Core Approaches in Counselling and Psychotherapy

Student Resources

 

Therapy in Action

 

Resources and Links

Resources

Please see below for a list of resources to improve understanding and expand appreciation of the topics. For each of these resources, consider what insight they can provide about counselling and psychotherapy. Do they give us a flavour of a particular approach? Do they offer some additional information or a unique perspective on a certain therapy? Do they show us how therapy is perceived by the media? Reflect on the thoughts and feelings generated by the resource and explore how the resource has contributed to your understanding of counselling and psychotherapy.

Movies

See below for fictional and non-fictional movies incorporating elements of counselling and psychotherapy.

  • As Good as It Gets (1997)
  • What about Bob? (1991)
  • Analyse This (1999)
  • Nuts (1987)
  • One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
  • Girl, Interrupted (1999)
  • I Never Promised You a Rose Garden (1977)
  • Three Faces of Eve (1975)
  • Silence of the Lambs (1991)
  • Good Will Hunting (1997)
  • A Dangerous Method (2011)
  • Freud: The Secret Passion (1962)
  • Spellbound (1945)
  • Equus (1977)
  • Prince of Tides (1991)
  • Zelig (1983)
  • Child of Rage (1992)
  • A Beautiful Mind (2001)
  • K-Pax (2001)
  • Freud (mini-series 1984)
  • In Treatment (series 2008)
  • Bob Newhart Therapy Skit (2001)

Books

See below for fictional and non-fictional books incorporating elements of counselling and psychotherapy.

  • Couch Fiction (Perry & Graat)
  • Tales from the Therapy Room: Shrink-Wrapped (Lapworth)
  • One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (Kesey)
  • Girl, Interrupted (Kaysen)
  • I Never Promised You a Rose Garden (Greenberg)
  • Red Dragon; Silence of the Lambs; Hannibal (Harris)
  • The Interpretation of Murder (Rubenfeld)
  • A Most Dangerous Method: The Story of Jung, Freud and Sabina Spielrein (Kerr)
  • The Three Faces of Eve (Thigpen & Cleckley)

Documentaries

See below for documentaries incorporating elements of counselling and psychotherapy.

  • The Iceman Tapes (1992)
  • Child of Rage (1990)
  • Dolphin Boy (2011)
  • Asylum (1972)
  • Inside Outside: Building a Meaningful Life After the Hospital (2004)
  • Three Approaches to Psychotherapy (Gloria tapes) (1964)

Poems

See below for poems incorporating elements of counselling and psychotherapy.

  • On the Way Out (Wright-Wilson)
  • Cheap Therapy (Weilert)
  • The Useless Counsellor (Tyler)
  • Please, Just Listen (Anon)
  • A Counsellor's Perspective (Michell)
  • The Invitation (Oriah Mountain Dreamer)
  • When my Angel Cries (Gates)
  • The Door (McClure)
  • Wanting to Die (Sexton)
  • The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (Blake)

Websites

See below for websites incorporating elements of counselling and psychotherapy.

Glossary

ABC Model: Antecedent – Behaviour – Consequence; shows that behaviour is prompted by stimuli in the environment and results in specific consequences (from behavioural theory)

ABCDE Model: Activating event – Belief (about the event) – Consequences (emotional and behavioural) – Disputing irrational beliefs – Effects (from REBT)

Absolutistic Neurosis-inciting Musts: irrational demands which come from irrational beliefs

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT): a development from CBT which focuses on acceptance and mindfulness techniques

Active Psychoeducation: therapeutic intervention in which the therapist provides specific advice and guidance in addition to general information and educational material

Adaptive Self-talk: restructuring internal dialogue by replacing irrational faulty beliefs with rational constructive beliefs

Adult: the TA ego state in which thoughts, feelings and behaviours are appropriate to the here and now

Advanced Empathy: sensing the expressions not communicated directly by the client; reflecting that which currently sits just outside the client’s awareness

Advice: to offer specific information about what to do; persuasive one-way exchange involving the advice- iver offering an opinion, making a judgement or making a recommendation

Affect: our feelings about self, others and events (multimodal)

Alliance: the relationship between counsellor and client (as in 'the therapeutic alliance')

Analgesic: a remedy that relieves pain

Analytic Framework: the process of psychoanalysis; the basic rules of the therapeutic relationship

Analytical Psychology: the Jungian school of psychodynamic theory

Anchoring: an NLP technique to set and access positive resource states, based on the principles of classical conditioning

Animal Research: experiments on animals in developing theories of classical and operant conditioning (behavioural)
 
Antithesis of Games: once you know that you are playing a game, end the game

Anxiety Hierarchy: a graded list of anxiety-provoking stimuli

APA: American Psychological Association

Aphasia: inability to understand language

Approach: the umbrella term for all theories and concepts converging on a similar set of principles

