Consistency of the Client-Centered Approach of Dr Rogers - Personal Statement Example

Rogers (1959) points out that the Client Centered Approach (CCT) which was developed by Dr. Carl Rogers, is considered to be a non-directive approach theory. It states that it is the responsibility of the clients to improve their lives, hence, the therapist are not responsible in this case.  The clients have the potential of deciding for themselves about what the problem is as well as the resolution to the problem.  They could poses vast resources for altering their self-concept, self-understanding, self-directed behavior attitudes. To access such resources, the clients are required to have a definable counseling facilitation climate whereby the therapist is more of a counselor or a friend who encourages and listens. Such a therapist is required to be understanding, warm and genuine. According to Rogers (1951), despite symptoms could emerge from past experiences, the clients is required not to focus to the past but on the present as well as the future.  Therefore, liberation of the clients from their past as well as helping them to attain personal growth as self actualization is very critical. In order for these to be achieved, there should be a friendly relationship between the therapist and client which must aim at promoting listening, understanding, sharing and accepting. Therefore, the Client Centred Approach makes therapy warmer, simpler as well as more optimistic (Rogers, 1986).Clients tend to feel better when encouraged to focus on their subjective understanding rather than on some unconscious motive or someone else's situation interpretation. According to Rogers (1959), notion of self-concept (beliefs and perceptions about oneself) is the major concept in the Client Centered theory and it best describes the 'I' and 'me' that include perception as well valuing of 'what I am' and 'what I can do'. For instance, individuals who perceive they are strong tend to behave with confidence as well as see their actions with confidence. Sometimes, self-concept never fit with reality due to the manner persons see others is not the same way they see them. For instance, people could be very interesting to others and yet considers themselves to be boring. They evaluates or judges this image they have as a bore; and this valuing could be reflected in their self-esteem.  The confident women could have is a high self-esteem and the men who considers themselves as a bore could have a low self-esteem, presuming that confidence and strength are highly valued and that being boring is not. The client-centred approach, in regard to Seligman (2006), views individuals as independent, capable as well as capable to resolving their difficulties, change their lives positively and realize their potential. This results to the client who is in charge of the therapy, to have the capacity of exploring and understanding the self; so that to come up with informed solutions. There are several basic ideas about personality development in relation to client-centred therapy. Generally, it states that personality could be completely actualized in the case an individual is exposed to unconditional positive regard (Seligman, 2006).A person with conditional positive regard can have low self-worth and self-esteem. In this case, self-actualised person could be less defensive; more open; trust own decision-making skills; learn to live in the moment; be more creative and have more life choices (Seligman, 2006). Rogers (1959) further points out that the client’s incongruence state an be reversed by the therapist who are congruent. In this case, the client (incongruent) will be anxious and vulnerable while the therapist (congruent) attends to the client positively as well as works hard to reduce or eliminate the vulnerability so that the two turn out to be congruent. Therefore, the clients’ feelings of self-worth will be increased, incongruence level between the actual self and ideal will be reduced, and they will be helped to become relatively functioning people. Rogers’ (1959) Client Centred Approach is known to operate on six core conditions that include client incongruence; therapist-client psychological contact; therapist unconditional positive regard (UPR); therapist congruence (genuineness); client perception and therapist empathetic understanding. Therapist-client contact is described as the relationship between therapist and client whereby each individual’s perception of the other is considered to be critical. The two are supposed to reach a point they will be considered with positive perceptions. Client incongruence simply implies the client is vulnerable and anxious while therapist congruence entails the therapist being deeply involved in themselves. Therapist unconditional positive regard (UPR) on the other hand, involves the acceptance of the client unconditionally by the therapist, without approval, disapproval or judgment. The increased self-regard in this case will be facilitated in the client, whereby they will become aware of experiences in cases their self-worth view was disregarded by others. In addition, therapists’ empathetic understanding involves the feelings, experiences or compassion