COUNSELING THEORIES

The process of therapists seeing in their clients patterns of their own behavior, overidentifying with clients, or meeting their own needs through their clients.

The values and behaviors shared by a group of individuals.

The ability to pay attention to what one is thinking, feeling, and doing. This is a crucial 1st step in self-care.

Refers to counselors directly attempting to define a client's values, attitudes, beliefs and behaviors

Evaluating the relevant factors in a client's life to identify themes for further exploration in the counseling process.

Psychotherapists are required to base their practice on techniques that have empirical evidence to support their efficacy.

The Freudian chronological phases of development, beginning in infancy. Each is characterized by a primary way of gaining sensual and sexual gratification. Oral stage The initial phase of psychosexual development, during which the mouth is the primary source of gratification; a time when the infant is learning to trust or mistrust the world. Anal stage The second stage of psychosexual development, when pleasure is derived from retaining and expelling feces. Phallic stage The third phase of psychosexual development, during which the child gains maximum gratification through direct experience with the genitals. Latency stage A period of psychosexual development, following the phallic stage, that is relatively calm before the storm of adolescence. Genital stage The final stage of psychosexual development, usually attained at adolescence, in which heterosexual interests and activities are generally predominant.

An ego defense that involves diverting sexual or aggressive energy into other channels that are socially acceptable.

A Jungian archetype representing thoughts, feelings, and actions that we tend to disown by projecting them outward.

A process of taking in the values and standards of others.

The part of personality, present at birth, that is blind, demanding, and insistent. Its function is to discharge tension and return to homeostasis.

The part of the personality that is the mediator between external reality and inner demands.

That aspect of personality that represents one's moral training. It strives for perfection, not pleasure.

The idea that the ego does realistic and logical thinking and formulates plans of action for satisfying needs.

A defense against a threatening impulse, involving actively expressing the opposite impulse.