MY COUNSELLING APPROACHES

MY INTEGRATIVE PRACTICE

The person Centred approach to counselling is I suggest the safest and most grounded approach from which to begin counselling. 

In that Carl Rogers suggests ‘ground rules’ which by themselves he suggests are core conditions for change. 

These are:

1.         Empathy:  this is the ability to appreciate and understand a client’s personal view and

            understandings of the world, the counsellor attempts then to enter into that world with:

2.         Non-possessive warmth:  a warmth/care genuinely to the client.

3.         Unconditional Positive Regard:  genuine regard for the client which enables them to say

            the unsafe without fear of reproach.

4.         “Genuineness” – Consequence:  being real, being who I am which can allow others to be who they are.

My original learning of Person-Centred processes helped me to begin an understanding of myself: The “who am I?” in that I felt it impossible to use Roger’s model without first offering myself the above core principles. 

From this I have developed my understanding that a Counsellor cannot work at a depth to which I or they have not yet worked upon myself/themselves.

Roger’s model of being can be viewed as a process or ‘stage’ model of working with client where space is created to begin the client journey of self discovery (and of course the Counsellor’s own understanding of themselves can be reinforced).

STAGES IN THERAPY

Stage 1

This is the external or ‘everything our there is to blame’.  Is the Counsellor trustworthy – others

haven’t been.

The beginnings of self-discovery where ‘blame’ is internal or external despair is felt, feared and/or denied.

A.        Client communicates about externals.

B.        Feelings are not owned.

C.        Constructs are rigid.

D.        The client is reluctant to engage in close relationship.

Stage 2

A.        Feelings are sometimes described but not owned.

B.        Keeps subjective experience at a distance.

Stage 3

Internal blaming and belief in ‘nothing will ever change’ expressed despair is a common feature at this point. 

Counsellor trust/congruence becomes felt and part of the Client internal world.

A.        Feelings and personal meanings in the past are described, usually as unacceptable or bad.

B.        Expressions of self are in objective terms.

C.        Self tends to be seen as a part of others.

D.        Personal constructs are rigid.

E.        Some recognition that problems are personal and not external.

Stage 4

Despair felt, expressed and can begin to move into hope:  possibility of change.  Recognition of this as a new type of relationship which can inform and become part of the client’s other world.

A.        Free and full description of feelings and personal meanings.

B.        Intense feelings are not described in the present.

C.        The possibility of feelings breaking through causes alarm.

D.        Unwilling to experience feelings.

E.        Personal constructs become more free.

F.         What was absolute now becomes possibility.

G.        Some recognition of self-responsibility.

Stage 5

A fuller expression of ‘I’m OK’  ‘You’re OK (to borrow from T.A. see my earlier essays).  Despair   gives way to change.

The client begins to create other ways of being in the world.

A.        Easier to express feelings in the present.

B         Owning of feelings.

C         Immediacy of feelings is less fearful.

D.        More able to tolerate contradictions and ambiguities.

E.        Personal constructs and meanings are open to question.

F.         ore acceptance of self-responsibility.

Stage 6

The client is being different in the world and no longer needs to hang onto less successful strategies for coping.

A.        Acceptance, and immediate expression, of previously denied feelings.

B.        feelings expressed bring liberation through catharsis.

C.        Acceptance of the validity of working in the present.

D.        Self is real, not an object.

E.        Flexible constructs replace inflexible ones.

Stage 7

A fully open relationship with themselves, their counsellor and the world is occurring.

A.        The client feels comfortable with living in present experiencing.

B.        The immediacy of feelings are experienced with enhanced richness.

C.        Able to risk expressing feelings.

Stage 8

The counsellor/Client relationship come to an end, is felt not needed as the client becomes ‘Self Actualising’ ie they are able to monitor themselves and to create other positive way of being for Themselves.

It is the Counsellor’s role to facilitate rather than guide, give advice or direction to the client.  This is in and of itself suggest Rogers that helps the client own self-actualising tendency to develop. 

