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CLIENT-CENTERED APPROACH:Background of his approach, Techniques

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Theory and Practice of Counseling - PSY632
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LESSON 28
CLIENT-CENTERED APPROACH
Affective Approaches: Common Characteristics
Our next few lectures now will focus on affective approaches to counseling, in which the counselor focuses
on the client' feelings and gives secondary consideration to thoughts and behaviors. Client-centered therapy
and Gestalt therapy will be discussed, along with a brief analysis of existential therapy.
·  Focus on primary affect as the cause of certain human actions and reactions
·  Help clients cope with/ change their emotions for making life alterations
·  Emphasize human phenomenology
·  Emphasize person-to-person relationship
·  Humanistic in orientation: It emphasizes an optimistic view of human beings, as persons who have
the ability to grow (human potential)
·  All affective approaches share vagueness in their description of techniques; weakest among all is
existential and strongest is Gestalt.
Types of Affective Approaches
·  Client-Centered Approach
·  Gestalt Therapy
·  Existential Counseling
Client-Centered Counseling
Carl Rogers (1902-1987)
·  Born in Oak Park, Illinois, USA; fourth of six children; had an evangelical background.
·  Belonged to a fundamentalist Christian family
·  As a sophomore, went to an international Christian student conference in Bejing., and so
moved away from conservative Christianity to very liberal beliefs.
·  Later he studied in New York, and then transferred to Columbia to study psychology
·  After PhD at Columbia, began work at a child guidance clinic at Rochester
·  There he came in touch with Otto Rank (will therapy) and Jessie Taft. Rank. Rank believed
that a person should have opportunity to exert free will and dominate therapist. Taft was a
social worker, and had humanistic views. Rogers was influenced by their ideas.
·  He brought these ideas to USA; A belief that no man has the right to run another man's life.
·  He worked both in academic and clinical settings.
Background of his approach
Client-centered therapy was developed by Carl Rogers in reaction to the traditional, highly diagnostic,
probing, and interpretive methods of psychoanalysis. Counseling and Psychotherapy (Rogers, 1942) was the
first attempt to present his new approach, one which emphasized the importance of the quality of the
relationship between the client and the therapist. Rogers saw the therapist as the creator of a facilitative
environment that would allow die client to move toward self-growth. Of his many books, Client-Centered
Therapy (1951) and On Becoming a Person (1961) are considered classics. Although client-centered
counseling has evolved into a per son-centered view with a wider range of applications--teaching,
administration, organizational behavior, marriage and parenting, and interpersonal relations in
general--the term client-centered will be used here both because it generally refers to counseling alone
and because it is more frequently used in the literature.
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View of Human Nature
A belief in the dignity and worth of each individual
·
Rogers is strongly committed to the belief that all persons should have the right to their own
opinions and thoughts and should be in control of their own destiny
A phenomenological world of the client
·
Rogers clearly emphasizes that the ways in which individuals behave and adapt to situations are
always consistent with their perceptions of themselves and their situations. Threats are different for
different people, for example, a person who perceives himself as being very attractive to women,
may get threatened if rejected by a woman, may adopt a variety of defenses. Truly adjusted person
is that who can integrate all experiences into phenomenal field. even his most objective functioning,
in science, mathematics, and the like, is the result of subjective purpose and subjective choice"
A tendency toward self actualization
·
The inherent tendency of people is to move in directions that can be described roughly as growth,
health, adjustment, socialization, self-realization and autonomy. He calls this directional tendency
the actualizing tendency, and he defines it as "the inherent tendency of the organism to develop all its
capacities in ways which serve to maintain or enhance the organism; tendency is a function of the
total organism rather than of one or more parts of that organism. Rogers's conception is similar
though not identical to Maslow's hierarchy of needs
A belief that people are good and trustworthy
·
Rogers knows that people sometimes behave in untrustworthy ways, that they are capable of deceit,
hate, and cruelty. But he believes that these unfavorable characteristics arise out of a defensiveness
that has alienated individuals from their inherent nature. This defensiveness is the result of a
widening in-congruence between the individuals' ideal selves--the way they believe they ought to
be, and their real selves--the way they think they are.
Role of the Counselor
·  Promotes a climate in which the client is free and encouraged to explore all aspects of self
·  To work as a facilitator rather than a director
·  Makes limited use of psychological tests. If the counselor has to use the test, then the focus is on
the meaning rather than on scores of test. Q-Sort techniques are used quite often to evaluate the
clients. A total of 100 cards with different statements are employed. The clients arrange the cards in
9 piles, ranging from most like me to least like me. Another trial is to arrange them according to
how he would like to be, and then the counselor calculates the correlation between both ratings.
