The Understanding of Counseling PCA - Essay Example

? My understanding of counselling PCA The British Association of Counselling defines the practice of counselling as ‘An intervention in which one person offers another time, attention and respect, with the intention of helping that person to discover and clarify new ways of living more resourcefully and towards greater well-being’(1984). Note that there is no requirement for the helper to belong to any designated profession or position, such as doctor, psychologist, priest or elder, to set him/her apart from the person being helped. However, that begs the question whether anybody can undertake counselling and be effective. To answer the question in some detail, let us go back to the antecedents of counselling. Traditionally, people suffering from extreme abnormalities in thought and behaviour, unable to live ‘resourcefully’, were seen as mentally ill, and either isolated and/or were treated by psychiatrists using psychotropic medication. However, the vast majority of those identified as suffering from some type of mental disorder did not require hospitalisation, or drug treatment throughout their recovery phase. What they needed was psychotherapy, described as ‘talking cures’, where characteristically psychoanalysis held sway during the early part of the 20th century, until behavioural and cognitive therapies became more prevalent. Increasingly, psychoanalysis could not be justified not only on scientific grounds, but also on cost and length of treatment. It gave way to cognitive behavioural therapies modelled on learning theory based on Pavlovian classical conditioning and Skinnerian operant conditioning. Those who sought or needed such psychotherapeutic interventions were ‘patients’, and, conversely, those who treated them were drawn from the medical profession. In addition to psychiatrists, clinical psychologists in hospital settings also became providers in the care of these patients. Counselling evolved as an intervention outside the medical context offered by practitioners drawn from disciplines other than strictly within the medical establishment. An inability to cope with ordinary everyday life increasingly devoid of traditional supporting mechanisms of family, church (orthodox religion), and community, mostly in industrialised societies, left a growing populace vulnerable to psychological stress. Counselling therefore, happens to be a much broader concept than psychotherapy (or simply temed therapy) which evolved from more existential, philosophical and humanistic roots. Those who sought help from counsellors were not identified as patients. Not only were individuals seeking ‘greater well-being’ catered for, but those seeking help in specific contexts such as careers counselling and marriage guidance counselling meant that there was no longer a stigma attached to counselling. Indeed the origin of the very term counselling is ascribed to Frank Parsons (1909) at the beginning of the twentieth century who initiated help for young people with problems in finding suitable employment. Today, there is a continuum of helping interventions that range from intensive psychotherapy through counselling, to co-counselling, and to life coaching, where practitioners range from medical specialists to those drawn from varied walks of life, but with appropriate and recognised counsellor training. The relationship between the counsellor and the counselled is one of equality. The counsellor does not set him/herself up as an expert. The client is the expert on him/herself. The counsellor explores with the counselled, options elicited during the counselling process. By meeting at regular intervals the counsellor helps the counselled to commit to agreed upon courses of action gently but firmly holding him/her responsible for the outcome. Counselling is a burgeoning profession and the recognition afforded its mainstream practitioners is a testament to its enduring value. It is necessary to look more closely at the theoretical underpinnings of the practice of counselling. A recent analysis of the relationship between counselling and theory referred to more than 130 extant theories of counselling. However, most reviewers of the literature posit three or four basic, yet overarching formulations as the main approaches to counselling and therapy (Dryden and Mytton, 1999). They are, Psychodynamic, Humanistic, (Person-Centred), Cognitive-Behavioural ( REBA) and Eclectic (multi-modal) approaches. There is also the growing conviction that therapists from varied backgrounds and theoretical orientations are very similar in their conceptualisations of the ideal therapeutic practice and outcomes. In the following pages, the humanistic, person-centred approach to counselling is more closely examined. Carl Rogers, the founder of the Person-Centred Approach (PCA) adopted the term counsellor to refer to himself when he formed the Association of Humanistic Psychology in 1961. As a reaction to the mechanistic approach to human lives from behaviouristic and psychoanalytical approaches, the humanists dedicated themselves to a psychology focusing on uniquely human issues. Some of the terms that came into use were ‘self’, ‘self-actualisation’, ‘health’, ‘hope’. ‘love’ ‘creativity’, ‘nature’, ‘being’, ‘becoming’, ‘individuality’, and ‘meaning’. Awarded recognition by the American Psychological Association (APA) as Division 32, humanistic psychological counselling