For Person Centred Counsellors space is created whereby the client can feel themselves, they recognise that they are cared for unconditionally and that another can understand their world, this then creates the conditions where they can regard themselves in the world without reproach or persecution.

It is helpful at this point to recognise that this model of counselling is not an easy approach. 

Worth Equals Love, Congruence is honesty, Empathy means a suspension of my own belief/world view and when a client presents information that may not be easy to understand, love or suspend judgement. 

This is when I and others have felt it necessary to augment the above with an understanding

that I can hold these core views about the person and not the behaviour. 

This requires courage and honesty with the Counsellor – me – and I don’t always find this easy.

On another note this separating persons from the behaviour can by itself seem to further pathologise some clients eg abusers who have already minimised their behaviour towards their victims, hence my moving on from Person Controlled counselling into a more eclectic or integrative approach.

PSYCHOANALYSIS/PSYCHODYNAMICS

1.         Biographical details:   The Psychoanalyst requires a very detailed life-history of the client and seeks to explain the client’s present anxiety in terms of their past experience, thereby achieving “catharsis”. 

A cathartic experience occurs when the client becomes suddenly aware that the reason for their present problem is a traumatic experience of childhood which has been repressed into the (Unconscious).

2.         Dream Analysis:   The Psychoanalyst might draw upon Jung’s Archetypes, seeking to interpret the client’s dreams by reference to published material.

3.         Free Association:   In essence, the free-association method requires the client to say anything that comes into their consciousness, no matter how ridiculous it may sound. 

The role of the therapist is passive.

4.         Hypnosis:   Also a Behavioural method, Hypnosis may be used by the Psychoanalyst to elicit memories of early childhood experience (also called Hypnotherapy).

5.         Self-Analysis:  The client is encouraged to verbalise introspectively, to talk out their own

            interpretation of the cause of their problem.  The therapist might also use appropriate tests and measures;

eg the IPAT Self-Analysis questionnaire, the Rorschach Inkblot Test, the Thematic Apperception Test, etc.

6.         Relaxation:   The client is encouraged to relax completely before therapy, eg lying down on the “analyst’s couch”, the blinds are drawn and a quiet atmosphere is maintained.

 I don’t use Free Association, Hypnosis or Dream Analysis as outlined here, however, though not ‘free Association’ I do listen to a client’s repeated verbal patterns and idiosyncrasies of speech. 

Dream Analysis if it is of importance to my client. 

I do listen to their understandings. 

(My approach to dreams flows more from Gestalt or pyschodrama – see other essays).

My understanding of psychodynamics is informed by Freud and Jungian concepts.

My two major understandings from psychodynamics are of Transference – Counter Transference and Projection.

Projection is the process whereby I may have feelings towards another person but feel instead that they have their feelings toward me. 

This is a defence mechanism in which my subjective feelings are projected – put onto another. 

A recurrent theme in Counselling sessions of anger, eg “so and so is angry with me”

whereas they conflict with another they are putting anger onto another to either avoid the

situation or to create a situation in which their own anger can be expressed.

The important feature for me in sessions is not the validation of these feelings per se but rather how they help the client to distort their awareness.

Transference for me means that there is a part of our client/counsellor relationship where my clients perception of me and my responses to them are distorted. 

This distortion arises from the unconscious, either by fantasy, memories or defence mechanisms. 

Classically, this transference arises from the client’s past relationships.

Counter transference is where the client transference raises feelings within me and may influence by “objectivity” and reasoning. 

The following indicators show the importance of Counter Transference and its possible

harmful effect upon clients. 

I make more importance of counter transference here as my focus is that of counsellor and counter-transference does inform me more of how I need to be mindful within my practice.

