BEHAVIOR APPROACH TO

COUNSELING

Presented by:

Shinae& Emmanuel
 Content
1. Introduction
2. Behavior therapy views
3. 4 aspects of behavior therapy
4. Goals of behavior therapy
5. Role of Counselor and Client
6. Strengths and weaknesses of the
therapy
7. Biblical perspectives on the behavioral
therapy
8. Conclusion
 1. Introduction
• Behavior therapy, first appeared as a
systematic approach to counseling and
psychotherapy in the treatment of
psychological disorders in the late 1950s
and 1960s.

• By the 1970s, behavior therapy had become

a major approach to counseling and therapy
 Introduction(Cont’)
• Behavior therapy does not have a single
founder.

• Instead, it has several key figures,

including Joseph Wolpe, Hans Eysenck, B.
F. Skinner, Arnold Lazarus, Albert
Bandura, and Donald Meichenbaum (see
Corey, 2012: 233–234).
 Introduction(Cont’)
What is behavior therapy?

• It is a form of treatment for a problem in which

therapist establishes a professional relationship
with the client with the objective of removing
or modifying existing symptoms and promoting
positive personality, growth and development.

• Behavioral therapy is focused on human

behavior and looks to eradicate unwanted or
maladaptive behavior
 Introduction(Cont’)

Who can benefit from behavioral therapy?

• Behavior approach to counseling focuses on directly

observable behavior.

• It is used to treat a wide range of psychosocial

disorders of the clients like anxiety disorders,
depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, eating and
weight disorder, sexual problems, pain management,
hypertension………..

(Corey, pp. 223)

Behavior approach also is used in the fields
of developmental disabilities, mental
illness, education and special education,
community psychology, clinical psychology,
rehabilitation, business, self-management,
sports psychology, health-related behavior,
………………..

(Corey, pp. 223)

 2. Behavior therapy views
• Behaviorism sees psychosocial disorders
as result of maladaptive learning, as
people born as tabula rasa( Latin word)
(a blank slate); without built in mental
content, therefore all knowledge comes
from experience or perception.

• Behavior is learned (adaptive and

maladaptive)
• Focus on behavior rather than unconscious

• Human beings are passive organisms that can

be conditioned or shaped to do anything

• Maladaptive behavior can be corrected through

the provision of adequate learning experience

• Behavior assessment is focused more on current

behavior rather than on the historical
antecedents
 Nature of people

• Behavior therapists view human beings as products of their

environments

• This therapy is based on the belief that behavior is learnt

through the past experience

• We are both the product and the producer of the environment

• Normal behavior is learned through reinforcement and

imitation
• Abnormal is the result of fault learning. This approach
stresses on present behavior
3. Four(4) Aspects of behavioral therapy
(see corey 2009:235-237)
1. Classical conditioning(Ivan Pavlov)
Classical conditioning, or respondent
conditioning, refers to the way behavior is
controlled by its antecedents, or what has
happened before the behavior.

For example, in his early experimental work,

Ivan Pavlov found that putting food into a
dog’s mouth will lead the dog to salivate
2. Operant conditioning(Skinner)
Learning through positive and negative
reinforcement. Use of rewards and punishments
to motivate a behavior or stop it.

3. Social learning Approach(Albert Bandura)

Behavior is formed because the reciprocal
interactions between individual and
environment. This involves 4 aspects:

• Attention: A person must pay attention to

situation he or she wants to learn
 • Retention: A person must remember the
behavior that has been learned
• Rehearsal: The ability to replicate the
behavior
• Motivation: Client must want to
demonstrate what they have learnt.
4. Cognitive behavior therapy
Cognitive behavior therapy incorporates
thinking dimension of individuals, rather
than only focusing on environmental
factors.
 4. Goals of behavior Therapy
• Generally, is to eliminate maladaptive
behaviors and learn more effective
behaviors
• To focus on factors influencing behaviors
and find what can be done about a
problematic behavior
• Client have an active role in setting
treatment goals and evaluating how well
these goals are being met
 5. Role of Counselor and Client
• Counselor

