When comparing and contrasting the differences in the three approaches, I will review the relationship between client and counsellor. I will attempt to discover how the relationship is formed and how it is maintained during the therapeutic process. Once this has been established, I will then look at how the changes occur in the therapeutic relationship and which techniques will be used. I will compare and contrast the approaches of Carl Rogers, Sigmund Freud and Albert Ellis. I will look at how their theories have impacted on the counselling processes in modern times and throughout history.
In the humanistic approach in counselling there is a vital importance that the core conditions between client and counselling are present from the outset for the relationship to exist. Roger stated that the core conditions were “necessary and sufficient conditions of therapeutic personality change. ” (Mcleod 2001) Without the core conditions being present, there is no hope for the therapeutic movement for the client. Empathy is seen as being with the client, this is going into the clients frame of reference and experiencing the emotions and feelings that the client is experiencing at that particular moment in time.
In 1986 Rogers underlined empathy as “ To my mind, empathy is in itself a healing agent. It is one of the most potent aspects of therapy, because it releases, it confirms, it brings even the most frightening client into the human race. If a person is understood, he or she belongs” (Merry 2002) To me this sentence is what empathy is in a nut shell, this shows that the client is being understood, and the counsellor is secure in their own identity so that they don’t get overwhelmed in the client world. Another of the core conditions is congruence, this is the genuineness of the counsellor.
This is where the counsellor has understanding of the complex feelings, thoughts and the attitudes of the client. However there is a fine line between the counsellor an understanding the client needs and the counsellors feelings and thoughts being projected. Congruence should be used to show the client that the counsellor is sincere and that they are not clinical and unemotional. The last core condition is unconditional regard, this is where counsellor show the client acceptance of who they are in the present time.
Where the beliefs and attitude of the counsellor are not used in judgement against the client. It is important skill for the counsellor to have so that the client can feel secure in the emotions that they feeling in the present. In the psychodynamic approach in counselling the relationship between the client and the counsellor is an intensive relationship, and the emotional tone of the client and the attitude towards the counsellor is essential for the relationship to exist.
Through analysing his patients Freud devised a structure that was to define the personality of the individual, these were the id, the ego and the super ego. Freud believed that in order for the human psyche to be balanced and healthy all these have to be in harmony with each other. Freud once stated that“ The conscious mind may be compared to a fountain playing in the sun and falling back into the great subterranean pool of subconscious from which it rises. “ (brainy quotes. com 2010).
A Psychodynamic counsellor can use a technique called transference, this is where the counsellor reflects on in the past so that they can reflect on it in the present. Transference is drawing on the past experience with significant figures such as the mother and the father and the relationship that the client has with them. This is carried out on a unconscious level even thought the client knows that the information is out dated. The counsellor uses the information in a way that gets them to understand some of the problems that they are experiencing.
Once the transference is brought in to the open it is important to use this as a learning experience and for the clients to identify the faulty patterns within their own behaviour with regards to others. Counter transference is where the feelings of the client is unconsciously reacting to the client thoughts and feelings towards the counsellor. However, counter-transference is caused by the counsellors own limitations which might include the counsellor unresolved emotional issues, but a counsellor can use this to their advantage and draw out information that is important to the clients therapeutic process.
In the cognitive behaviour approach to counselling the use of potential outcomes of cognitive behaviour therapy, looking at the fact that there are emotional disorders that result from negative thoughts and thinking on unrealistic terms, and this in time can be altered by changing the unrealistic terms and negative thoughts to positive thoughts and realistic ideas. Rational emotional therapy is there to assist the client to make enlightened changes to themselves. In 1962 Ellis stated that “ human thinking and emotions are, in some of their essences, the same thing, and that by changing the former one does change the latter ( Dryden 2001).
This would let the client to give up the demands of their own psyche, others and the world, and change it to suit their choices and to allow themselves to accept themselves for who they really are. If the counsellor can get the client to do this, they can experience healthy negative emotions such as sadness, concern and disappointment, while still retaining their desires, wishes and needs. The client will rarely experience unhealthy negative emotions that would have surrounded with ‘should,’ ‘musts,’ and ‘oughts. The client and the counsellor has to collaborate within the relationship as it gives autonomy to the client to encompass their own problems, and to overcome and use problem solving as a way of coming to term with the issues. When looking at the differences in the three approaches in counselling it was important to note that the core conditions related to all three theories. In the Humanistic Approach the core conditions are necessary for the therapeutic relationship to develop. In the two other approaches they were sufficient for the relationship to develop.
With humanistic approach all of the core conditions are present, but with psychodynamic non judgemental attitude are poignant to the relationship, and the counsellor will not take side in the conflict, however congruence and empathy is present, but not widely used by the counsellor. With cognitive behaviour again all three core conditions are present but unpositive regard is important to show the client that their imperfections are accepted by the counsellor. There has to be empathy as this helps the counsellor to build a rapport with the client.