Arbitrary Inferences: drawing conclusions on the basis of limited evidence

Aspiration: a desire or goal

Assessment: collecting information about a client to inform the therapeutic process

Assimilative Integration: a form of integration where a therapist using a single model assimilates techniques from other approaches over time

Assumptions: things taken for granted

Attachment Pattern: repeated sets of a behaviour in attachment theory

Auditory: hearing, one of the senses, also known in NLP as representation systems

Autonomy: the overall aim in TA; behaving, thinking and feeling in response to the reality of the here and now rather than responding to script beliefs; respect for the client’s right to be self-governing (BACP ethical framework)

Awareness: a term used in a number of approaches, generally meaning to become more aware of thoughts, feelings and behaviours

Baby Tender ‘Aircrib’: designed by Skinner to reduce problems associated with a traditional crib

BACP: British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy

BASIC ID: behaviour, affect, sensation, images, cognition, interpersonal and drugs/biology; the seven modalities of human experiencing (multimodal)

Beck Depression Inventory: the most widely used assessment scale for the clinical diagnosis of depression; 21 items each presenting four options indicating current and recent emotional and cognitive states; designed by Aaron Beck

Beck Institute for Cognitive Therapy and Research: Aaron Beck’s cognitive therapy centre

Becoming: to be constantly striving to be more effective and moving towards self-actualisation

Behaviour: action or reaction in response to a stimulus

Behaviour Analysis: focuses exclusively on observable and measurable behaviour; analysing behaviour as an external evidence of cognitive states

Behaviour Shaping: reinforcement and (to a lesser extent) punishment for specific behaviours in order to shape behaviour towards a desirable goal

Behaviour Therapy: a term first used by Lazarus, 1958 (multimodal)

Behavioural Change Programmes: a combination of applications to enhance positive behaviour and to reduce negative behaviours

Behavioural Techniques: specific applications to enhance positive behaviour and to reduce negative behaviours

Behaviourism: approach focusing on observable behaviours

Behaviourist Manifesto: produced by Watson, 1913; publication entitled Psychology as the Behaviourist views It

Beliefs: ideas we hold to be true; beliefs underpin our values, ideas and assumption about ourselves, others and the world

Beneficence: commitment to promoting the client’s wellbeing (BACP ethical framework)

Bias: a preference that prevents impartial judgement

Biological Sex: the classification of being either male or female

Blank Slate: humans are born as a tabula rasa or blank slate on which experience writes the patterns of their future behaviour (behavioural)

Boundaries: the rules that an individual holds about the appropriate and acceptable ways to interact with others; for the therapeutic relationship they should be established through collaboration between the therapist and client

BPS: British Psychological Society

Brandon Report: a set of training, practice and research recommendations produced by the UK Royal College of Psychiatrists

Bridging: meeting the client in their preferred modality in order to move them to another modality (multimodal)

Business Contract: duration of sessions, number of sessions, charges of sessions, cancellation expectations, etc.

Cause and Effect: the relationship between one thing and another; challenging distortions where a client assumes that one thing will cause another (NLP meta model)

Center for the Studies of the Person: focusing on therapy and psychoeducation, founded by Carl Rogers in 1968

Central Nervous System: the majority of the nervous system consisting of the brain and spinal cord

Cerebral Paralysis: cerebral palsy; Freud’s view was that it was caused by damage to the brain while the central nervous system was developing in the foetus

Challenges: counsellor skills to help the client to gain new perspectives and insights

Child: the TA ego state in which thoughts, feelings and behaviours are from childhood

Child Psychoanalysis (Play Therapy): developed by Melanie Klein, play is regarded as symbolic activity indicating underlying drives

Classical Conditioning: repeated pairings of an unconditioned and neutral stimulus will result in a conditioned response

Client: the person receiving the counselling

Client Protection: legislation designed to look after the wellbeing of the child; one of the reasons why confidentiality would be broken

Client–Therapist Rapport: the basis of the therapeutic relationship

Clinical Psychologist: a professional who works with individuals suffering severe physical or mental disorders and impairments

Cognition: the mental processes mediating between stimuli (external world) and response (our behaviour)

Cognition-Driven Emotions: feelings that result from thoughts

Cognitive: of cognition (thinking)

Cognitive Dissonance: discomfort experienced when having two conflicting thoughts

Cognitive Distortions: faulty thinking

Cognitive Psychology: scientific study of mind

Cognitive Restructuring: disputing and replacing irrational or unhelpful thoughts

Cognitive Revolution: the cognitive reaction to the three 'forces' of psychology

Cognitive Techniques: ways of challenging negative, dysfunctional cognition

Cognitive Therapy: approach that focuses on thought processes and how these affect feelings and behaviours

Cognitive Triad: thoughts related to the three domains of self, the world and the future

Cognitive-Behaviour Modification: a form of CBT developed by Donald Meichenbaum

Cognitive-Behaviour Therapy: an integrative approach favoured by the NHS in the treatment of anxiety and depression

