Counselling Haverhill

Personal development

Personal development or 'constrctive personality change' is an objective of longer term counselling/psychotherapy. It is mandatory for those seeking to work as a therapist, helpful for those pursuing a 'serious' high profile career (e.g. work in media, organisational leader, senior professional etc.), a way of coping with prolonged adverse circumstances (e.g. abuse experienced as a child, serious addictions, etc.) and for anyone who wants 'more' out of life. Tony Weston regularly works with clients on personal development issues, including therapists/therapists-in-training, clients overcoming adverse circumstances and organisational leaders from a variety of governmental and non-governmental sectors, including owner/leaders.

Many authors have contributed to concepts of personal development, including Rogers (1959), Hillman (1979), Kohlberg (1984), Maslow (1987), Washburn (1988), Samuels (1989), Wilbur (1990) and Rowan (1993, 1995).

Rogers wrote extensively about the goals of longer-term psychotherapy and developed the concept of 'the fully functioning person'. Within his description of the 'fully functioning person' Rogers (1959) included concepts of psychological adjustment, acceptance of others, existential living, self-liking, openness to experience and an internalised locus of evaluation (as opposed to an externalised locus of evaluation).

It has proven difficult to measure the extent to which a person is 'fully functioning', although work is underway (e.g. Freire, Elliott and Cooper 2006) to develop a measure, the Strathclyde Inventory.

Another way of measuring 'constructive personality change' is to consider changes in so-called 'personality disorders', an 'enduring pattern of inner experience and behaviour that deviates markedly from the expectations of the individual's culture' (APA 2000) that can be manifest in cognition (perceptions and interpretations of self, others and events), affectivity (emotional responses), interpersonal functioning and impulse control.

There are a number of personality disorders and some of these are described briefly below, together with some outcome data from this service. The Personality Beliefs Questionnaire (PBQ, Beck & Beck 1991) measures the extent to which people endorse beliefs associated with personality disorders (Beck et al 2007) and has been empirically validated (Beck et al 2001, Butler et al 2002). With Aaron Beck's permission the PBQ has been adapted for use by UK English-speaking clients at this service.

The Avoidant personality is characterised by 'a pervasive pattern of social inhibition, feelings of inadequacy and hypersensitivity to negative evaluation' (APA 2000):

The Dependent personality is characterised by 'a pervasive and excessive need to be taken care of that leads to submissive and clinging behaviour and fears of separation' (APA 2000):

The Passive-Aggressive (negativistic) personality is characterised by 'a pervasive pattern of negativistic and passive resistance to demands for adequate performance in social and occupational situations' (APA 2000):

The Obsessive-Compulsive personality is characterised by 'a preoccupation with orderliness, perfectionism, and mental and interpersonal control, at the expense of flexibility, openness and efficiency' (APA 2000):

The Histrionic personality is characterised by 'a pervasive and excessive emotionality and attention-seeking behaviour' (APA 2000):

The Paranoid personality is characterised by 'a pattern of pervasive distrust and suspiciousness of others such that their motives are interpreted as malevolent' (APA 2000):

The Borderline personality is characterised by 'a pervasive pattern of instability of interpersonal relationships, self image and affects, and marked impulsivity' (APA 2000).

Personality disorders usually begin by early adulthood and are often what seem like 'adaptive' ways of coping with adverse situations that continue into adulthood, when the coping mechanisms are no longer appropriate for the situation and can create problems for the person and others around them. These effects can be particularly pernicious when a person finds themselves 'stuck' in situations where they are rewarded for continuing to act out these out-dated coping mechanisms e.g. the histrionic actor, the obsessive-compulsive manager, the dependent partner, etc. Changing the way one habitually behaves (constuctive personality change), can be challenging, time consuming and ultimately rewarding, to 'master oneself'.

References:

American Psychiatric Association (2000) 'Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders - Fourth Edition, Text Revision'. Washington DC: Author.

Beck, A T and Beck, J S (1991) 'The Personality Belief Questionnaire' Bala Cynwyd PA: Beck Institute for for Cognitive Therapy and Research.

Beck, A T, Butler, A C, Brown, G K, Dahlsgaard, K K, Newman, C F and Beck, J S (2001) 'Dysfunctional beliefs discriminate personality disorders'. Behaviour Research and Therapy 39 (10) 1213-1225.

Beck A T, Freeman A, Davis, D D and Associates (2007) 'Cognitive therapy of personality disorders - Second Edition'. New York: Guilford Press.

Butler, A C, Brown, G K, Beck, A T and Grisham, J R (2002) 'Assessment of dysfunctional beliefs in borderline personality disorder'. Behaviour Research and Therapy 40 (1) 1231-1240.

Hillman, J (1979) 'The dream and the underworld'. Harper Row: New York.

Kohlberg, L (1984) 'The psychology of moral development' Harper Row: San Francisco.

Maslow, A H (1987) 'Personality and motivation - Third Edition' Harper Row: New York.

Rogers, C R (1959) 'A theory of therapy, personality and interpersonal relationships as developed in the client-centred framework'. In Koch, S (Ed). Psychology: A study of science, volume 3, Formulations of the person and the social context. New York: McGraw-Hill 184-256.

Rowan, J (1993) 'The transpersonal in psychotherapy and counselling'. Routledge: London.

Rowan, J (1995) 'What is counselling about' Counselling 12-13.

Samuels, A (1989) 'The plural psyche' Routledge: London.

Washburn, M (1988) 'The ego and the dynamic ground' SUNY Press: Albany.

Wilber, K (1990) 'Two patterns of transcendence: A reply to Washburn'. Journal of Humanistic Psychology 30 (3) 113-136.