings. The main principle of Reality
therapy is to re-align the client’s actions with awareness of basic psychological needs. As outlined in the
principles of Choice Theory, humans have five basic needs: love, freedom, power, fun and survival. The
Reality Therapy methodology involves asking questions such as; What do you want? What are you doing
to get what you want? Is it working? and draws upon this information to created workable plans that will
assist the client in meeting their own needs.
30. Person-Centered Therapy
Founded by Carl Rogers in the 1930's, Person-centered therapy departed from the typically formal,
detached role of the therapist emphasized in psychoanalysis to promote a close personal relationship
between client and therapist in a supportive environment. Person-centered therapy, which is also known
as client-centered, non-directive, or Rogerian therapy, is an approach that places much of the
responsibility for the treatment process on the client, with the therapist taking a nondirective role.
Associated with the aims of the human potential movement, which defined human nature as inherently
good, Person-centred therapy posits that human behavior is motivated by a drive to achieve one's fullest
potential. Person-centered therapy focuses on human strengths rather than human deficiencies. In this
process good mental health is reflected in the balance between the ideal self and real self. The Person-centred
therapist creates a space in which the client can discover a more whole understanding of who

11. they are that includes these positive human qualities such as good self-esteem and promotes an
increased capacity to experience and express feelings at the moment they occur.
31. Rational-emotive and Cognitive-behavioral Therapy
Inspired by modern and ancient philosophical discourses, Albert Ellis, an American psychotherapist and
psychologist, created Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy in the mid 1950’s. The REBT framework
assumes that humans are born with the ability of rational thinking and constructive behaviour but fall
victim to irrational thinking and self-defeating behaviour. REBT attributes a client’s problems to the
irrational aspects of their belief system, which were formed in childhood. The REBT therapist engages the
client in an educational process in which the will directly teach the client how to identify and replace
irrational and self-defeating beliefs with more rational and self-helping ones. One of the main objectives in
REBT is to show the client that how they perceive and interpret the events in their lives has a direct
impact on how they will feel. The central aim of REBT is to increase the clients’ adaptability with the
introduction of a more rational and constructive philosophy of themselves, others and the world.