The Historical Development of Counselling Argumentative Essay

In the 1 ass’s Sigmund Freud developed a theory about the unconscious mind and went on o create psychoanalysis. Many therapists have been Influenced by Freud and gone on to develop his theories. Freud collaborated with a number of analysts and set up the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society. Notable amongst these is Carl Jung who developed Psychodramas and focused on dream analysis. Alfred Adler who’s most famous concept was the inferiority complex and also Otto Rank who was the secretary of the society.

B.F Skinner was also Influenced by Fraud’s work. Skinner rejected the notion of the ‘psyche’ and developed his own theory called ‘radical behaviorism’ which Is essentially the science of behavior. Abraham Moscow developed the theory of a Hierarchy of Human Needs (1943) Moscow believed that there were a set number of needs that had to be met before the client was able to achieve self-actualization, a term meaning the client reaching their full potential. Carl Rogers was the main proponent of person-centered therapy which began in the cases.

This approach was Humanistic and saw the client rather than the therapist as the expert of their life. Person-centered therapy believes the client holds the answers and has the power of autonomy. The counselor is there to help facilitate this process by use of the core conditions. This humanistic approach relies less on medical knowledge and training and more on lay analysis. The principles of humanistic medicine are communication, respect, and also an emotional connection between counselor and their client.

• Explain the philosophical basis of Person-Centered Counseling.

The basis of the person-centered approach Is an optimistic outlook of Individuals and a belief that people have the ability and inner resources to be able to resolve their own issues ND move forward in a positive direction. It believes that all humans are innately social and constructive beings and that we are all motivated to seek the truth. We also directed by our need for self-esteem Each individual’s behavior Is influenced by how they perceive themselves. We are all trying to develop and be the best that we can be, and this process Is guided by Internal and external forces.

By using the core conditions of congruence, unconditional positive regard, and empathy the counselor is able to develop a therapeutic relationship with the client. This relationship should be based on equality and the counselor should provide a safe environment in which the client is empowered to explore their self-perception and achieve greater self-awareness. This self-awareness will enable the client to become secure in their self-concept and go on to enable them to fulfill their full potential. Principles of Person-Centered Counseling include a right to autonomy.

No advice or guidance should be given by the counselor as the client has the ability to self actualities and find their own answers. The ability to discover themselves achieves inefficient long-term results as the client will learn how to look at their own feelings and actions in the future and become self-sustaining. Rogers demonstrates a 7 Stage process of change to attempt to clarify how the client moves forward during the counseling process. At the beginning of the counseling, the client will feel defensive and rigid in their thoughts.

The will have poor self-awareness and have trouble recognizing feelings. As the therapy continues they will undergo a graduate change encompassing the following stages.

• Personal Constructs – Conditions thought of as facts and not open to change.
• Internal Dialogue. A fear or avoidance of internal conversations and the client is fearful of thinking too much’.
• Expression. Client fearful and uncomfortable in expressing themselves
• Differentiation and elaboration of experience. Clients start back seeing things in a very black and white manner with no grey areas. This change during the counseling
• Perception of problems. Clients start off believing it is other people that process. Have the problem but gradually come to terms with their own issues and no longer fear them.
• Attitude to change. The client goes from not believing they can or would change to being open to and even relishing the possibility.
• Bodily Changes. The client will have fewer physical symptoms of unhappiness such as headaches, irritability, etc. Their feeling of contentment will manifest themselves and a healthier outlook.

It needs to be recognized that every client is individual and there is no guarantee how they will go about the therapeutic process. These stages should only be looked as a guide to some of the steps the client may take.

• Explain how Person-Centered Counseling would inform the practice of a qualified trained unsolder

By creating a therapeutic environment in which the client feels safe to be entirely honest and open about their thoughts and feelings we can enable the client to become self actualities and able to find a way to move forward.

In order to create this environment, we need to offer the client warmth, respect, and a safe place where they can openly explore themselves. This offering of unconditional positive regard will enable the client to feel accepted and understood and this will encourage them to practice full self-disclosure without any fear of judgment or rejection. The counselor needs to be aware of the client’s anxiety and able to enter the client’s own world and develop an understanding of it.

• Rogers wrote ‘ It (empathy) means temporarily living in his/her life, moving about in it delicately without making judgments, sensing meanings of which he/she is scarcely aware, but not trying to uncover feelings of which this person is totally unaware, since this would be too threatening. ‘ This feeling of empathy with what the client is experiencing and ability demonstrate this understanding to the client will build a reassurance within the linen that we have a deep emotional awareness of what they are experiencing. In order to achieve these conditions we firstly need to establish congruence.
• Rogers states ‘personal growth is facilitated when the counselor is what he is, when the relationship with his client is genuine and without “front” or “fade”, openly being should be able to be genuine and open with their feelings and understanding and be able to demonstrate this transparency to the client during their relationship.
• Explain how the chosen model influences the understanding of the development of the self-concept.

The Organism self is an internal evaluation system we are all born with. It gives us an innate awareness of how to sustain wants and needs.

In order to gain approval and acceptance from people around us, we adapt our behavior. The first example of this will usually be as a child trying to please and parent or guardian and may extend to family, friends, colleagues, and society as a whole as we get older. We develop a self-concept which is how we would like to be perceived by others and is based on what we feel we should be like in order to gain eve and acceptance.

Rogers defines these changes as the external locus of evaluation and is:

• Driven by other individuals/society
• Creates ideal self what how you perceive you should be
• Needs approval from others to gain love and acceptance
• Conditions of worth- Acting in a certain way to be loved. By living with this self-concept we can feel lost and conflicted about who we are.

Our sense of worth is based on how we perceive other people to be reacting to us and we can develop a reliance on a need to please others in order to value ourselves.

Person-centered unsealing aims to get the client to recognize their own inner feelings and to re-introduce them to their organism self. By doing this we can hope to achieve wherein the Organism self and the Self Concept overlap and we are able to live to our full potential.

• Explain why it is important to have an understanding of the therapeutic model before using its methods and techniques Unless the therapeutic model is used then a counselor would be unable to work with the core conditions and may be unable to demonstrate congruence, unconditional positive regard, and empathy.

All these are vital in order for the client to feel comfortable and able to share their innermost thoughts and feelings. It is vital the counselor and client have an awareness of professional boundaries and the counselor has sufficient to ensure the rules are clearly defined and the beginning of the process through the use of a contract the client will be fully aware of what they can expect from the counseling. For example, the client needs to be made aware they will not be receiving advice and they will be expected to find their own answers.