The goals of counseling differ among the three major traditional counseling orientations, namely, insight-oriented or psychodynamic, cognitive-behavioral, and existential humanistic. Briefly explain the goals(s) for each of the orientations. How are these goals implicitly or explicitly reflective of the mega theme of individualism in counseling?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

The main goal of Insight-oriented or psychodynamic orientations is to bolster client’s insight to discover the past experiences that influence present behaviors. The task of counseling or psychotherapy is to bolster client’s ego strength, focusing on the individual while ignoring the context in which clients are embedded. The goal of cognitive-behavioral goal is short-term symptom removal and observable behavior changes with a focus on the individual, while the environmental contributions to the presenting problem are ignored or deemphasized. In the existential-humanistic orientation, the goal is to help clients make sense of their experiences toward the ultimate goal of self-actualization. The cultural environment, that may affect whether an individual self-actualize or not, is not considered. Although there are differences in the goal of each of the orientations, a common theme transcends the three. Emphasis on the dominant cultural values of individualism, individual autonomy, independence and self-reliance is implicitly and explicitly expressed in the three theoretical orientations.