Having worked as a counselor I have found out that personality is normally referred to as the thoughts, emotions and behavior pattern that every person has. Personality trait can have immense variations between individuals. Many research hypotheses concur that personality has aspects that are prominent. Therefore personality disorder is regarded as a debilitating condition which results to inability of an individual affected to perform the usual routine practices for example household matters effectively and efficiently. In this case we find that this affected individual carry a number of signs of the personality disorders and include extreme anxiety and being anxious that occurs to an individual for a period up to around twenty four weeks. The key symptoms of anxiety and worry which are the main cause of psychological disorders may comprise getting easy exhaustion, restlessness, poor concentration, being temperamental and sleep disorders. As a counselor I can say that such worries and anxiety causes major stress and may cause bad image in the societal aspect as well as in the work-related environment contexts and other significant parts of operation in an individual’s daily life. We can also deduce that such turbulences caused by psychological disorders are not related however to other psychological causes such as drug abuse or medical conditions that might be related to this kind of anxiety.
On the other hand I consider counseling to be very essential especially to people who have stress or depression in their lives. In counseling, there is helping of persons that are psychologically healthy to resolve problems or issues that are affecting them. In most cases this takes place on a short term basis. Counseling is a very important aspect in the society today. The reason for this is I can say that people nowadays go through complex issues that are not easy to solve. These issues range from work, education, marriage, relatives name it-they all affect individuals and families and they can really stress someone. All these issues need a person who has been professionally trained to handle them. In this case of handling an individual who has personality disorder we find that the counseling professionals normally indulge in a type of therapy referred to as Client-Centered Therapy.
As a clinical practitioner I have been defining the client-centered therapy as an approach that is meant to treat a variety of disorders which may include depression anxiety, domestic violence, and drug addiction among others. We also find that this theory is also applied in the treatment of the individuals who are reported to be having a number of disabilities, such as mental and developmental disabilities. In this theory I therefore find that counseling is applied with an aim of reducing the pain associated with various disabilities and in the process dealing with the feelings of despairs that go along with this disorder. (Gask and Usherwood 1997)
Client-Centered therapy is a type of counseling that specializes in the creation of changes in the individuals’ personal life whereby the person is always found to be at a risk of being attacked with psychological disorders, thus it involves the therapist to centre his focus on the client. This method works hand in hand with behavioral therapy which brings an establishment of the skills that may be applied in the solving of a number of problems. Research indicates that the counselors, prefer this method and the reason for this is that it creates a distinction between external problems and internal changes to be made by an individual, the internal changes are meant to help in the assessment of the problems the child is facing, this is usually done by self-evaluation, including the evaluation of other people surrounding the affected person and his the life expectations. External changes are applied in the handling of the present situations by the use of management skills which include communication, life management and the skills required to develop a better relationship with environment of the client. (Basch, 1986)
The goal of this therapy is to allow the individual to have an opportunity to be optimistic and create reality in his prospects and thus reduction of depression. It therefore enables the dejected individual to be acquainted with life troubles which are decisive and those that are of no importance which help him to come up with positive life objectives that is to be optimistic. I also find that in this theory the problem solving therapy technique is applied whereby the therapist is put in a position of identifying the causative of the disorder and finding the solution to avoid further damage to the client. (Chopra and Kulhara, 1996)
The therapist is found to be using the following methods in order to resolve such issues; Therapeutic relationship; under this I can mention that a better relationship between the client and the counselor is established. The client is therefore required to build trust and safety on the counselor although sometimes I argue that the client finds it hard to build trust on the counselor thus they end up not giving full information about the causative factor of their illness. According to the counseling practices safety is considered as a leading factor to a safety therapeutic trauma work. In this case the patient may be found to be having a number of characteristics that may hinder him from building trust and safety on the therapist. (Corey, 2005)
Counseling has always been regarded as the best method used by this client centered therapy which is believed to be dealing with clients suffering from various disorders, thus it helps the client in handling a number of issues which are found to be causing the disorders. In rare cases this practice requires skilled professionals to deal with issues ranging from education, marriage, individuals and families. As a professional I am therefore required to have acquired the following in my practices in order to understand the client’s problem. I should develop good listening skills, empathy, and also should be genuine since I am always required to tell the truth even if the subject matter is not that good to the patient. Therefore my responsibility is to bring out the truth in a way that the client will be able to handle and understand his situation; being a therapist I should give unconditional positive regard and also have concreteness in providing any information about the psychological disorder the client is subjected to. (Gask and Usherwood 1997)
