By Sara Niles
In every discipline and profession, you find those who work
on a ‘below’ average level, an average level and the ‘above average level’;
these are the talented ones, the artists within their fields.
Sigmund Freud was one of the earliest among those who fall
into this caliber of awareness that enabled him to give the world a view into
the psychic mechanisms behind human behavior; but as the world of psychology
expanded, several extraordinary people came to the fore.
In order to appreciate what is involved in therapy and
psychotherapy, it is important to realize that the mind governs the thinking, feeling and behavior of a person;
and if the mind gives faulty instructions, then there will be flaws in either
or all of those areas. Cognitive
psychology usually deals with the thinking, Behavioral Psychology with the
behavior and Psychoanalytic usually deals with the emotions as perceived or
experienced. The branches of psychology and those who work within them, often
stick to one of the specialties; however, truly talented therapists do on limit
themselves, but tend to be able to see the person as a component of all three:
their thinking, feeling and behaviors, from childhood through adulthood.
I have selected three of my favorite artists of
psychotherapy:
Virginia Satir (1916-1988)
Pioneered Family Therapy; identified the fact that the ‘presenting’ problem in
family was seldom the problem, since it was simply a symptom of deeper
problems. Satir developed a model designed to get to the root of the issues in
a family.
Foundation Website: http://www.satirpacific.org/therapy
Carl Whittaker (1912-1995) Whittaker was a mix between Dr.
Phil, with his no-nonsense approach and Virginia Satir’s treatment of the
family as a unit with hidden agendas. Whittaker was known to ‘break the rules’ and
do such things as shock the patient to force them out of their stuck positions
and beliefs.
John Bradshaw (b. 1933): Expert on family dynamics and the ‘inner
child’ and international bestselling author of self-help books.
Webpage: http://www.johnbradshaw.com/
Presentation on YouTube:
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