Person-Centered Approach to Counseling - Essay Example

04 April, 2009 Person-centred approach to counselling Person-centred counselling is a method introduced by Carl Rogers to help people identify their true potential and make full use of it. According to his theory of counselling, every person is trustworthy and every person can act on his own problems and resolve it without involving others. The person only needs support from the counsellor to overcome the problems. The client needs to involve in a therapeutic relationship with the counsellor and it is the responsibility of the counsellor to provide the right kind of environment for a positive growth in client's behavior. (Mcleod 166) The person centred therapy is very effective for people who want to come out of the barriers they have put on themselves and perform their duties they wish to do. And as always, every approach has both opponents and proponents to it. The following sections discuss about counselling in general, the pros and cons of person-centred counselling and whether it is the best approach to move forward in realizing every individual's true potential. Counselling is a process where people (usually called clients) find a person (usually called therapist or counsellor) who is sympathetic and refrains from judging people based on their standards. Clients can open their mind and talk to the counsellor. They offer a soft corner to listen to your thoughts and understand them from your perspective. Every plant grows to its true potential only from a seed. Similarly, every human is believed to have this tendency to grow from scratch to a position of strength. The major strength of the theory is that works exactly on the same principle of providing continuing development and support to the individual. This may continue even after the end of counselling. Several leaders, writers have gone through this counselling and they have tasted success out of it. Several other theories work on an individual only on specific processes like behavior, emotions, and attitude. But, this theory works on a person without isolating all these processes and treating them as one. If a client can realize it, then he is easily into the process of realizing himself. A person has his own dreams and perceptions of different things. A therapist connects to this internal mind of his and strives to interpret his experience to client. (Spinelli 158) One of the major advantages of this person-centred approach is the relationship between the two persons. The final result of this process invariably depends on the relationship and trust that exists between them. The two persons have to be psychologically interactive rather than passing through the motions. The whole process of treatment depends on the trust they have between them, in particular, the trust the patient has on the counsellor. And as the name suggests, the client takes the centre stage as against the therapist, which is normally the case with other therapies. (Merry 33-47) The person-centred therapy is distinct and advantageous than other therapies in many ways. The personal qualities of the therapist are much more significant in development of the client's behavior when compared with other therapies. It is the attitude, the patience and the inherent characteristics of the therapist that comes to the fore rather than the techniques and theories. The therapist has to set goals for himself rather than the client as he has to understand the true inner character of the client to resolve the problems. (Merry 119-123) The client's mental growth depends on how well the counsellor connects to him personally. The therapist's regard for the client must be unconditional and positive as the client is vulnerable and stressed out in most of the cases. The counsellor helps the client work on the present and help them realize how it is and what it is rather than persisting with the past. The theory significantly stresses the fact that the client has to take care of his responsibilities instead of depending on someone leading them to do things. This helps in improving the trust they have on themselves. (Mcleod 156-188) The biggest advantage the counsellor can gain through this therapy is self-development. The counsellor can gain immense knowledge on the three paramount conditions that need to be implied to build trust with the client. They are congruence, empathy and positive acceptance. The first and major condition is congruence. It refers to how the counsellor connects to the client. The strength of this therapy lies in the fact that the counsellor is genuine, transparent rather than being in a state of just responding to the client's feelings. Adding to that, they can express that genuine feeling only when it adds great strength to the client and helps in the process. On such frame of mind, the counsellor makes the clients feel that it is right to be what they are and helps them work on their growth. The second condition that further strengthens the theory and counsellor's ability is empathy. It is by which a counsellor can simulate the state of mind the client is in and can work from the client's point of view. (Mearns 49) The final condition is accepting positively whatever the client is and taking care of it. It helps client to understand that their current state of mind is no more required to make them feel substantial among others. These three conditions are the major strong points when compared with other theories as