An Affective Approach to Therapy

Transference is often manifested as an erotic attraction towards a therapist, but can be seen in many other forms such as rage, hatred, mistrust, prettification, extreme dependence, or even placing the therapist in a god-like or guru status. When Freud initially encountered transference in his therapy with clients, he felt it was an obstacle to treatment success. But what he learned was that the analysis of the transference was actually the work that needed to be done. The focus in psychodynamic psychotherapy is, in large part, the therapist and client recognizing the transference relationship and exploring what the meaning of the relationship is. Because the transference between patient and therapist happens on an unconscious level, psychodynamic therapists who are largely concerned with a patient's unconscious material use the transference to reveal unresolved conflicts patients have with figures from their childhoods. Countertransference is defined as redirection of a therapist's feelings toward a client, or more generally as a therapist's emotional entanglement with a client. A therapist's atonement to his own countertransference is nearly as critical as his understanding of the transference. Not only does this help the therapist regulate his or her own emotions in the therapeutic relationship, but it also gives the therapist valuable insight into

First, denial involves refusing to accept the truth or the reality of an experience or a

I believe counseling is a collaborative partnership between client and counselor. Furthermore, this collaborative partnership is built from trust and acceptance of both client and counselor. I hope in conjunction with clients to understand the issues and concerns so to help them tap into their wisdom, creativity, and strengths to meet their current challenges. I believe in a comprehensive perspective through which clients can better comprehend themselves in the framework that our thinking about events can lead to emotional and behavioral upset. Moreover, counselors are to provide a safe environment for clients to explore their challenges and identify ways to move differently in overcoming these challenges.

Summarising, paraphrasing and reflection of feelings are all examples of counselling micro-skills that let the client know that the counselor is listening and understanding them correctly. Although it is important to try to respond accurately it is not essential as an incorrect response can encourage the client to re-think what they have said and then clarify it, possibly resulting

This essay intends to introduce the reader to the most important skills involved within developing and maintaining a therapeutic relationship between a client and the therapist or counsellor. The onus will be on Humanistic counselling but many of these skills are central to all counselling types.

“A” of the ABC model of crisis intervention, is developing and maintaining a rapport. Structuring a rapport state of fathoming, a console between the counselor, and client the base of the healing process. This phase of the three-stages is critical in forming reliance with the client. The client will have a complexity being open with the client until he or she feels implicit and putative by the counselor. Therefore, the counselor should presence attending behavior skills such as: direct eye contact, body language, vocal qualities, and verbal following. These attending behaviors “demonstrate to the client that you are with him, or her, and indeed are listening,” enabling the client to talk more freely (Ivey, 2015). In addition to the informational material, the counselor should personally be cultural sensitive.

The services provided are a relationship between the therapist assigned, and the client (you), this works because of the rights and responsibilities held by each person. Therapy can bring up past and present emotions and feelings,

Being attentive means giving all of your physical attention to another person so that you are fully present for them. This will help you to notice what the client is NOT saying, by noticing their body language, and also their tone and pace of voice. The use of non-verbal cues and the counsellor’s own body language conveys to the client that he is interested in what the client has to say. (Bolton 1979). Managing silences from the client shows

Process Experiential Emotion-Focused Therapy (PEEFT) is an approach used to improve the regulation, expression, acceptance, integration and transformation of emotional experiences. Emotions govern the way we interact with the world around us and serve as the primary driver of decision making, allowing us to identify potential risk and understanding personal needs and desires. The process of Emotion Focused therapy (EFT) is essentially to improve overall emotional intelligence by working with the clients current emotional experiences, understanding maladaptive emotional scheme that may be preventing the clients personal growth and impeding on their everyday life and experiencing. The EFT therapist guides the client through a process of awareness and expression of emotions that can then be understood, reflected upon, integrated and transformed to add meaning to their personal experiences.

However, counter-transference is caused by the counsellors own limitations which might include the counsellor unresolved emotional issues, but a counsellor can use this to their advantage and draw out information that is important to the clients therapeutic process.

Moreover, Kaslow, Grus, Campbell, & Fouad, et al. (2009) stated that the client/therapist relationship is built on trust and kindness, empathy, and positive regard. Interpersonal and professional relationships are key. Affective skills are based on personal and cultural context (Kaslow, et al. 2009).

As an effective counselor one of the main qualities needed is patience. Go to the next step of explanation only when the patient has clearly understood the content of the information you have provided. Therefore the counselor needs to have enough sufficient time for the patient, and should also be a good listener. Let the patient express everything he/she has to say, and give your inputs once when the patient has finished talking.

Emotion-focused Therapy (EFT) is an integrative psychotherapy approach that views emotions as a primary form of intelligence that determines the experience of self, others, and the environment. During the therapy, EFT helps clients to accept, identify, explore, regulate, make sense of their emotions, and subsequently transform and manage them.

If the client feels “safe” in the session, this can be very powerful for them. As sessions occur, the client will feel more comfortable in trusting the clinician with their feelings, attitudes and emotions. The client is able to present their needs and problems in ways that only they can express. Another factor that may resonate in the sessions may include transference and counter-transference. Transference is when the client’s attitudes, feelings and emotional conflicts from past events begin to be directed to the therapist, while Countertransference is exactly the opposite, when the therapist’s attitudes, feelings, and emotional conflicts from the past are directed towards the client (Transference and Countertransference, 2011). There are not too many positive factors with Countertransference, except being able to recognize it, when it exists, and be able to work out any conflict. A client’s experiences can affect their feelings, emotions, and behaviors towards their therapist. If the therapist remains their professionalism, and sets the proper limits and boundaries, a client can work through past experiences that are affecting their functioning. In a lecture, it is the role of the counselor to recognize the client’s experience; reflect and process the client’s emotional state, as well as process their own emotional reactions to clients and their issues. When clients can work through their problems from past

Counseling skills has provided me with a valuable insight into the helping relationship and how it is both created and maintained in order to encourage growth and development in the client. The factors involved within the helping relationship include considering Roger’s core conditions, congruence, unconditional positive regard and empathy as the three main characteristics necessary in a helping relationship. In order to fully incorporate all three of Roger’s core conditions, I as the counselor must be self-aware, as a lack of self-awareness may inhibit truly listening and understanding the client; self-awareness can be enhanced through exercises such as Johari’s window. Counseling skills such as body language and active listening also