Understanding Our Defenses and Protections in Counselling

This article seeks to contribute to an understanding of the defenses and protections in counselling psychology. Defense mechanisms are a psychological response designed to protect the self from disorganization and hurt. They get activated when a person feels anxiety building up about a personal issue that is interpreted as dangerous or threatening. The unconscious parts of personality may be keeping this perceived danger from conscious awareness, denying it as a protective measure. Still, despite this defensive protection, people remain sensitive to certain issues and may more easily see these qualities in others, which is known as projection. Everyday conflicts or frustrations may be resolved consciously for people, however, others that are deeper rooted may become adjusted or adapted to unconsciously. These reaction patterns can show up in a couple of ways. One way is through responses that are accessed through conscious awareness of the conflict. They can be focused on, and energy devoted toward resolving the issue, reducing it to a more realistic size. Sometimes there are other ways it is accessed or released through laughter or crying, speaking openly about it, and dreaming about it. Even if a person is aware of their reaction, they may not know why it continues to come up. Another type of defensive reaction is related to the ego. These reactions are unconscious attempts to adjust, reduce anxiety or tension, and protect parts of self from feeling hurt or rejected. They tend to be automatic and arise when there is a perceived psychological threat or danger. Examples include feeling devalued, criticized, guilt, shame, or attraction to something that is considered morally unacceptable (our shadow side). There are a variety of other common defenses including: acting out (physical action that expresses an unconscious conflict that has an emotional component which is unable to be clarified and expressed in words); compensation (defense against feelings of inferiority, inadequacy, and failure by masking pain and disappointment through developing mastery in another area); conversion (resolving emotional conflicts through sensory, motor, or somatic ways like with physical illnesses), and denial. There are many other terms, which sound like technical jargon, such as: displacement, dissociation, emotional insulation, fantasy, identification, incorporation, intellectualization, introjection, isolation, projection, rationalization, reaction formation, regression, repression, sublimation, turning against the self, and undoing (an act of atonement to make amends for wrongdoing). In the context of counselling, these defensive protections are valuable clues about our therapeutic movement because they inform us about how we are trying to avoid painful experiences such as deprivation, failure, and guilt. The way we go about it is also informative. Some of us identify or compensate, such as by attempting to appear as psychologically evolved or spiritually enlightened. We may feel cautious and ambivalent about our own attraction or calling to therapeutic work or spiritual practices, because we may have seen our own family members or friends identified with their roles in areas that emphasize growth and development, such as counselling therapy, yoga, meditation, and mindfulness practices.

In some situations, a person can suffer deep wounds from attachment and developmental injuries in their relationships with a parent. These types of emotional and psychological injuries in relationships can lead to developing complex protective and defensive traits to avoid being wounded. By identifying with and adopting a persona or part of self that appears as psychologically evolved, spiritually awakened, or as one who selflessly devotes themselves to relieving the suffering of others, we may feel more important, lovable, secure, and worthy to exist.

All of us have developed different types of defenses and protections to deal with life and survive relationships. This is a part of our human development and survival since infancy and childhood. However, it is important for us to become aware of how these defenses can become self-deceptions and distortions in our way of thinking and perceiving our reality. Through counselling and other healing relationships, we can make corrections to change and prevent these ways of coping from interfering with a quality of life and with being in relationships that are healthy and supportive.

Sources

Rogoff, B. (2003). The Cultural Nature of Human Development. Oxford University Press.

Shebib, B. (2019). Choices: Interviewing and counselling skills for Canadians. Pearson.