Person-centered, Existential and Rational-Emotive-Behavioural Therapies - Coursework Example

A Comparative Study of Person-Centred, Existential and Rational-Emotive-Behavioural Therapies Though the focus of all kinds of psychotherapies is to help clients solve their psychological problems in a professional manner; yet each therapy varies from the other on the basis of its philosophy, methodology and goals. In this context, three kinds of therapies: person-centred, existential and rational-emotive behavioural therapies are reviewed. Person- Centred Therapy It is a humanistic approach of therapy developed by Carl Rogers1 in which the relationship of the therapy-seeker with the therapist is not of a patient but that of a client. The methodology of this therapy is not controlled by dogma or a doctrine- rather, it is controlled by the psychological needs of the client who is counselled by keeping his/her respective background in due consideration. “...the process of therapy is not primarily about creating new propositions...It is rather about symbolising and accepting the presence of the propositions we currently live by, and then by implication, exploring and questioning their validity, accuracy, completeness and usefulness.” (Tudor & Worrall 2006, p. 15) Therefore, in Person-centred therapy, methodology is not given preference over the goals of the therapy. Each therapy session is aimed at achieving certain goals that are met without being dictated by a dogmatic practice or approach of therapy. “Roger’s client centred therapy is based on the principle that the therapy is non-directive.” (Webb 2011, p. 94). It has three core conditions: “warmth and genuineness..., empathy... and unconditional positive regard.” (94-95) The therapist is supposed to be warm and empathic towards the client. This helps in building a warm and amiable environment for the patient to talk about his/her problems. Having a non-directive approach puts the client and the therapist in a unique relationship. In regular therapies, usually the clinician or the therapist directs the therapy sessions or devises the methodology. As person-centred therapy is based upon the humanistic approach therefore, the client is given the freedom to design his sessions according to his psychological needs. Thus, person centred therapy defines an exclusive therapeutic relationship between the therapist and the client which puts the client in charge of his/her therapy. By giving such liberty to the client, he/she can confidently speak to the therapist about his/her psychological issues. Such relationship calls for mutual understanding and trust, as declared by Wilkins: “Mutuality is highly desirable in person centred therapy...it is likely to lead to the development of trust.” (2003, p. 93) However, there are a few limitations to the practice of person-centred therapy. As the therapy sessions are unique in nature, depending upon the unique needs of each client; therefore, there is no standard methodology. It is not possible to investigate the success or failure of a particular methodology. “...humanistic psychology has generated theories and ideas that have proved very difficult to test by scientific investigation. ...there is a logical problem of applying theories generated from one individual to another... Many humanistic ideas (...) are extremely culture-bound... ...the importance of external influences on people’s lives, have probably been underestimated...” (Jarvis 2000, p. 76) The absence of a standard module makes is prone to illogical or varied conclusions regarding a particular methodology. This also hampers future investigation or study of any methodology adopted in therapy sessions. Person-centred therapy is also strongly bound by cultural norms and practices. As the therapists handle each situation with a personal approach, therefore it may be assumed that the clinician is working within a specific culture. Instead of following a scientific procedure during the therapy sessions, the clinician hands over the reins to the client that reveals his/her presumptions about the client’s cultural background. It is for this reason, that person centred therapies cannot be conducted universally but are limited to a few cultures. Unconditional positive regard is rather a tricky condition of the core values of person centred therapy. It may be socially or politically or morally unacceptable for a therapist to view the actions or thinking of the client. “Thus, from such a standpoint, unconditional positive regard is not impossible, but dependent upon the match between therapist and client.” (Gillon 2007, p. 51) A few other limitations of person centred therapy are: “... emphasis and validity it gives to the individual’s perception of reality and its impact on behaviour... relatively few constructs making up the theory and its naive assumptions about behaviour... an easily taught technique consisting of relatively few types of verbal responses automatically applied to all forms of psychological disorders.” (Carducci 2009, p. 226) In some cases, the clients are looking for a