Person-Centred Theory in Counseling - Essay Example

Person-centred theory in counseling Lecturer: Person-centred theory approach to counseling Introduction Person-centred approach to counseling is also referred as client-centred counseling or the Rogerian psychotherapy (Mearns 2007). The theory emphasises on the therapist’s attitudes and way of being since the three core principles reflects the attitudes of the therapist towards the client. Mearns (2007) assert that the therapist is supposed to the congruent with the client, provide the client unconditional positive regard and show empathy to the client. The theory stems from the humanistic psychology theories that assert that counselors must consider the unique client needs and offer guidance for personal growth (McLeod 2009). The humanistic approaches assume that human beings have a natural tendency towards actualisation and prefer personal fulfillment and intimate relationships (Mearns 2007). Accordingly, the theories assume that individuals are open and responsive to inner experiences such as feelings, thoughts and sensations. Person-centred psychotherapy places attention on the client-counselor relationship and fosters personality development through enabling the client to use his or her capabilities in a constructive manner. According to McLeod (2009), the aim of person-centred therapy is to harness the client’s natural healing process since Rogers believes that human beings are positively motivated and have a natural internal drive towards growth, adjustment and good health. Individuals can be trusted to make personal choices that will shape and direct their own existence through freeing themselves from internal and external controls in order to heal. According to Gillon (2007), the theory is essential in counseling since assumes that human beings have a self-actualisation tendency through enables them pursue their unique personal goals and attain self-fulfillment. The inner nature of human beings consists of intrinsic tendencies that make the client aim at satisfying the human needs. For instance, clients will seek higher human needs such as supportive relationships after acquiring the psychological needs such as food and shelter. Casemore (2011) stresses that the theory is congruent to human nature since self-actualisation is the highest human needs and client must have self-esteem and worth to experience personal fulfillment and sense of achievement. Mearns (2007) claims that the actualisation process is hindered when the feelings and expressions or actions of the client are incongruent thus generating inner conflicts and behavioural problems. Secondly, the conditions of self-worth are shaped by the important people surrounding the person thus counselor are required to help the client to develop better understanding of self, engage in self exploration and improve the self-concept. The self-concept starts at infancy while self is whereby the underlying tendencies are generated over a period of time (Casemore 2011). Individuals encounter experiences and attribute meanings to them through their feelings and the feedback determines their own self-perception and value they have to other people. For instance, unsecure home environment can make children develop fear as they grow to adults, but therapeutic relationships will loosen the self-structure and enable the individual develop self-confidence (Gillon 2007). The understanding of self ultimately enables the client to solve own psychological problems without intervention of the counselor since clients will have developed self-esteem and courage that enables them to face their fears and anxieties (Casemore 2011). Casemore (2011) points out that the counseling approach aims at attaining a fully functioning individual who is characterised by ideal emotional health, openness to new experiences, sense of creativity, constructive behaviour, and trustworthy. The individual should have a sense of purpose and meaning and should be capable of reflecting on past experiences due to well developed self-awareness. The phenomenological perspective assumes that each individual has a unique set of own subjective world and different perceptions of the world thus counseling must focus on the unique perceptions, feelings, thoughts and experiences of the individual (Tudor 2008). Carl Rogers offers three core conditions that are essential for successful counseling that include unconditional positive regard (UPR), empathy and congruence (Gillon 2007). Rogers asserts that unconditional positive regard is essential for the clients to fulfill their potential and counselors must have a genuine caring for their clients. In this case, counselors in their practice must be willing to offer non-judgmental and unconditional counseling without regard to the uniqueness of the client (Tudor 2008). The counselor is expected to offer a supportive environment that enables the client to explore all his or her feelings and thoughts regardless of whether positive or negative. According to Gillon (2007), the counselor will avoid being judgmental and should not issue any specific standards of behaviour to the clients during the counseling. The counselor will maintain a positive attitude towards the client even when the client’s actions and behaviour is disgusting. This will encourage the client to share thoughts and feelings regarding the counseling process and counselors will be capable of responding to the negative client behaviour through addressing the feelings associated with the behaviour (Mearns 2007). The second core principle that guides effective counseling is empathetic understanding through accurately understanding the client’s perceptions, thoughts and feelings. The counselor must demonstrate an appreciation of the client’s views through conveying the understanding of the views back to the client, remaining sensitive and ensuring accurate reflection of the feelings (McLeod 2009). In this case, clients who are more accepted and valued during the therapeutic relationships will develop caring attitudes towards themselves. McLeod (2009) asserts that the counselor should attain accurate awareness of the client’s private world, experiences and thoughts through sensing the feelings of the client while at the same time remaining separate from the client. The counselor must appreciate client’s subjective world as if it was their own. The third core principle is congruence and requires the counselors to be genuine and authentic since effectively counselors must remain transparent and not hide behind personal façade and professional practice (Gillon 2007). The more genuine the counselor, the greater is the likelihood that his or clients will change in constructive manner as the client will be capable of seeing right through what the counselor is in the therapeutic relationship (McLeod 2009). The counselor should share their feelings with the client as there is no holding back in the relationship and what is experienced is communicated thus leading to greater congruence. Rogers requires counselors to be honest and open to client’s experiences. The counseling relationship must be based on trust and responses must be free from manipulation thus enabling the client to think about possibilities of self acceptance (Casemore 2011). Roger identified six sufficient and necessary conditions that are essential therapeutic personality changes. All the six conditions are interrelated, and the first condition requires the counselor and client to be in a psychological contract and therapeutic relationship that is based on trust must exist in order to the client to attain positive personal change (Mearns 2007). The other conditions sets out the characteristics of the counselor-client