COU505

Existential vacuum

A condition of emptiness and hollowness that results from meaninglessness in life.

Cognitive restructuring

A process of actively altering maladaptive thought patterns and replacing them with constructive and adaptive thoughts and beliefs.

Overgeneralization

A process of holding extreme beliefs on the basis of a single incident and applying them inappropriately to dissimilar events or settings.

Working through

A process of resolving basic conflicts that are manifested in the client's relationship with the therapist; achieved by the repetition of interpretations and by exploring forms of resistance.

Introjection

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

Socratic dialogue

A process that cognitive therapists use in helping clients empirically test their core beliefs. Clients form hypotheses about their behavior through observation and monitoring.

Neurotic anxiety

A response out of proportion to the situation. It is typically out of awareness and tends to immobilize the person.

Empty chair technique

A role-playing intervention in which clients play conflicting parts. This typically consists of clients engaging in an imaginary dialogue between different sides of themselves.

Blank screen

An anonymous stance assumed by classical psychoanalysts aimed at fostering transference.

Cognitive therapy

An approach and set of procedures that attempts to change feelings and behavior by modifying faulty thinking and believing.

Positive ethics

An approach taken by practitioners who want to do their best for clients rather than simply meet minimum standards to stay out of trouble.

Expressive arts therapy

An approach that makes use of various arts—such as movement, drawing, painting, sculpting, music, and improvisation—in a supportive setting for the purpose of growth and healing.

Normal anxiety

An appropriate response to an event being faced.

Sublimation

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

Compensation

An ego-defense mechanism that consists of masking perceived weaknesses or developing certain positive traits to make up for limitations.

Displacement

An ego-defense mechanism that entails redirection of some emotion from a real source to a substitute person or object.

Regression

An ego-defense mechanism whereby an individual reverts to a less mature form of behavior as a way of coping with extreme stress.

Rationalization

An ego-defense mechanism whereby we attempt to justify our behavior by imputing logical motives to it.

Analytical stages

An elaborate explanation of human nature that combines ideas from history, mythology, anthropology, and religion.

Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing

An exposure therapy that entails assessment and preparation, imaginal flooding, and cognitive restructuring, using the rapid, rhythmic eye movements aimed at treatment of traumatic experiences

organismic self-regulation

An individual's tendency to take actions and make contacts that will restore equilibrium or contribute to change.

Freedom

An inescapable aspect of the human condition; we are the authors of our lives and therefore are responsible for our destiny and accountable for our actions.

Confrontation

An invitation for the client to become aware of discrepancies between verbal and nonverbal expressions, between feelings and actions, or between thoughts and feelings.

narcissistic personality

Characterized by a grandiose and exaggerated sense of self-importance and an exploitive attitude toward others, which serve the function of masking a frail self-concept.

_____, developed by Marsha Linehan, has been shown to be effective in the treatment of individuals with borderline personality disorder.

Dialectical behavior therapy

Ego-defense mechanisms

Intrapsychic processes that operate unconsciously to protect the person from threatening and, therefore, anxiety-producing thoughts, feelings, and impulses.

Resistance

The client's reluctance to bring to awareness threatening unconscious material that has been repressed.

Transference

The client's unconscious shifting to the therapist of feelings and fantasies, both positive and negative, that are displacements from reactions to significant others from the client's past.

Manifest content

The dream as it appears to the dreamer.

Repression

The ego-defense mechanism whereby threatening or painful thoughts or feelings are excluded from awareness.

Existential analysis (Daseinanalysis)

The emphasis of this therapy approach is on the subjective and spiritual dimensions of human existence.

Intersubjectivity

The fact of our interrelatedness with others and the need for us to struggle with this in a creative way.

Reality anxiety

The fear of danger from the external world; the level of such anxiety is proportionate to the degree of real threat.

Moral anxiety

The fear of one's own conscience; people with a well-developed conscience tend to feel guilty when they do something contrary to their moral code.