I have noticed that there is at least one of the core conditions are present in the therapeutic relationship, with exception of the humanistic approach, where all three are used in conjunction with each other. I also realised that transference is present in the cognitive approach as the client constructs an image of the counsellor, which results in transference, but this is used like psychodynamic transference in a therapeutic way. When looking at how the therapeutic approaches is the three different pproaches to counselling, the humanistic approach is where you understand that this process is client led and that it is where the client wants to go. With the humanistic approach to counselling the counsellor will start the very beginning of the relationship with a contract. This is where the relationship between the counsellor and client is formed. The counsellor will hope that this contract will establish trust between the both parties. Trust is paramount in the relationship, with out trust the client cannot be open and honest with the counsellor.
The counsellor works within the client internal frame of reference. This is where the counsellor tries understands the clients world, thoughts and feelings of the significant points that were happening at that time. Rogers once said “To be of assistance to you I will put aside myself – the self of ordinary interaction – and enter into your world of perception as completely as I am able. I will become, in a sense, another self for you- an alter ego of your own attitudes and feeling – a safe opportunity for you to discern yourself more clearly, to experience yourself more truly and deeply, to choose more significantly. (Rogers 1951) I understand that this is what Rogers was trying to say about the clients internal frame of reference and how the counsellor should try and move around freely with out imposing their own thoughts and feelings. However some times the clients thoughts and feelings are from their conditions of worth. If the client feels that they are useless at most things in their life. This could be due to the fact that there have been negative feelings on them from a early age. Sometimes when the client has been surrounded by feelings of worthlessness they some times lose their inherent values as an individual.
When looking at the process of the therapeutic changes in the Psychodynamic approach to counselling, you have to look at what specific techniques are used, but you have to be clear what the aims of the treatment are. Freud stated that “where id was, let ego be” (McLeod 1993) he said this to summarise his aims. What he means by this is that we are driven by the force and impulses and after therapy people are more rational, aware of their inner emotional life and be able to control these feelings with appropriate behaviour.
McLeod (2003) also stated that “ A key aim of psychoanalysis is, then, the achievement of insight into the true nature of one’s problems…. ” A counsellor also uses the skills of listening, observing, clarifying, linking, interpretation, giving reflective responses and drawing on past events and presenting behaviour. You also have to look at defence mechanism. The ego is govern the Reality Principle which has the task of dealing with demands of the Id, while it is also praising the external reality and then it decides on the what behaviour is suitable for the environment.
It also deals with threat and punishment off the Superego which with all the factors of the Id and Ego, it generated anxiety in the individual. This is where the person’s wishes and external reality is dealt with the use of the defence mechanism. Freud once stated that “The poor ego has a still harder time of it; it has to serve three harsh masters, and it has to do its best to reconcile the claims and demands of all three… The three tyrants are the external world, the superego, and the id. ” From New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis, (1932) psychology. about. com.
Once we know where the emotions that we experience comes from, we will know how to deal with the issues if they were ever to arise again. When a person understands their feelings and emotions they will get a release of the emotional tension of the repressed or buried memories, Freud called this “catharsis”, this means to purify the emotions from the ties that it had to our past. When looking at the process of the therapeutic approach of cognitive behaviour therapy, In 1962 Ellis stated that “ human thinking and emotions are, in some of their essences, the same thing, and that by changing the former one does change the latter ( Dryden 2001).
Ellis went on to put forward a model that would be easy to remember, this is the ABC model. The A is for activating events where the emotional and behaviour leads to the consequences ( C) and the emotional residual is decided by Beliefs (B) this model shows some action or attitude of an individual or physical event that has happened in the clients life. A counsellor will show the client how this can be used to monitor the cognitive reactions to events, this then shows the client how to engage the thoughts and reactions to any events, which then turn give them choice on how to react towards the event.
There is also cognitive change techniques this is where the counsellor can help the client to look at the irrational and rational beliefs. This is done by giving the client homework, which is a imagery technique that helps the client to change their unhealthy negative emotions to healthy ones. This is said to give the client an intellectual insight in their irrational beliefs. This is also used in the behaviour change techniques, this is where the counsellor and client negotiates the homework, where the client aims to putting what they have learnt in therapy in to play.
There is also the emotive-evocative change techniques, this is where the counsellor uses self -disclosure and openly admit that they make errors. When looking at the similarities and the differences to the three approaches on how each of them impact on the outcome of the counselling process, it is important to note that each of them have a variety of different techniques but the outcome is the same for each. However each of the approaches were all governed by the fact that a contract had to be established for trust to develop.
In the humanistic approach the counsellor would stay in the clients frame of reference when they were experiencing the emotions that was difficult to convey. Also the humanistic approach is given a time limit in weeks that both counsellor and client must try to achieve. With Psychodynamic approach it is a timely and an expensive course of therapy. With psychodynamic approach it looks for patterns that happened in childhood that is now no longer tolerated in adulthood.
Where as the humanistic approach is looking at why they feel the negative feeling that other have imposed on them in childhood. In the cognitive behaviour approach this is seen as the therapy that is fast acting and that gives the client homework to do in there own time. This the only approach that give the client homework. This approach is a collaborative between the client and counsellor and the work is mostly done with the client being in control of the therapy.
In conclusion, I understand the core conditions are vital in all approaches to counselling – they are only a necessity in the humanistic approach, but they are sufficient in the other two approaches. I also realised that, when it came to the therapeutic changes in the approaches, even though each of them used different techniques, the outcome was the same. This was to get the client to have autonomy for their own life and that what the past and what others have placed on them is nothing compared to the power that is within the client.
