Brief Counselling as a Way Forward for the Integrative Counsellor - Essay Example

Brief Counselling As A Way Forward For The Integrative Counsellor In todays world counselling has become a more important aspect of many peoples lives because of the current economic crisis. In the past many people worked within a long-term counselling program but finances and insurance have created a more short-term counselling requirement. Whether brief counselling is feasible for every counselling need is debatable but it does work for many people. How doe is work for the integrative counselling style? Is it effective? Can it be used as an addition to the counsellors current style? These are the questions that this paper will explore and examine for the integrative counsellor. Integrative Counselling Ireland (n.d.) suggests that integrative counselling takes into account the various aspects of counselling theory and brings them together as one unit. Corey (2001) suggests that integrative counselling is an attempt to bring together different counselling methods that work for the individual client. This integrative counselling can take a short or a long time depending on the situation. The meaning of this type of counselling is that it brings together the best aspects of those methods and creates a better opportunity for the client to get the help they need. In the integrative counsellors mind they are looking for what works best for the client instead of sticking to one method that may be their orientation within their counselling practice. Depending on the counsellor a session in integrated counselling can go for the regular 45 or 60 minutes or it can go for up to two hours. Clients usually have several sessions back to back and they can take several months or several years before they are finished with their counselling. Many people have a difficulty taking the time to stay in therapy for a very long time or their insurance may only work for a few sessions. In light of this many integrative counsellors also practice brief therapy to give clients several different options. Brief Counselling This method of counselling is geared towards working directly with the problem and resolving it in only a few sessions. Usually the sessions are between six and ten sessions. Statistics have shown that brief counselling brings more referrals to a counsellor because it is future focused and looks at the strengths of the individual rather than looking for the weaknesses (Brief Therapy Practice 2003). Brief therapy asks the client what they can do differently to resolve their problem rather than dwelling on the problem as it exists now. The process allows a client to explore new ways of doing things rather than keeping them stuck in the past. There are generally three stages of brief therapy that have been identified by therapists: 1. Find out what you want (client) 2. Determine what is working for you and do more of it. 3. Do something different. (Brief Therapy Associates) Clients stay in the current moment and look towards the future rather than going into the past for this therapy. They are working on solutions instead of trying to figure out the past and why something is happening. Brief Therapy Models There are several brief therapy models that are being used by therapists who already use an integrated model. Essentially therapists have adopted their own style to include brief therapy in different ways. Solution focused brief therapy is a type of therapy the focus is strictly on what is happening now and how it can be changed in the future. This therapy focuses on the skills that an individual already has and how to take these skills to resolve the presenting problem. The goal of solution therapy is to build upon solutions so that the language of how a patient looks at the problem changes which means that the problem changes because a solution has been found. A very popular brief therapy that many conditions benefit from is Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT). According to the National Association of Cognitive-Behavioural Therapists (1996-2009) CBT is based on the premise that it is our emotions that create the thoughts that cause our psychological problems; these thoughts in turn create behaviours that stop the individual from moving forward. Since the outside situations are not a consideration in this therapy an individual can change the way they think in order to change their circumstances. The difference between CBT and other short term therapies is that is uses homework assignments and it is the therapist gives instructions along the way and it has a specific ending point. Strasser and Strasser (1997) have applied time limited therapy to the existentialist viewpoint and they help the client look at the social, cultural and political contexts that an individual lives within and helps the individual make sense for themselves about their lives. They look at the various challenges that the individual is trying to discover and help them see how these can be used to move them out of the emotional challenges. Wilson (1996) describes time conscious psychological therapy as taking a series of points with the client that describes where they are in the counselling process. The first point brings them into therapy because they are either in crisis or just checking out the opportunities for therapy. They go from this point to the next which engages them in therapy for a period of time that the counsellor and client agree upon and once these are completed they finish the third point which takes them back into their community with skills they can use (p. 14). One other approach that Wilson talks about is the Cognitive Analytic Therapy approach designed by Anthony Ryle. This approach combines psychoanalytic, cognitive and behaviour theory to create a "high structured and delineated" approach to therapy. This type encourages therapists to share their thinking with clients and brings about a "negotiated commitment" from both sides as to what they will do (p. 10). In todays world it is imperative for counsellors with an integrative counselling style to bring some style of brief counselling into their practice as one more tool they can use with clients. Many people have a stigma about going to counselling which creates a problem in entering a therapists office. When they understand that there are choices that are short term as well as long term it will be easier for clients to commit to a shorter time. Brief therapy has several benefits as well. It is more cost effective, can be done in a shorter amount of time with the same results and an individual can use it as often or as little as they need to over time. Counselling can be a tricky business for both a counsellor and a client because of the challenge with transference or counter-transference. Brief therapy can limit this from happening because it is focused on getting the client moved through their dilemmas instead of keeping them in the past. Because it is a forward movement and there is a specific ending point counsellors will be more focused on working with the individual to help them find a solution to the trauma they are experiencing. It is important to note that most brief therapy works for people who have mild problems whether than those problems that are chronic. References Brief Therapy Associates. An overview of brief therapy. [WWW] URL: < http://www.brief-therapy.com/bta_faq.htm> [Accessed: 20 March 2009]. Brief Therapy Practice. 2003. [WWW] URL Read More