The significance of the person-centred approach

The significance of the person-centred approach

The examination of the significance of the person-centred approach has been more common among psychologists offering counselling services to clients (Dryden, 2017). Besides, the person-centred approach has shown to emphasize mostly on empathy and having good human behavior (Jones-Smith, 2019). The assumption of the person-centred approach it is enables individuals to improve the self-images of individuals and facilitate self-actualization that makes people feel worthwhile (Dryden, 2017). According to Maslow’s, people achieve their full potentials by meeting their basic needs before reaching self-actualization. As a leader of humanistic psychology, Maslow’s approached personality psychology by addressing the subjective experiences of a person and the free will (Fallatah & Syed, 2018). He explained that am individual should have an inward drive towards being actualized as for the case of person-centred approach (Fallatah & Syed, 2018). Maslow also described that human beings have needs that should be approached in a standard order. These needs range from the necessities, followed by safety and security, then love and belonging, followed by self-esteem and eventually the last stage of self-actualization which is the ultimate goal of person-centred approach (Fallatah & Syed, 2018). According to Jones-Smith (2019), person-centred approach assists client analyses the problem they have, explore themselves and help them in adopting the necessary positive behavior. For a therapeutic counselling process, there should be warmth, care, and collaboration between the client and the therapist (Baruth & Manning, 2016). The therapist and client will identify a range of therapies that will be beneficial to them. An excellent therapeutic approach should be suitable to the therapist, and the client should be friendly, and its outcome should have positive effects on the clients (Wubbolding, 2017). The personal centred approach helps clients develop a more energetic and healthier meaning of self that is self-awareness

It also allows clients to access and understand their feelings to gain a sense of purpose in life (Wubbolding, 2017). The person-centred approach also focuses on the strengths of an individual. It facilitates a non-judgmental counselling session that is aimed at helping the client rather than advising or judging them (Wubbolding, 2017).

In approaches such as CBT and psychodynamic therapy, it focuses on the unconscious processes that are manifested mostly in the client’s present behavior. The main goal of psychodynamic therapy is to enable clients to identify the past that influences their current practices. These include the past unresolved conflicts that are impacting their present behaviors negatively (Jones-Smith, 2019). The psychodynamic approach is helpful to therapists in assisting clients in identifying their past experiences before helping them with a positive behavior change (Wubbolding, 2017). While for personal centred approach, its approach focuses on assisting individuals to achieve their potentials. It makes people have self-awareness and fosters acceptance of themselves (Baruth & Manning, 2016). Personal centred focus mainly on conscious thoughts rather than the unconscious ones. The approach also emphasizes the present and future of the patient rather than past experiences (Dryden, 2017). A person-centred approach is adequate for the therapist and the client. That is, the therapist doesn’t give advice or interpretations to the patient, but they instead help them in identifying conflicts and understanding what they feel about themselves ( Lambert, Fidalgo, & Greaves, 2016). Therapists explain to the client the ways of helping her solve the problem (Dryden, 2017).

In personal centred approach, the therapist focuses on active listening, asking questions, and clarifying issues from the clients. According to Dryden (2017) personal centred approach is suitable in many cases, because it ensures that clients receive empathy, acceptance of themselves, and being genuine on the best way for positive behavior change from the therapists.

On the other hand, there are arguments against the person-centred approach in that, and its intervention assumes that all individuals will adopt a positive behavior change, and some individuals cannot (Baruth & Manning, 2016). Also, it is focused on the subjective experiences which hard to study (Cloninger & Cloninger, 2016). The personal centred approach also focuses on conscious awareness, ignoring the unconscious part that might influence the present behavior negatively (Rogers & Murphy, 2017). The other argument against the person-centred therapy is the issue of a close relationship with the therapist which can cause influence in behavior change rather than client making their own decisions (Sue et al., 2019). Furthermore, the other argument against the person-centred approach is the therapist give advice or interpretations to the patient and hence influencing the client’s decisions (Rogers & Murphy, 2017).

There is the argument of the value of psychodynamic approach over personal centred therapy. Psychodynamic approach is .mostly preferred in cases during the counselling process to handle patients with anxiety-related disorders and depression (Jones-Smith, 2019). The psychodynamic theory focuses on the issue of unconscious forces driving behavior, it creates client self-awareness and also assists in understanding their past. Present behaviors, helps clients identify the past experiences that have an impact on the current behaviors and also assists clients to examine unresolved conflicts in their lives (Jones-Smith, 2019). Furthermore, the strengths of the psychodynamic approach are that the strengths it directs focus on the childhood experiences that might affect the development of a personality (Jones-Smith, 2019). It takes both nature and nurtures view into action (Jones-Smith, 2019).

In examining the integrative model of helping it explains that a single approach can solve no situation. A person needs to consider the various counselling techniques to meet their needs. In integrative counselling, human psychological should be analyzed using a variety of ways to facilitate understanding (Jones-Smith, 2019). All theories should be integrated even though contradict each other. The integrative approach combines cognitive, affective, behavioral and psychological systems within a single person. The spiritual and social aspects are also combined. The integrative counsellors are concerned with tailoring the needs of clients. Integrative counselling aims at promoting physical, emotional and mental wellbeing. Integrative therapy improves body and mind relationship hence satisfaction. In integrative therapy, various approaches are directed towards the client needs (Howard, 2017). The integrative model is composed of a variety of systems, including humanistic theories, cognitive therapies, behavioral and psychoanalytic therapies (Howard, 2017). In each of the approaches, there is an insightful explanation of human behavior and what cause changes in it. An integrative therapist works with a client in ensuring that there is a positive change in behavior. The counsellor in the integrative model should be non- judgemental, and the integration therapists aim at self-exploration of clients (Jones-Smith, 2019). The integrative model of helping is beneficial for clients with anxieties, phobias, and fears.

