Variety of Therapeutic Relationship - Essay Example

Variety of therapeutic relationship According to Dorothy Rowe (1991), “intimacy with other people is the greatest pleasure we can know” (Feltham, 1999, P.187). Intimacy in a relationship is so important that according to Eric Berne (1964) “it is most important form of human living” (Feltham, 1999, P.187). So much importance is given to intimacy because it is the intimacy which make people in relationship trust each other and be open with their personal feelings, thoughts and weaknesses, without having the fear of being judged or misunderstood. However, for a relationship to achieve intimacy, the partners need to be open and authentic with their behavior and thinking (Feltham, 1999, P.187). As intimacy comes from sharing the deepest and most personal feelings and thoughts, Berne (1964) says that it is a desirable state not only in personal relationships but also in counselling (Feltham, 1999, P.187). As intimacy in relationship is based on trust, openness and authenticity, it makes a relationship fulfilling by bringing partners close without practicing any barrier. Because of this nature of intimacy, it may be said that a relationship is successful only when it is able to achieve intimacy (Feltham, 1999, P.187). According to Solomon(1989), many clients seek counselling and therapy so that they can make their life better by making their relationships more fulfilling (Feltham, 1999, P.187). The importance of intimacy is not only limited to personal relationships but also in a therapeutic relationship (Feltham, 1999, P.187). Intimacy between a therapist and the client is important as it helps in encouraging the client to open up, be receptive for therapy and develop the most important aspect in therapeutic relationship which is ‘trust’. These qualities of intimacy has made intimacy the fundamental prerequisite of humanistic counseling and in fact, achievement of intimacy in therapeutic relationship is considered one of the important goals of that relationship (Feltham, 1999, P.187). In humanistic counseling, intimacy is considered as a positive concept as it makes the counselling successful (Feltham, 1999, P.188). However, a client can develop intimacy in therapeutic relationship only when there is positive encouragement and support from the counsellor. A counsellor encounters different sort of clients with different sort of problems. Hence, development of intimacy is achieved by practicing variety of techniques. According to Carl Rogers(1957), factors that help in making a therapeutic relationship successful are empathy, unconditional positive regard and congruence (Nelson-Jones, 2008, p.29). These three factors have gained so much importance in humanistic counseling that they are considered as the core conditions of the therapeutic relationship (Nelson-Jones, 2008, p.29). Empathy: “Empathy is the capacity to identify oneself mentally with and fully comprehend the client’s inner world” (Nelson-Jones, 2008, p.29). According to Rogers, by displaying empathetic understanding of everything that the client says during sessions(Nelson-Jones, 2008, p.29), he demonstrates to the client that he is actively involved in communication and is trying to understand the meaning of what client is saying (Nelson-Jones, 2008, p.30). This helps the client to feel understood and being listened to without any judgment, which in turn, makes him more open and relaxed. Unconditional positive regard: The main aspect of unconditional positive regard is being ‘ unconditional’ in the therapeutic relationship. The humanistic counseling aims at helping the patient without making him lose his individuality (Nelson-Jones, 2008, p.30). By showing feelings like liking, warmth and caring, the counsellor displays unconditional acceptance of the patient’s uniqueness and this helps the client to reveal themselves as they are, without having the fear of being judged (Nelson-Jones, 2008, p.30). Congruence: It is very important for a therapist or a counsellor to be genuine in the therapeutic relationship (Nelson-Jones, 2008, p.30). What the counsellors say and how they say it makes a lot of difference in the interactions with the client (Nelson-Jones, 2008, p.30). The more the honesty and the sincerity in the communication, more are the chances of success in developing fruitful therapeutic relationship (Nelson-Jones, 2008, p.30). Hence, congruence is important aspect of a therapeutic relationship. Therapeutic Process: Therapeutic ‘process’ can be described as a movement from one stage to another, in the counseling sessions, to achieve a progress in counselling a client (Nelson-Jones, 2009, p.31). Different forms of therapies accept different processes of counselling. One of the process is counselling and helping process model, which uses the three stages of a) relating, b) understanding and c)changing, during the counseling session. The aim of these stages is to develop a rapport with the client and make him comfortable enough to display trust in the counsellor and make the relationship successful. a) The relating stage is the stage where the therapeutic relationship begins. During this phase, the counsellor meets the client and builds a rapport through communication, environment setup and introduction (Nelson-Jones, 2008, p.36). In this stage, the client talks about his intention of coming for the counselling session and about his problem (Nelson-Jones, 2008, p.36). This stage is extremely important as it decides the development of the therapeutic relationship. In this stage, if the client feels comfortable and safe, then the future stages become easy and fruitful (Nelson-Jones, 2008, p.36). b) In the understanding stage, the counsellor helps the client to understand the roots of the problems and helps him to solve one problem at a time (Nelson-Jones, 2009, p.34). During this stage, the counsellor displays active listening by questioning the client at the right time and trying to understand their feelings, thoughts, physical reactions, perceptions and coping methods