Genital stage

The final stage of psychosexual development, usually attained at adolescence, in which heterosexual interests and activities are generally predominant.

Informed consent

The right of clients to be informed about their therapy and to make autonomous decisions pertaining to it.

Anal stage

The second stage of psychosexual development, when pleasure is derived from retaining and expelling feces.

Internal dialogue

The sentences that people tell themselves and the debate that often goes on "inside their head"; a form of self-talk, or inner speech.

Unfinished business

Unexpressed feelings (such as resentment, guilt, anger, grief) dating back to childhood that now interfere with effective psychological functioning; needless emotional debris that clutters present-centered awareness.

Hierarchy of needs

We are able to strive toward self-actualization only after these four basic needs are met: physiological, safety, love, and esteem.

Self-talk

What people "say" to themselves when they are thinking. The internal dialogue that goes on within an individual in stressful situations.

In behavior therapy it is generally agreed that

the client, with the help of the therapist, should decide the treatment goals.

Like Adlerian therapy, behavior therapy stresses _____.

the collaborative development of goals

A shortcoming of behavioral therapy from a diversity perspective is

the focus on treating specific behavioral problems overlooking significant issues.

Contemporary behavior therapy places emphasis on

the interplay between the individual and the environment

Objects relations

Interpersonal relationships as they are represented intrapsychically.

Dichotomous thinking

A cognitive error that involves categorizing experiences in either-or extremes.

Angst

A Danish and German word whose meaning lies between the English words dread and anxiety. This term refers to the uncertainty in life and the role of anxiety in making decisions about how we want to live.

Death instincts

A Freudian concept that refers to a tendency of individuals to harbor an unconscious wish to die or hurt themselves or others; accounts for the aggressive drive.

Shadow

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

Coping skills program

A behavioral procedure for helping clients deal effectively with stressful situations by learning to modify their thinking patterns.

dialectical behavior therapy (DBT)

A blend of cognitive behavioral and psychoanalytic techniques that generally involves a minimum of one year of treatment.

Boundary violation

A boundary crossing that takes the practitioner out of the professional role, which generally involves exploitation. It is a serious breach that harms the client and is therefore unethical.

Selective abstraction

A cognitive distortion that involves forming conclusions based on an isolated detail of an event.

Professional Burnout

A condition that occurs when helpers feel drained and depleted as a result of their work. Certain factors, such as constantly giving without expecting much in return, can sap helpers' vitality and motivation. Self-care can help to prevent this condition.

Anxiety

A condition that results from having to face choices without clear guidelines and without knowing what the outcome will be.

Dual or multiple relationships

A counselor assumes two (or more) roles simultaneously or sequentially with a client. This may involve assuming more than one professional role or combining professional and nonprofessional roles.

Empathy

A deep and subjective understanding of the client with the client.

Reaction formation

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

Boundary crossing

A departure from a commonly accepted practice that could potentially benefit a client (e.g., attending a client's wedding).

Borderline personality disorder

A disorder characterized by instability, irritability, self-destructive acts, impulsivity, and extreme mood shifts. Such people lack a sense of their own identity and do not have a deep understanding of others.

Confluence

A disturbance in which the sense of the boundary between self and environment is lost.

Field

A dynamic system of interrelationships.

stress inoculation training (SIT)

A form of cognitive behavior modification developed by Donald Meichenbaum that is a combination of information giving, Socratic discussion, cognitive restructuring, problem solving, relaxation training, behavioral rehearsals, self-monitoring, self-instruction, self-reinforcement, and modifying environmental situations.

Arbitrary inferences

A form of cognitive distortion that refers to making conclusions without supporting and relevant evidence.

rational emotive imagery (REI)

A form of intense mental practice for learning new emotional and physical habits. Clients imagine themselves thinking, feeling, and behaving in exactly the way they would like to in everyday situations.