The roles of the Behavioral counselor are various

and include being a consultant and a facilitator
A therapist can take several roles depends on his
or her behavioral orientations and the client’s
goal
• The counselor is active to supervise client’s
environment to achieve the goals of the
therapy
• Use techniques such as summarization,
reflection, clarification and open-ended
questions to achieve the therapy goals

• Client

• Clients learn to monitor their behavior,

practice coping skills, and complete
counseling homework in order to reach
their goals
 • Therapeutic Relationship

• A strong, positive therapeutic alliance that is

warm, empathic, genuine, and collaborative is
still essential for the effectiveness of behavior
therapy

• Clients must be active in the process and

experiment with new behaviors

• A good working relationship between client and

therapist is very important for implementing
behavioral procedures.
 6. Strength and Weakness
• Strength
• First, behavior therapy is an open and
comprehensive approach to therapy that has
been applied to diverse populations.

• Second, it is a problem-solving approach to

therapy that is direct, systematic, and
relatively short-term without the need for
much introspection and exploration of the past.
(Siang-Sang, p 235)
• Third, it is an approach to therapy that is
accountable and focused on achieving the
goals of the client in a clear and
measurable way.

• Fourth, behavior therapy can be easily used

with clients from different cultures and
countries in a multicultural counseling
context because it focuses on treating
symptoms and problems that cut across
cultures.
 • Weakness
Behavior therapy also has several limitations
and weaknesses.

• First, it tends to treat symptoms and

problems rather than focus holistically on
the whole person of the client.
• Second, Some clients will need more time
to process and deal with past issues and
pain than behavior therapists typically
provide.
• Third, there is a real danger of the behavior
therapist acting like an expert and
ultimately influencing the client with the
therapist’s own values, or even worse,
imposing the therapist’s values on the client

Behavior therapists try to avoid this potential

danger by encouraging the client to actively
participate in therapy and to choose his or her
own treatment goals (Wilson, pp 203).
 A Biblical Perspective on Behavior
Therapy
• Behavior therapy does not pay much attention
to unconscious process, including the darker,
fallen side of human nature, which is sin and
evil, as well as more complex internal conflicts,
in what the Bible calls the inner “heart” of a
person (see Jer. 17:9; Rom. 3:23).
The Bible can help to deal with such complex
struggles, including unconscious conflicts, more
adequately.
 7. A Biblical Perspective on
Behavior Therapy(Cont’)
• Behavior therapy’s emphasis on techniques
of behavior change; may not focus enough
attention on the therapeutic relationship,

Bible emphasizes much on the primacy of

agape (love)(1 Cor. 13) in the therapeutic
relationship and the important of love in
community of believers(Church).
 A Biblical Perspective on Behavior
Therapy(Cont’)
• Behavior therapists’ empowerment of
clients to choose their own goals, based
on their own values is a good
but there is a need of biblical perspective
to help the client to know that the true
values and transformation can only come
from God and his inspired Word (2 Tim.
3:16).
 A Biblical Perspective on Behavior
Therapy(Cont’)
• Behavior therapy’s major techniques is
exposure therapy for treating various
anxiety disorders.

The Bible also emphasizes the need to

confront the truth in order to be set free
(cf. John 8:32), and to have a renewal of the
mind by using biblical truth (Rom. 12:1–2)
 8. Conclusion
• Behavior therapy is focusing on bring good behavior
and changes to individual life. For total healing, it
needs to focus more on larger contextual factors
such as familial, social, religious, cultural, and
even political influences which are affecting a
particular client’s life.

• There is also a need to use of community resources

in therapeutic interventions with a client, including
the church as a body of believers for mutual
support, help, and ministry to one another (1 Cor.
12; 1 Pet. 2:5, 9).
 Bibliography

1. Corey, G. (2012). Theory and Practice of

Counseling and Psychotherapy(9th ed.).
Belmot, CA: Brooks/Cole

2. Tan, S. (2011). Counseling and

Psychotherapy : Christian Perspectives.
Grand Rapids.