On the other hand, eclecticism is where a therapist chooses a single approach that addresses the needs of a client) (Wasserman & Wasserman, 2017. Eclecticism is a pragmatic approach which mainly focuses on what works in the course of practice (Wasserman & Wasserman, 2017). While exploring the value of eclecticism, its major criticism is that it lacks specification on the criteria, which the technique is based on results in Norcross. Thich is described by Wasserman & Wasserman (2017) as undisciplined subjectivity. The process of criticism led to the development of eclecticism which ensures the systematic selection of techniques (Wasserman & Wasserman, 2017). The approach has two main principles which includes careful analysis of the client’s problems and using research evidence in the selection of techniques that meets the client’s needs (Wasserman & Wasserman, 2017). The development of the two main principles has added idea on the original issue of eclecticism which had undisciplined subjectivity (Wasserman & Wasserman, 2017).

There is still more arising questions over the value of the approach as it is indicated that it needs a highly competent counsellor (Wasserman & Wasserman, 2017). This approach presumes that it is technique focused rather than being focused on theory and these leads to reliance on the knowledge of the counsellor on the research evidence and their effectiveness on some specific techniques (Wasserman & Wasserman, 2017). For those effective techniques where evidence is absent will put pressure on the clients hence making them rely on their own experience based on theoretical assumptions (Wasserman & Wasserman, 2017).

Finally, in the examination of the influence of culture and gender on the psychotherapeutic approaches, culture describes the beliefs, practices, and values of people. Culture influences how people express themselves, communication, and interaction with others (Sue et al., 2019). While counselling people, you should be aware of the sensitive issues that you may ask questions about. You should understand the cultural context of individuals so that you can tailor the counselling processes to their specific needs (Sue et al., 2019). The cultural issues are expressed differently depending on the setting. For example, in many communities, how to approach health issues are different from the others. A helpful practice is essential in addressing a group of people with various needs (Sue et al., 2019). Culture has an impact on psychotherapy. Traditionally, psychotherapy involves sitting in an office for like 45 to 60 minutes, talking about what is going on in life with a skilled therapist (Sue et al., 2019). These forms of social arrangements built trust, vulnerability, and initiated the possibility for change in any given situation. With the changes in psychotherapy, Western psychology emphasizes self-development and individualism (Sue et al., 2019). It emphasizes on talking to a skilled therapist to facilitate individual improvement.

Additionally, gender is the expected role of a man or a woman in the community. Gender behaviors and roles change over time and are influenced by cultural practices and beliefs (Sue et al., 2019). When one understands the gender roles in a society, it will assist a therapist in understanding the situations of men and women to counsel, and this improves the counselling interactions (Sue et al., 2019). In most communities, gender roles affect how men and women express themselves. Mostly, women are allowed to be more emotional, unlike men who are taught to keep their feelings within themselves. Due to this, men may get less support from therapists because they express themselves behaving like there is no problem (Sue et al., 2019). Therefore, when counselling male, it is crucial to take into account the community norms for gender roles (Sue et al., 2019). In the case of women, most of them are not allowed to participate or speak in discussions, and this might influence counselling in that it is supposed to be an interactive process that people are supposed to be free, open, genuine and interactive to help them in understanding their different issues (Sue et al., 2019). Furthermore, in most communities, women are not allowed to make decisions on their own but rather depend on their husbands. With this issue on decision making, counselling is affected since it aims at enabling a client to make their personal decision concerning a given problem, and this is greatly affected when women believe that they are not allowed to make decisions; hence they are not able to benefit from the counselling process (Sue et al., 2019).

References

Baruth, L. G., & Manning, M. L. (2016). Multicultural counseling and psychotherapy: A lifespan approach. Routledge.

Cloninger, C. R., & Cloninger, K. M. (2016). Person-centered psychotherapy. In Person-Centered Psychiatry (pp. 247-261). Springer, Cham.

Dryden, W. (2017). HUMANISTIC PSYCHOLOGY. Humanistic Psychology: Current Trends and Future Prospects, 22.

Fallatah, R. H. M., & Syed, J. (2018). A Critical Review of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Employee Motivation in Saudi Arabia (pp. 19-59). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.

Howard, S. (2017). Skills in psychodynamic counselling & psychotherapy. Sage.

Jones-Smith, E. (2019). Theories of counseling and psychotherapy: An integrative approach. SAGE Publications, Incorporated.

Lambert, M. J., Fidalgo, L. G., & Greaves, M. R. (2016). Effective humanistic psychotherapy processes and their outcomes.

Rogers, A., & Murphy, D. (2017). Person-centered therapy and the regulation of counsellors and psychotherapists in the UK.

Sue, D. W., Sue, D., Neville, H. A., & Smith, L. (2019). Counseling the culturally diverse: Theory and practice. John Wiley & Sons.

Wasserman, T., & Wasserman, L. D. (2017). Eclecticism Redefined. In Neurocognitive Learning Therapy: Theory and Practice (pp. 39-45). Springer, Cham.

Wubbolding, R. (2017). Counselling with reality therapy. Taylor & Francis.