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Counsellors are ‘Born’ not ‘Made’ Essay

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1. Sigmund Freud: Time Magazine named Freud as one of the influential therapists of the 1900’s in an article which appeared in 2001. Later in 2006 an article which appeared in Newsweek in 2006 he is described as "history's most debunked doctor"(Newsweek 2006). Even though his theories invite much controversy, he is still referred to as the father of psychoanalyses.

2. B.F. Skinner: He was one of the prominent propionates of a theory called behaviourism. He also constructed what became known as the ‘Skinner Box’. Within this box he discovered that a rat or a bird could be trained to obtain food by pressing a button. This he called ‘Operant Conditioning’ and ‘Negative Reinforcement’. According to Martin Fiebert, Professor of clinical…show more content…
He is famous for his idea about ‘client-centred therapy’. He discovered that instead of treating a client as a patient, by displaying more empathy, positive regard and compassion, this would result in the client not feeling judged and therefore more likely to risk participation.

The above represents only a small cohort of people and their theories. Many more are responsible for the successful practice of Psychology we posses today.
But were those born or made? Enter the age of the ‘Supershrink’. In an article describing this term compiled by Scott Miller, Mark Hubble, and Barry Duncan that appeared in TheropyToday.Net, they set out to answer this question. This article describes that in 1974 David F Ricks invented the term ‘Supershrinks’, This described the evaluation of the performance of the best councillors by studying how beneficial their outcomes where when compared to others. In his study, he selected a cross section of disturbed children being treated by particular councillors, and the results obtained. When re-assessed as adults, the outcomes of the more talented councillors far outweighed the outcomes of what he regarded as less talented councillors which he labelled ‘pseudoshrinks’. He summarised by implying that the person providing the therapy was more of an influence than the methods used, and that evidence of this was overwhelming.
In a study commissioned by Bruce Wampold and Jeb Brown in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology in
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