towards the internal frame of reference of the client. In this regard, it helps the client to believe the unconditional love of the therapist for them. Lastly, the perception of the client refers to what is perceived by the client at least to a minimal level. Furthermore, Rogers (1959) takes into account the most essential key conditions for effective counseling that include unconditional positive regard; therapist congruence (genuine) with the client and the client empathetic understanding. Congruence simply implies that the therapists are authentic, genuine as well as real in the relationship and are never influenced by situations. They enable clients to feel them as they really are. They are not "acting"; as well as able to draw on their own experiences in order to enhance the relationship. Unconditional positive regard is the second crucial condition. In this case,the clients are valued by the therapists as themselves, thus proving a genuine and deeper care to them (clients). The positive attitude can be maintained by therapists even if some of the actions of the clients could be disgusting. In this case, any feelings displayed by the client (e.g. fear, confusion and worry) are discouraged by therapists. Such condition enables the counsellor to be non-judgmental as noted by Carl Rogers says in Petty (2004:552) and Kirshenbaum (1989:225). This results to the client opening up and they could speak about themselves without the feel of being judged by the counselors. In this case, the therapists should ensure and indicate their acceptance of the client, regardless of where they come as well as their personality. Empathy is the last core condition. It is described as the capacity to understand how and what the client is feeling. During counseling, the therapists understand the client accurately and sensitively and in this regard, share their thoughts, feelings and experiences. The counselor will have the responsibility of recognizing and responding to the client’s feelings. (Rodgers, 1975) notes that therapists follow up the client’s feelings as well as communicate to them that they do understand what they are feeling. Therefore, empathy permits counselors to carry out their roles in a more effective manner since it is considered to be a condition that enables them to be sensitive of the facts the clients tell them. During my counseling sessions I experienced the roles of clients and counsellors within the empathy laboratories. Using the three main conditions stated above, I participated in ten minutes counselling sessions where I was a counsellor. Looking over the transcript about empathy laboratory session I noticed many areas in which I was and was not consistent with the theory. In this essay, I will evaluate and analyse how consistent and inconsistent I was with the CCT. Whilst in the empathy laboratory sessions, I (client) felt that the students that role played as counsellors were not congruent. Though we all belong to the Asian background, when I tried to explain my home situations, I found that we together struggled to understand one another. Their expressions to certain facts I told them lowered my confidence in taking the role of the client. This agreed with Rogers (1959) argument that clients are in a state of incongruence. They are anxious, depressed and vulnerable. So, they must approach a counsellor who is congruent and will be able to lift them out of incongruence. One of the sessions started off badly with the client being silent despite having a lot to say just like Carl Rogers states in the client centred approach (Butcher, 2009). When listening to my transcript, I noted my client’s voice was awkward. I feel I was inconsistent with the theory because I did not show empathy towards my client (Rogers, 1959). I was struggling to understand how she could feel alone; and how she was unable to speak to her family. I had preconceived reasoning of my strong attachment to my parents. I was inconsistent again because I did not walk the world of my clients. I linked everything my client talked about to myself. I felt I was not able to say anything, not that I did not understand anything but I was not sure how to say it. My client was very emotional when she spoke such that I found it hard to understand how she felt… (Recently I have had tough time with family and other staff (silence) and… (clears throat…really getting me know… it is affecting my relationship... with my siblings… and my daily life and stuff… (clears throat)… and I find it hard to explain to my family and I know they are there for me… (clears throat)… I feel I’m letting them down (silence)…I feel really bad and don’t know what to do). Transcript - being an individual, I have a very close relationship my parents. It was difficult to understand why my client felt detached from her family and found it hard to communicate with them. I thought it was easy to communicate with my parents and friends because of my relationship with them. Literature indicates that no matter what kind of relationship the therapist holds, be it father-son or teacher-student, if they be congruent and real, the client will communicate. Rogers (1989) states that if therapists and clients are in relationship, without putting up professional front or person face, the clients will change and grow in a constructive manner. In one of the ten minutes sessions, I asked her a non-directive question ‘how do you feel about this?’ I was being inconsistent with the theory, which says one should stay non-directive (Rogers, 1959). I found it very hard to accept my client’s emotions, feelings and understanding. I could not agree to what she said about her relationship with her family. Further into the transcript, I reflected on what the client had mentioned earlier about ‘Siblings understanding you’. Here I was consistent by picking what my client said. I elaborated it and then she continued to speak in more depth. In addition, I was and was not consistent with the theory due to my personality and beliefs at times. It was pointless to model myself to fit in the theory. When I did, it made no sense to me. My client was difficult to understand; and I also questioned and confused myself. I was not congruent throughout the ten minutes session. Listening to my recording, I could not come up with what I really felt at that time when my client explained her relationship with her family. I did not show empathy; but kept my true feelings behind professionalism. I was also not real to my client; otherwise the real me would have given advice or said something I had experienced. At times, when I was being congruent, I was not consistent with the theory which says that you hold a non-directive approach. I asked my client a directive question at one point. At one point, the client told me that she felt better when left alone. I did not agree with her because doing so would show that I was being incongruent during the session. Corey (2009) says that if we strive to model out style; and if the style does not fit for us then we are not being ourselves and congruent. Therapy process is likely to be adversely affected if the therapist is not fully authentic. I find it hard to understand my client. She says she finds it hard to communicate with her parents because she feels they cannot understand her. On my part I understand both my parents; and I do not see it difficult to approach them. Though they may not agree with everything I say, I still tell them what is on my mind. I tried putting myself in my client and tried understanding her emotions and feelings; I still felt talking to one’s parents was not difficult. Furthermore, it is difficult to understand the client centred theory when it asks the therapist to be real. For me, it was difficult to be real because I was not consistent with the theory ( not understand the theory or my client. Personally, I hold a very strong personality and it is very hard for me to change my point of view about things without evidence. I believe that changing someone from what they believe in is very hard unless there is evidence. For example, in my transcript, It was the real me when I asked a directive question about how my client felt, yet that did not agree with the theory which suggests that you maintain a non-directive approach at all times. Counselling is more helpful if individuals are able to acknowledge that they want to speak and share about themselves just like McLeod (2008) state. It is used during deaths, loss of love, divorce, confrontation, trauma, abuse, etc. Counselling would therefore be highly beneficial to my psychological clients, soldiers or people leaving their personnel services and the sick. My tutor gave me an honest feedback about my silence period. She said at time I was not consistent with the theory because I chose to stay quiet. She mentioned that it was not wrong to stay quiet, but saying something could make the clients know that I was fully listening to what they were saying. Linda also said that I was inconsistent with the theory when I asked directive questions. She also urged me to understand empathy. Linda also said that it was not good to link what the client said at the beginning of the session to the current time. Linda mentioned that, as a counsellor, she would have stayed with the client rather than liken her to the theory. At least, now I feel that I have a better understanding of the theory than before. Reference List Corey, G. (2009) Theory and Practice of Counselling and Psychotherapy. Wadsworth Publishing Company Kirshenbaum, H. & Land Henderson, V. (1989) The Carl Rogers Reader. London: Constable. McLeod, S.(2008) Social Theory; Simply Psychology. http://www.simplypsychology.org/social-identity-theory.html. Web. 25th February, 2014 Prout, T.H. & Brown, D.T. (2007) Counselling and Psychotherapy with Children and Adolescents: Theory and Practice for School and Clinical Settings. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons. Rogers. C.R. (1959) Client-Centred Therapy. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Rogers, C.R. (1951) On becoming a Person. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Rogers, C.R. (1989) Client-Centred Therapy. London: Constable. Seligman, M. (2006) Person-Centred Approach: History Concepts. Counsellingconnection.com.http://www.counsellingconnection.com/index.php/2009/10/05/person-centred-approach-history-and-concepts/ Web. 18th February, 2014 Read More