Counseling Theory Essay

Submitted By intensive04
Words: 659
Pages: 3

August 2007 I began my freshman year of a college; I was so excited to be away from home. After attending Preston a predominately white all girl preparatory school I decided to go a historically black college. This turned out to be one of the worst decisions I could have ever made, instead of studying and soaking up culture I decided to party excessively and dabbled in drinking and smoking marijuana .I rarely attended class, had gotten multiple tattoos and piercing, and had linked up with the worst crowd. I was on a math and science scholarship and I had to maintain a 3.0 average; by the end of the school year I had lost my scholarship, and was on the verge of being asked not to come back to school I was extremely troubled when I returned home, I was keeping this major secret from my mom and I did not want to disappoint her because she had made so many sacrifices, and had invested a lot in my education I was to afraid to tell my mother so I attempted to take my own life. After the unfortunate incident, I was forced to attend mandatory therapy sessions with my mother. My mother was devastated she had given me the world and I had flunked out of school. I was full of self loathe, I had no idea where I was going, and what life had in store for me .I was mad that my suicide attempt was unsuccessful and I felt like everyone had turned their back on me .I was mad at my sister for not being sympathetic towards me, she “wasn’t on my side”. As I analyze and study the different types of therapy, I see how my therapists used the existential to deal with my situation. The basic premise of existential therapy is that we are who we chose to be. Existential psychotherapy strives to empower and place the person, and his or her existential choices back at the core of the therapy process. The focus of treatment is on the present, here-and-now, current circumstance, rather than exclusively on early formative influences. While the power of the past and of unconsciousness, those aspects of ourselves of which we are unable or unwilling to become aware to influence the present detrimentally is recognized and addressed as it arises in treatment, the patient's subjective experience of self ("I am") and of the therapeutic encounter is of primary importance. Choice, personal and social responsibility, integrity of the personality, courage, and authentically facing rather than escaping existential anxiety,