MY OWN THERAPY

  

Express-Reflect Therapy or ER therapy is based on Psychoanalytic Free association method and Rationale-emotive Therapy. In this therapy the client is free to express his/her ideas, opinions, feelings and emotions and anything he/she wants to say or share with the therapist. The target client of this therapy is young children who experienced emotional disturbance because of their environment, past experiences and people around them that can affect their behavior.



View of Human Nature

This therapy view human nature by means of environment, past experiences and the people around the children that can affect the behavior of young children. Everything that the child experienced may cause to his/her emotional aspects that sometimes affect the behavior of the child. There are some children who are very aggressive and hyperactive in the classroom maybe because of their environment in home or in the school also. As the teacher we can use his therapy to help the child to eliminate or maybe change the maladaptive behavior of the child by giving this ER therapy that the child can express his/her feelings and emotions freely. But the therapist can also be his/her teacher who will guide the child to manage his/her maladaptive behavior.



Development of Maladaptive Behavior          

There are lots of factors to be considered in the development of maladaptive behavior such as the environment, past experiences and people around the child that sometimes leads to emotional disturbance that can affect the behavior of the child. In ER therapy, the therapist looks out the causes of maladaptive behavior like separation, death of the member of the family, neglect and abused. Because of those causes children’s behavior can be affected. Aggressive and hyperactive are some common maladaptive behavior that the young children can possess.



Function of the Therapist          

The therapist in ER therapy can be the teacher of the child. Here the therapist is a good listener. Everything that his/her client likes to say the therapist should have to listen. Here are some functions of the therapist: To help the client to free to express his/her feelings and emotions regarding to his/her problems, to help the client to distinguish the reality and not. To help the client to understand that his/her beliefs even his/her environment can affect his/her behavior, to help the client to reflect on his/her problem and look for the causes and effect on it to his behavior and prepare for the possible solutions to solve their own problem. And the most of all the function of the therapist in ER therapy is to NOT to give an advice BUT to GUIDE and facilitate the problem of the client for him/her to reflect to solve his/her own problem.



Goals of Therapy         

 The goal of therapy is to help the client to express their feelings and emotions without any hesitations and to reflect on it. This therapy helps the client to analyze and to correct their irrational beliefs to become rational. This therapy also helps the client to eliminate or change his/her irrational beliefs or ideas that affect is/her behavior. This therapy convinced and persuade he client to use and strengthen his/her behavior to become rational.



Major Methods and Techniques

1.   Free association

This method allows the client to say anything and everything that he/she wants to share with the therapist no matter how illogical. Silly, painful or irrational it is.

2.   Express-Reflect Writing

This method allows the client to express their feelings and emotions through writing. Sometimes there are client who is timid, they don’t want to share or say anything. So, in this method the client can write anything that comes to his/her mind regarding to his/her problems. After expressing his/her emotions in writing the therapist may read it in front of the client after that the therapist let the client to read also his/her work in front of the therapist and the therapist ask some questions like: “why do you think it happened?” or “How did it happened?” and then allow the client to reflect on his/her own problem and write it. Through this method the client is free to express his/her feelings and emotions and reflect on it.

3.   Express-Reflect Drawing

This method like ER writing Method that allows the client to express their feelings and emotions through drawing instead of writing. The client is ask to draw whatever he/she wants to draw regarding to his/her problem. The therapist here interprets the drawing of his/her client. In ER drawing they can reflect based on his/her drawing. They can also draw his/her possible solutions regarding to his problem.