Actualizing tendency

A growth force within us; a directional process of striving toward self-regulation, self-determination, realization, fulfillment, perfection, and inner freedom; the basis on which people can be trusted to identify and resolve their own problems in a therapeutic relationship.

Aspirational ethics

A higher level of ethical practice that addresses doing what is in the best interests of clients.

Motivational Interviewing (MI)

A humanistic, client-centered, psychosocial, directive counseling approach that was developed by William R. Miller and Stephen Rollnick in the early 1980s.

Privileged communication

A legal concept that generally bars the disclosure of confidential communications in a legal proceeding. Clients are protected from having their confidential communications revealed in court without their permission

Phenomeonology

A method of exploration that uses subjective human experiencing as its focus. The phenomenological approach is a part of the fabric of existentially oriented therapies, Adlerian therapy, person-centered therapy, Gestalt therapy, and reality therapy.

Relational model

A model that characterizes therapy as an interactive process between client and therapist in which countertransference provides an important source of information about the client's character and dynamics.

Positive psychology

A movement that has come into prominence, which shares many concepts on the healthy side of human existence with the humanistic approach.

Humanistic psychology

A movement, often referred to as the "third force," that emphasizes freedom, choice, values, growth, self-actualization, becoming, spontaneity, creativity, play, humor, peak experiences, and psychological health.

Latency stage

A period of psychosexual development, following the phallic stage, that is relatively calm before the storm of adolescence.

Existentialism

A philosophical movement stressing individual responsibility for creating one's ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving.

Free association

A primary technique, consisting of spontaneous and uncensored verbalization by the client, which gives clues to the nature of the client's unconscious conflicts.

Restricted existence

A state of functioning with a limited degree of awareness of oneself and being vague about the nature of one's problems.

Collaborative empiricism

A strategy of viewing the client as a scientist who is able to make objective interpretations. The process in which therapist and client work together to phrase the client's faulty beliefs as hypotheses and design homework so that the client can test these hypotheses.

Shame attacking exercises

A strategy used in REBT therapy that encourages people to do things despite a fear of feeling foolish or embarrassed. The aim of the exercise is to teach people that they can function effectively even if they might be perceived as doing foolish acts.

Dream analysis

A technique for uncovering unconscious material and giving clients insight into some of their unresolved problems. Therapists participate with clients in exploring dreams and in interpreting possible meanings.

Interpretation

A technique used to explore the meanings of free association, dreams, resistances, and transference feelings.

Personalization

A tendency for people to relate external events to themselves, even when there is no basis for making this connection.

paradoxical theory of change

A theoretical position that authentic change occurs more from being who we are than from trying to be who we are not.

Id psychology

A theory stating that instincts and intrapsychic conflicts are the basic factors shaping personality development (both normal and abnormal).

Self psychology

A theory that emphasizes how we use interpersonal relationships (self objects) to develop our own sense of self.

rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT)

A theory that is based on the assumption that cognitions, emotions, and behaviors interact significantly and have a reciprocal cause-and-effect relationship.

Strengths-based cognitive behavior therapy (SB-CBT)

A therapeutic approach that emphasizes client strengths, resilience, and resources for positive change.

cognitive behavior modification (CBM)

A therapeutic approach that focuses on changing the client's self-verbalizations.

CBT

A treatment approach that aims at changing cognitions that are leading to psychological problems.

Deflection

A way of avoiding contact and awareness by being vague and indirect.

Crisis

According to Erikson, a turning point in life when we have the potential to move forward or to regress. At these turning points, we can either resolve our conflicts or fail to master the developmental task.

Nonprofessional interactions

Additional relationships with clients other than sexual ones.

Immediacy

Addressing what is going on between the client and therapist right now.

Thought records

Aimed at assisting clients in identifying negative automatic thoughts and testing them by looking for evidence that does and does not support the negative thoughts.

brief psychodynamic therapy (BPT)

An adaptation of the principles of psychoanalytic theory and therapy aimed at treating selective disorders within a preestablished time limit.

