The Rogerian Client-Centered Strategy - Coursework Example

Topic:  Lecturer: Presentation: Introduction The Rogerian client-centered strategy lays emphasis on the individual being in a position to form a proper understanding of themselves as well as of their world. The person comes in to a client-centered therapy in a condition of incongruence, which the therapist makes an effort to reverse. The person centered approach is founded on the individual’s biased view of the world and considers every person as a potentially capable individual that may possibly benefit significantly from his/her own type of psychotherapy. The therapy promotes the sensation of self-esteem, develops confidence and decreases the intensity of incongruence between the superlative and real self. It is also aimed at enabling an individual to develop as a completely functional person. The client-centered therapy functions in line with six fundamental principles, which include therapist-client emotional contact, client incongruence or susceptibility, therapist congruence with the client, empathy, unreserved positive regard for the client by the therapist as well as client perception (Rogers, 1965). This paper analyses the consistency or inconsistency of a recorded therapy session with these conditions as put forth by Rogers. Therapist-Client Psychological Contact The session in this case was characterized by an emotional contact between the client and the audience. The relationship connecting the audience to the client is significant in ensuring that she accomplishes positive personal transformation. The questions raised were nonintrusive and were only meant to help the audience develop an understanding of the nature of the problem. They also helped them to appreciate how the client felt faced with the ominous situation that seemed unending. The tone in the questions was gentle and encouraged the client to continue speaking about her predicament and openly express her frustration. The tone was neither too high nor too low. It was not so loud or fast, which would have intimidated the client. Rather, it was slow, light hearted and accommodating voices. It is unlikely that a client will remember exactly what was said in a session, but how it was said and what was felt about it is what will not be forgotten by the client. For example, when X asked, “she has not come back to you?” the client is able to open up and express personal feelings regarding how she feels about this consistent lack of communication. She responds by expressing her perception that, “may be they are just like saying we do not need you anymore…” From this, the audience learns the deep-seated worries of the client and is therefore able to establish a foundation for progressive interactions (Merry, 2002). When there lacks an emotional contact between client and therapist, there is a likelihood of the client becoming indifferent. The client in this session is ready to answer any question and elaborate further, which signifies the trust that she has for her audience. On the other hand the questions asked are open, allowing the audience to gather as much information as possible from the client. The more a client speaks the more the therapist will be better placed to respond creatively and the faster an emotional connection is likely to be established. Open ended questions on the other hand may not have a particular answer that is correct but necessitate a certain level of clarification. They lower the possibility of the client finding questions to be threatening, overpowering or unanswerable. For example, when the Y asks the client, “have you seen her..?” or “have you told Jonathan about it?” she deliberately avoids a more direct question that may be difficult for the client to answer such as, “why have you not seen her?” or “why have you not told Jonathan about it?” The open ended questions helped to keep the client talking and also opening the information collection component of the session (Mearns & Thorne, 2007). Client Incongruence or Susceptibility The session was also characterized by a divergence between the client’s self-worth and real experience leaving her susceptible to uncertainties and fretfulness. Nevertheless, she was not conscious of the incongruence. For example, when Y asks if the client has told Jonathan regarding the matter, she doubts if she told him or not as she says she only told him about the meeting. She is not sure what she ought to have told Jonathan and whether it was the right thing. The client fails to recognize her self-worth in relation to the response of her tormenters. She has a strong urge to tell Jonathan something but does not say it yet she is suffering from frustration. When she wants to ask Jonathan’s counterparts regarding her promise to ‘get back to her’, some force within her suppresses her decision to call and remind her and express her fears. X suggests to the client that she needs to tell Jonathan how she feels about the issue and how it is affecting her. She says, “You need to tell Jonathan instead of waiting”. This is a positive move by X toward decreasing the congruence that is hindering the client from taking decisive action. It helps to lower the client’s vulnerability resulting from failure to express her feelings to the right person therefore allowing the situation to take the toll on her (McLeod, 2003). Self-esteem makes someone confident and lack of it is the reason why the client says she feels like giving up now. She is even contemplating seeking the placement next year yet it is obvious that it will negatively affect her program. Y at one point suggests that between now and the time that she is going to embark on the project she can be doing something else. The client agrees but is not sure that this will be the right thing to do owing to the fact that there will be no time to accomplish much. Y in this case is trying to instill self-esteem and confidence in the client by showing her that there is still an alternative that she can evaluate rather than giving up altogether. Nevertheless, it is presented as a suggestion and not as an assertion that it is what must be done. The incongruence in the client suggests that she is ready to take any solution when she admits that the choice is not hers now. When X asks for the contacts of the people involved so that she can