Goals
·
"As if" approach to counseling: Client-centered counseling can be described as an "as if" approach
to counseling: If certain conditions exist, then a definable process is set in motion, leading to certain
changes in the client's personality and behavior. The basic premise of client-centered counseling,
then, is that once the proper conditions for growth is established, the client will be able to gain
insight and take positive steps toward solving personal difficulties.
Conditions for Growth
·
­
Psychological contact: He defines this contact as a situation in which each person makes a
difference in the experiences of the other. From the very beginning, then, Rogers is setting
the groundwork for a two-way interaction rather than a process where the counselor does
something to or for the client.
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Minimum state of anxiety: Rogers believes that the more anxious the individual is about this
incongruence, the more likely successful counseling will take place.
­
Counselor congruence
­
Unconditioned positive regard: Unconditioned positive regard: As every citizen is entitled to
vote; test of therapist's tolerance
­
Empathic understanding
­
Client perception: Finally, the client must perceive, at least to a degree, the counselor's
unconditional positive regard and empathic understanding.
Goals: outcomes
·  As the result of counseling, the client is more realistic, objective, and extensional in his perceptions,
and consequently, more effective in problem solving. The client's vulnerability to threat is reduced
because of the increased congruence of self and experience. There is less discrepancy between his
real and ideal self.
·  He feels more confident and more self-directing; his values are determined by his own valuing
process.
·  He accepts more behaviors as belonging to himself and conversely has fewer behaviors that he
denies as part of his own self-experience. Others also see his behavior as more socialized and
mature.
Techniques
·  The development of client-centered therapy shifted the focus from what the therapist does, to who
the counselor is.
·  The "techniques" are simply ways of expressing and communicating an attitude; self is used as an
instrument.
·  As such, the "techniques" are simply ways of expressing and communicating genuineness,
unconditional positive regard and empathic understanding in such a way that the client knows that
the therapist is attempting to fully understand the client's internal frame of reference.
·  Thus  techniques  are  unacceptable  since  they  would  destroy  the  genuineness  of
the therapist, by being applied self-consciously. Therefore the only acceptable techniques are those
that represent implementation of the therapist's philosophy and attitudes in facilitating the client's
personal growth.
Certain Emphases within Client-Centered Approach
Emphasis on the here and now
·
The counselor does not need knowledge of the "nature, and history of the client's difficulties. What
has happened in the individual's past to cause the present difficulties is not important to the
counselor. Instead, how the client is now operating is more important to the counselor. As a simple
illustration, consider a client who feels hatred for her brother. The client-centered approach takes
the position that it makes little difference that this hatred developed because of a particular
situation. Rather, how the client now feels toward her brother and how her feelings affect her
whole pattern of behavior are important. Thus one emphasis is to help the client focus on her
present feelings by examining them verbally. This emphasis on the here and now replaces diagnosis
in counseling.
Diagnosis is undesirable because:
·
Only the client can diagnose the difficulty. Only the client can accurately see the internal frame of
reference. It is dangerous for counselors to attempt diagnosis, no matter how accurate they feel
their perception of the client's internal frame of reference may be.
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·
Finally, diagnosis implies a denial of the unique qualities of each person. To diagnose is to place
individuals in categories, and the client-centered counselor wants to avoid this trap. Instead, the
counselor responds to the individual with a potential for self-diagnosis and remediation.
Concentration on the emotional rather than the intellectual elements:
·  Intellectually, the client may know what the real situation is but, because the client responds
emotionally, this knowledge does not help to change behavior.
The counselor must be a patient and expert listener
·
Boy and Pine (1982), however, suggest that the client-centered viewpoint has been expanded and
that there are two phases to this effective client-centered relationship.
·  The first phase consists of those dynamics that have been traditionally identified by Rogers
as essential in building a therapeutic, facilitative, and substantive relationship--empathy,
acceptance, genuineness, liberality, involvement, sensitive listening, and equalizing.
·  The second phase, which depends on the effectiveness of the relationship, built in the first
phase, centers on the needs of the client. Although they give but little emphasis and
clarification to this phase and the needs of clients, they do point out that clients often need
the intervention of counselors to obtain such basic needs as a job, adequate housing, and
access to governmental agencies.
Evaluation: Strengths
·  Revolutionized the counseling profession demystifying it with the publication of an actual
transcript of counseling session
·  Providing clients with the kind of facilitative environment in which the focus is fully on their
concerns
·  Has generated a lot of research
·  Empowering clients: leaving responsibility with clients and thus helping them recognize their own
power over themselves.
·  The client-centered concepts are applicable to a wide variety of helping situations and problems,
such as adjustment, interpersonal issues, mild to moderate anxiety, frustration tolerance,
uncomplicated bereavement, and defensiveness.
