Love's Executioner

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Book Genre: Autobiography, Counselling, Health, Medicine, Memoir, Mental Health, Nonfiction, Philosophy, Psychiatry, Psychology, Science, Short Stories, Social Science, Social Work Sylvie Schapira refers dynamic psychotherapy to the unconscious process that takes place between people (Schapira, p. 226). Compare and Contrast Existential and Psychodynamic Principles and Practices with Neuro-Linguistic Psychotherapy

If you need assistance with writing your essay, our professional essay writing service is here to help! Essay Writing ServiceYalom himself felt guilty at the end of the treatment and he felt his belief that “he could treat anyone” let him down and embarrassed himself professionally. However, Thelma did not throw any blame on Yalom and remained secretive with the Research Group about the details of her therapy which certainly did not point the finger of failure at Yalom as a therapist, which leads the reader to believe that Thelma did not think the therapeutic process or therapeutic alliance was a failure. Thelma is a very interesting case though and there are several factors in the story which leaves you wondering if Thelma was just a person vulnerable to being fixated (she cannot accept the loss of Matthew) but this may not be a conscious thing. Her age is also important as she’s thinking of “the meaning of her life” and what’s it all about. As the reader I wanted to “fix” Thelma and this made me realise that it also brought out an exaggerated sense of responsibility in me – this is possibly from bringing up my kids as a single parent. Thelma was having a need met by attending therapy and at the end of the six months, there was no mention of suicide in the Research Report, she was happily meeting Matthew for coffee every month or so and her psychological issues and depression had improved. It certainly seems like the therapeutic process and therapeutic alliance did work. Bateman, Pedder and Brown noted that there had some attempts to compare and contrast existential psychotherapy with psychodynamic practice and with other types of psychotherapy, but nothing substantial has come up yet. Therefore, this paper can only compare these two therapies in the light of their similarities and origin.

Discuss the therapeutic process and therapeutic alliance as case studied in Irvin Yalom’s Love’s Executioner. Is the therapy working? Explain. The Research Report Yalom mentioned at the end of therapy with Thelma paints a positive picture where it depicts Thelma as being “improved significantly”. It states she is less depressed and no longer seen as a suicide risk. Her self-esteem has improved and also her anxiety, hypochondriacal tendencies and her tendency for obsession and psychotic behaviour. It also states that Thelma was very secretive about the therapeutic process. It could be said that Thelma is well capable of duping the Research Group. That leads the reader to wonder was it the therapeutic process/alliance that improved Thelma’s state of mind or was it the fact that she was meeting Matthew once monthly for a coffee and a chat, after she finished therapy i.e. just two people having coffee and chatting, no other agenda. Is this all she wanted and possibly used Yalom to facilitate the three-way meeting with Matthew so she could perhaps arrange these regular meetings at a different time? Regardless of what the Research Report stated at the end of the 6 months therapy sessions, Thelma it seemed still had trouble connecting to “reality”, but how can we the reader, judge what her reality is? She was still with her husband Harry as far as the reader knows, but yet yearning for a relationship with Matthew, but this marriage filled a need in both Thelma and Harry as they stayed together. People deserve understanding and acceptance because they are human (Cully and Bond 2004). When, during the therapy process, Thelma became aware of her obsession with Matthew being a problem and the illusion was striped away, she did feel anger but then used that as an excuse to end therapy as her losses were too great. She did commit to the therapy process for the six months which also indicates to the reader that the therapeutic process was working for Thelma. In the Beginning Stage of therapy, we saw a working relationship being established, problems defined and clarified, an assessment made by Yalom (i.e. willing to work with Thelma) and a contract was negotiated. In the Middle Stage we saw Thelma being assisted in reassessing her problems and concerns, which helped to shift the process from problems to solutions and the End Stage typically in concerned with planning for and taking effective action and focuses on ending the Counselling relationship. (Cully and Bond 2004). Thelma ended the therapy herself.Bateman, A. Pedder, J., 2000. Brown, D. Introduction to Psychotherapy: An Outline of Psychodynamic Principles and Practice. Routledge All behavior serves a purpose behavior that is negative in terms of results is dependent of the value of the individual.

Psychodynamic therapy is less frequent in clinical intervention while existential psychotherapy is more frequent three to five times a week. These differences according to Bateman, Pedder and Brown are rather blurred (p. 96). Cohn, HansW. 1997. Existential Thought and Therapeutic Practice: An Introduction to Existential Therapy. USA: Sage Publications This basic and fundamental concept of existential psychodynamic and psychoanalysis has some significance in the application of Neuro-linguistic psychotherapy. As what Cooper and Seal have stated, that NLP is not a therapy but a methodology in the counselling of patients with deviant and disrupted behaviour. We may conclude therefore that neuro-linguistic psychotherapy is a good and effective method of counselling that could be utilized after a thorough study of a particular case has been done using existential and psychoanalysis.Principally, their aim is to help patients cope up with these challenges brought about by their everyday experiences which at one time they seemed unable to overcome. These circumstances in their lives force them to act differently which is quite deviant from the normal reaction which normal people do. Jalem and Schutz further emphasize that another contrast between the two therapies is that the neurolinguistic psychotherapy uses analogue presentation and externalization of inner realities which are often found in practice (par. 16). Sue Cully and Tim Bond 2004, Integrative Counselling Skills in Action, London, Sage Publications Ltd. Our academic experts are ready and waiting to assist with any writing project you may have. From simple essay plans, through to full dissertations, you can guarantee we have a service perfectly matched to your needs. View our services Existential psychotherapy, psychodynamic principles and practices and neuro-linguistic are all basically therapeutic approaches which deal with human experiences, human behavioural patterns and verbal and non verbal reactions about the different problems the patients encounter and the impact of these experiences in their lives.