Anil Kumar

Master of Social Work

Born the fourth of six childrenMother was a devout Christian (Protestant) and was very strict on Carl and his siblings, although he has described his family relationships as “warm and close”Carl was socially introverted as he was discouraged from playingHe developed an active imagination and focused on academics. Because his family lived on a farm, Carl had many chores, therefore becoming very independent and self-disciplinedAs a college student, he was selected to go to Beijing for the “World Student Christian Federation Conference.” There, he was exposed to different religious philosophies and began to question his own religious beliefs. This experienced shaped his views on human behaviorRogers joined the staff at the Western Behavioral Sc0iences Institute in La Jolla, California in 1964His theory became widely known during the 60’s and 70’s as the progression of psychotherapy into the humanistic movement

Based on concepts from humanistic psychology, many of which were articulated by Carl Rogers in the early 1940s.Humanistic Therapy based on the ideas of self-empowerment, self-actualization, freedom, choices, values, purpose, meaning.A humanistic theory—each of us has a natural potential that we can actualize and through which we can find meaningShares with existentialism a focus on respect and trust for the client

People are honest, smart, and have ability to understand themselves

People have the ability to solve their own problems

People are capable of self-directed growth if they are involved in a specific kind of therapeutic relationship.

Rogers did not present the person-centered theory as a fixed and complete approach to therapy.

He was open and receptive to change.

Zimring and Raskin (1992) &Bazarth and colleagues (2002-

First phase during the 1940s, Rogers developed what was known as nondirective counseling.

He was published (1942) counseling and psychotherapy: Newer concepts in practice,

It emphasized the counselor’s creation of a permissive and nondirective climate.

He also challenged the validity of commonly accepted therapeutic procedures such as advice, suggestion, direction, persuasion, teaching, diagnosis, and interpretation.

Focused mainly on reflecting and clarifying the client’s verbal and nonverbal communications with the aim of helping clients become aware of and gain insights into their feelings.

Second period, during 1950, he wrote Client-centered Therapy and renamed his approach client-centered therapy.Focused more explicitly on the actualizing tendency as the basic motivational force that leads to client change.Third period, which began in the late 1950s and extended into the 1970s, addressed the necessary and sufficient conditions of therapy.Significant publication was “on becoming a person, 1961. characterized by an openness to experience, a trust in one’s experience, an internal locus of evaluation, and the willingness to be in process.

The fourth phase, during the 1980s and the 1990s, was marked by considerable expansion to education, industry, groups, conflict resolution, and the search for world peace.

View of Human nature: At their core, humans are trustworthy and positiveHumans are capable of making changes and living productive, effective livesHumans innately gravitate toward self-actualization◦ Actualizing tendency

Given the right growth-fostering conditions, individuals strive to move forward and fulfill their creative nature

Therapy is a Growth-Promoting ClimateCongruence◦ Genuineness or realness in the therapy session◦ Therapist’s behaviors match his or her words

Unconditional positive regard◦ Acceptance and genuine caring about the client as a

valuable person◦ Accepting clients as they presently are◦ Therapist need not approve of all client behavior

Accurate empathic understanding ◦ The ability to deeply grasp the client’s subjective world◦ Helper attitudes are more important than knowledge

The therapist need not experience the situation to develop an understanding of it from the client’s perspective

Therapeutic goals:

Help client growFocus on person, not problemPeople become more actualized

1. open to experiences2. Trust themselves3. Self-evaluation4. Continue growingThe therapist does not choose specific goals for

the client.

GOAL OF COUNSELING:

Set clients free to engage in self exploration

Positive view of human nature

Focus on what is right about someone

Look at positive side of people

Clients work on moving forward, positively, in their world

Client deals with obstacles that are blocking growth

Therapist is real and empathetic; facilitates change in client

Work in ‘here and now’

THERAPIST ROLE AND FUNCTION

Create a climate conducive to self-exploration

Create a relationship that lets clients explore freely denied or distorted areas of life

Be real, genuine, honest….

