Forum 3 Replies
Reply to 2 classmates for each forum. You must explain briefly (200-250 words) why you agree or disagree with your classmate’s view. Your replies must be in response to classmates who answered a different question than you and significantly add to the discussion. Include a biblical worldview.You are required to include at least one reference in each reply. Remember to use APA formatting.
Cognitive Behavior Theory
Classmate #1 Victor
Cognitive therapists believe that it is important to socialize the client to therapy. What are some examples of this goal in the session? How effective do you believe this technique was? Would you have done anything differently?
Teaching a client, the ability to associate their thoughts and establishing how it relates to their emotions is a powerful tool. The example Dr. Lundgren used about seeing Sally walking across the street and not speaking was simple, yet it made the point. Many times, people jump to the wrong conclusion simply by how their day has been going. And what they are feeling within the moment. Helen immediately walked the cognitive path of socialization as she began to relate to wondering what she had done to make Sally mad, stating she would be spending way too much time in this thought process assuming, and wondering if she should call Sally. (Pearson, n.d.). Some of the examples that stood out to me were the way Dr. Lundgren continued to reinforce the session by walking Helen down the path of what was the situation, her thoughts, emotions, the behaviors that could be a possible outcome of the scenario, and what results could be a possibility. Helen was able to use the three automatic thought process’s: verbally and visually, validity and their utility, and evaluating if the thoughts were dysfunctional (Murdock, 2017, p.310).
I believe this layout is very effective. It allows the counselor to help the client to become socialized within a cognitive model by following a script. Automatic thoughts take the client to an emotion, allowing them to relate to an incident they have previously experienced. Behaviors are generated from the feelings that have been experienced. The emotion will delegate how a client will respond to the situation. The one thing that I may have done differently is to encourage Helen perhaps to talk to her husband about her feelings of missing her writing, and working on plays. Connecting with him once more over a cup of coffee and allowing him to see her not just as his wife or the mother of his children. But, as the women he married, who had a zeal for writing before the married life. Once this line of communication was on the table, he would have a better understanding of why it was so important to her to take a class over the weekend. It would allow him to be supportive with a more rational understanding of why Helen wanted to take a course. Then when she came to the question of asking if he would be willing to watch the children so that she may take the class, he could answer her with more facts to base his answer.
Cognitive Session Theories in action. [Video file]. (n.d.). Pearson. Retrieved September 5, 2019, from http://media.pearsoncmg.com/pcp/21270572125/index.html?wf=1&item=2
Murdock, N. L. (2017). Theories of Counseling and Psychotherapy: A Case Approach [Pearson e Text] (4th ed.). Retrieved from https://etext.pearson.com/eplayer/pdfbook?
Classmate #2 Raven
Helen identifies the automatic thought “he will resent me,” and Dr. Lundgren extends this thought to include “and it will be horrible if he resented you.” What other automatic thoughts can you identify? Explain which of the 3 automatic thought types each thought relates to. How would you work with these thoughts?
Helen expressed additional AT (automatic thoughts) throughout her therapy session such as “It’s a waste of my time to do a weekend class” referring to her interest in attending a playwriting class. This statement relates to the AT type of a distorted thought that is contrary to available evidence (Nancy, 2017). As a counselor, I would work to help Helen identify why she thinks that this is true. Helen expresses that she feels as though attending this class would be a waste of time due to her having a master’s degree and additional experience in her field and having anxiety about asking her husband to watch the kids. Helen also expresses the AT of “I don’t know what is going to happen” “If he held it over my head could I live with it”. These AT’s where in reference to her asking her husband to watch the kids. These relate to the AT type of accurate but distorted thought. She is right in that she does not know how her husband is going to react to her asking him, but her thought is distorted because she does not know if he will hold it over her head or not. Her AT of “If he held it over my head could I live with it” is also an AT type of dysfunctional thought because her fear of the “what if” is holding her back.
If you were counseling Helen from the Cognitive framework, what additional technique(s) could you employ in the session? What would you hope to accomplish?
In addition to CBT with the AT technique I would incorporate the use of REBT described as the “premise that whenever we become upset, it is not the events taking place in our lives that upset us; it is the beliefs that we hold that cause us to become depressed, anxious and enraged” (REBT Network, 2006). With this technique, I would hope to accomplish helping Helen overcome believing how she thinks her husband will react to alleviate her anxiousness. The REBT technique allows people to “control their own thoughts, feelings, and behaviors (Murdock, 2017). If Helen can begin to control her thoughts and feelings in situations, she may be less worried about what the outcome might be and focus on her initial reasoning for asking her husband to watch the kids.
References
Murdock, Nancy 2017. Theories of Counseling and Psychotherapy. Library of Congress Publication https://etext.pearson.com/eplayer/pdfbook?bookid=101994&platform=1030&scenario=1&invoketype=et1&page.
REBT Network (2006). Retrieved from http://www.rebtnetwork.org/whatis.html