Collaboration: the counsellor and client working together to achieve the aims of the therapy

Collaborative Empiricism: the client and the counsellor are co-investigators in the process

Collaborative Therapeutic Relationship: the working relationship between counsellor and client

Collectivist Cultures: cultures where the group (e.g. family, society) is more important than the individual

Common Factors: identifying similarities in approaches; one of the types of integration

Communication: interactions between individuals

Compensation: developing specific traits to make up for deficiencies in other areas

Competence: effective use of skills and knowledge

Completion: the final stage in the Gestalt cycle (of awareness)

Complex: a group of emotionally laden thoughts and feelings which result in dysfunctional behaviour

Complex equivalence: assumes that two things are synonymous

Computerised CBT: a development of cognitive-behavioural therapy in which an individual can access an online programme for self-help

Conditioned Fear: fear installed by classical conditioning

Conditioned Reflex: a response that is associated with a previously unconnected stimulus; classical conditioning

Conditioned Response: the result of pairing an unconditioned and neutral stimulus; classical conditioning

Conditions of Worth: the evaluations made by significant others about the correct way to act, think and feel in order to receive conditional positive regard

Confidentiality: keeping private, within agreed limits, the content of the counselling session

Configurations of Self: a coherent pattern of feelings, thoughts and behaviours symbolised by the person as a different aspect, or part, within the self

Conflict of Interest: a boundary issue in counselling, for example being both manager and supervisor

Confluence: a loss of the distinction between the individual and the rest of the world

Congruence: being open and honest, one of the three Rogerian 'core' conditions, also known as genuineness

Conscious: that which is in awareness, one of three parts of the mind in Freudian analysis

Consequences: results of our actions; in REBT the emotional and behavioural effects of our beliefs about an event

Constructive Personality Change: positive change in the client, as a result of offering the six conditions over a period of time in person-centred therapy

Contact Boundary: the boundary between self and the rest of the world (Gestalt)

Contamination: an individual thinking she/he is in Adult when in fact they are in Child or Parent ego state

Contingency Management: an umbrella term for techniques which are used systematically to reinforce positive behaviour

Contingent Attention: programs involve the client being reinforced or punished by being granted or denied attention

 

Continuous Reinforcement: reinforcement provided every single time the behaviour is exhibited

Contract: the agreed working alliance between the therapist and the client

Core Beliefs: fundamental beliefs about self, others and the world that influence our thoughts, feelings and behaviours

Core Conditions: unconditional positive regard, congruence and empathy. PCT theory states that if these are present in the relationship over a period of time then therapeutic change will occur

Counselling: facilitative two-way collaborative and supportive relationship that allows clients to explore their problem, understand their problem and resolve or come to terms with their problem

Counselling Psychologist: a qualified psychologist who works with individuals, couples or families experiencing mental health concerns

Counsellor/Psychotherapist: the qualified professional in the relationship; there is no recognised distinction between these two titles as both involve the same work role and accreditation process

Countertransference: transference from the counsellor to the client; it can be objective or subjective

Cultural Assumptions: assumptions made based upon the beliefs derived from one’s own culture

Cultural Awareness: counsellor understanding of the effects culture has on beliefs, values and assumptions

Cultural Bias: tendency to view the world from the perspective of one’s own culture

Cultural Empathy: an awareness of the different cultural world of the client

Cultural Heritage: the beliefs, values and assumptions gained from one’s own culture

Defensive Reactions: ways of managing anxiety

Deflection: failure to recognise or acknowledge aspects of the environment (Gestalt)

Deletions: exclusion of certain information

Denial: an ego defence mechanism where a person claims that an anxiety-provoking stimulus does not exist

Desensitisation: failure to attend to feelings and sensations (Gestalt)

Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT): an approach developed for suicidal or self-harming clients with borderline personality disorder

Dialogical Relationship: Gestalt term for the nature of the counsellor/client relationship which is determined by the quality of the ongoing contact

Dichotomous Thinking: viewing the self, others and the world in extreme categories; all-or-nothing thinking

Discrimination: to treat unequally; to treat differently in either a positive or negative way

Displacement: redirecting emotions from the source to a less threatening target

Disputing Irrational Beliefs: a technique from REBT, part of the ABCDE model

Distortions: inaccuracies or assumptions in thinking

Diversity Awareness: an understanding of difference and diversity in clients

Drama Triangle: a way of analysing the roles played in TA games (Karpman)

Dream Analysis: Freudian analysis of dreams to access the unconscious

Dream Work: Gestalt technique to help the client to achieve integration

Drugs/biology: one of the seven modalities in multimodal therapy

Dysfunctional Assumptions: assumptions made through faulty thinking

Eclectic: drawing upon a variety of approaches

Ecological Validity: in NLP, a check to see both the positive and negative implications of change