began for the first time using the term ‘clients’ for those who used their services instead of ‘patients’. Carl Roger’s 1951 book ‘Client-Centred Therapy’ showed the way for others like Fritz Perls who developed Gestalt therapy from a humanistic orientation. Carl Rogers along with Abraham Maslow were among the founders of the Human Potential Movement which was influenced by existentialist philosophers such as Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Heidegger and Sartre. Their credo could be summarised by the sentence: ‘Man’s wholeness is to be sought through direct experience rather than analytical reflection’. This perspective challenged the Freudian psychoanalytical view that man was at the mercy of his unconscious drives and instincts; and also was in opposition to the view of the behaviourists that man was at the mercy of his environment and learned behaviours. A defining moment in the life of Carl Rogers was when as a boy growing up in a farm, he came across some potatoes thrown into a darkened basement room. They were left there to rot, but where there was a chink of light coming through from the outside in a corner of the basement, he found a couple of near-rotten potatoes thrusting shoots towards the light. In spite of all the odds they were growing! He later wrote that here he had discovered a fundamental actualising tendency that is inherent in all organisms, a basic drive towards wholeness of the organism and an actualisation of its potentialities. He extrapolated this self-actualising tendency to human beings in whom he believed it to be a non-conscious organismic function which when in conflict with their conscious awareness and the external environment, tended to create conditions for mental and physical distress. Rogers stated that when an individual seeks help from a counsellor, the latter creates an environment or relationship hitherto denied to the client which is conducive to growth. The counsellor facilitates change using skills in communication, in understanding, and by modelling an alternative way of being. He postulated three interrelated counsellor competences as crucial to the success of person-centred therapy. These were congruence, unconditional positive regard, and empathy. He later added a fourth dimension, that of ‘tenderness’. Congruence refers to the counsellor being open and genuine - a willingness to relate to and engage with clients without hiding behind a mask or professional facade. Unconditional positive regard is when the counsellor accepts the client wholeheartedly by listening to the client without interrupting, judging, commenting or giving advice. The counsellor does not show disapproval of, or tend to evaluate, any particular feelings, actions or characteristics of the client. He does not seek to censor the client in any way. The counsellor totally accepts the client for who he or she is. Empathy is shown when the counsellor appreciates the client and his/her situation from the client’s point of view. The counsellor reacts to the client’s feelings with sensitivity and with emotional understanding. Empathy alone is sufficient in many instances to bring about a positive therapeutic transformation in the client. Person-centred counselling/therapy is a non-directive approach where the client is free to explore issues most important to him/her without being subjected to direct advice or any coercion by the counsellor. The last condition required from the person-centred approach, tenderness, is a spiritual or intuitive way of relating to human beings. It is said to be a self-giving mode of love known to the Greeks as agape. Rogers believed that’ profound healing and growth takes place when the counsellor conveys such a cognitive-affective, non-verbal, transcendent and spiritual loving/knowing of the client’ (Rogers 1980). To end the essay, some words of practical guidance to the counsellor are added here. ‘The Skilled Helper’ by Gerard Egan (2009) advises the counsellor to adopt the SOLER position while counselling a client. This is a mnemonic with S standing for ‘square’. Egan advises the counsellor to sit squarely (or at 45 degrees as appropriate) opposite the client, not hide behind, say, a desk or table. The O stands for ‘open’ posture where the counsellor does not fold his arms or give body signals that indicate he/she is indifferent or ‘closed’ to the client. L stands for ‘leaning’ where Egan advises the counsellor to sit opposite the client (not challengingly opposite) while leaning towards the client slightly and not to lean away from him/her. E stands for ‘eye contact’. The idea is not to continuously stare at the client but to look at the client while speaking. R stands for a ‘relaxed’ attitude on the part of the counsellor throughout the counselling session. The ultimate aim of PCA counselling, or any counselling for that matter, is to enable the client to realise his/her true potential and become a ‘fully functioning’ human being. References Dryden, Windy and Mytton, Jill, Four Approaches to Counselling and Psychotherapy. London: Routledge, 1999. Egan, Gerard, The Skilled Helper. 9th edition, Belmont: Brookes Cole, 2009. Parsons, Frank, Choosing a Vocation. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 1909. Rogers, Carl, Client-Centred Therapy, Its Current Practice, Implications and Theory. London: Constsable, 1951. Rogers, Carl, A Way of Being. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1980. Read More