community had an impact on much of her formative development.
Early Adult Years
Clarita’s first true exposure to other cultures came after she left home to attend a university in the U.S. mainland. She had received scholarship offers from three universities, and although her parents wanted her to stay at home and attend the local university, she decided to attend a university located away from Puerto Rico. Her decision caused conflict within her family, and she reported that it placed a good deal of strain on her relationships with both parents. Her sister supported her actions, but her brothers felt that she was abandoning the family.
Clarita was very successful at the university, and it was there that she met and later married the first person she had dated outside of her religion and culture. Mark was a European American engineering student and seemed to have no specific religious affiliation. It was not until their graduation that Clarita introduced Mark to her family and at the same time announced their plans to be married.
Clarita’s family, with the exception of her sister, was very opposed to the marriage and made their opposition known to both Clarita and Mark. And they also faced opposition from his parents. To avoid further confrontations, Clarita and Mark eloped and were married by a justice of the peace in Florida.
After their marriage, they settled in Puerto Rico, secured jobs, and began to build a life together, even though Mark wanted to live near his family in southern Georgia and had a hard time fitting in. It was not until after their first child was born that they tried to improve relationships with both families. By the time their second child was born, Clarita’s family members were much more involved with their children; they were less close to Mark’s family because of the distance, but they still called his parents monthly.
The second child put a strain on the marriage, and within 2 years, Clarita and Mark separated and later divorced. Mark left Puerto Rico and has had no contact with Clarita or his children. Shortly thereafter, the devastation left by the hurricane uprooted Clarita from her home and family. Mark’s parents do continue to have contact with their grandchildren.
Postdivorce Years
It was 3 years after the divorce that Clarita was finally able to discuss the physical and psychological abuse that she received from Mark. During their marriage, he became physically abusive whenever he drank and constantly demeaned her profession, culture, and religion. This was particularly true when he was not adjusting and felt isolated in Puerto Rico. He withdrew from both Clarita and the children and spent more and more time away “on business trips.” When Clarita turned to her family for support, she was confronted with indifference and reminders of their opposition to the marriage. Her sister, once supportive, now blames Clarita for a great deal of the disunity within the family. They all grieve the challenges facing their community ever since the hurricane. The children’s paternal grandparents refuse to believe that their son was abusive and are very critical of the way in which Clarita is raising their grandchildren and of how she does not visit enough.
With the lack of support from family, Clarita turned to newly made friends in Florida for help and one Puerto Rican friend who had also moved nearby. A friend suggested that Clarita needed to meet and start dating other men. She found that she had difficulty relating to men, was afraid to trust, and felt that all they wanted was sex. She felt that the relationships cooled rapidly when they found out she had two children.
Clarita turned to her work and poured all her energy into her students. This resulted in very little energy left for her own children, and their relationship grew very strained. It was at this time that she began to have disturbing dreams that kept her from sleeping. The dreams, according to Clarita, generally entailed the following:
I am always running, and there are shadowy figures behind me. I am in a large warehouse-type structure with lots of boxes and crates. The boxes and crates are all marked with arrows reading “Exit.” The only problem is that the arrows are all going in different directions. Therefore, I never find the exit, and the figures keep getting closer and closer. I wake up in a cold sweat, breathing rapidly, heart pounding, and a scream stuck in my throat. I lie there trying to calm down, knowing that I am too afraid to go back to sleep. In a little while, I get up and spend the rest of the long night sitting at the kitchen table drinking coffee.
The more often the dreams occurred, the more depressed Clarita became. She fought sleep because of her fear of dreaming, and at times she found herself crying uncontrollably. Her eating habits have also changed drastically, and she finds herself buying fast food for the children so that she does not have to cook. She seldom eats and has lost 15 pounds, weight she really cannot afford to lose.
Her depression has kept her away from work and away from people. She has been spending more and more time alone ruminating. In Clarita’s words, “I have nothing to live for. No one cares about me. I have ruined my life and the lives of two families, and I am currently hurting my children.” On the advice of her priest, she sought the help of her physician, who recommended that she seek psychological help.
NEW TO THIS EDITION
An update of Chapter 1 on the helping relationship, with an emphasis on the impact that diverse cultural intersectionalities have on every client who comes to a counselor
A new chapter on how multicultural and social justice issues can be addressed through relational-cultural theory
A chapter on the psychodynamic theories derived from classical psychoanalysis
An updated explanation of Jungian analytical theory
New versions of the chapters on Adlerian, existential, person-centered, Gestalt, rational emotive, and reality theories
A reconceptualized chapter on cognitive behavioral theories
A new chapter describing third-wave cognitive behavioral theories with mindfulness-based interventions
Updated versions of family, feminist, and constructivist theories
A new chapter on emotion-focused therapy
A chapter describing how creative approaches to counseling can be used in the context of a variety of theoretical models
We, the coeditors, and the contributors have made every effort to give the reader current information and content focused on both theory and application. It is our hope that the seventh edition of Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theories and Interventions will provide the foundation that students need to make decisions about follow-up study of specific theories as well as the development of their own personal theory of counseling and psychotherapy.
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank the authors who contributed their time and expertise to the development of this textbook for professionals interested in individual counseling and psychotherapy. We also thank our families who supported and encouraged our writing and editing efforts. Thanks go out to Carolyn Baker and other staff members of the Publications Department of the American Counseling Association for their collaborative and thorough approach to the editing and production of this textbook.