Ego: governed by an understanding of the realities of the social world; one of the three parts of the personality (Freud)

Ego Defence Mechanisms: strategies for coping with internal conflict between the id and the superego

Ego-state Model of Personality: also known as the PAC model, the basic model in TA

Egotism: a boundary disturbance which involves dissociation with the environment to become a neutral observer (Gestalt)

Electra Complex: part of the Freudian phallic stage where the girl sexually desires the father before forming a relationship with the mother

Emotion: the label we attach to a feeling

Empathic Understanding: making sense of the client’s world

Empathy: experiencing another’s world as if it were your own

Empty Chair Exercise: a Gestalt exercise where the client is encouraged to externalise the dialogue by using an empty chair to house the other person or part of self

Enlightenment/Nirvana: the highest level of actualisation

Equality: an ethical principle to treat all individuals with respect

Eros: the life instinctual drive, also known as the libido (Freud)

Ethical Guidelines: framework for good practice laid out by a professional body

Ethics: the guiding principles for good therapeutic practice

Evidence-based Practice: counselling based upon proven techniques and approaches

Exaggeration Exercise: a Gestalt exercise where the client is encouraged to exaggerate certain movements, postures or expressions

Exclusions: when an individual shuts out an ego state, for example not having the Adult ego state available in a meeting with a manager

Exercises: ready-made techniques preplanned to encourage therapeutic progress

Existential Philosophy: dealing with the basic issues of existence

Expectations: something either good or bad that is anticipated in the future

Experiential Learning: learning through doing

Experiments: specifically designed techniques to encourage therapeutic progress

Explicit Contract: clearly stated therapeutic and business contract set up prior to therapy

Exploitation: to take advantage of (a person or situation)

Exposure Therapy: safely exposing a client to stimuli that create anxiety or fear

Expressive Arts: the use of creative arts as a form of therapy
 
Fairness: consistent application of appropriate criteria to inform decisions and actions

False Memory Syndrome: falsely believing that a thought is a real memory

Family Therapy: a therapeutic approach that works with family groups rather than individuals

Faulty Cognitive Processes: dysfunctional thoughts

Feminist Psychology: area of psychology based on the principles and values of feminism

Fidelity: honouring the trust placed in the practitioner; one of the principles in the BACP ethical framework

Field Theory: interactions between an individual and the environment, or the total field; developed by Kurt Lewin, a Gestalt psychologist

Figure and Ground: shows how our attention works; how some things become important (figure) until they are completed when they fade back into unimportance (ground)

Flashbulb Memories: vivid recollections of specific moments in time

Flexibility: the ability to respond from a range of options in any given situation

Flooding: a behavioural technique that encourages the client to experience as fully as possible the stimulus that creates the negative response

Focusing: an approach that developed from PCT, encouraging the client to focus on, and stay with, internal sensations

Formulation: in CBT, building up an understanding of the client’s problem

Frame of Reference: the perspective from which one is viewing the world

Free Association Analysis: Freudian technique encouraging the client to express without censoring, and then analysing what is expressed

Free Will: the ability to make choices independent of external constraints

Freudian Blocks: conflicts located in the unconscious

Freudian Psychoanalysis: Freudian practice based on his theories

Freudian Slip: when we say something that comes from outside our awareness, originally known as parapraxis (Freudian)

Fully Functioning Person: the idealistic aim of person-centred therapy; self-actualisation

Games: a series of transactions played outside of awareness with an ulterior motive (TA)

Gender Role Identity: how an individual identifies themselves in terms of thoughts, feelings and behaviours in relation to gender

Generalisations: the use of absolute sweeping statements

Genuineness: one of the PCT core conditions, also known as congruence

Gestalt Cycle: a seven-stage process through which we move from awareness to completion, also known as the cycle of awareness or cycle of experience

Gestalt Therapy: an existential-humanistic approach developed by Frederick and Laura Perls

Good Enough Mother: Winnicott’s statement that mothers should trust their own intuition to be ‘good enough’ for the child

Guidance: encouraging one-way exchange involving the guide showing the way, educating, influencing or instructing

Guided Discovery: being directed to gain new insights, for example through Socratic questioning

Here and Now: Gestalt term for being in the present rather than talking about the past or the future

Heuristics: cognitive short-cuts which provide us with a simple judgement operation to avoid the complexities of dealing with experiences

Hierarchy of Needs: Maslow developed the hierarchy to explain how the tendency towards self-actualisation is the highest need for the individual to achieve, but it can only be sought when all other needs are being met

High-Risk Clients: those clients who are in real danger of doing serious harn to themselves or others

Holistic: relating to both physical and psychological aspects of the person; treating a person as a complete whole

Homework: activities set for the client to do between sessions (CBT)