directive approach from the part of the therapist. Such clients cannot be satisfied by Rogerian approach. “It is my own belief that the limitations of person centred therapy reside not in the approach itself but in the limitations of particular therapists and in their ability or lack of it to offer their clients the necessary conditions for change and development.” (Dryden 2007, p. 156) Existential Therapy: There is yet another kind of therapy that focuses its philosophy on the existing states of the individuals. It is designed to explore the meanings of life or the goals in life of a person. Contrary to person-centred therapy, existential therapy basis its philosophy on a person’s emotions and experiences which are directly affected by the cultures they live in. “Counselling is Europe, therefore, is often about phenomenological exploration and finding meanings.” (Leung, Leung, Aegisdottir, et &al. 2011, p. 90) While in person-centred therapy, the goal is to alleviate the psychological issues concerning each individual; this kind of therapy assesses the impact of external influences on the psyche of a person and studies human emotions and experiences in the context of their culture or existence. “Existentialism can be defined as a philosophical perspective which takes as its goal the understanding of the experience of being in the world.” (McLeod, 2011, p. 96) It studies their attitudes, behaviours and responses to everyday or common occurrences or events like death of a beloved, sorrow, failure, stress or negativity etc. the patients are urged to reflect upon their lives and find the real meaning of their lives, or whatever concerns them. “Clients’ search for meanings of life leads to such therapy questions as: What is the meaning of your life? What do you want from life? What is the source for meaning in life? Meaningless in life leads to emptiness and an existential vacuum.” (Jones-Smith 2011, p. 225) The generalization of human experiences actually becomes a limitation of existential therapy. Though human experiences are defined by external influences to some extent, but as their degree varies from one person to another, therefore, no standard emotion or emotive response can be defined. The viewpoints of the therapists or the clinicians also may vary according to the client’s responses to different situations. The definitions and meanings of authenticity also vary from one therapist to another. Such issues hinder the future scientific investigation in this regard, as the methodology is rather considered vague. “A limitation to existential therapy is its perceived vagueness. Some critics find terms such as self-actualization, authenticity and being in the world unclear and elusive. As such it becomes difficult to research the process or the outcomes of existential therapy.” (Gregoire & Jungers 2007, p. 272) A major difference between existentialism and humanist therapies is: “The goal is to help people free themselves from negative attitudes so that they can live happier lives.[In existential therapy]...therapists are more concerned with helping clients find meanings in the face of anxiety by learning to think and act authentically and responsibly.” (Jones-Smith 2011, p.203) Rational Emotive Behavioural therapy: “...the ABC model of REBT is an excellent way to help clients see the faulty logic in their thinking.” (Conte 2009 p.195) Therapists adopt a direct way of dealing with the clients and in this respect, the nature of relationship between the patient and the therapist is contrasted with the indirect approach in person-centred therapy. The therapeutic relationship is based on trust; otherwise it would be impossible for the client to talk to the therapist about problems that disturb him/her emotionally and psychologically. “It’s a gift, to be listened to with quiet intention and total attention.” (Fox 2007, p.83) As the name of the therapy suggests, REBT studies the interaction of cognition, emotion and behaviour. The clinicians encourage the patients to talk about their problems by giving them a definite direction to recognize the main issue(s) bothering the patient. A situation occurs in which the person has an emotional episode. A stands for the activating event... B stands for belief (rational or irrational). C stands for the consequences of holding a belief about A and can be emotional, behavioural and cognitive. (Dryden & Neenan 2006, p. 3) REBT is based on meaningful counselling; it is not vague like existential therapy that generalizes human responses to typical events in life. REBT aims to look at the real issues that are affecting the overall lives of the patients. In counselling situations, the relationship needs to take centre stage, because meaningful counselling depends on the establishment of a bond or alliance that is strong enough for the person to be able to tolerate talking about issues that are emotionally painful, embarrassing and shameful, out of control or confusing. (McLeod 2007, pp.111-112) The consequences of a situation are analyzed retrospectively in order to understand the irrational belief