The major schools of thought in psychological counseling

May 17, 2021

As a professional practice, psychological counseling has evolved through contributions from legends that enriched the domain with their research and practice, and in the process, created the schools of thought that are followed by practitioners even today. Here are the most prominent ones among them:

  • The Albert Ellis Way: Albert Ellis’s approach REBT – Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy – postulates that people’s emotional & behavioral problems are caused by erroneous beliefs about situations they are involved in. To lead a fulfilling life, these disturbance-causing beliefs have to be challenged and changed.
  • The Sigmund Freud Way: Sigmund Freud’s ‘psychoanalytic’ approach says that cognition & behavior is determined by early experiences and instinctual drives that are rooted in a person’s unconscious but are denied entry into conscious by psychological defense mechanisms. This conflict between conscious and unconscious is at the heart of emotional disturbances & conflicts. The cure is to bring the ‘content of the unconscious’ into conscious through therapeutic intervention.
  • The Carl Rogers Way: Carl Rogers developed ‘person-centered therapy’ whose basic premise is that a suffering person already possesses all that is needed to come out of it and flourish. The therapist’s job is to facilitate the person’s natural self-actualizing tendency through three factors – ‘unconditional positive regard’, genuineness and empathetic understanding.
  • The Fritz Perls Way: Fritz’s approach is popularly known as ‘Gestalt Therapy’. Rather than focusing on blocks and unfinished business of past, it encourages client to be ‘here and now’ and utilize the resultant ‘mindfulness’ to become aware of what he or she is doing. This is what triggers willingness and ability to change for better. This approach banks on the proposition that when the client is fully & creatively alive, they are better positioned to make changes and face challenges.   
  • The Aaron Beck Way: Aaron Beck’s approach called CBT – Cognitive Behavioral Therapy – is a ‘problem-focused & action-oriented’ approach which suggests that psychological problems are caused by maladaptive patterns of interaction between the trio of ‘feelings, thoughts and behavior’. CBT addresses these patterns by teaching new information-processing skills and coping mechanisms to the person.
  • The Erik Erikson Way: Erikson’s theory of ‘psychosocial development’ identifies a series of eight stages that an individual passes through in life. Each stage has a negative and positive outcome. While positive outcome aids healthy development of individual, the negative outcome creates incongruence & deficit which then lead to emotional & behavioral problems. Counselor helps the client not only understand ‘what went wrong at which stage’ but also make choices that compensate for what is lost. The counselor also facilitates the alignment of client behavior for positive outcomes in present and future stages.
  • The William Glasser Way: Inspired by the ideas of great Alfred Adler, William Glasser developed ‘Reality Therapy’ which is based on 3 R’s – realism, responsibility and right-and-wrong. It is a present-day non-symptom-focused approach that first makes client realize how their perceptions & imaginations distract them from the choices they control in life, and then helps the client make choices that align with the vision they have for their lives. It also emphasizes on building meaningful relationships to create a conducive psychosocial ecosystem.
  • The Michael White Way: Michael White, along with David Epston, developed ‘Narrative Therapy’ which postulates that a person’s problems are strongly shaped by the story they tell about themselves, and counselor’s job is to help the person create such stories about themselves that are constructive and helpful. Through this process of ‘re-authoring identity’, counselor helps the client identify which values are important to them and how they can utilize their knowledge & skills to live these values.

And then there is ‘integrative or holistic’ way in which the counselor or therapist doesn’t limit themselves to any one school of thought but meticulously blends elements from various approaches to exactly suit each client’s specific and individual needs.

Dr. Sandeep Atre

Counseling Psychologist (www.dratrecounsels.com) and ‘Emotional Intelligence’ Expert (www.socialigence.net), with experience of 20+ years. Author of ‘Understanding Emotions Logically’ and ‘Observing Nonverbal Behavior’.