This chapter serves as an introduction to theories of counseling and psychotherapy. Theories of counseling and psychotherapy are foundational to the practice of mental health professions. Professional counseling or psychotherapy is the process whereby a trained professional uses his or her knowledge of biology, psychology, personality, relationships, and social systems to change behaviors and to solve client problems. Counselors are highly educated professionals who are directed by ethical codes to help people in need. Psychotherapists, no matter what their professional affiliations, are bound by the ethical principles of beneficence and non-maleficence. Mental health is not just the absence of mental disorder. The American Psychiatric Association published its highly used Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th Edition (DSM- 5), which provides a listing of mental disorders and the criteria used to diagnose them. It is a typology of mental disorder-mental illnesses viewed as within the person.

Psychiatrists are primarily suited to working within the boundaries of organic medical propositions and tenets, meaning they are trained as medical professionals addressing physical health issues. Psychiatric Case Management, as a counseling approach can be used by psychiatrists. However, it can also be used by psychologists, mental health counselors, marital and family therapists, social workers, and other mental health professionals when there is involvement of a physician overseeing medical treatments. This chapter provides a broad view of psychiatric practice, and it describes many organic medical diagnostic and treatment approaches. It also addresses types of psychotherapy, approaches to treatment of specific mental disorders, and psychopharmacology. The chapter focuses on topics such as medical assessment, psychiatric interviewing, mental status assessment, psychiatric diagnosis, psychiatric report writing, and medication management. The counselor role in psychiatric case management is threefold: a counselor must be a monitor, educator, and problem solver.

This chapter presents the groundbreaking work of Sigmund Freud as a way to introduce a theory that has influenced the mental health field significantly and pervasively. Psychoanalysis is the term used by Freud to represent his therapeutic model, a model that focuses on the internal workings of the individual self. He views the internal workings of the mind, the psyche, as organized but dynamic. Essentially, the psyche is composed of three major sections: the conscious, the preconscious, and the unconscious. The primary role of the therapist, beyond providing an atmosphere for full exploration of the client’s history, is to help to strengthen the client’s ego. The main goals of psychoanalysis are ego self- knowledge and ego strength. There are several techniques associated with psychoanalysis and some of the techniques consistent with psychoanalysis are: the cathartic method, free association, facilitating and interpreting transference and dream interpretation.

The Individual Psychology of Alfred Adler provides a rich theoretical foundation for what has developed into Adlerian psychotherapy. This chapter defines the basic tenets of Adler’s theory of personality and therapy. Adler’s theory is grounded on the idea that childhood experiences are crucial to the psychological development, and that children, who are by nature in an inferior position to parents and other adults, strive to achieve some sense of superiority. Adler ’s work represents a psychological theory that acknowledges the influence of social factors on the personality. In efforts toward understanding the lifestyle, Adler viewed humans’ unique approaches to life through the lenses of the life tasks. These tasks included: the work task, the social task, and the sexual task. Adler believed that encouragement, the act of promoting courage within someone else, was the cornerstone of therapy and could inspire clients toward growth, healthy adaptation, and functioning in life.

This chapter provides a biographical sketch of Carl Rogers, the creator of Person- Centered Therapy (PCT). The “self” and the “self- concept” are foundational constructs that reflect Rogers’s early ontology, the self as an identifiable aspect of individuality. Rogers’s exposition of the “necessary and sufficient conditions for therapeutic personality change” in 1957 is perhaps the best summary of his foundational theory of change. According to Rogers, the difference that one person makes in interaction with another person does not necessarily have to be consciously recognized, it can be subceived. The basic theory of person-centered therapy is that if the therapist is successful in conveying genuineness, unconditional positive regard, and empathy, then the client will respond with constructive changes in personality organization. The Client-Centered Therapist is basically viewed as a facilitator of growth and movement toward the process of full functioning.

This chapter introduces a counseling theory that is highly focused on how people think both in problem formation and in problem solution. It provides a historical backdrop to the theory of Albert Ellis by providing a concise biography. The chapter presents the rational- emotive behavior therapy (REBT) model in workable form and outlines the basic techniques and case management methods. REBT is very focused on the individual client. Theoretically, attention is primarily on the way the individual thinks (cognitive primacy) with secondary but localized attention on how the individual feels and acts. The setting for REBT is the therapist’s office, usually informally arranged, so that the therapist and the client can sit without barriers between them. Ellis described rational- emotive therapy (RET) as a comprehensive cognitive- affective behavioral theory and practice of psychotherapy. Cognitive therapists view cognition as a much more complex process than the REBT adherents.

This chapter provides a biographical sketch of Fritz Perls, the founder of Gestalt therapy. It outlines the underlying philosophy and basic principles that guide the Gestalt therapist. The beginning of Gestalt Therapy is identified best by the writing of Perls’s classic work, Ego, Hunger, and Aggression, which was originally viewed as a revision of Freud’s Psychoanalysis. The target of Gestalt Therapy is the individual perceiver as he or she lives (flows through) life. The Gestalt therapist places more value in action than in words, in experience than in thoughts, in the living process of therapeutic interaction and the inner change resulting thereby than in influencing beliefs. Case management is the process of maintaining contact with the client while facilitating the interpersonal relationship consistent with Gestalt therapy principles. The interpersonal nature of Gestalt Therapy is a strength, from a practical, therapeutic standpoint, but it is also a theoretical weakness.