LPC Individual Counseling Theories and Techniques 1 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which therapeutic approach uses the ABC model to identify how irrational beliefs (B) mediate the relationship between activating events (A) and emotional consequences (C)?
- Person-Centered Therapy
- Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) (Correct answer)
- Gestalt Therapy
- Solution-Focused Brief Therapy
Correct answer: Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT)
Albert Ellis developed REBT and its ABC model, which shows how irrational beliefs about events — not events themselves — cause emotional disturbances.
In REBT, the ABC model posits: A (Activating event) is the situation, B (Belief) is the individual's rational or irrational interpretation, and C (Consequence) is the emotional and behavioral outcome. Ellis later added D (Disputing irrational beliefs) and E (Effective new philosophy). REBT therapists actively challenge 'musturbatory' thinking — absolute demands using 'must,' 'should,' or 'have to' — replacing them with more flexible preferences.
Question 2: In Adlerian therapy, the technique of 'acting as if' asks the client to:
- Imagine a future without the problem
- Behave as if they already possess the qualities they wish to have (Correct answer)
- Pretend the worst-case scenario has already occurred
- Role-play a conversation with a significant person from their past
Correct answer: Behave as if they already possess the qualities they wish to have
'Acting as if' is an Adlerian technique where clients are encouraged to behave as if they already are the person they want to be, helping them move toward their ideal self-concept.
Alfred Adler recognized that clients often wait for feelings to change before changing behavior. 'Acting as if' disrupts this pattern by encouraging clients to behave as if they already feel confident, capable, or socially engaged. By acting differently, clients often discover that their feelings begin to align with their new behavior, reinforcing change. This technique anticipates later developments like behavioral experiments in CBT.
Question 3: Psychodynamic therapy differs from classical psychoanalysis primarily in that it:
- Focuses exclusively on childhood memories
- Is typically shorter-term and more focused, emphasizing the therapeutic relationship (Correct answer)
- Rejects all concepts of the unconscious
- Uses behavioral reinforcement rather than insight
Correct answer: Is typically shorter-term and more focused, emphasizing the therapeutic relationship
Modern psychodynamic therapy is typically shorter-term, more focused on specific conflicts or relational patterns, and places greater emphasis on the therapeutic relationship than classical psychoanalysis.
While classical psychoanalysis involves multiple weekly sessions over many years and uses the analytic couch with free association, modern psychodynamic therapy is adapted for once-weekly sessions, specific focal problems, and active therapeutic engagement. It retains key concepts — unconscious processes, defense mechanisms, transference — but applies them in a more collaborative, relational context consistent with contemporary attachment and relational theories.
Question 4: The miracle question in solution-focused brief therapy (SFBT) is used to:
- Identify childhood trauma that may be contributing to the problem
- Help the client describe and move toward a future in which the problem is solved (Correct answer)
- Challenge cognitive distortions maintaining the presenting problem
- Assess the severity of suicidal ideation
Correct answer: Help the client describe and move toward a future in which the problem is solved
The miracle question asks the client to imagine waking up and finding the problem solved, helping them articulate their goals and identify what a preferred future would look like.
The miracle question (developed by Steve de Shazer) invites clients to imagine: 'If a miracle happened overnight and your problem was solved, what would be different tomorrow morning?' This shifts focus from problem exploration to solution construction, helping clients clarify their goals and identify small, concrete steps toward change. SFBT assumes clients have the resources needed to solve their problems.
Question 5: In narrative therapy, 're-authoring conversations' involve:
- The client rewriting their life story to include more adaptive coping strategies
- Externalizing the problem and helping clients identify preferred identities through their own life stories (Correct answer)
- Reviewing childhood narratives to uncover repressed memories
- Writing a structured autobiography as a therapeutic homework assignment
Correct answer: Externalizing the problem and helping clients identify preferred identities through their own life stories
Re-authoring in narrative therapy helps clients externalize the problem and identify alternative, preferred stories about themselves, drawn from neglected experiences in their own history.
Michael White and David Epston's narrative therapy views problems as stories that people tell about themselves. Externalizing the problem ('the depression' rather than 'being depressed') creates space to explore 'unique outcomes' — exceptions to the problem story. Re-authoring conversations help clients weave these exceptions into a richer, preferred identity narrative, undermining the dominant problem-saturated story.
Question 6: The concept of 'unconditional positive self-regard' is most closely associated with which therapeutic approach?
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
- Person-Centered Therapy (Correct answer)
- Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
- Dialectical Behavior Therapy
Correct answer: Person-Centered Therapy
Carl Rogers emphasized unconditional positive regard as both a therapeutic condition offered by the counselor and an internal state the client develops toward themselves through therapy.
In person-centered therapy, Rogers proposed that psychological distress often stems from a discrepancy between the self-concept and the conditions of worth imposed by significant others. The therapist's unconditional positive regard models self-acceptance, enabling clients to reduce their own conditional self-regard. As clients experience being accepted without conditions, they internalize greater unconditional positive self-regard.
LPC Individual Counseling Theories and Techniques 1
Which therapeutic approach uses the ABC model to identify how irrational beliefs (B) mediate the relationship between activating events (A) and emotional consequences (C)?