Compare And Contrast Existential Therapy And Family Systems Therapy
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The British Association for Counselling’s Code of Ethics and Practice for Counsellors states that ‘Counselling may be concerned with developmental issues, addressing and resolving specific problems, making decisions, coping with crisis, developing personal insight and knowledge, working through feelings of inner conflict or improving relationships with others’ (BACP Ethical Framework).
After learning about the various theories of counseling in this semester, I realized that the three that I relate the most to are Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Existential Therapy and Family Systems Therapy. In this essay, I will compare and contrast the three theories by looking at the underlying assumptions and concepts, therapeutic goals and relationships and techniques and procedures.
CBT is one of the most widely known counseling theories these days. If you type the letters “Cog”, Google shows cognitive behavior therapy as its first search suggestion. Even a layman knows about it. Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is a general term for different types of therapy such as Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy and Dialectic Behavior Therapy. Most cognitive-behavioral…show more content… It is helpful for families experiencing conflict within the family unit. It was developed by Murray Bowen who believed that individuals are inseparable from their network of relationships. Unlike traditional individual therapies like CBT and Existential therapy which focuses only on the individual who comes for counselling, family systems therapy suggests that it is important to address the structure and behaviour of the whole family unit. It is considered to be effective for concerns which appear within the family of origin and is useful for both couples and families. Like CBT it is also a short term therapy, usually lasting months. It is not meant to long-term or intensive restructuring of severely dysfunctional