the whole approach is built on encompassing these conditions. In other theories they are applied only as part of the whole process. On the client's side, the benefits are plenty. On going through this process successfully, the clients can realize their capability of doing things and they feel a sense of self-reliability. It helps them recognize their true value and helps them develop themselves. They are not emotionally stressed out and able to judge things on their merit. It is particularly a safe model to involve as the therapist is always there to support them. Also, the therapist won't be pushing the client to follow a particular technique or a procedure. The clients can move forward with the procedure in whatever speed they want to proceed with. The therapist actually acts as a mirror to the clients and thereby helping them understand the mistakes they commit. (Wilkins 108-120) The process helps them to jell well with the public, family and friends. One of the major disadvantages of person-centred approach is that understanding the world of client and trying to relate to it is primarily the basic procedure that all therapists follow. Only after this, they go into the actual process of applying theories and techniques on how to make the clients better. As far as the person-centred approach goes, the whole theory of making the client realize the true self is fully dependant on the environment the therapist provides the client. In reality, it is a tough concept to implement with the client. It is because, it demands a lot from the therapist as he has to be open, honest and have to conceal his own personal preferences in all circumstances. The principle of consistently maintaining the three paramount conditions, congruence, empathy and positive regard is a real challenge for the therapist. (Dryden 131-157) The other criticism against person-centred approach is that it largely depends on the therapeutic relationship which the client has with the therapist. The outcome of the counselling is directly proportional to the trust the two have between them. As this approach goes, it can be achieved only by implementing the above three conditions, but critics have other views that a positive relationship could be maintained even without implementing those three conditions. Another criticism that is mostly sidelined by many proponents is the question of what next happens if the client isn't out of mental blockage even after incorporating all three conditions. The question is still unanswered and even the application of all three conditions doesn't tell completely about the true self of the client. (Wilkins 65) It is also said that person-centred approach doesn't tell exactly about the specific types of approaches and techniques for different persons. It is too simple and low-level. It can be used to solve some basic problems of clients but cannot be implemented to solve severe mental problems. The universal outcome of this approach is a motivation provided to clients to break their mental barricades and move forward. This cannot be applied to all sorts of mental problems. For example, when applied to people suffering from schizophrenia, the process may not yield the expected outcome. The counsellor may not be able to reach the inner self of the client and thereby not able to apply those three conditions to the client. The whole process may become a failure. (Mearns 132) It is not what all clients want out of their counselling. There is another disadvantage that it is a too long process to be implemented only to cure basic problems. Also, in such a long process, the counsellor may be in a dilemma on when to close the relationship or when the client can be on his own. (Wilkins 64-75) After going through the advantages and disadvantages of person-centred therapy, it can be concluded that this approach holds good for clients who want to undergo a change and who want to explore themselves. It is for people who want to get motivated to succeed in life. It is also helpful for persons who want to change certain habits in them. It is for people who want to understand their own responsibilities and to act on them. (Merry 78-82) People searching for advices from counsellors to do things may not find it to be the right approach. Also, it is not advisable for persons with serious mental disturbances as it may yield minimal results. In case of basic problems of mental disturbances, then certainly the advantages overweigh the disadvantages. The final solution given by this approach is acceptable to all problems faced by the client rather than a problem specific solution. In this aspect, this therapy stands tall among others. In short, after going through the process, the client may not have completely reshaped his life, but the feel of self-acceptance is instilled into them. It is the most important feeling for any person to get motivated and if it is done, then their mental state is irreversible. Works cited Dryden, Windy. Handbook of individual therapy. 4th ed. New Delhi, India: Sage, 2002 Mearns David, Brian T. Person-centred Counselling in Action. 3rd ed. New Delhi, India: SAGE, 2007. McLeod, J. An introduction to counselling. 3rd ed. Buckingham, UK: Open University Press. 2004. Merry, Tony. Learning and Being in Person-centred Counselling. 2nd ed. U.K.: Pccs Books, 2002. Spinelli, E. Demystifying therapy. Baltimore: Constable, 1994. Wilkins, Paul. Person-centred therapy in focus. New Delhi, India: Sage, 2003 Read More