contact them to enquire about the client’s issue, she is trying to draw her back to her original objectives so that she does not give up as a result of uncertainties (Bond, 2000). Therapist Congruence with Client Congruence or actuality of the audience while dealing with the client is a significant aspect of client-centered therapy. It is regarded as the most significant attribute that enhances success in counseling (Rogers, 1965). It deviates from the typical psychodynamic approach in which the audience would have preserved confidentiality with regards to matters affecting him/her even though they may be related to the issues presented by a client. The audience conceals their own personalities in the session. On the other hand, the client-centered therapy makes it possible for the client to experience the audience as they actually are. The audience maintains authenticity allowing his internal and external state to be the same. Congruence was demonstrated in this session as the audience approached the issue with humility and tried to assume the feelings of the client. They admitted that the actions of Jonathan and his colleague were “very frustrating”. They made their thoughts obvious to the client such that it motivated her to know that it was not stereotypical for her to feel and react the way she did. Others including the audience would also feel the same if faced with a similar situation (Mearns & Thorne, 2007). The audience in this session was present with a genuine concern regarding the welfare of the client and was non-exploitative in the manner that they asked questions. They expressed the willingness to understand the client and gave accolade to her experiences by making affirmative comments such as “so you feel that the choice is not yours now? It must be very sad”. This is an attempt to develop notions of charisma and fairness, which depict the intent to make congruence to be of assistance in the session. The audience also demonstrated commitment to value and respect for the client, which made them instrumentally congruent. Their questions and comments exemplified a reasonable aspiration not to exert duress on the client but a strong belief in the restorative importance of accommodating her experience as legitimate. The audience were entirely present and in touch with the client and themselves. These characteristics are significant indicators of therapeutic congruence. It helped to build trust between the audience and the client, which is important for the success of the session (Tudor & Merry, 2002). Unconditional Positive Regard Rogers put forward the notion that for individuals to develop and accomplish their full potential, they need to be appreciated as they are. The audience needs to demonstrate profound and indisputable compassion for the client. In this session, they approved the client’s actions that involved following up with Jonathan and his colleague to know when she is likely to begin her placement. They insisted that these efforts do not need to stop as they are important. On the other hand, they did not approve the client’s decision to give up as a result of frustration. Even if the client said that she is tired of waiting, the audience offered an alternative whereby she could be undertaking something else as she awaits communication from Jonathan. This was a strategy to develop hope in the client that all was not lost and that all the efforts would not be in vain. The audience exhibited approval for the client even if they disagreed with some of her intended actions. Rogers described this as an attitude of accepting the clients as ‘they are’. The audience upheld a positive attitude towards the client at all times. The power of negativity may hamper a successful therapy as it discourages people from thinking constructively. Even highly capable individuals may not be able to exercise their prowess when faced with negative attitudes from those they interact with (Rogers, 1980). The audience comprised excellent listeners, only interjecting whenever the client paused in her narration. Unconditional positive regard is characterized by respect and care when dealing with the client. Rude interruptions and intrusive questions may hinder the client from being proactive while on the other hand developing defensive tendencies that do not help in therapy. While the solution to a particular problem may seem obvious to the therapist, it is necessary to ensure that the client is involved in coming up with the solution. For example, the session may have lasted a few minutes soon after the audience was informed that the problem was lack of proper communication between client and her supervisors. However, they allowed the client to explore various ways of coming out of her predicament including pursuing them further or doing something else as she waited for their response. Eventually after 20 minutes, Y offered to contact the supervisors on behalf of the client, which she could have done in the first 10 minutes. This was an important aspect of client-centered approach which showed the client that the audience respected her opinion on the issue at hand. Moreover, it gave the client a positive view of the audience as the prolonged conversation presented an opportunity for her to give further details about her predicament (Merry, 2002). Empathy Empathy is the propensity to show consideration and understanding of the client and to recognize what she is feeling. It allows the audience to appreciate perceptively and perfectly the client’s affair and thoughts at present. The person-centered approach requires the audience to accurately pursue the emotions of the client and to let him/her know that they understand such emotions. Rogers elucidated sympathy in a situation whereby a person is sincerely open to the manner in which life is felt by other people. He envisioned himself taking another person’s world in to his own, meaning he risked viewing life in the other person’s way and experiencing change himself and hence all resist change. Rogers considered this resistance to change as the reason why people tend to visualize other people’s worlds in a subjective manner and not in their own viewpoint. According to Rogers, a therapist needs to appreciate the client’s world and understand how it really feels to be in it without the need to analyze or make