This therapy indicates that individuals are always found to be responding to the emotional stimulation not normally; this may come up as a result of biological factors and also the way the individual was brought up. It is usually carried out in two forms; that is the weekly psychotherapist that involves the addressing issues that are said to have affected the individual during the week and also coming up with the best resolutions for such factors leading to psychological disorders. The second form is the group therapy which is directed towards the handling of the interpersonal skills, the regulation of emotions and also enabling the individual to accept and also tolerate the disorder. The importance of the Client Centered Therapy is that it helps the individuals found to be suffering from the personality disorders to response to such conditions positively and also bringing up a number of characteristics including that of self-esteem, having and looking for more goals in life and also learning of new methods of behaving. (Eysenck, 1997)
Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing; this is also one of the methods that i usually offer as a client centered therapists in ensuring that the traumatic and psychological experiences are remembered by the patient. In this case I do this by asking the patient to follow the my finger in the left right eye movements that is usually done in a rhythmic manner, and by doing this the individual suffering from the personality disorder is therefore asked to be thinking of the traumatic experience undertaken in the process of being attacked by the disorder. I find this therapy to be leading to reduced cases of the appearance of the traumatizing images to the client. Many argue that this therapy method provides no control, pre and post treatment assessments (Chopra and Kulhara, 1996)
I regard this therapy as the best method used in helping people who suffer from personality problems. This is because many dysfunctions such as traumas resulting form drug abuse, child abuse and other family matters are easily handled by using the patients’ family members who produce a number of information such as personal characteristics that may help the counselor in handling the person affected by the disorders. This is a treatment that may be used by many counselors and that they are advised to per take this therapy with regards to carrying a number of methods used in counseling. One of them is the supportive method of counseling which is applied in the counseling with an objective of relieving pain caused by depression on the individual and also by doing this the patient is also allowed to recognize himself as an important member of the society. Most of the disorders make individual face loneliness and discriminated from the rest of the people in the society thus such technique is important. (Gask and Usherwood1997)
As a therapist I prefer this method since it creates a distinction between external problems and internal changes to be made by the person, the internal changes are meant to help in the assessment of the problems the person is facing, this is usually done by self-evaluation, including the evaluation of other people surrounding the sick person and the expectations of the person in his life. External changes are usually used in the handling of the existing problems by the use of various management skills including, communication, life management and those required to develop a better relationship with those who are not affected by the disorders.
I therefore find that exposure in counseling plays a major role in helping the people with personality disorders; it is usually identified in two forms, one being exposure to the feared solutions which is a method that involves tackling repeatedly a situation that is said to be causing a particular disorder every time it indicates its reappearing. I find it to be making the person suffering to get used to such a problem until it doesn’t cause more traumas.
The second form is the exposure role plays which is said to be a bit similar to that of the exposure to feared situations. The only difference is that this practice is done on a simulative basis; that is one can repeatedly do the activity which is similar to what is causing the disorder. A good example of this is that when an individual suffering from anxiety always finds it difficult to communicate with his employer, he can therefore try to avoid this problem by trying to talk to someone who is senior to him in the working place and after sometime we find that he will be able to overcome this fear of facing his employer. (Basch, 1986)
I can therefore conclude that counseling plays a key role in treatment of psychological disorders and patients with such disorders should be subjected to such programs in order to aid them to recover slowly from such attacks which may affect their lives by applying both the gestalt therapy and the client-centered therapy. Under the two therapies we find that counseling programs designed should be well formulated to address all the problems that the patients with such disorders are facing in the society in order to avoid the repeat of the attacks. These therapies should be made easier in terms of getting access to it for example building counseling centers in all parts of the county. The relevant authorities should also chip in and offer the counseling services for free or at affordable rates to the members of the society. (Basch, 1986)
References
- Basch, M. (1986): Clinical theory and Meta psychology; Incompatible of complementary? Psychoanalytic Review; 73:261- 271
- Basch, M. (1989): Understanding Trait Theory; New York; Melbourne Press Pp 24-37
- Basch, M. F. (1986). How Does Analysis Cure? An appreciation; Psychoanalytic Inquiry; 6:403-428
- Corey, G. (2005). Theory & practice of counseling and psychotherapy, 7th edition Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole-Thomson Learning Pp 5-13
- Chopra P and Kulhara P (1996)-Social support social dysfunction & stressful life event And neurotic patients, Indian Journal of Psychiatry
- Deurzen, E. & Arnold-Baker, C. (2005): Existential Perspectives on Human Issues; a Handbook for Practice- London, Palgrave, Macmillan Pp 23-54
- Eysenck, H. (1997): Personality and experimental psychology; the unification of psychology and the possibility of a paradigm; Journal of Personality and Social Psychology; 73; 1224-1237
- Gask L and Usherwood T (1997) medical & psychiatric issues for counselors London Pp. 11-29