4
THE THERAPEUTIC JUNGLE,
PART I
Social Workers, Psychologists, and Psychiatrists
I have reluctantly come to concede the possibility that the process, direction, and end points of therapy may differ in different therapeutic orientations.
Carl Rogers, On Becoming a Person
Fifty years ago, people with personal or marital problems had a choice between two main kinds of assistance: psychoanalysis and religion. Freud's approach to psychiatry had gained popularity among physicians, psychoanalytic training was being made available to clinical psychologists, and the ideas of Freudian analysis had come to dominate the public's conception of therapy. And, sometimes overlooked in this context, the church—the world's faithful and oldest psychiatrist—continued to offer spiritual and personal guidance.
These two basic choices have expanded into an impressive—and confusing—array of different therapies. The more than one hundred varieties of counseling, even when they are grouped together, cannot be reduced to fewer than perhaps twenty families of therapies.
Different counseling professions have evolved that now range from social work to psychotherapy to psychiatry; religious counseling is still offered; and there are the newer therapies of relaxation training, biofeedback, bioenergetics, etc., as well as a renaissance of older approaches such as meditation, yoga, and holistic practice. The choices of fifty years ago seem modest, limited, and certainly less perplexing. However, the recent proliferation of therapies has brought with it increased sensitivity, sophistication, and effectiveness.
In spite of this growth of therapeutic options, most people who decide to enter therapy are unaware of the choices open to them and so cannot intelligently weigh their alternatives. This and the next chapter will help you to see clearly what alternatives exist. As the book helps you to clarify your personal objectives, you will be able to home in on one or more approaches to therapy that may be especially promising for you, your temperament, interests, and goals. You will be encouraged to follow a "map" that will guide you to several approaches to therapy, to help you find the shortest and most effective route to where you want to go.
SOCIAL WORK COUNSELORS
As we have seen, the four main categories of social work counselors are counselors for individuals, marriage and family counselors, group counselors, and vocational guidance counselors.