Don’t see client in diagnostic categories

THERAPIST ROLE AND FUNCTION

Enter clients world

Defenses are let down because therapist is real, genuine, caring

Show unconditional positive regard

Accept client

Empathetic understanding of client

CLIENTS EXPERIENCEUse relationship to gain self-understandingExplore feelings, thoughts, beliefsDiscover hidden aspect of selfBecome less defensive over timeExplore selfEmpower self to lead own lifeExperience life in ‘here and now’ not past or future

3 ATTITUDES THERAPIST MUST CONVEY

Genuineness: open, real, honest

Unconditional positive regard and acceptance: value and accept client as they are

Empathetic understanding

EMPATHY: experiencing others feelings and thoughts while remaining objective

Communicate to someone your understanding of his/her thoughts and feelings

Helps clients understand themselves

Understand clients world as they see and feel it

Two persons are in psychological contact

The first, the client, is experiencing incongruency

The second person, the therapist, is congruent or integrated in the relationship

The therapist experiences unconditional positive regard or real caring for the client

The therapist experiences empathy for the client’s internal frame of reference and endeavors to communicate this to the client

The communication to the client is, to a minimal degree, achieved

It implies that therapists are real, that is they are genuine, integrated, and authentic during the therapy hour.

Is deep and genuine caring for t client as a person or a condition of unconditional positive regard.

Understand client’s experience and feelings sensitively and accurately as they are revealed in the moment to moment interaction during the therapy session.

Emphasizes the attitudes and personal characteristics of the therapist and the quality of therapeutic relationship.

Therapist listening in an acceptingway to their clients, they learn how to listen acceptingly to themselves.

Congruence - genuineness or realness

Unconditional positive regard- acceptance and caring, but not approval of all behavior

Accurate empathic understanding – an ability to deeply grasp the client’s subjective world◦ Helper attitudes are more important than

knowledge

It is not technique-oriented

A misunderstanding---this approach is simply to restate what the client just said or the technique of reflection of feelings (It is incorrect).

The therapeutic relationship is the primary agent of growth in the client

Therapist’s presence: being completely engaged in the relationship with clients.

The best source of knowledge about the client is the individual client

Therapist takes on the role of facilitatorCreates therapeutic environmentTechniques are not stressedExhibits deep trust of the group membersProvides support for membersGroup members set the goals for the groupGroup setting fosters an open and accepting community where members can work on self-acceptanceIndividuals learn that they do not have to experience the process of change alone and grow from the support of group members

individual counseling, group counseling, education, human relations training…..

A variety of problems: anxiety, crisis intervention, interpersonal difficulties, depression, personality disorder…..

Contributions◦ Has reached more than 30 counties and has been

translated to 12 languages◦ Reduction of racial and political tensions…

Limitations◦ Some people need more structure, coping skills,

directedness ◦ Some may focus on family or societal

expectations instead of internal evaluation ◦ May be unfamiliar with people in different

cultures

Contributions◦ Active role of responsibility of client

◦ Inner and subjective experience

◦ Relationship-centered

◦ Focus on therapist’s attitudes

◦ Focus on empathy, being present, and respecting the clients’ values

◦ Value multicultural context

Limitations

◦Discount the significance of the past

◦Misunderstanding the basic concept: e.g., reflection feelings.

Reflection

Q sort technique

The mirroring of emotional communicationIn order to understand what the client is telling her, she sometimes restates and summarizes what the client has said but in other words. Summary should include perception of content and feelings.Client: And everything is just terrible right now. My boyfriend has just left me and even though it is good in a way because we always argued I also feel very sad because I still love him.Therapist: Your boyfriend has just left you and you have mixed feelings about this?

A way of assessing the self-concept and the ideal selfIt is used before, under and after therapyAn individual is presented with deck of 100 cards, each of which contains a personal statement (e.g., “I’m a friendly person”; “I’m tense most of the time”)The individual decides which statements best describe his or her own self, which statements are the next best, and so on, right down to those statements that are the least descriptiveThe same procedure is followed with respect to the ideal selfThe therapist statistically works out the size of the gap between the statements selected as descriptive of the self and the ideal self by use of correlation

STRENGTHSEmpathyPhenomenological approachReflectionIncrease self-understandingGenuineUnconditional positive regard and acceptance

WEAKNESSES

Client is not challenged

Too simplistic

No interventions/techniques

Undirected

Not all clients are able to find their own answers

WEAKNESSES

Not much research on theory and practice

Theory has not evolved since the 1960’s