Personal Theory of Counseling The purpose of th

The purpose of this paper is to explicate my personal theory of individual counseling. The presentation describes my perspective in terms of eight conceptual/theoretical areas: personality structure, motivation, development, individual difference, illness, cure and therapeutic techniques.

It should be noted here that two scriptures serve as the biblical foundation of my approach to individual counseling. These are Romans 1:28 and Romans 12:2. Taken together, I feel these scriptures show the underlying spiritual foundation of all psychopathology (the reprobate mind) as well as the direction of cure (the renewal of the mind). In each of the issues I address in this report, these two scriptural passages are directly salient.

My approach to individual counseling is cognitive-behavioral in orientation. In terms of structure, I rely heavily on the work of George A. Kelly (1955, 1958, 1964). Kelly's view of the personality rests on the assumption that every individual is, in a sense, a scientist attempting to predict and control the world around them. In other words, all people experience events, perceive similarities and differences among these events, formulate concepts and constructs to order phenomena, and on the basis of these constructs, all people seek to anticipate future events.

Individuals, however, are unique in their use of particular constructs. Another way of understanding Kelly's view is that any given person's life is really a rep

's (1955) notion of a person as a scientist provides even more insight into individual differences. In this regard, it will be remembered that Kelly states that the essential aspect of personality is the construct or the person's way of looking at, interpreting, or construing events. His theory further asserts that all people are similar in that they use constructs and follow the same psychological processes in the use of these constructs. However, there is individuality in terms of people's choices of constructs as well as in their use of these constructs. Differences between people in the constructs they use are said by Kelly (1955) to correspond to the differences among scientists in their theoretical points of view. In summary, then I agree with the cognitive-behavioral perspective that people choose how to construct their world and decide, for any given event, those thoughts, perceptions, and self-evaluations that are to be assigned. It is the difference sin choice as to how to view, interpret or construe events, self, and so forth that makes for differences in people's emotional and psychological reaction to any situation. Theory of Health Cognitive behavioral models such as those of Ellis (1979, 1989) and Beck (

Category: Psychology - P