Understandably a counsellor may also experience a sense of personal familiarity, whilst counselling clients, but must remain emotionally detached at all times. Relating to clients, in a positive, open manner, encourages the client to disclose in a comfortable, confidential environment and provides the counsellor with the ideal setting in which to communicate in a supportive way. Using their own life experiences, a counsellor can demonstrate empathy, compassion and understanding without becoming personally involved in the counselling process. Becoming More Self-Aware Self-awareness is something that grows over a period of time and with exploration. Techniques, to access information about oneself, can be learned, and personal experiences can affect personal thoughts and feelings.
This will enable me to present my conclusion as to whether Person Centred Therapy offers the therapist all that is needed to treat clients. Counselling Course Assignment Can help client realise the solution but relies on them being able to be open and structured in their thinking and talking My experience in trying the person centred theory is that a client may not be able to structure their thoughts and just repeat themselves. An Introduced personality also does not always respond to open questions and clients may rely on counsellor for structure and some guidance. When practising this technique I found it limiting and the client (course colleague) was just repeating the same facts Advantages Client is given time to explore their problem and by articulating it they may become aware of aspects more clearly which can help them see a solution based on their experiences and lifestyle. Paraphrasing allows client to see that the counsellor is fully engaged and understand what they are saying.
In its purest form this means simply providing a safe space for the client to visit where they can talk about anything they wish to. The therapist’s role is merely to listen to the client. Brodley suggests that “The client-centred therapist does not usually take a history … does not ask leading or probing questions, does not volunteer interpretations or explanations about the client to the client…”. The therapist is merely empathetic, congruent, nonjudgemental and honest. He should possess and utilise all these skills in an unconditional manner.
“Evaluate the claim that Person-Centred Therapy offers the therapist all that he/she need to treats clients” We need to look at what the role of Person centred Therapy is in order to understand how the above statement can work. The basis of this therapy is to encourage the client to become more self-aware without the prompting of the therapist and being non directive. Aiding the client to arrive at this point by reflecting, paraphrasing and or summarising what they have said and displaying the three Core Conditions of Empathy, Congruence and Unconditional Positive Regard. Is this therapeutic relationship between therapist and client enough in order to assist the client to arrive at the solutions they need to address their problem? I will discuss this point and also the Core Conditions, underlying philosophical influences along with Rogers’s main theoretical constructs in this essay.
It is my desire to support clients' efforts to gain insight and identify solutions for their areas of concern and believe that most of the answers lie within. From my perspective, the counselor's role is to create a climate in which clients can examine their thoughts, feelings, and actions and eventually arrive at solutions that are best for them. As a counselor, it is important to be non-judgmental, when counseling or helping another person, regardless of how open-minded I may consider myself to be. Personality attributes of professional counselors has a great impact in the counseling process. Being nonjudgmental and accepting are important attributes in any of the helping professions.
Rogers discovered that for an individual to be able to express themselves fully and to experience therapeutic change, three 'core conditions' must be established within the counselling environment, (McLeod, 2008). These core conditions are unconditional positive regard, empathic understanding and congruence. Unconditional positive regard relates to the counsellor's non-judgemental acceptance of client. The client must be able to express him or herself freely without fear of rejection or a negative response. Empathic understanding from the counsellor demonstrates to the client an
In this technique, the therapist creates a comfortable, non-judgmental environment by demonstrating congruence, empathy, and unconditional positive regard toward their patients while using a non-directive approach. Through using this method it is intended that patients demonstrate self-actualisation, and thus discover their own solutions to problems. Person Centred therapy is a key approach with many advocates, however, the claim that it offers all that a therapist needs to treat a client is an assertion which requires some degree of evaluation. In order to assess the effectiveness of person-centred counselling as a method of treating clients, it is first necessary to consider its background and basic prepositions. Rogers was an American psychologist, who through his work developed his own distinctive approach guided by his sense of what seemed to help his clients (McLeod 2000).
Incongruent client, they will be anxious or vulnerable showing discrepancy in actual events and their reality. Empathy describes the ability of the counsellor to connect and understand the client at deep level. Empathy allows the counsellor to get into the unique world of the client without judging or making assumptions about the client. “To sense the client’s private world as if it were your own, but without ever losing the ‘as if’ quality” (Rogers,
Once I have discussed the key elements to this approach and the strengths and weaknesses of it. I will state my opinion of this approach as to whether I feel that it is all a therapist needs to treat a client. Although I do feel that this approach can be highly effective for most clients, but I am not sure that it’s a fair assessment to say it is always all that is needed. I feel that this would be too much of a generalization. I do however, feel that the person centered approach is very effective in more than just the therapy setting.
RCCT also assumed that the therapist, to produce positive outcome, was required to feel and demonstrate unconditional positive regard and genuineness toward the client. The present review evalued the fundamental accuracy of these phenomena and their effectiveness in a counselling setting. Additionally, RCCT effectiveness was weighed against the developmental-interactional