"Third force" in therapy

An alternative to psychoanalytic and behavioral approaches; under this heading are the experiential and relationship-oriented therapies (existential therapy, person-centered therapy, and Gestalt therapy).

Relational analysis

An analytic model based on the assumption that therapy is an interactive process between client and therapist. The interpersonal analyst assumes that countertransference is a source of information about the client's character and dynamics.

Diversity-competent practitioner

An ongoing process that involves a practitioner developing awareness of beliefs and attitudes, acquiring knowledge about race and culture, and learning skills and intervention strategies necessary to work effectively with culturally diverse populations.

Existential anxiety

An outcome of being confronted with the four givens of existence: death, freedom, existential isolation, and meaninglessness.

Irrational beliefs

An unreasonable conviction that leads to emotional and behavioral problems.

Identification

As an ego defense, this may involve individuals identifying themselves with successful causes in the hope that they will be seen as worthwhile.

Holism

Attending to a client's thoughts, feelings, behaviors, body, and dreams.

Presence

Both a condition and goal of therapeutic change, which serves the dual functions of reconnecting people to their pain and attuning them to the opportunities to transform their pain.

Homework

Carefully designed and agreed upon assignments aimed at getting clients to carry out positive actions that induce emotional and attitudinal change. These assignments are checked in later sessions, and clients learn effective ways to dispute self-defeating thinking.

Magnification and minimization

Consist of perceiving a case or situation in a greater or lesser light than it truly deserves.

Schema

Core beliefs that are centrally related to dysfunctional behaviors. The process of cognitive therapy involves restructuring distorted core beliefs (or schema).

Givens of existence

Core or universal themes in the therapeutic process: death, freedom, existential isolation, and meaninglessness.

figure-formation process

Describes how the individual organizes the environment from moment to moment and how the emerging focus of attention is on what is figural.

Generic cognitive model

Describes principles pertaining to all CT's applications from depression and anxiety treatments to therapies for a wide variety of other problems.

Logotherapy

Developed by Frankl, this brand of existential therapy literally means "healing through reason." It focuses on challenging clients to search for meaning in life.

Psychosocial stages

Erikson's turning points, from infancy through old age. Each presents psychological and social tasks that must be mastered if maturation is to proceed in a healthy fashion.

Assessment

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

Techniques

Exercises or interventions that are often used to bring about action or interaction, sometimes with a prescribed outcome in mind.

Existential neurosis

Feelings of despair and anxiety that result from inauthentic living, a failure to make choices, and avoidance of responsibility.

Cognitive narrative perspective

Focuses on the stories people tell about themselves and others regarding significant events in their lives.

Collective unconscious

From a Jungian perspective, the deepest level of the psyche that contains an accumulation of inherited experiences.

Resistance

From an existential-humanistic perspective, resistance manifests as a failure to be fully present both during the therapy hour and in life.

Cognitive distortions

In cognitive therapy, the client's misconceptions and faulty assumptions. Examples include arbitrary inference, selective abstraction, overgeneralization, magnification and minimizations, labeling and mislabeling, dichotomous thinking, and personalization.

Denial

In denial there is an effort to suppress unpleasant reality. It consists of coping with anxiety by "closing our eyes" to the existence of anxiety-producing reality.

Stress inoculation

Individuals are given opportunities to deal with relatively mild stress stimuli in successful ways, so that they gradually develop a tolerance for stronger stimuli.

Life instincts

Instincts oriented toward growth, development, and creativity that serve the purpose of the survival of the individual and the human race.

Labeling and mislabeling

Involve portraying one's identity on the basis of imperfections and mistakes made in the past and allowing them to define one's true identity.

The MI spirit

It is essential that therapists function within the spirit of MI, rather than simply applying the strategies of the approach. The attitudes and skills in MI are based on a person-centered philosophy.

Inauthenticity

Lacking awareness of personal responsibility and passively assuming that our existence is largely controlled by external forces.