Indicators of Counter Transference

1.         Altering lengths of sessions or forgetting sessions with certain clients.

2.         Being overly strict with certain clients and being lenient with others.

3.         Being preoccupied with certain clients.

4.         Developing fantasies toward the client.

5.         Dreaming about certain clients.

6.         Emotional withdrawal from the client.

7.         Experiencing unease during or following sessions.

8.         Feeling drowsy without cause.

9.         Needing the approval of certain clients.

10.       Not being willing to explore certain issues.

11.       Not wanting the client to terminate.

12.       Promising unrealistic rescue.

13.       Reappearance of immature character traits in the therapist.

14.       Using the client to impress someone.

All of these have ‘happened’ to me, the only way to ensure that Counter Transference doesn’t continue to be harmful is to have good supervision and for me to be open and honest with my supervisors.

Personal therapy is also a must to help in understanding these feelings.

Working with clients who have deeply ingrained personality problems or those who display self-defeating behaviour, ma provoke similar behaviour in the therapist. 

This is known as a Parallel Process, ie our processes are in parallel.

Counter transference behaviour may take the form of:

1.         Anger

2.         Losing concentration

3.         Wishing to control

4.         Feeling defensive

5.         Denying the truth

The following four forms of over identification or dis-identification give me clues to whether counter transference is taking place.

1.         Overprotective (over-identification), characterised by parent/child interaction, collusion

            (allowing the client to blame others) cushioning the client from pain.

2.         Benign (over-identification), characterised by talk/talk, as friends where distance is closed.

3.         Rejecting (dis-identification), characterised by being cool/aloof with minimal involvement

            and increased distance, failure to intervene, allowing client to struggle and stumble.  The counsellor fears demands and responsibility.

4.         Hostile (dis-identification), which arises from fear of contamination and is characterise by the counsellor being verbally abusive, curt, or blunt.

As an integrative counsellor my understanding is not that of the Classical Therapist,

ie that Counter Transference is pathological but rather that it is one new feature of the work that is undertaken between counsellor and therapist. 

This is inevitable, integral and I can use the feelings in consultation with my client to better help  them view their world and how they may create these feelings in others.

Again the counter Transference may/will influence any interpretations that I may note in sessions with clients. 

Interpretation is my attempt to make clear what I view as the client behaviour and understandings of the world, these interpretations are designed to facilitate client insight.

How I differ from Freudian Analysts thinking is by my use of Person-Centred beliefs and a focus on the here and now, this work for me in conjunction with Jungian ideas.

Jung differs from Freud by attaching less importance to the role of sexuality in neuroses and focuses instead on the client’s immediate (here and now) conflicts as more important than childhood traumas.

His use of dream analysis is also less rigid and he emphasises the importance of transference in the Analytic/Counselling relationship.

1.         EGO rather than the Ego, Super Ego and ID of Freud.

            The centre of consciousness.

            The experiential being of the person.

            The sum total of:

                        Thoughts

                        Ideas

                        Feelings

                        Memories

                        Sensory perceptions.

2.         Personal unconscious

            Consists of everything that has been repressed during development.  Contains elements easily available to consciousness.

Contains complexes – emotionally toned ideas and behavioural impulses, having an archetypal core.

3.         Collective unconscious which includes:

            Archetypes.

            Persona – the archetype of adaptation.

            Shadow – all we would not like to be.

            This is a radical departure from Freudian Analysis and moves more toward the “transpersonal” approach.

            The Animus and Anima.  Two complementary parts. 

           Similar to the Yin – feminine principle, and

            Yang – masculine principle of Chines philosophy.

            Feminine principle:

            Nature, creation and life;

            Earthiness and concreteness;

            Receptivity and yielding;

            Dark and containing;

            Collective and undifferentiated;

            The unconscious.

            Masculine principle:

            Driving and energetic;

            Creative and initiating;

            Light and heat;

            Penetrating;

            Stimulating and dividing;

            Restriction and discipline;

            Arousing and phallic;

            Aggression and enthusiasm;

            Spirit and heaven.

Neil Benbow

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