related to the problem (Nelson-Jones, 2009, p.34). By doing this, the counsellor prepares the client mentally for the progress to the third stage which is the change stage. c) In the change stage, the client and the counsellor together set a goal to achieve and plan the methods to achieve it (Nelson-Jones, 2009, p.35). This is the stage where the counsellor helps the client to achieve the solution of the problem with different counselling methods positive self talk, role playing etc (Nelson-Jones, 2009, p.35). One other therapeutic process is described by Carl Rogers (1977) where the aim of the counsellor is to help the client achieve more independence and integration of his personality so that he becomes capable and strong to solve his own problems in different situations of life (Corey, 2009, p.170). Rogers (1961) said that the goal of the process is to make the clients meet their ‘real’ self by removing the masks they wear to be a part of the society (Corey, 2009, p.170). People try to be different from what they are as they desire social acceptability. This creates a fragmented personality and makes them to lose peace of mind. Hence, according to Rogers, the aim of the therapeutic process is to introduce the clients to new possibilities of making their lives fulfilled without wearing masks (Corey, 2009, p.170). Hence, different therapeutic processes can be used to achieve different aims of therapy. At the same time, it won’t be wrong to say that the process described by Rogers is one of the best as it makes the client independent and also prepares him for future challenges in life. Application of Gestalt therapy People who lose touch with their senses and are not able to comprehend the reality by contacting their environment become neurotic (Nelson-Jones, 2008, p.18). Hence, the aim of the counsellor in Gestalt therapy is to increase client’s awareness and strength through “awareness techniques, experiments, sympathy and frustration, and dream work” (Nelson-Jones, 2008, p.18). The aims of the Gestalt therapy are achieved through exercise techniques and experiments ( Corey,2009, p.212). The best thing about the application of Gestalt therapy is the scope of creativity and client specific solution. For example, in Gestalt therapy, the exercise techniques that are used are ready-made techniques used to achieve a specific goal in the session ( Corey,2009, p.212). However, according to Melnick and Nevis(2005), “an experiment flows directly from psychotherapy theory and is crafted to fit the individual as he or she exists in the here and now” (Corey,2009, p.212). Gestalt experiments are spontaneous and provides new insights into the solution ( Corey,2009, p.212). Application of Person-centred therapy: Carl Rogers’s assumptions about people’s ability led him to develop a person-centred therapy. According to Rogers, people are reliable, they are capable of understanding their own nature and resolving their own problems and hence, a meaningful therapeutic relationship can help them to plan and work towards their own growth ( Corey,2009, p.166) . Rogers emphasized on the quality of a relationship between the client and a therapist because according to him, the only job of the therapist is to encourage and facilitate the growth of client and make the client aware of his own potential by showing care and support (Corey,2009, p.166). In the studies conducted in 1990 by Bozrath, Zamring and Tausch, it was found that person-centred therapy can be applied in solving the problems of anxiety disorders, alcoholism, psychosomatic problems, depression, cancer and other personality disorders ( Corey,2009, p.178). The belief in the potential of the human being to grow and heal himself strengthens the effectiveness and application of person-centred therapy in solving problems of different nature. Strengths and weaknesses of traditional and contemporary humanistic counseling: The most important difference between the traditional and contemporary humanistic counseling technique is their approach. The traditional humanistic counseling therapy like Gestalt and Person-centred therapy, emphasized the importance of an individual to great extent (Corey,2009, p.63). The contemporary therapies are developed to cater the needs of the people who live in multicultural environment of modern life (Corey,2009, p.63) and so, are more diverse and broad in their approach. The values that are given importance in traditional therapies are individualism, individual development for maturity and individual decision making etc., which are helpful in making a person completely independent of social expectations(Corey,2009, p.63). While on one hand this can be a strength of the traditional therapies as it helps the individual to grow, on the other hand the same strength becomes a weakness where it has to treat people who come from black, Asian or Hispanic ethnic background. People from Asian ethnic background believe in oneness of the universe. They do not see happiness and fulfillment in individualism but see fulfillment in togetherness and bonding (Corey,2009, p.63). Hence, the traditional humanistic therapies cannot help them. According to Sharf (1996), the women from black ethnic background can find traditional humanistic counseling against their cultural beliefs as they value interdependence more then the independence (Kopala and Keitel, 2003, p.42). Moreover, even the nature of the relationship between the therapist and client is different in traditional and contemporary practices of counselling. The balance of power between the counsellor and the client relationship was not equal in traditional counseling practices (Corey,2009, p.82). It was more authoritative and rigid (Corey,2009, p.82). In contemporary therapies, the power is equal, more freedom is given to client and also active part is expected from the therapist (Corey,2009, p.82). This makes the relationship open, productive and result oriented. In this way, the rigidity of basic assumptions and unequal power distribution was the weakness of the