Question

What theoretical orientation(s) will you primarily use when counseling students and why? Identify how you considered culture in your theoretical orientation choices

Answer 1

Note: This response is in UK English, please paste the response to MS Word and you should be able to spot discrepancies easily. You may elaborate the answer based on personal views or your classwork if necessary.

(Answer) A counsellor would need to realise that the reason they have a patient is simply that the person has had a difficult past. Even if a patient is nervous about their future, it would almost be a certainty that their anxieties are sourced from their past.

Since this would be the standard pattern of every patient, it would be essential for the counsellor to design each session with a view to offering a context for the patient, based on their past.

There might be patients with difficult childhoods, traumatic experiences, suppressed memories or emotionally damaging experiences from their early life that might have gangrened to their present lives. Therefore, it would be essential for the therapist to help each student be comfortable enough to talk about their past before delving into the current challenges they face.

A student’s background and culture might lead to several differences in personality and even things that they might actually view as problems. A problem for a child of an ethnic background might not be viewed as an issue by a Caucasian child. Therefore, it is essential to pick a theoretical orientation that is able to fit all students, yet acknowledge the uniqueness of each person.

The therapist would have to find ways to know more about their past based on the way they talk about things in the present. In order to pick up on these markers, one would have to be well-versed in understanding the Freudian Id, Ego and Superego. In other words, the therapist would have to learn to investigate the subconscious and unconscious mind based on indicators in their discussion.

For instance, if a student talks about being nervous to have a failed career, the therapist would have to know that the student comes from a home where there might be certain pressures put on them. Although this might be a small example, it is actually quite possible to get attuned to the discussions in a way that might help one uncover the past.

Therefore, the Freudian theory should be able to be a good basic theoretical orientation that might help the therapist uncover the student’s past in order to better decipher their future.