Goal of Counseling and Intervention Strategies
Psychoanalytic therapy is a treatment approach developed from Sigmund Freud’s theories that recognizes that an individual’s psychological issues are born from repressed impulses or childhood trauma. In this regard, Ana the client may be harboring significant traumatic event during her childhood that may have made her to become always anxious and worrying about one thing or another. The goal of counseling is to uncover these factors that may have caused trauma and anxiety. There are a number of intervention strategies that may be incorporated to help achieve these goals. They include dream analysis, free association, interpretation, and transference. When the client begins to speak freely about their dreams or anything that comes to mind, the therapist is able to identify hidden feelings.
Is your theory designed for short- or long-term counseling?
The theory is primarily designed for long-term counseling whereby the individual will be required to attend sessions with the therapist for at least once a week. Each therapy session may last for one hour and for proper outcomes of the patient sessions could go on for at least eight weeks (Tummala-Narra, 2015). There have been cases of individuals going for therapy sessions for more than a year. In this case, it is evident that the issues that are affecting an adult client may not be a single event in childhood life (Fonagy et al., 2015). A mixture of issues may be the troubling factor that create a sense of need for extended period of counseling. In Ana’s case, she has agreed to attend an 8 week session mandated by the insurance company.
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What will be the counselor's role with this client?
The role of the counselor in Ana’s case is to ensure that she feels comfortable when she begins to self-identify and make her issues known (Fonagy et al., 2015). It is evident that to effectively help the patient, the psychoanalyst must help them effectively identify their emotional states. Through encouragement and a judgement free environment, the client will begin to open up about different issues that affect their current state of mind. In early sessions, the therapist may choose to avoid eye contact with the client by allowing her to lie on her back on a couch as she begins to express her thoughts (Tummala-Narra, 2015). This creates the illusion that she is merely speaking to herself and not exposing her deepest feelings to a complete stranger.
What is the client’s role in counseling?
The role of the client in counseling is to express true feelings without holding back. For instance, Ana will begin expressing the dreams that she has been having of late to reveal the deep feelings that may be causing her anxiety (Pizer, 2017). The client is encouraged to feel free in the therapy session where it is defined as the distinct space where she can fully express herself. In this case, she may respond to a list of words stated by the therapist and simple mention what is closely associated (Fonagy et al., 2015). The repressed feelings can easily be identified in this role. The patient should also discuss her relationships with family, friends and colleagues. The approach effectively makes it clear how past feelings of a family member may be affecting the life of the client in the present.
For what population(s) is this theory most appropriate? How does this theory address the social and cultural needs of the client?
The psychoanalytic theory is an effective approach of treating various types of mental and emotional health disorders. For instance, depression, anxiety, trauma, and identity problems are some of the common psychological conditions that may incorporate psychoanalytic approach in treatment (Pizer, 2017). The theory is not applicable to a one particular population exclusively as it may be adapted into different cultures (Fonagy et al., 2015). However, it is important to understand the culture that applies to the client in question. The theory effectively helps address the social and cultural needs of the client including identification of trauma, the role of context in the use of language and expression of affect, identification of defense mechanisms based on cultural values, and development of a cultural identity (Pizer, 2017).
What additional information might be helpful to know about this case?
The psychoanalytic theory can help identify numerous issues that are affecting the client’s current state of mind. Her relationship with her family is at the core of the problem where lack of support from the family may be causing her to feel alone and rejected. It is evident that being raised in a close knit family, being alone may become traumatizing and heavily affects the individual’s life (Tummala-Narra, 2015). The client may also be suffering from financial distress whereby she was furloughed from her place of work. Additionally, all of her siblings have graduated from college and have their independent careers. This reality may make her feel as a failure in the midst of her family’s success.
What may be a risk in using this approach?
The psychoanalytic therapy is one of the most effective treatment approaches used on a variety of patients. It may help patients who do not respond to conventional treatment therapies and medications (Tummala-Narra, 2015). However, there are a number of risks involved including the fact that patient may find it painful and agonizing to discover memories that they had repressed for a while now (Tummala-Narra, 2015). The approach may not be appropriate as it may not work when dealing with mental health conditions like schizophrenia or bipolar disorder (Tummala-Narra, 2015). The extensive use of the therapy approach may be quite lengthy and significantly expensive. Therefore, a client like Ana may not be able to get the full effect of the therapy.
References
Fonagy, P., Rost, F., Carlyle, J. A., McPherson, S., Thomas, R., Pasco Fearon, R. M., ... & Taylor, D. (2015). Pragmatic randomized controlled trial of long‐term psychoanalytic psychotherapy for treatment‐resistant depression: the Tavistock Adult Depression Study (TADS). World Psychiatry, 14 (3), 312-321.
Pizer, S. (2017). Core Competency Three: Deep Listening/Affective Attunement. In Core Competencies of Relational Psychoanalysis (pp. 124-140). Routledge.
Tummala-Narra, P. (2015). Cultural competence as a core emphasis of psychoanalytic psychotherapy. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 32 (2), 275.