of a person. Agendas are set by the therapist to “provide a helpful structure at the outset of therapy sessions.” (Dryden & Neenan 2006, p.107)A structured agenda is helpful in a sense that it addresses the core issue(s) of the patient in a step-by-step process. REBT is different from other therapies because its structure or pattern of therapy sessions is variable. It may be possible that the “clients are disturbed about a new issue in their life and at these times you may profitably loosen the structure of the sessions to enable the clients to explore their feelings and reactions in an open ended manner.” (Dryden & Neenan 2006, p.108) Thus, patients are helped in overcoming their irrational beliefs that drastically affects human behaviour and performance in life. REBT doesn’t restrict itself with the feelings of a person or his/her existential circumstances. It studies the irrational beliefs in human mind that are deemed responsible for various psychological issues like depression, anxiety etc. The founder of REBT, Ellis developed the ABC framework because he places much more emphasis “on how people sustain their irrationality than on how they develop it. He considers that psychology has focused on how people originally become illogical, but this by no means indicates how people maintain their illogical behaviour or what they should do to change it.” (Russell & Jarvis 2003, p.31) The reason why it is imperative for the clients to adopt rational thinking and attitude in life is because being realistic in our thinking makes our lives more liveable. It is unhealthy to delve in irrational beliefs about life, or people in general. “If life is unfair it is only unfair in this respect and doesn’t prove that the world is a rotten place.”(Dryden & Neenan 2004, p. 11) The focal point of the ABC model of REBT is ‘beliefs’- which may be rational and healthy; or irrational and unhealthy. The aim of this kind of therapy is to make the patients understand the vitality of having rational beliefs as it enables a person to look at and bear distressing events in life by overcoming our irrational beliefs. The B in ABC framework cannot change A; but it can definitely change C, and that is all that matters. Despite its scientific approach, it has certain limitations and strengths. “People with very severe mental disturbances are not readily treated with talking treatments. This applies particularly to those who suffer from delusions and hallucination... The emphasis placed on homework and self help can be a limitation for some clients.” (Dryden 2007, p. 319) REBT is also criticized for its simplicity. The importance of each kind of therapy cannot be negated as each has its own strengths and limitations. The difference in their characteristics owes to the fact that each kind of therapy was developed to address different issues. Person-centred therapy focuses on the individual; existential therapy emphasizes upon the influences of culture and environment on human experiences; and REBT is based upon sorting out the issues that arise due to irrational beliefs. The limitations within each kind of therapies calls for further research and study so as to make further advancements in the field of psychotherapy. References Carducci, JB 2009, The psychology of personality: viewpoints, research, and applications. 2nd edn, Wiley-Blackwell, UK. Conte, C 2009, Advanced techniques for counselling and psychotherapy, Springer publishing company, New York. Dryden, W 2007, Drydens handbook of individual therapy, 5th edition Sage publications, London. Dryden, W & Neenan, M 2004, The rational emotive behavioural approach to therapeutic change, SAGE publications, London, UK. Dryden, W &Neenan, M 2006, Rational emotive behavioural therapy: 100 key points and techniques, Psychology Press, East Sussex, Great Britain. Fox, S 2007, Relating to clients: the therapeutic relationship for complementary therapists, Jessica Kingsley Publishers, London , GBR. Gillon, E 2007, Person-centred counselling psychology: An introduction, Sage publications, London. Gregoire, J & Jungers, MC 2007, The counselors companion: what every beginning counselor needs to know. Lawrence Erlbaum, New Jersey, USA. Jarvis, M 2000, Theoretical approaches in psychology, Routledge, London. Jones-Smith, E 2011, Theories of counselling and psychotherapy: An integrative approach. Sage publications, USA. Leung, SMA, Leung, SMA, Aegisdottir, S, Gerstein, HL, Gerstein, HL, Heppner, PP & Norsworthy, LK 2011, Essentials of cross-cultural counselling, Sage publications USA. McLeod, J 2007, Counselling Skill, Open University Press, Buckingham, GBR. McLeod, J 2011, Qualitative research in counselling and psychotherapy, 2nd edn, Sage publications, London. Russell, J & Jarvis, M 2003, Angles on applied psychology, Nelson Thorne’s, UK. Tudor, K. & Worrall, M 2006, Person-Centred therapy: A clinical philosophy, Psychology Press, East Sussex, UK. Webb, L 2011, Nursing: Communication skills in practice, Oxford University Press, Oxford. Wilkins, P 2003, Person centred therapy in focus, Sage publication, London. Read More