Existential and Cognitive Behavioral Therapies

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Institutional Affiliation

Jackson is a man of thirty-seven years of age. He is married and has a family of four. He has been in marriage for ten years now. His wife, Brenda, is a diploma holder from one of the institutions and is currently a businessperson, dealing on poultry products. Jackson’s parents are not financially well off; hence, he had an experience of being raised in poverty. He has been financially assisting his parents since his schooling. Even though Jackson faced challenges in his early school days, he was quite tolerant and submissive. He was contented with the little amounts of money he got from his parents, friends, and well-wishers.

Jackson was a visionary businessperson. He spent a good fraction of his savings in starting a small business that was managed by his mother. In the after school life, he decided to start a commercial poultry production project, which constituted of two hundred hens. Jackson managed this project for one year before he got formal employment in a company dealing with animal feeds. Currently, the project has expended immensely and accruing more profits. However, Jackson admits using a good proportion of proceeds from the project to assist his parents, the financially challenged students in the society, as well as his in-laws in matters related to schooling and other miscellaneous issues. Jackson asserts that human beings need to develop a sense of responsibility and handwork to succeed in life.

Even though Jackson has managed the tide of social challenges, there is one thing that seriously torments him psychologically. He always takes his family members for medical check up on bi-monthly basis. In the previous check up, one of his children was diagnosed with diabetes. This greatly affected Jackson psychologically. Within a few days, he has spent a lot of money in medication. He states that if the condition worsens, he will be forced to cut off some of his services to the society, reduce the size of his poultry project, and cut-off some of the working hours in the company. However, this condition is bound to affect his income and plans. For this reason, Jackson is mentally distressed and psychologically tortured.

Cognitive Behavioral therapy, Beck, and how it Applies to Jackson’s Case

This therapy builds on three issues, namely thought, emotions, and behavior. It suggests that the way a person thinks, feels, as well as acts are integrative and work in unison. Cognitive behavioral therapy holds that human feelings and behavior are subject to one’s thoughts (Beck, 2000). The way people think determines their characters. This shows that when a person’s mind is full of negative thoughts, there is high possibility of such a person becoming mentally distressed (Power, et al, 2010). Therefore, the person will act in queer ways following such mental distress.

On the contrary, a person whose mind is influenced by good things will most likely act in a morally acceptable manner (Beck, 2000). Such actions may be full of success in the future since they come out of sobriety of mind, organized thoughts, and good planning. In the case of Jackson, cognitive therapy is evident in several perspectives. Jackson saw his poor background not as a setback in life, but as an opportunity to work hard for a better future. With this, he managed to go to school, save money, help his poor parents, as well as start small business for his parents back at home. In addition, he started a project to offer employment to his wife, a project that also helped some financially challenged students in the society.

Jackson takes no offense in helping his parents as well as his in-laws even though his parents now run the small business that he started for them. He realizes that positive thoughts in life lead to success, and he still stands a chance of realizing even more achievements. However, the psychological challenge that has affected Jackson following the case of his child may distress him mentally. Therefore, there is need to apply this therapy to help Jackson overcome this predicament. This follows that due to stress, Jackson’s negative thoughts may overwhelm him, thus making him act in a negative manner. The major aim of cognitive therapy is to enable an individual discover whenever he makes a mistake. This may follow negative interpretations or behavioral patterns that act to strengthen skewed thoughts.

However, this therapy is of critical significance since it enables a person to develop other ways of thoughts and behavior responsible for elimination of psychological torture. In order to treat Jackson, it is crucial to subject him to tasks that will help relieve him of the stress he undergoes. It is advisable that Jackson visits a counselor, as well as widely consult health professionals on the matter. He needs to develop a warm relationship with anybody he comes across. He should be open to discuss the situation with anybody and seek for advices. In this manner, he will relieve himself of stress and will get several alternatives and opinions for confronting the matter. In this manner, Jackson will have been healed of the psychological torture associated with the condition of his child.

Existential Therapy and how It Applies to Jackson’s Case

This theory asserts that individual inner conflicts emanate from the way such a person tackles givens of existence (Frankl, 2006). This therapy starts with the realization that human beings are naturally lonely, thus needs others to fill the voids created by loneliness in their hearts. Such individuals must be those who bring meanings in the lives of the other party (Spinelli, 2007). However, even though such people make meanings in the lives of others, they cannot validate such lives. Therefore, one is left with the knowledge that he is still lonely taking into account that one’s validation must come from within oneself but not from others (Frankl, 2006). This therapy suggests that human beings can face the worries of life face-to-face.

In addition, one needs not worry over the existing perturbing circumstances, but challenge each issue with courage and full responsibility (Spinelli, 2007). This is evident in the way Jackson dealt with the poverty that defined his childhood background. He ensures that he attends and completes school, starts a small business to his parents, starts a poultry project alongside formal employment. This depicts him as a hardworking man who has realized that personal satisfaction and validation lies in oneself but not other person. However, in order to treat Jackson following the case of his child, there is need to emphasize on the present and future.

The best way to help Jackson is through giving him inspirational encouragements and motivation. This will make him be optimistic, thus dispel the fear that may arise due to the condition of the child. Jackson should attend several meetings and open air forums where issues concerning inspiration are discussed. In addition, Jackson should be encouraged to watch several television programs that focus on inspirational talks. These will help him dispel the fear and stress that may develop in his mind following the case of his child. Inspirational talks always lead to self-assessment, as well as spiritual search. In addition, inspirational talks always lead to sobriety when it comes to facing challenges in life. Such inspirational forums, meetings and discussions are important to the case of Jackson in several ways. This follows that majority of people participating in such meetings are those who at one time passed over such circumstances. As such, they come out and share with the public their grievances and ordeals. As such, they come to forget such perturbing ordeals. However, in the case of Jackson, attending such forums will help him get several clues on how to deal with such situations.

In addition, he should make regular visits to professional psychiatrists to help him counteract the distress that may arise. Visiting such professionals like psychiatrics is critical since such professionals always have good advices on how to deal with several psychological issues. Psychiatrists always have several inspirational advices. Such advices always shed lights of hopes to the hearts of the distressed. In addition, talking to the psychiatrics over such distressful matters always bring profound hopes to several clients. This can be so helpful to Jackson in case he had started losing hope following the case of his child. Discussing the issue with the professionals is helpful since it leads to acquisition of more knowledge on the fields that one never thought of at first. Therefore, the knowledge, advices and education that Jackson would acquire from such professional psychiatrists will be crucial in ensuring that he recomposes himself and look at the issue with renewed positive thoughts.

Moreover, Jackson needs to understand that medical conditions exist and people live with them. Some are curable, thus he should be optimistic that his child will be relieved of the burden facing him. This can be realized through encouraging Jackson to read several inspirational books, as well as nooks touching on cases similar to the one he faces.

References

Beck, A. (2000). Prisoners of hate: The cognitive basis of anger, hostility and violence, Harper Paperbacks.

Frankl, V. (2006). Man’s search for meaning, Boston: Beacon Press.

Power, M. J., Philippot, P., Hess, U., & Wiley InterScience (Online service). (2010). Emotion focused cognitive therapy. Chichester, West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons.

Spinelli, E. (2007). Practising existential psychotherapy: The relational world. Los Angeles: SAGE.