Automatic thoughts

Maladaptive thoughts that appear to arise reflexively, without conscious deliberation.

Contemporary psychoanalysis

Newer formulations of psychoanalytic theory that share some core characteristics of classical analytic theory, but with different applications of techniques; extensions and adaptations of orthodox psychoanalysis.

Latent content

Our hidden, symbolic, and unconscious motives, wishes, and fears.

Field theory

Paying attention to and exploring what is occurring at the boundary between the person and the environment.

Blocks to energy

Paying attention to where energy is located, how it is used, and how it can be blocked.

Stages of change

People are assumed to progress through a series of five identifiable stages of motivation and readiness to change in the counseling process. They include the precontemplation stage, the contemplation stage, the preparation stage, the action stage, and the maintenance stage.

Relapse prevention

Procedure for promoting long-term maintenance that involves identifying situations in which clients are likely to regress to old patterns and to develop coping skills in such situations.

Experiments

Procedures aimed at encouraging spontaneity and inventiveness by bringing the possibilities for action directly into the therapy session. Experiments are designed to enhance here-and-now awareness. They are activities clients try out as a way of testing new ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving.

Flooding

Prolonged/intense exposure—either in real life or in imagination—to highly anxiety-evoking stimuli

Psychodynamic psychotherapy

Psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapy involves a shortening and simplifying of the lengthy process of psychoanalysis.

Evidence-based practice

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

Exercises

Ready-made techniques that are sometimes used to make something happen in a therapy session or to achieve a goal.

Maintaining the analytic framework

Refers to a range of procedures, such as an analyst's anonymity, regularity, and consistency of meetings, as a structure for therapy.

Value imposition

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

Negative cognitive triad

Refers to negative views of the self (self-criticism), the world (pessimism), and the future (hopelessness).

Existential tradition

Seeks a balance between recognizing the limits and the tragic dimensions of human existence and the possibilities and opportunities of human life.

Superego

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

Psychosexual stages

The Freudian chronological phases of development, beginning in infancy. Each is characterized by a primary way of gaining sensual and sexual gratification.

Dream work

The Gestalt approach does not interpret and analyze dreams. Instead, the intent is to bring dreams back to life and relive them as though they were happening now.

Bracketing

The ability of counselors to manage their personal values so that they do not contaminate the counseling process.

Self-monitoring

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

Accurate empathic understanding

The act of perceiving accurately the internal frame of reference of another; the ability to grasp the person's subjective world without losing one's own identity.

Retroflection

The act of turning back onto ourselves something we would like to do (or have done) to someone else.

Diagnosis

The analysis and explanation of a client's problems. It may include an explanation of the causes of the client's difficulties, an account of how these problems developed over time, a classification of any disorders, a specification of preferred treatment procedure, and an estimate of the chances for a successful resolution.

Animus (anima)

The biological and psychological aspects of masculinity and femininity, which are thought to coexist in both sexes.

Self-awareness

The capacity for consciousness that enables us to make choices.

Self actualization

The central theme of the work of Abraham Maslow. His theory of self-actualization is postulated on a hierarchy of needs as a source of motivation.

Existential guilt

The result of, or the consciousness of, evading the commitment to choosing for ourselves.

What is true as it is applied to behavior therapy?

The general goals of behavior therapy are to increase personal choice and to create new conditions for learning, a good working relationship between client and therapist is necessary for behavior change to occur, and therapy is not complete unless actions follow verbalizations.

individuation

The harmonious integration of the conscious and unconscious aspects of personality.

Reality principle

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

Pleasure principle

The idea that the id is driven to satisfy instinctual needs by reducing tension, avoiding pain, and gaining pleasure.

Archetypes

The images of universal experiences contained in the collective unconscious.

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.

Libido

The instinctual drives of the id and the source of psychic energy; Freudian notion of the life instincts.

Persona

The mask we wear, or public face we present, as a way to protect ourselves.