HPC: Health Professions Council

Human Motivation: inner drive to work towards a desired goal

Humanistic: focusing on the individual as a unique human being

Humanistic Manifesto: published by Bugental, outlined five key postulates for the approach: human beings cannot be reduced to components, have in them a uniquely human context, have an awareness of oneself, have choices and responsibilities, and seek meaning, value and creativity

Humanistic Movement: reaction to the behaviourist and psychodynamic forces of psychology; focuses on the individual human experience, rather than objective scientific enquiry

Humility: ability to assess accurately and acknowledge one’s own strengths and weaknesses

Hypnosis: induced state of relaxation in order to access deeper parts of the mind

Hypnotherapy: therapeutic approach for treating clients using hypnosis

Hysteria: symptoms that appear, but are not, physical (Freud)

Id: basic drive for gratification; one of the three parts of the personality (Freud)

Images: internal visual pictures created by the individual

Imagined: thoughts, feelings and experiences created by the individual

Implicit Contract: any parts of the therapeutic and business contract that are not clearly stated

Incongruence: not congruent, a discrepancy between; e.g. self-concept is incongruent with the organismic self (PCT)

Increasing Existential Living: being fully open to new experience without defensiveness; being a participant in and an observer of the ongoing process of organismic experience (Rogers)

Increasing Trust in Organism: evaluating each situation and experience based on the available data, rather than relying on prejudice, bias, fear and defensiveness

Individual Psychology: the approach developed by Alfred Adler
 
Individualist Cultures: cultures where personal choice and responsibility are valued as more important than the group

Inferiority Complex: based in a child’s experience of perceived weakness or illness; Adler believed that this feeling was the basis for neurotic symptoms

Informed Consent: giving the client all relevant information and getting the client’s agreement (when contracting)

Injunctions: negative messages from the Child ego state of parents to the Child ego state of the child

Integrative: combining techniques from more than one model

Integrity: commitment to being moral and honest in dealings with others

Intellectualisation: focusing excessively on intellectual details rather than dealing with the associated emotions

Interdisciplinary Approach: an approach that includes elements from other approaches, for example modern behavioural analysis

Internal Frame of Reference: seeing the world based on our (rather than others' – external) beliefs, values, knowledge, experiences, feelings, etc.

Internal Objects: how early interactions with parental figures through the paranoid-schizoid and depressive positions impact on later life (Klein, object relations)

Interpersonal Skills: another term for communications skills

Interpretation: an explanation of the meaning of part of the client’s story (e.g. dream, statements, behaviours)

Intimacy: living fully in the moment without using games or script behaviours (TA)

Intrapsychic Conflict: internal conflict between different parts of self

Introjection: internalisation of the environment without critical evaluation

In vivo: exposure to the actual stimuli (rather than imagined) (behavioural)

Isolation: withdrawal from the outside world (situations or people)

Justice: fair and impartial treatment of all clients and the provision of adequate services (BACP ethical framework)

Kinaesthetic: feeling, one of the senses, also known in NLP as representation systems

Kleinian Psychoanalysis: object relations theory developed by Melanie Klein

Labelling/Mislabelling: attributing, either accurately or inaccurately, a diagnosis

Language: a system of words, signs or symbols to aid communication

Latent Dream Content: hidden content in the form of symbols

Law of Effect: behaviours are more readily completed if they have previously resulted in a satisfactory outcome

Lazarus: Arnold Lazarus, founder of the multimodal approach

Life Positions: from TA theory. Individuals see themselves and others as either OK or not OK. Therefore the four life positions are I’m OK, you’re OK; I’m OK, you’re not OK; I’m not OK, you’re OK; I’m not OK, you’re not OK.

Life Scripts: created in childhood and played out of awareness in adulthood; a life story, with a beginning, middle and end

Life-acceptance: a state of acceptance of self, others and the world

Listening: to pay attention to the client’s story

Logic: a method of reasoning

Logical Error: an argument or viewpoint based on an invalid inference

Logical Positivism: focus on logic and empiricism to understand thoughts, feelings and behaviours

Magical Number Seven: human short-term memory holds +/- 7 chunks of information

Magnification: overestimating or exaggerating problems and difficulties

Maintenance Behaviours: ways of keeping a problem going (CBT)

Manifest Dream Content: content of the dream as it appears to the dreamer

Manipulation: to control or influence

Medical Model: approaches in which clients are viewed as patients and are 'treated'

Meta Model: a set of questions designed to challenge and expand the client’s internal model of the world (NLP)

Mind-reading: claiming to know the thoughts of another person (NLP meta model)

Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT): one of the 'third wave' approaches that combines mindfulness with CBT, particularly used in working with depression

Minimization: to reduce the significance of; playing down the positive

Mirroring: matching and reflecting non-verbal communication

Misinformation: not having the right information (including the beliefs we have about ourselves that we have internalised from parents). One of the four ways problems are created and maintained in multimodal therapy

Missing Information: not having enough information. One of the four ways problems are created and maintained in multimodal therapy

