Creating a Working Alliance: Psych 405

Psych 405 Study Notes

The designer of this course says he was largely influenced by the books of Kenneth B. Hoyt. Some key points to not about the nature of work:

• Work is not only related to paid employment, but to purposeful, meaningful, and satisfying activities. Work is contrasted with play which is satisfying and self - fulfilling (maybe) but does not contribute to larger societal goals.

• Exploring ideas such as drudgery, work, and play, is an important part of of career planning - they all contribute to a person's sense of occupational self.

• Career is the lifelong pattern of learning and work.

• Careers unfold regardless of whether or not people plan them.

• Careers develop through relationships.

The first part of counseling is establishing the working alliance. This is the main topic of the course.

Four Phases of Counseling

Phase 1 - A primary function of the the first phase of counseling is to create a climate of acceptance.

It is important when working with a person to be aware of transference. Every person coming to meet with me has some preconcieved notion and ideas. Are they seeing me as their boss, administrator? Do they see the school administrator who will give them detention or suspension or just call mom and dad or just yell? What background are they bringing from past experiences with teachers, administrators, bosses or past experiences with me having seen me in other areas. It is important to be aware of these past perceptions and to work toward the working alliance where a real relationship forms and these notions slide into the background. Focus on the Here and Now Relationship

Phase 2 - Exploration and Assessment. It is imperative that the counselor make sure that goals are agreed on in the first phase if difficulties arise here.

What contextual factors are contributing to the current situation? Develop a clear idea of the nature of the change desired? Clear understanding of the problem from the other person's perspective defining the problem means framing the statement in terms of how the client would like the situation to be different

Phase 3 - Evaluation, Compromise and Integration

Identify the resources available

Phase 4 - Commitment, Action Planning, and Follow Through

Initiate the action plan Any plan needs to clarify the roles each party will have, their commitments, duties Each step in the plan needs to be set so that it will likely lead to success and each step building on the success of the previous steps

Common Counseling Problems

Overzealous rescuing

Many people have SOG's about the world of work (Self-Observation Generalizations). Some that teens seem to be prone to feeling: exaggerating the emotional impact (If I don't success I just can't stand it), Drawing false causal relationships (To get ahead you just have to be in the right place at the right time), Ignorant of relevant facts (Teachers only help those who want to learn or they like me just because they get paid), Faulty generalizations (I'm the only person I know afraid of public speaking)

Components of Therapy Relationship

1. Working Alliance 2. Transference Configuration 3. Real Relationship

Transference influences the working alliance, with positive transference strengthening the working alliance. The working alliance also influences transference. It does this by affecting the client's awareness. Transference is very much like the generalized expectations clients hold of people in general. The emergence of the transference is only helpful if it is accompanied by eventual client awareness or insight. In brief therapy, the early transference that occurs must be largely positive if the work is to proceed effectively.

The more positive the therapy participants are toward one another within the context of the real relationship, the stronger will be the working alliance. The stronger the working alliance, the more likely are therapy participants to express directly genuine and realistic feelings toward one another.

As the real relationship comes to the fore the transference configuration tends to recede - or vice versa. As transference distortions become understood and resolved, realistic perceptions take their place.

The working alliance is more important the briefer the time line of the therapy. A sound working alliance is very important to withstand crisis in the relationship.

Counselor Technical Activity

Counselors who were more challenging, thematically focused, and here-and-now orientated were involved in improving counseling situations. Improvement was also seen when counselors increase their use of these tactics as the relationship continues.

Increased use of exploration, assessment and support was negatively related to the strength of the working alliance.

It has been shown to be helpful when counselors address the client's defenses, address the client's guilt, address problematic feelings with the therapist to the client's defenses.

Soothing and too much support will hurt the working alliance.

Develop a Problem-Solving? Orientation

An important skill counselors want to give their clients is a problem solving orientation: • problems are a normal part of everyday life • everyone encounters problems and has to deal with differences of opinion • I'm not different because I have a problem now or that I'm having trouble solving the problem • There are specific skills I can learn to help me solve problems • I already have skills to solve problems. I just need to use what has worked for past problems I've handled to the new ones I'm facing.

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