The theory that I felt drawn to most this week was cognitive behavioral therapy. Cognitive behavioral therapy is a structured, systematic way of looking at the negative behaviors and beliefs that control your life. It explains how (with help and practice) new, more appropriate behaviors and beliefs can bring the positive aspects of your life into focus (Henderson & Thompson, 2011). This type of therapy approach can be used in everyday situations where there are unwanted actions or beliefs occur with a corresponding response. Many types of conditions have been known to show improvement using this type of approach, for example, mood disorders, personality disorders, social phobias, obsessive-compulsive disorders, anxiety, addictions, and sleep difficulties. The goal of cognitive behavioral therapy is to learn to distinguish between thoughts and emotions. It is a way to look at those things and make some changes internally and then externally (Henderson & Thompson, 2011). One of the main reasons I identify with this therapy theory is because I want to be able to encourage children to be the best they can be and to see that they are important. Ephesians 4:29 states, “Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers” (KJV). I want to be the type of counselor who encourages and lifts up my clients as the Lord provides them to me. As I read The Defense Never Rests case study I was surprised at the way things turned out with the client, Ed. Ed seemed to be a very difficult child, with many deep emotional problems. When I began reading, I was certain that Ed’s counselor would need to be more demanding and involved in order to get through to Ed. It took several sessions and a lot of patience to finally get Ed to begin to express himself. In this case, person-centered therapy added with cognitive behavioral therapy worked well for Ed (Golden, 2002). The use of cognitive behavioral therapy often works well with young children and adolescents because they can learn to see how to positively change things in their lives. Cognitive behavioral therapy can be used to help them set positive, attainable goals for themselves. When I began reading this case, I was certain that the counselor would need to use a more rigorous form of counseling because working with adolescents can be demanding. I also felt that incorporating some family counseling with Ed’s parents might have been a positive change. Through some of Ed’s communication, it was clear that there were other issues that needed to be approached and dealt with. I understand that sometimes children don’t see the whole picture, they might feel like the parents are “on their case” when in reality the parents just want what’s best for the child. Also, sometimes parents might not realize how the child perceives the parent’s actions. Family counseling could be a good resource for the family to learn how to communicate better and strengthen the family unit (Golden, 2002).
References
Golden, L. (2002). Case studies in child and adolescent counseling. (3rd ed). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
Henderson, D., Thompson, C. (2011). Counseling Children. (8th ed). Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole.