The Role of Becks Cognitive Therapy in Counselling - Essay Example

Running Head: PRACTICE REPORT ESSAY Practice Report Essay Name: Course: College: Tutor: Date: Table of Contents Introduction 3 Beck’s Cognitive Therapy 3 Critique of Beck’s theory 6 Conclusion 8 Recommendations 8 References 9 Practice Report Essay Introduction Behaviours, and the way people think in society are the areas in the life of human beings that have captured the interest of many people in modern society, just as it did many years ago. This has led to the development of theories that have been formulated with an anticipation of helping these people to understand people and their behaviours. Yet most of the theories used today were developed several centuries ago. Counselling and psychology are the areas that depend highly on the principles and theories developed several centuries ago (Watson & Nathan, 2008). Counselling is built on various theoretical foundations and these foundations play an important role in relation to learning of the human behaviour in society. One of these principles is Aaron Beck’s Cognitive Therapy. This report therefore will act as a critique of Beck’s Cognitive Therapy. The report will also use a case scenario of a boy named Johnny, who is denied an opportunity to participate in a Milo cricket tournament. Beck’s Cognitive Therapy Beck’s Cognitive Therapy is based on the fact that negative thoughts that are generated in a person’s life are in most cases based on assumptions that cannot be ascertained in the real world (Oei, Bullbeck. & Campbell, 2009). For example, Beck argues that a person may say to another that he is no longer loved by his parents just because they did not allow him to use a family vehicle to go to a night party in town. Such assumption cannot be substantiated; instead, these are just thoughts that occur in a person’s mind causing them to act weirdly in society. These theories have been useful in various areas of human psychology as a way of dealing with therapy and counselling issues in society. For example, these theories have played a critical role in analysing and defining depression, personality disorders, panic disorders, phobias and anxiety disorders. These have been the applications of Beck’s cognitive theory in trying to help the therapists, psychologists and counsellors to come to terms with real issues that concern their field of study and to improve the services that are delivered to their patients. Therefore, Beck’s cognitive theory played a great role in providing sufficient guidance to the overall understanding of patient behaviour and the empowering of psychology, therapy and counselling personnel to provide quality assistance to their patients (Watson & Nathan, 2008). There are various Beck’s theories that are used in the medical world today. One of these theories is the Cognitive Theory of Depression. This theory assumes that negative thoughts are the major causers of symptoms of depression in people ((Kercher, Rapee & Schniering, 2009). According to Beck, the level of depression that occurs in a person is directly proportional to the amount of negative thoughts that a person harbours in his mind. For example, Johnny seemed to be more depressed when negative thoughts increased in intensity in his mind as he talked to the counsellor. When he was asked by the counsellor at the beginning of their conversation about how he felt when he was left out of the cricket school team, he replied with a positive mind that he was optimistic that next time he will be considered. However, as the conversation continues and there is an element of negative thoughts that is introduced in his mind, he develops extreme negative thoughts towards Mrs. Murray, his teacher. This therefore depicts the fact that is cited by Beck that as negative thoughts intensifies in a person, his level of depression deepens. Beck also explains people’s behaviour using a negative cognitive triad whereby a person is affected by one or two or all of these three issues in his life. First, there are people who believe that they can’t, i.e. they are unable to do anything in their lives, have a future without a hope and finally, that their experiences are futile, they don’t result in anything. Beck, in his cognitive theory asserts that these factors have the capability of derailing a person’s moral capability and therefore becoming the genesis of depression in his life. In Johnny’s scenario, he argues with the counsellor that his efforts in playing cricket are not recognized by anybody including his own teacher Mrs. Murray. On the other hand, he continually reiterates that he is a crap, therefore no matter what his effort is, he will atomically fail because his destiny is predetermined as a crap (Huggins, Davis, Rooney & Kane, 2008). Therefore, Beck uses this theory to explain the reasons as to why people feel they way they feel and the reason why there is depression in people (Geldard, 2009). Thus, his theory plays a vital role in helping counsellors to really understand the genesis of some problems in people’s lives. In this case, counsellors are aware that the origin of depression is as a result of the negative thoughts and feeling that these people have entertained in their lives. With such contributions at the disposal of counsellors, it is easier for them to approach their patients from a dimension that is focussed and aware of a particular piece of information that is sought after from their patients that will help them to ease their depression problems. For example, the awareness by a counsellor of this theory when dealing with a case such as that of Johnny, the 10 year old boy, it is easy to make him to understand that what he is feeling are all in his mind and that he can overcome the negative perceptions that he holds towards people and life in general. At the end of the conversation between the counsellor and the Johnny, Johnny admits that he was not a crap as he had thought before and he begins lightening up with a ray of hope in his future and finally believes that he has an opportunity to play for the school team again (Egan, 2009). Beck’s theory also has a particular way of approaching the patient. It was also found out that Beck’s theory relies heavily on the use of questions that were aimed at guiding the thinking process of a person so that this person may begin thinking in a positive way. For example, when the Counsellor was talking to Johnny in the given scenario, the counsellor used a certain criteria that allowed him to ask several questions, both positive and negative questions that are directed to Johnny with an aim of helping him to view his situation from a different dimension. Therefore, throughout the conversation, the Johnny’s attitude moves from a positive attitude to a negative one until he finally accepts that his perception towards himself and Mrs. Murray his teacher is wrong. Critique of Beck’s theory There are various issues that can be noted in Beck’s theory. First this theory fails to recognize the challenges that are associated with children on the basis that the author and other researchers have conducted very little research among children to ascertain the probability that his theory was effective and worked among them. For example, while the process of depression can be identified in adults, it was very hard to determine whether the same process that took place in adults was the same one that took place in children (Egan, 2009). The theory also fails to look at the possibility of children getting stressed by examining either their parents’ or guardians’ behaviours. This is because studies that have been carried out in the past show that, children learn by observing what adults do in their presence (McLeod 2009). On the other hand, a patient was supposed to be in a position to speak for Beck’s theory to be applied. This is because, the counsellor must be able to use a certain set of questions that prompts the patient to think in a certain way for him to be able to retrieve information from him that will help him to deal with the problem (Egan, 2007). For example, when Johnny is talking to the counsellor about being left out of the cricket school team, he uses verbal language that enable the counsellor to pamper him with questions that are used to direct his thinking process from a negative to a positive thinking. However, if a scenario was found whereby Johnny refuses to talk, the counsellor will be left speechless as there would be no way to get to understand the thinking processes of Johnny. Another scenario that may arise occurs when the counsellor is trying to counsel a deaf person. Unless the counsellor properly understands the sign language, this person cannot be helped as he would not communicate with the counsellor. Finally, a more complicated case occurs when the person in question is both blind and deaf. Therefore, the person cannot communicate verbally or by use of the sign language. As a result, the counsellor cannot be in a position to communicate with him in any way. Another issue of consideration in Beck’s theory is the use of No Bushtit Approach. The place of this type of approach is not well defined in Beck’s work. This is because patients vary from one to another. There are those patients who are willing to be helped and have been able to clearly identify the type of help that they need. There are still other patients who are not sure of what they need and therefore cannot be in a position to understand why these questions that are directed to them. The patients that are of specific concern are those that have a negative perception towards counselling and disregard the services that are offered by counsellors. As a result, approaching them using Beck’s strategy may prove futile with time as they would not be able to respond in a genuine manner to the questions that they are being asked. On the other hand, how can one prove that the answers that are being given by the patient are genuine answers? This is an issue that have to be debated again to trigger further research on the methods of ascertaining the credibility of the answer that is being given by the patient. For example, some patients will provide answers in a way that resembles some genuineness in them, yet their aim is to make the counsellor to finish his work and let them go. These cases are many where the patient is being forced to seek for help or is in a state of denial that he is not depressed in any way (McLeod, 2009). Conclusion Beck’s theory has played an important role in counselling as a profession and the contribution that this theory has provided in defining and explaining people’s behaviour is enormous. However, it must be realised that this theory has shortcomings irrespective of its contributions. One of its limitations is its application to certain scenarios that occur in people’s lives. As a result of this, the theory cannot be used by counsellors, prompting for a different theory to be used in such cases. Recommendations There is need for more studies to be carried out on the response that a child gives when under depression. This is because, while Beck’s model can be used in solving problems among children, this can be done only up to a certain age. Therefore, a mechanism of helping children who are stressed must be developed to deal with the psychological challenges that arise among them. On the other hand, there must be considerations of integrating other theories into Beck’s theory to come up with a single theory that encompasses different ideas by different psychologists in the society. These integrated theories can go a long way in solving patients’ problems effectively. This will enhance the skills of counsellors and therapists in the society and thus raise the standards of the quality of service that they offer to patients. References Egan, G. (2007). The Skilled Helper: A problem-management and opportunity-development approach to helping (8th Ed.). Belmont, CA: Thomson / Brooks/Cole. Geldard, D. (2009). Basic personal counselling: a training manual for counsellors. Pearson Education Australia. Huggins, L., Davis, M.C., Rooney, R. & Kane, R. (2008). Socially Prescribed and Self-Oriented Perfectionism as Predictors of Depressive Diagnosis in Preadolescents. Australian Journal of Guidance and Counselling, 18(2), 182-194. Kercher, A.J., Rapee, R.M. & Schniering, C.A. (2009). Neuroticism, Life Events and Negative Thoughts in the Development of Depression in Adolescent Girls. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 37(7), 1573-2835. McLeod, J. (2009). An introduction to counselling. New York, USA: Open University Press. Oei, T., Bullbeck, K. & Campbell, J. (2009). Cognitive change process during group cognitive behaviour therapy for depression. Journal of Affective Disorders, 92(2), 231-241. Watson, H.J. & Nathan, P.R. (2008). Role of gender in depressive disorder outcome for individual and group cognitive-behavioral treatment. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 64(12), 1323-37. Read More