Modal Operators of Necessity: verb implying obligations (‘should’, ‘must’, ‘need to’, etc.); NLP meta model

Modal Operators of Possibility: verb implying prospects (‘can/can’t’, ‘will/won’t’, ‘possible/impossible’, etc.); NLP meta model

Modality Firing Order: the basis of tracking the sequence of the problem in multimodal therapy

Modality Profile: a chart drawn up to outline the presenting problem in the seven modalities (BASIC ID)

Modality Sequence: the order of modalities in which a problem occurs

Model: a framework for applying a therapy

Monocultural: perspective from one culture (e.g. in the development of a single therapeutic approach)

Multicultural: perspective drawn from a number of cultures

Multimodal Life Inventory: a detailed personal questionnaire given to clients starting multimodal therapy

Multimodal Therapy: a technical eclectic approach developed by Arnold Lazarus

Musturbation: REBT statement about irrational beliefs based on 'musts' (Ellis)

Necessary and Sufficient: the statement about offering the six conditions bringing about constructive personality change (Rogers)

Negative Automatic Thoughts: unhelpful thoughts without evaluation that affect feelings and behaviours

Negative Cognitive Triad: negative thoughts on self, others and the world causing depression

Negative Reinforcement/Punishment: a behavioural technique to reduce or eliminate negative behaviours

Neurolinguistic Programming: a method of psychotherapy designed to instil fast and effective change in those individuals experiencing psychological discomfort; developed by Bandler and Grinder

Neurologist: a doctor specialising in the study of the nervous system

Neuropsychoanalysis: new advances in neuroscience enabling empirical research of the core principles of psychoanalysis

Neutral Stimulus: becomes a conditioned stimulus when used with an unconditioned stimulus in classical conditioning

Nominalization: changing a verb into a noun; NLP meta model

Non-judgemental: acceptance of another without conditions

Non-maleficence: commitment to avoiding harm to the client (BACP ethical framework)

Non-scientific: lacking scientific rigour, without empirical evidence

Objective: goal or aim

Object Relations: theory that adult Relationships are based on interactions with significant others in infancy (Melanie Klein)

Oedipus Complex: part of the Freudian phallic stage where the boy sexually desires the mother before forming a relationship with the father

Openness to Experience: being available in the here and now to fully experience

Operant Conditioning: behaviours operating on the environment to generate consequences

Organismic Self: the actual, real or inner self (person-centred therapy)

Other-acceptance: unconditional regards for anther without judgement

Outcome: the result of action

Paradoxical Theory of Change: we cannot force change; if we become more aware and more accepting of ourselves in the present we will have already made a significant change, and other changes will follow naturally

Paraphrasing: reflecting the content of the client’s story

Parent: the TA ego state which expresses thoughts, feelings and behaviours learned from parents in childhood

Partial Reinforcement: provided only at certain times when the behaviour is exhibited

Participant Bias: tendency for participants in research to act as they think the researcher wants

Passive Psychoeducation: therapeutic intervention in which the therapist provides information and educational material

Payoff: familiar, but negative, feeling that results from playing games (TA)

Permissions: the antidotes to injunctions in TA. For example, the permission to the injunction of 'Don’t feel' would be 'It’s okay to feel'

Persecutor: one of the three positions on the drama triangle (Karpman, TA)

Person-Centred Therapy: humanistic approach developed by Carl Rogers

Personalisation: to apply a general statement to self

Perspectives: different ways of seeing situations

Phenomenological: the subjective nature of meaning and the importance of individual experience

Positive Reinforcement/Punishment: a behavioural technique to increase positive behaviours

Positive Self-talk: internal dialogue which is supportive and motivating

Pragmatic: practical; behaviour based on practical consequences
 
Pre-therapy: a development of person-centred therapy by Gary Prouty engaging clients who are not able to engage in a structured counselling relationship

Precipitating Factors: what was happening in the client’s life at the time that the problem started

Preconscious: not usually within our awareness, but can be accessed if prompted

Predisposing Factors: aspects of the client’s history which may influence the current problem

Presupposition: assuming to be true

Primary Empathy: responding to the feelings and behaviour expressed by the client

Primary Reinforcers/Punishers: naturally result in an automatic response; they have a direct effect on the recipient

Professional Body: a body set up to oversee a profession

Programmes: a set of procedures

Project Pigeon: World War II plan to use pigeons as guided missiles

Projection: ascribing one's own desires and emotions to other people

Propositions of Personality: the 19 propositions, Carl Rogers’ theory of personality

Pseudonym: a fictitious name to conceal a real name

Psychiatrist: a medical doctor with a specialism in mental health

Psychic Secretion: salivation at the distant sight of food, rather than the taste of food; concept explored by Pavlov

Psycho-educational: those approaches that 'teach' clients techniques and theory

Psychoanalytic Therapy: approach developed by Freud and his contemporaries; the basis for the development of the psychodynamic approach

Psychodynamic: second force in psychology; the umbrella term for the approach that developed from Freud and psychoanalysis

Psychological Behaviourism: a unified approach aiming to integrate multiple psychological perspectives (biology, learning, cognition, emotion, etc.)

