MC Master of Counseling: Psychological Theories and Therapeutic Approaches 5 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which of the following theoretical orientations would most likely use 'paradoxical intention' as a therapeutic technique?
- Cognitive-behavioral therapy
- Logotherapy / existential therapy (Correct answer)
- Psychoanalytic therapy
- Person-centered therapy
Correct answer: Logotherapy / existential therapy
Viktor Frankl's logotherapy uses paradoxical intention to have clients wish for or exaggerate feared symptoms, interrupting the anticipatory anxiety cycle.
Question 2: In strategic family therapy, the technique of 'reframing' primarily serves to:
- Restructure the family hierarchy by assigning new roles
- Change the meaning attributed to a behavior without changing the behavior itself (Correct answer)
- Teach family members communication skills through role-play
- Expose unconscious family-of-origin patterns through genograms
Correct answer: Change the meaning attributed to a behavior without changing the behavior itself
Reframing offers an alternative interpretation of a behavior so that family members can respond to it differently without the behavior itself changing.
Question 3: A counselor notes that a client consistently arrives late and forgets homework between sessions. From a psychodynamic perspective, this pattern is best understood as:
- A skills deficit requiring psychoeducational intervention
- Resistance, possibly protecting the client from threatening material (Correct answer)
- An attachment-related behavior requiring EMDR processing
- Noncompliance warranting a behavioral contract
Correct answer: Resistance, possibly protecting the client from threatening material
In psychodynamic therapy, resistance is an unconscious process that protects the client from anxiety-provoking insights or change, often appearing through indirect behaviors.
Question 4: Which of the following best describes the primary goal of 'exposure with response prevention' (ERP) as used in treating OCD?
- Helping the client habituate to anxiety by preventing the compulsive behavior that relieves it (Correct answer)
- Using EMDR to reprocess traumatic memories underlying obsessional thinking
- Teaching relaxation techniques to reduce physiological arousal during obsessions
- Cognitively restructuring the overestimation of threat in obsessional thoughts
Correct answer: Helping the client habituate to anxiety by preventing the compulsive behavior that relieves it
ERP involves deliberately triggering obsessional anxiety while blocking the compulsive response, allowing the anxiety to naturally extinguish through habituation.
Question 5: In the therapeutic relationship, 'countertransference' refers to:
- The client transferring feelings about past figures onto the therapist
- The therapist's emotional reactions to the client, influenced by the therapist's own history (Correct answer)
- A technique in which the therapist models emotional regulation for the client
- The neutral stance a therapist maintains to avoid influencing the client
Correct answer: The therapist's emotional reactions to the client, influenced by the therapist's own history
Countertransference encompasses the therapist's conscious and unconscious reactions to the client, which can be used as clinical data when recognized and managed appropriately.
Question 6: According to Erik Erikson, a young adult who fails to resolve the stage of 'Intimacy vs. Isolation' is most likely to experience:
- Role confusion and an unstable sense of identity
- Stagnation and lack of investment in the next generation
- Withdrawal from close relationships and deep loneliness (Correct answer)
- Despair over a life perceived as lacking meaning
Correct answer: Withdrawal from close relationships and deep loneliness
Failure to achieve intimacy in Erikson's sixth stage results in isolation — a withdrawal from meaningful relationships and an inability to sustain close connections.
Question 7: A counselor integrating feminist therapy would most emphasize which of the following in conceptualizing a client's presenting problem?
- The client's irrational beliefs as the primary source of distress
- Sociocultural and systemic factors including gender oppression and power dynamics (Correct answer)
- Unresolved unconscious conflicts rooted in early childhood relationships
- The client's failure to self-actualize due to conditions of worth
Correct answer: Sociocultural and systemic factors including gender oppression and power dynamics
Feminist therapy frames personal distress within broader social, cultural, and political contexts, particularly examining how gender-based power structures affect clients.
MC Master of Counseling: Psychological Theories and Therapeutic Approaches 5
Which of the following theoretical orientations would most likely use 'paradoxical intention' as a therapeutic technique?