Create a 4 page essay paper that discusses Counseling and Psychotherapy.Download file to see previous pages... For example, an intelligent person may have their self-development blocked because parent

Create a 4 page essay paper that discusses Counseling and Psychotherapy.

For example, an intelligent person may have their self-development blocked because parental expectations are that they should remain at home and not go away to university. Only in the context of a warm, understanding and non-evaluative relationship will the client feel sufficiently free from threat to be himself and grow. According to Rogers this atmosphere is dependent on the provision of three core conditions. in their presence therapeutic change will be almost inevitable. They are outlined below.

1 Genuineness (also termed authenticity or congruence) is the most important, and refers to the need for the therapist to behave as an ordinary person would, rather than taking on the role of a detached, white-coated clinician. This requires the therapist to be aware of his/her own thoughts and feelings and to be able to communicate these to the client if it is necessary to do so. Any falseness, Rogers felt, would be detected by the client, who would then be less likely to trust the therapist. Honesty is therefore important, but at the same time the therapist's feelings should not be imposed on the client.

2 Unconditional positive regard is a process whereby clients can be made to feel that they are being accepted without reservation for what they are. They must feel secure and liked, and it is important that this liking, unlike any which they may have received from others, is not dependent on what they say or do.

3 Empathic understanding was felt by Rogers to be more trainable than the other core conditions. It is the ability to see the world from the client's perspective and to understand how the client is feeling. It is different to sympathy, which is an expression of concern about those feelings. This relies to some extent on the process of checking understanding with the client using the technique of reflection, whereby statements are summarised and fed back to the client for checking (e.g. 'Is this what you mean' or 'So you are saying that... ').

Formation of behaviour disorders

Behavioural therapies are based on the assumption that mental disorders are maladaptive behaviours which have resulted from faulty learning. The case of Little Albert, given in Chapter 1, provides an example of the way that phobias may be learnt. The solution is therefore to unlearn the behaviours. Learning occurs through either association (classical conditioning) or through reinforcement (operant conditioning), and the therapies based on these are known as behaviour therapy and behaviour modification respectively. In both cases the focus is on the individual's present symptoms, not the historical causes of the problem.

Before we can explore the different types of therapy that have utilised these principles, it is essential to outline what is involved in the two types of conditioning. Note that in both cases what is being produced is learning, which can be defined as 'a relatively permanent change in behaviour that occurs as a result of experience'.