Psychological Contact: the counsellor and client need to be aware of the presence and affect of the other; in person-centred therapy, the first of the six conditions, a prerequisite for the other five conditions to flourish

Psychological/Emotional Wellbeing: being emotionally strong and healthy

Psychosexual Stages: Freudian theory of development from birth to adulthood

Psychosocial Stages: Erikson’s theory of development from birth to death

Psychotherapy: another term for counselling

Punishment: anything that will weaken the preceding behaviour

Pure Conditioning: direct pairing between unconditioned and neutral stimulus

Purist: a counsellor/therapist working with a single therapeutic approach

Radical Behaviourism: study of behaviour with no focus on cognition, emotion, etc.; all human processes are described as ‘behaviour’

Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy: approach developed by Albert Ellis, influential in the development of CBT

Rationalisation: formulating a logical and sensible, but false, reason to explain behaviour

Rational Therapy: the original term used by Ellis for what later became REBT

Reaction Formation: adopting a belief that is completely opposite to true feelings

Reconditioning: exposure therapy exercise designed to give clients an opportunity to experience and survive risky and embarrassing situations

Referential Index Deletion: failing to specify the relevant person or thing

Referral: contacting a counsellor to arrange therapy; can be self or other

Reflecting: counsellor response rewording client’s thoughts and feelings

Regression: reverting to a prior stage of development (usually in childhood)

Reinforcement: anything that will strengthen the preceding behaviour

Relational Depth: a development of PCT exploring the quality of the relationship between counsellor and client

Relaxation Training: behavioural technique to help clients overcome anxiety

Religion/Philosophy: a system of belief

Repeated Pairings: putting together two stimuli over and over to form a connection (behavioural)

Repetition Exercise: a Gestalt experiment where the client is encouraged to repeat a statement

Representation Systems: the five senses that connect the individual to the world; also called sensory modalities (NLP)

Repressed Memory: a memory, likely to be traumatic, that is put into the unconscious and is not available to the individual (Freud)

Repression: pushing traumatic memories into the unconscious

Rescuer: one of the three positions on the drama triangle (Karpman, TA)

Resilience: the ability to recover (e.g. from illness, shock)

Resistance Analysis: exploring the client’s defences in the process of (Freudian) analysis; can reveal repressed trauma

Respect: another term for unconditional positive regard (PCT)

Responsibility: owning one’s own thoughts, feelings and behaviours

Retroflection: behaviour is internalised so that the individual behaves towards the self in the way that he or she would like to behave towards another; a boundary disturbance (Gestalt)

Reversal Exercise: a Gestalt exercise where the client and counsellor swap roles

Right to Terminate: the right of either person to end the counselling relationship; this should be included in the contract

Rules: principles, or a code, of regulation

Scaffolding for Learning: specific support tailored to the individual during the learning process

Schemas: thoughts, attitudes and beliefs about specific stimuli, such as other people, objects, events, situations, etc.

Second-Order Conditioning: subsequent pairing between conditioned and neutral stimulus

Second-Order Profile: may be drawn up specifically for a modality from the original modality profile that a client may be stuck in           

Secondary Reinforcers/Punishers: need to be paired with a primary reinforcer to create a response

Selective Abstraction: focusing on one specific detail to the exclusion of all other information    

Self-acceptance: being more tolerant of self; accepting all thoughts, feelings and behaviours

Self-actualisation: the achievement of potential, the ideal self; the highest point on Maslow’s hierarchy

Self-awareness: understanding and awareness of thoughts, feelings and behaviours

Self-concept: the way the individual views self

Self-disclosure: the counsellor sharing information about self with the client; a challenging skill

Self-reflection: reviewing and understanding thoughts, feelings and behaviours

Self-respect: fostering the practitioner’s self-knowledge and care for self (BACP ethical framework)

Sensation: internal feelings; in Gestalt therapy something that emerges from the background and draws our attention

Sensory Modalities: the five senses that connect the individual to the world; also called representation systems (NLP)

Shame-attacking Exercises: exercises designed to give the client an opportunity to experience and survive risky and embarrassing situations (REBT)

Sincerity: personal commitment to consistency between what is professed and what is done

Skilled Helper: the title of Egan’s three-stage model

Skinner Box: operant conditioning chamber for training animals using schedules of reinforcement

Sociocultural Awareness (Cross-cultural Empathy): an awareness of the different cultural world of the client

Socratic Questioning: guiding clients to discover new perspectives by asking questions which they have the answers to, but may currently be outside of their awareness

Spontaneity: the ability to respond freely in terms of thoughts, feelings and behaviours (TA)