Therapeutic core conditions

The necessary and sufficient characteristics of the therapeutic relationship for client change to occur. These core conditions include therapist congruence (or genuineness), unconditional positive regard (acceptance and respect), and accurate empathic understanding.

Unconditional positive regard

The nonjudgmental expression of fundamental respect for the person as a human; acceptance of a person's right to his or her feelings.

Cognitive structure

The organizing aspect of thinking, which monitors and directs the choice of thoughts; implies an "executive processor," one that determines when to continue, interrupt, or change thinking patterns.

Ego

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

Projection

The process by which we disown certain aspects of ourselves by ascribing them to the environment; the opposite of introjection.

Awareness

The process of attending to and observing one's own sensing, thinking, feelings, and actions; paying attention to the flowing nature of one's present-centered experience.

Authenticity

The process of creating, discovering, or maintaining the core deep within one's being; the process of becoming the person one is capable of becoming.

Contact

The process of interacting with nature and with other people without losing one's sense of individuality. Contact is made by seeing, hearing, smelling, touching, and moving.

Countertransference

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

Ego psychology

The psychosocial approach of Erik Erikson, which emphasizes the development of the ego or self at various stages of life.

Rationality

The quality of thinking, feeling, and acting in ways that will help us attain our goals. Irrationality consists of thinking, feeling, and acting in ways that are self-defeating and that thwart our goals.

Congruence

The state in which self-experiences are accurately symbolized in the self-concept. As applied to the therapist, congruence is matching one's inner experiencing with external expressions; congruence is a quality of realness or genuineness of the therapist.

Impasse

The stuck point in a situation in which individuals believe they are unable to support themselves and thus seek external support.

Phallic stage

The third phase of psychosexual development, during which the child gains maximum gratification through direct experience with the genitals.

Classical psychoanalysis

The traditional (Freudian) approach to psychoanalysis based on a long-term exploration of past conflicts, many of which are unconscious, and an extensive process of working through early wounds.

Transference relationship

The transfer of feelings originally experienced in an early relationship to other important people in a person's present environment.

Introjection

The uncritical acceptance of others' beliefs and standards without assimilating them into one's own personality.

Culture

The values and behaviors shared by a group of individuals.

Mandatory ethics

The view of ethical practice that deals with the minimum level of professional practice.

Confidentiality

This is an ethical concept, and in most states therapists also have a legal duty not to disclose information about a client.

Figure

Those aspects of the individual's experience that are most salient at any moment.

Ground

Those aspects of the individual's experience that tend to be out of awareness or in the background.

Phenomenological inquiry

Through a therapist asking "what" and "how" questions, clients are assisted in noticing what is occurring in the present moment.

time-limited dynamic psychotherapy

Through this form of psychoanalytically oriented therapy, clients gain a sense of what it is like to interact more fully and flexibly within the therapy situation. They are helped to apply to the outside world what they are learning in the office.

Ethical decisions

To make ethical decisions, consult with colleagues, keep yourself informed about laws affecting your practice, keep up to date in your specialty field, stay abreast of developments in ethical practice, reflect on the impact your values have on your practice, and be willing to engage in honest self-examination.

Contemporary behavior therapy is grounded on

a scientific view of human behavior

Emotion-focused therapy (EFT)

entails the practice of therapy being informed by understanding the role of emotion in psychotherapeutic change. Strategies used in EFT are aimed at strengthening the self, regulating affect, and creating new meaning.

In behavior therapy, _____ is crucial.

evidence-based practice

Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction practices rely on

experiential learning and client self-discovery

Mindfulness and acceptance-based approaches

have been subjected to empirical scrutiny.

Dialectical behavior therapy

is a promising blend of behavioral and psychoanalytic techniques for treating borderline personality disorders

Applied behavior analysis makes use of

operant conditioning techniques

Most behavioral practitioners stress the value of establishing a collaborative working relationship with clients but contend that

warmth, empathy, authenticity, permissiveness, and acceptance are necessary, but not sufficient, for behavior change to occur.