Counselling Theories are used as a guideline for understanding human nature and to determine which counseling skills you will use in your counseling sessions.

Pre-expressive theories

They are theories that existed in all societies before the modern therapy developed. They include;

1. Suppressive psychotherapy

The therapy provides a powerful figure who behave in authoritative dogmatic manner seeking to suppress all manifestation of symptoms. The therapist treats symptoms but leaves the source of the disorder.

2. Supportive psychotherapy

The therapy provides a warm mother figure who protect, reassures and encourages the client. The supportive counsellor is warm, strong and empathetic. With such support, the client is able to cope with situation, however the client unconscious conflict, anxieties and frustrations are not attended.

3. Relationship psychotherapy

It involves establishing an effective relationship between the client and the counsellor.it is a form of mentoring that begins as supportive psychotherapy but ends up as friendship.

Expressive psychotherapy

4. Psycho-analysis (sigmoid Freud)

It involves bringing an individual feeling which were repressed during childhood to conscious so that they can be delt with in a health way.

Techniques used in psychoanalysis

• Free association- the client is encouraged to say whatever comes to his/her mind
• Hypnosis -the therapists use the suggestion and auto-suggestion to heal the client
• Dream analysis- the client is helped to relate the manifest content of dream to its hidden dream
• Projective techniques- they include standard tests, art work and stories

5. Personal centered therapy

The client is supposed to take the lead in the therapeutical process. The counsellor should not intervene by asking questions , advising or directing the conversation.

The main goal is to help the client grow in their own direction.

The counsellor must be able to follow the feelings being expressed in each statement without allowing his feelings get in the way.

6. Gestalt Therapy

The main assumption is that human organism is a unified whole. The mind reflect on the body and the body reflect on the mind. Read on concept and techniques of in Gestalt therapy

7. Existential therapy

Therapy is self-knowledge and self-actualization. Life is not controlled by child hood experiences and unconscious dynamic alone, rather the individual is free and capable of determining his/her destiny. The goal of the therapy is to retar a person desire to take charge of his/her life. One is left to know that there is freedom to make one decision despite what the majority feel. Read on Domains of existence therapy