judgments about it; both client and therapist can actually thrive and develop in that environment in to a formidable force (Rogers, 1965). The session in this case was characterized by understanding of the client’s environment. The audience understood the troubles that students undergo through as they seek to join the work environment, especially where a vacancy does not exist and the potential supervisors are unwilling to be truthful regarding their hesitation. However, they still see a need to pursue the same people that have been keeping the client waiting. Their decision echoes that of the client most likely because they are viewing the problem from a similar standpoint. X asked for the contact details of the persons involved so as to contact them and inquire about the same issue that the client has been following up on. This is an indication of Roger’s perspective of empathy depicting the X as asking, “what if I was in your shoes?” the circumstanced needed reinforcement so that the client could know before it is too late if she could be offered the placement and that became the concern of the audience. For success to be accomplished, the audience needed to follow up on the issue to find out if indeed the placement will take place and when. In other words, they have began to own the client’s predicament and are eventually working as a combined force that is likely to succeed (Sanders, 2006). Client Perception To some extent, the client understood the audience’s unreserved positive regard and compassionate understanding. This was learnt through the words of X and Y, which were cool and encouraging supported by accommodative behaviors. The client’s awareness of the empathy with which the audience were taking her response became known to her from the openness exhibited by the duo in her perceptual realm. The audience’s being in touch with the manner in which they were progressing from the client’s point of view made her to feel appreciated. The audience on the other hand knew how the client felt for being appreciated and this served as a link that facilitated the establishment of a strong relationship over the 20 minute dialogue that they had. According to Mearns & Thorne (2000), a therapist’s reliance on the client’s perception to direct the therapeutic connection may generate fears of losing individual actualization with regard to his/her intention. Curiosity regarding client’s perception of therapist goals is based on a peripheral, empathic self-assessment that on the outside appears contrary to the person centered approach. Nevertheless, the audience demonstrated the intentions from the onset of helping the client through their empathic approach. All along, the understanding of the client’s perception encouraged them to keep focused on maintaining a positive outlook of the issues raised by the client. Their questions demonstrated understanding of her perception, such as when Y asked the client, “so you feel the choice is not yours now?” the client answered in the affirmative. According to Merry (1995), client subjectivity basically demands that gaps will be present with regards to the manner in which an intention is perceived. But it does not necessarily mean that just for the reason that something was not perceived by the client, the therapist had no intention of doing it. For example, it had not occurred in the client’s perception over this session that Y could go to the extent of calling Jonathan and his colleagues to inquire about the client’s placement but eventually it happened. Clients often perceive the therapists as ready to lend a hand to such an extent whereby they develop a sensation of being understood, taken care of as well as esteemed for their own principles and goals. The therapists’ thoughts and outlook are more significant than their hypothetical orientation, actions and practices. It is the manner in which their approaches and course of action are perceptible by the client and it is the perception that is important. A therapist may have an intention of understanding the client but be perceived by her as otherwise. For example, the client has tried many times to contact Jonathan and his colleague and has repeatedly informed the audience in the session. However, X suggests to her that she needs to tell Jonathan as he seems to be the one in charge. At this juncture, X is trying indirectly to suggest to the client that she has not fully exhausted the avenues for solving her predicament. The client reiterates that she has repeatedly tried to contact Jonathan’s colleagues, oblivious that she did not specifically speak to Jonathan on the issue. So when she maintains that she did speak to ‘them’ she implies that X is either ignorant or mistaken in trying to emphasize the need to speak to Jonathan (Mearns & Thorne, 2007). Conclusion The client centered approach was exhibited in the session as it met the six conditions that were put forward by Rogers. Therapist-client psychological contact was evident and was significant in the positive transformation of client. Client incongruence was also evident in the session, which was marked by a variation between the client’s self-esteem and her real experience. Therapist congruence with the client was also significant in the session. The audience maintained unconditional positive regard for the client generating confidence in her. Empathy was evident throughout the session and the audience avoided intrusive questions. Client perception is an important condition as indicated by Roggers and was evident in the session. References Bond, T. (2000), Standards and Ethics for Counseling in Action, London: Sage. McLeod, L. (2003), Introduction to Counseling, Oklahoma: OU Press. Mearns, D. & Thorne, B. (2000), Person Centered Therapy Today, London: Sage. Mearns, D. & Thorne, B. (2007), Person Centered Counseling in Action, London: Sage. Merry, T. (1995), Invitation to Person Centered Psychology, London: Whurr. Merry, T. (2002), Learning and Being in Person Centered Psychology, London: Whurr. Rogers, C. (1965), Client Centered Therapy, London: Constable. Rogers, C. (1980), A Way of Being, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin. Sanders, P. (2006), The Person Centered Primer, Birmingham: PCCS. Tudor, K. & Merry, T. (2002), Dictionary of Person-Centered Psychology, Birmingham: PCCS. Read More