traditional therapies. This led to development in contemporary therapies which overcame the weaknesses of the traditional humanistic therapies to give an universal appeal to the therapies. Theoretical concepts and vulnerability of different therapies: Person-centred therapy : The key concept of the person-centred therapy is that people have a positive and receptive centre inside their core, which makes them capable of growth and change (Corey, 2009, p.169). According to Carl Rogers, the originator of this therapy, the only need is the conditions and environment that supports the development of that positive centre (Corey, 2009, p.169). Hence, the goal of the therapist was to get to that core and help the client to direct his own growth (Corey, 2009, p.169). Person-centred therapy has been accepted in many countries and has proven effective in treatment of many problems. However, this therapy has some limitations (Corey, 2009, p.184). For example, some people are used to more structured approach in professional relationship and find the open approach of person-centred therapy insufficient (Corey, 2009, p.185). Also, bringing some core values of the therapy in practice, like emotional expression and demonstration of empathy is not compatible with some cultural patterns. Hence, people coming from those culture may find the behavior pattern displayed by the therapist unacceptable (Corey, 2009, p.185). Moreover, the emphasis on the ‘individual’ aspect of the client can put off those clients who come from the cultural background which values the social system and family system a lot (Corey, 2009, p.185). Existential Theory: According to this theory, the person is experiencing constant change as he is open to change and experiences different things in his life (Dryden, 2002, p.182). From existential perspective, human being suffers from psychological problems when he is not able to cope with the paradoxes of life and follows the social expectations rather than following his own heart (Dryden, 2002, p.184). The real problem arise when people run away from realities of life rather than integrating it into their lives (Dryden, 2002, p.186). The aim of the existential therapy is to help client cope with the past, present and future crises and help him to become truthful to himself (Dryden, 2002, p.188). However, this approach has some limitations. The approach of this therapy that human being can change his life by changing his perceptions, can make a person feel that only ‘he’ is the centre and the controller of things in his life and this proves to be a limitation of this therapy (Dryden, 2002, p.198). The approach can make the client become socially unsupportive and lead to relationship problems (Dryden, 2002, p.198). Also, because of the emphasis on ‘self reflection’, which is perceived as mental process, it is considered that this therapy does not touch the emotional and creative part of client’s personality (Dryden, 2002, p.198). Also, the nature of existential therapy demands the therapist to be experienced, wise and mature (Dryden, 2002, p.198). However, it is not easy to find all these three qualities in one therapist and hence, this can be a limitation to the therapy. Gestalt Therapy: According to gestalt therapy, individual cannot be considered as an isolated being but has to be understood in relation with people and events happening around him (Dryden, 2007, p.230). When the habits and the nature of the human being does not work in sync with the environment, then the mental problems are created(Dryden, 2007, p.230). The aim of the gestalt therapy is to solve those aspects which makes a person feel isolated and separate from the ‘whole’(Dryden, 2007, p.233). However, this approach has created limitations for Gestalt therapy. According to Parlette (2000), the concept of therapy that the problems of human being arise from the external situations, creates difficulty in the solution of the problem because if the problem has to be solved, then the therapy has to be directed towards the social aspects that lead to the problem and not just directed towards the individual (Dryden, 2007, p.250). Also, the practice of different ways to treat the patient makes it difficult for the new therapists to learn all those approaches and understand the meaning behind it (Dryden, 2007, p.250). Transactional Analysis: The concept of Transactional analysis (TA) is based on the understanding that people are OK and have capability to solve their own problems (Dryden, 2007, p.263). TA also believes that people can think and their life is their own making as it is their decision that affects the life (Dryden, 2007, p.263). Hence, according to TA, life can be changed by changing the decision (Dryden, 2007, p.263). However, the concept of TA is limiting as it describes behavior motivation on the basis of reward-punishment from others and not as a motivation from biological or spiritual perspective. The emphasis on the notions of ‘cure’ and adapting oneself to the social norms makes TA appear traditional in its approach (Dryden, 2007, p.278). Also, TA’s overemphasizes on the behavior problem of the client and understanding that the nuclear family is a root of problem can make therapist ignore the real cause of the problem(Dryden, 2007, p.250). These are the concepts and the limitations of different therapies in humanistic psychology. References: Corey, G. (2009). Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy. CA: Thomson Books/ Cole. Dryden, W. (2002). Handbook of Individual Therapy. London: Sage Publication Ltd. Dryden, W. (2007). Dryden’s Handbook of Individual Therapy. London: Sage Publication Ltd Feltham, C. (Ed.)(1999). Understanding the Counselling Relationship. London: Sage Publication Ltd. Kopala, M. & Keitel, M.A. (Eds.) (2003). Handbook of Counselling Women. CA: Sage Publication Nelson-Jones, R. (2008). Basic Counselling Skills: A Helper’s Manual. London: Sage Publication Ltd. Nelson-Jones, R. (2009). Introduction to Counselling Skills: Texts and Activities. Sage Publication Ltd. Read More