Stages of Client Process: Rogers’ seven-stage theory identifying the process of therapeutic change

Stimulus–Response Model: the basis of classical conditioning and the behavioural approach

Strokes: a unit of recognition (TA)
 
Structural Profile: self-rating for each of the seven modalities in multimodal therapy

Structural Theory: the basic ego state (PAC) model in TA

Structure: a framework or outline for process

Subculture: a subsection of culture

Sublimation: expressing unacceptable impulses in an acceptable manner

Submodalities: subdivisions of our modalities, of how our senses represent experience; the building blocks of how we remember or imagine

Summarising: reflecting content, feelings and emerging themes from a number of client statements

Superego: moral and ethical aspects; one of the three parts of the personality (Freud)

Supervision: a specific relationship designed to support therapists; professional bodies recommend 1.5 hours per month

Swishing: one of the change techniques used in NLP (the 'swish pattern') used to redirect thoughts and behaviours from negative patterns to positive patterns

Symptoms: reported thoughts, feelings, behaviours and physical sensations

Syncretistic: non-systematic eclecticism; ad hoc and lacking structure

Synthesise: to form by combining parts

Systematic: having a clear structure or process, as in systematic eclecticism

Systematic Desensitisation: exposure to successively more anxiety-inducing stimuli whilst maintaining a stable level of relaxation

Tabula Rasa: the blank slate on which experience writes the patterns of future behaviour (behavioural approach)

Talking Cure: the term given to the therapeutic process (Freud)

Teaching Machine: randomly presented questions followed by immediate feedback, followed the same principles as the operant conditioning chamber where the child was instantly rewarded for desirable behaviour; developed by Skinner (Behavioural)

Technical Eclecticism: using an eclectic approach in a structured way (see multimodal therapy)

Thanatos: the death, or aggressive, instinctual drive (Freud)

Theoretical Integration: a type of integration where two (or more) theories are integrated to form a new theoretical approach

Theory of Neurosis: unresolved tension between the ego and the unconscious (Jung)

Therapeutic Contract: reasons for attending therapy, process of therapy, responsibilities and expectations, limits of confidentiality, etc.

Therapeutic Notes: a clear record of the relationship for improving recall in later sessions and reflecting on development over time

Therapeutic Process: how the counselling relationship works in order to achieve desired outcomes

Therapeutic Psycho-education: teaching the client techniques and theory

Therapeutic Relationship: the counsellor/client relationship which underpins the therapeutic process

Therapist: another term for counsellor

Therapy: facilitative two-way collaborative and supportive relationship that allows clients to explore their problem, understand their problem and resolve or come to terms with their problem
 
Third Wave CBT: the latest developments in CBT (ACT, DBT, mindfulness)

Time Out: being isolated from activities or people to some extent for a short time (for example, to calm down if getting aggressive)

Token Economy: reward system to encourage and reinforce positive behaviour

Topdog/Underdog: Gestalt theory; intrapersonal conflicts similar to the Freudian concept of superego and ego

Topographical Theory: Freudian theory of the mind, comprising the conscious, preconscious and unconscious

Tracking: noting the modality firing order of the problem (multimodal)

Transactional Analysis: a humanistic approach to counselling founded by Eric Berne

Transactions: communications between two people (TA)

Transference: the redirection of feelings about one individual to another individual

Transference Analysis: exploring connections between past and present Relationships

Transitional Objects: objects used to transfer feelings of security from the mother, e.g. a security or comfort blanket (Winnicott)

Transitional Phenomena: serve the same purpose as transitional objects, but these are thoughts or behaviours instead of objects

Transparency: congruence, genuineness (PCT)

Triggers: stimuli that start a process

Trust: integrity; confidence

UKCP: United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy

Unacceptable Urges: part of the content of the unconscious (Freud)
 
Unconditional Positive Regard: to value people without conditions, also known as respect; one of the Rogerian core conditions

Unconditioned Stimulus: produces an automatic reflexive unconditioned response

Unconscious: not usually within our awareness, but can be accessed if prompted

Universal Quantifier: global terms such as ‘all’, ‘every’, ‘never’, etc.; NLP meta model

Unspecified Verb: using a verb without specifying the details of the action

Validity Testing Cognitions: checking the accuracy of thoughts

Values: principles, beliefs and accepted standards of an individual

Victim: one of the three positions on the drama triangle (Karpman, TA)

Visual: one of the representation systems in NLP

Western-centric Therapy: all the main counselling approaches were developed by white, western, educated, middle-class, middle-aged men; these approaches will have been influenced by the values and assumptions of the society in which the founder was living

WHO: World Health Organisation

Wisdom: knowledge and understanding of what is true

Worried Well: clients who need counselling for specific life events who are usually able to function well

Zones of Awareness: Gestalt therapy identifies three zones of awareness: inner, middle and outer

 

©Routledge/Taylor & Francis 2015