awards from national organizations and has been recognized as an ACA Fellow. Nationally, Dr. West-Olatunji has initiated several clinical research projects that focus on traumatic stress and systemic oppression. Her publications include three coauthored books, numerous book chapters, and over 50 articles in peer-reviewed journals. Dr. West-Olatunji has delivered research papers throughout Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas.
Robert E. Wubbolding, EdD, presents workshops of practical demonstrations on how to counsel a wide variety of clients. He is director of the Center for Reality Therapy in Cincinnati, Ohio; professor emeritus at Xavier University; and director of training for the William Glasser Institute (1987–2011). Dr. Wubbolding has taught reality therapy in Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and North America. A counselor and psychologist, he has been a high school counselor, elementary school counselor, a halfway house counselor for ex-offenders, and a consultant to the drug and alcohol abuse programs of the U.S. Army and Air Force. He is a qualified trauma therapist. Dr. Wubbolding is author of 18 books, including Reality Therapy and Self-Evaluation, published by ACA in 2017, as well as author of 40 chapters in textbooks. In October 2005, he was awarded Outstanding Graduate for the 1970s decade by the University of Cincinnati Counseling Department. He received the “Legend of Counseling” award at the ACA Annual Conference in Hawaii in 2014, and the “Friend of Singapore” award in 2016. He has introduced reality therapy in Romania, Malta, and South Korea, among other countries.
Mark Young, PhD, is an associate professor at Gonzaga University, where he serves as director of the marriage and family counseling program in the Department of Counselor Education. His research interests are healthy couple relationships and live supervision. He has written several articles and book chapters in the areas of couples counseling and supervision.
Anthony Zazzarino, PhD, is an assistant professor at Rutgers University in the Department of Psychiatric Rehabilitation and Counseling Professions, where he is core faculty in the master’s program in rehabilitation counseling and the doctoral program in psychiatric rehabilitation. Dr. Zazzarino is the field experience coordinator for the counselor education and supervision track. Dr. Zazzarino is actively presenting at local, state, national, and international conferences related to sexual, affectional, and gender identity; multiculturalism; psychiatric rehabilitation methods; counseling services; substance use disorders; housing; and supervision practices. Furthermore, he has an extensive clinical history providing supportive services to adults with a serious mental illness living in supported housing agencies and continues to conduct clinical work today. Dr. Zazzarino provides group therapy for adolescents and adults at an intensive outpatient program, outpatient counseling services at his private practice, and clinical supervision for counselors who need supervised clinical hours in New Jersey.
Chapter 1
Helping Relationships and Theoretical Foundations for Counseling and Psychotherapy
David Capuzzi, Mark D. Stauffer, and Rhemma D. Payne
Studying theories of individual counseling and psychotherapy is simultaneously challenging and enlightening and usually marks the beginning of a long-term journey to develop one’s personal theory of counseling. The process is challenging as there are so many options from which to choose to guide one’s practice because theories, though different conceptually, all have one thing in common—the importance of developing a therapeutic alliance with a client. Through the counseling relationship and the therapeutic alliance that develops, client change occurs. Although the creation of this relationship is not the end goal of the process, it certainly is the means by which goals are met. It serves as the framework within which effective helping takes place. In addition, even though use of each theory is dependent on the helping relationship, each theory presents a different model for case conceptualization and treatment planning and uses a variation of aligned techniques and interventions.
Most beginning counselors experience doubts and insecurities about how theories help counselors navigate their work with clients, and more specifically, how they will use theories in their own practice. What are they nervous about in their study and application of counseling theories? Some counselors have an overwhelming sense that they must quickly or eventually choose one theory to work from and then faithfully hold to it (in a limited and an uncreative way). Others worry that working from any theory will box in or limit their view of the client. How can one theory capture a person’s lived experience? How can one theory be used across multiple clients with diverse cultural intersectionalities? Intersectionality means that “different aspects of one’s identity are not exclusive of each other, but rather inform the construction of each other in reciprocal ways” (Brinkman & Donahue, 2020, p. 109). These questions and others like them must be kept alive by counselors in their living practice. At the same time, use of theory is intended not to limit who a client is but rather to help a client change through a specific path or lens. This is one path among possible helpful paths.
Rather than thinking that there is only one theory that can help a client, consider that therapy from multiple theories may help the same client. The first question may be, are certain theories more or less appropriate given the circumstances and the client’s cultural intersectionalities? Second, how do those relate to how you, as a counselor, are able to work with clients? Examine the mechanism for how a theory creates change in a client’s life (e.g., through insight, behaviors, emotion, catharsis, or cognitions) and realize that success through one mechanism leads to changes in other aspects because growth is systemically interdependent. Thus, a transformative existential insight in therapy will likely cause secondary behavioral, relational, emotional, and systemic changes. Can you think of how you created a change in your life in one area, such as your thoughts, behaviors, relations, or in your bonding with others, that then created a ripple of secondary changes, and then tertiary changes? Adept counselors clearly understand the range of theories, mechanisms of change, and advantages to different systems of therapy even if they have a theoretical focus. Additionally, students of counseling often think that they are coming to the helping profession without personal, cultural, and familial notions of helping. Without thorough examination of different theories and techniques of helping, they may develop a therapeutic relationship and simply default to the ideas of helping from their family of origin. These are not necessarily wrong; however, mastery as well as helping diverse clients goes beyond a counselor’s default as a professional.
Some counselors-in-training initially try to apply attending, building rapport, and helping skills without a helping theory and find themselves lost in medium-and long-term work with clients. The study of theories will often be at the beginning of coursework for necessary growth and understanding throughout the program, but often it is taught before one works with clients, which makes the application of theory harder to understand. As a suggestion, they should review this book during their program as well as to guide their practicum and internship; in the meantime, they should examine how individuals, families, and groups change in their lives, and, of course, watch counseling videos from different theoretical lenses with current and culturally relevant scenarios. In this book, we have tried to make it as easy as possible to learn about available options to guide counselors’ and therapists’ preparation and actual work with clients. Because this is a foundations text for broad synthesis and introduction to various theories, we encourage counselors and therapists to find landmark resources, current adaptations, and new research to deepen their work in the theories they pursue.
Notice that each chapter from Chapters 2 through 17 addresses the theory under consideration using the same headings and subheadings; this enables the reader to compare concepts,