relationship and second condition requires the client to be vulnerable or incongruent due to a discrepancy that causes anxiety or fear while the third condition requires the counselor to be genuine or congruent through self-awareness (Tudor 2008). The fourth condition is the therapist’s unconditional positive regard that enables the counselor to accept and show respect to clients’ feelings and thoughts thus eventually facilitates personality change. The fifth condition is the counselor’s experiences of empathetic understanding of the internal frame of reference and communication of the experience to the client (Casemore 2011). The last condition is the client’s perception since client is supposed to perceive the empathetic understanding and unconditional positive regard from the counselor in order to engage in cordial counseling relationships (Tudor 2008). At the initial stage, the client is assumed to the resistant to change and defensive, but empathetic understanding and unconditional positive regard enables the client to engage in discussions and express the present emotions thus leading to rapid growth towards congruence. The advanced stages are characterized by the client’s acceptance of responsibility for their actions and increased decision-making abilities that ultimately contributes to self-actualisation and demonstration of unconditional positive regard to others (Tudor 2008). The counseling approach requires counselors to develop good listening skills, remain non-judgmental, and reflect on the client experiences and thoughts in order to foster self-healing. The counselor must be a faithful companion and offer a supportive climate that enables the clients to use their own resources for self-worth and self-understanding. The therapeutic change is determined by the client’s perception of their experience and counselor attitudes. The client mainly comes in to the relationship with a sense of hopelessness and inability to control their lives and thus counselor guide the client through self-exploration thus enabling client to activate the self-healing capabilities. Tolan (2012) concludes that the relationship must be based on equality since counselors must not use knowledge or skills secretively and empathy should enable the clients to perceive prior experiences in new perspectives and increase their self-confidence in making personal choices regarding their lives. The goal of the person-centred therapy is to increase the independence and create conditions that are essential for client growth through supportive therapeutic relationships. The therapies focus on the real problems and enable the client to develop self-awareness that enhances his or her openness to news experiences and build self-trust (Mearns 2007). The therapeutic methods should facilitate trust and honest and promote the client’s self-esteem and awareness in order to empower change. The counselor will demonstrate active listening, use good tone, and use both closed and open-ended questions in order to encourage self-disclosure. Active listening enhances deeper interactions and clients are capable of disclosing personal information. According to Tolan (2012), counselor takes in to account the changes in body language and use various active listening skills such as facing the client, making eye contact, seeking clarification and responding appropriately without biasness. Furthermore, counselor must avoid stereotypes or ethnic statements that may hinder the quality of the relationship and must listen to the client opinions even when they disagree with it (Casemore 2011). Person-centred counseling theory is highly applicable in modern counseling since it is non-directed and considers the unique experiences, thoughts and feelings of the client. The approach is common in the UK and US and its conditions have being utilised in other models such as psychodynamic counseling (Casemore 2011). Person-centred approach to counseling offers several benefits since it recognises and appreciates the client’s contributing during the therapeutic sessions and encourages self-awareness and self-growth of the clients (Tolan 2012). The approach of counseling is based on the client’s thoughts, feelings, and not those of the counselor. . The counselor ensures a reduction in the power differential in the relationships through showing empathy and unconditional positive regard thus empowering the client to attain self-worth and self-confidence in dealing with behavioural issues. I agree with Tolan (2012), that this approach caters for multicultural perspectives through appreciating the subjective world of the client as clients are more likely to engage in self-exploration and disclosure while being listened than judged. However, critics have pointed out that the approach is passive and may fail to change the client’s feelings and thoughts due to the unconditional positive regard of the therapist. The approach emphasises on active listening thus therapists may fail to challenge the clients to change especially those who may be lacking self-motivation (Casemore 2011). Other drawbacks that have been cited include the simplistic approach and inappropriateness in significant psychopathology due to the unrealistic optimism of the approach to counseling. Conclusion I believe person-centred counseling has immensely contributed to counseling profession through demonstrating how meaningful and trustful counseling relationships ensure supportive psychological climate that enable clients to attain self-confidence and direct their healing process. Counselors ensure equality of roles and facilitate a supportive environment that encourages the client to engage in self-exploration and build self-worth. The theory entails humanistic ideals since individuals are considered rational and having an inherent tendency to develop self-capacity in order to enhance fulfillment of their aspirations and become a fully functioning individual. Destructive environments can hinder self-reflection and thus counselors create an optimal psychological climate that will foster self-actualisation through suppressing negative internal thoughts and feelings and obstacles in the external environment. In order to attain a positive picture of the individual’s interests, abilities and motivations, counselor’s attitudes and approach must offer unconditional positive regard, ensure congruence and demonstrate empathetic understanding. The counselor should communicate the desire to appreciate, understand and communicate with the client without being judgmental and ensuring congruence. Certain counseling skills are essential for overall successful of the therapeutic relationship since counselors are expected to remain non-judgmental, use active listening, show respect and trust and facilitate a supportive climate that enables the clients to use their own resources for self-understanding and development of self-worth. Effective counseling will lead to fully functioning individual who is open to new experiences, determined, creative, and empathetic and with unconditional positive regard to others. References: Casemore, R. (2011). Person-centred counseling in a Nutshell. London: Sage. Gillon, E. (2007). Person-centred counseling psychology: an introduction. Los Angeles: Sage. McLeod, J. (2009). An introduction to counseling. New York: Open University Press. Mearns, D. (2007). Developing person centred counseling. London: Sage publications. Tolan, J. (2012). Skills in person centred counseling & psychotherapy. New York: Sage tudor Publications. Tudor, K & Worrall, M. (2006). Person-centred therapy: a clinical philosophy. London: Routledge. Tudor, K. (2008). Brief person-centred therapies. Los Angeles: Sage publications. Read More