Evaluation: Weaknesses
·  Approach without clearly defined terms and techniques: Some counselors often fail to distinguish
between the use of techniques and the use of their own personality, their self-as-instrument
·  Clients often fail to understand what the counselor is trying to accomplish. Such clients, since they
are unaware of any positive effects resulting from their interactions with the counselor, may
withdraw from the counseling process.
·  Ignores diagnosis and unconsciously generated impulses
·  Deals only with surface issues
·  Deals only with bright, insightful and hard working clients: persons who do not voluntarily seek
counseling, who have limited contact with reality, or who have difficulty communicating usually are
not very fit for client-centered approach. Hence, it is less effective with these clients: resistant,
limited contact with reality, or who have difficulty communicating.
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Table of Contents:
  1. INTRODUCTION:Counseling Journals, Definitions of Counseling
  2. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND COUNSELING & PSYCHOTHERAPY
  3. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND 1900-1909:Frank Parson, Psychopathic Hospitals
  4. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND:Recent Trends in Counseling
  5. GOALS & ACTIVITIES GOALS OF COUNSELING:Facilitating Behavior Change
  6. ETHICAL & LEGAL ISSUES IN COUNSELING:Development of Codes
  7. ETHICAL & LEGAL ISSUES IN COUNSELING:Keeping Relationships Professional
  8. EFFECTIVE COUNSELOR:Personal Characteristics Model
  9. EFFECTIVE COUNSELOR:Humanism, People Orientation, Intellectual Curiosity
  10. EFFECTIVE COUNSELOR:Cultural Bias in Theory and Practice, Stress and Burnout
  11. COUNSELING SKILLS:Microskills, Body Language & Movement, Paralinguistics
  12. COUNSELING SKILLS COUNSELOR’S NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION:Use of Space
  13. COUNSELING SKILLS HINTS TO MAINTAIN CONGRUENCE:
  14. LISTENING & UNDERSTANDING SKILLS:Barriers to an Accepting Attitude
  15. LISTENING & UNDERSTANDING SKILLS:Suggestive Questions,
  16. LISTENING & UNDERSTANDING SKILLS:Tips for Paraphrasing, Summarizing Skills
  17. INFLUENCING SKILLS:Basic Listening Sequence (BLS), Interpretation/ Reframing
  18. FOCUSING & CHALLENGING SKILLS:Focused and Selective Attention, Family focus
  19. COUNSELING PROCESS:Link to the Previous Lecture
  20. COUNSELING PROCESS:The Initial Session, Counselor-initiated, Advice Giving
  21. COUNSELING PROCESS:Transference & Counter-transference
  22. THEORY IN THE PRACTICE OF COUNSELING:Timing of Termination
  23. PSYCHOANALYTIC APPROACHES TO COUNSELING:View of Human Nature
  24. CLASSICAL PSYCHOANALYTIC APPROACH:Psychic Determination, Anxiety
  25. NEO-FREUDIANS:Strengths, Weaknesses, NEO-FREUDIANS, Family Constellation
  26. NEO-FREUDIANS:Task setting, Composition of Personality, The Shadow
  27. NEO-FREUDIANS:Ten Neurotic Needs, Modes of Experiencing
  28. CLIENT-CENTERED APPROACH:Background of his approach, Techniques
  29. GESTALT THERAPY:Fritz Perls, Causes of Human Difficulties
  30. GESTALT THERAPY:Role of the Counselor, Assessment
  31. EXISTENTIAL THERAPY:Rollo May, Role of Counselor, Logotherapy
  32. COGNITIVE APPROACHES TO COUNSELING:Stress-Inoculation Therapy
  33. COGNITIVE APPROACHES TO COUNSELING:Role of the Counselor
  34. TRANSACTIONAL ANALYSIS:Eric Berne, The child ego state, Transactional Analysis
  35. BEHAVIORAL APPROACHES:Respondent Learning, Social Learning Theory
  36. BEHAVIORAL APPROACHES:Use of reinforcers, Maintenance, Extinction
  37. REALITY THERAPY:Role of the Counselor, Strengths, Limitations
  38. GROUPS IN COUNSELING:Major benefits, Traditional & Historical Groups
  39. GROUPS IN COUNSELING:Humanistic Groups, Gestalt Groups
  40. MARRIAGE & FAMILY COUNSELING:Systems Theory, Postwar changes
  41. MARRIAGE & FAMILY COUNSELING:Concepts Related to Circular Causality
  42. CAREER COUNSELING:Situational Approaches, Decision Theory
  43. COMMUNITY COUNSELING & CONSULTING:Community Counseling
  44. DIAGNOSIS & ASSESSMENT:Assessment Techniques, Observation
  45. FINAL OVERVIEW:Ethical issues, Influencing skills, Counseling Approaches