Treatment of Psychological Disorders
Mohamed Ahmed Abd El-Hay in Understanding Psychology for Medicine and Nursing, 2019
Client-centered therapy is based on the assumption that each individual is the best expert of himself or herself, and that people are capable of developing solutions to their own problems. Central to this thinking is the idea that the world is judgmental, therefore, many people tend to suppress their beliefs, values, or opinions because these are not supported, are socially unacceptable, or negatively judged. Client-centered therapy provides a supportive environment in which clients can re-establish their true identity. Rogers preferred the term facilitator to therapist, and he called the people he worked with “clients” rather than “patients,” because he did not view emotional difficulties as indications of an illness to be cured. To re-establish a client’s true identity, the therapist relies on the techniques of unconditional positive regard and empathy. Empathy refers to the ability to understand the feelings that a client is trying to express and the ability to communicate this understanding to the client. These two techniques are central to client-centered therapy because they build trust between the client and therapist by creating a nonjudgmental and supportive environment for the client.
Recovery Programming
Tricia L. Chandler, Fredrick Dombrowski, Tara G. Matthews in Co-occurring Mental Illness and Substance Use Disorders, 2022
Miller (1983) is credited with the initial conceptualization of motivational interviewing (MI) as a therapeutic intervention tool. Throughout the development of MI, the stages of change were incorporated into the therapeutic intervention, with the primary goal of MI being to elicit change talk by the client and facilitate positive movement throughout the stages of change. Communication between the counselor and the client is based on the principles of person-centered therapy, wherein the counselor connects with the client through a non-judgmental stance and a position of unconditional positive regard (Doweiko, 2009). To enhance discussions about the individual’s substance use, counselors are advised to use the basic core counseling skills of open-ended questions, affirmations, reflective listening, and summarizing (OARS) to develop and enhance the therapeutic rapport, to clarify presenting information, and to move the session in a direction to consider the benefits of change. MI has been found to be an effective therapy tool in an array of health-care domains, especially in addiction treatment. The following content will explore some of the effectiveness of MI and highlight the utility of the intervention for persons with cooccurring substance use and mental health disorders.
An introduction to Fritz Perls’ dream interpretation techniques
Frederick L. Coolidge, Ernest Hartmann in Dream Interpretation as a Psychotherapeutic Technique, 2018
This notion of the inherent wisdom of the organism is consistent with the thinking of Carl Rogers (1902–1987), the humanist and founder of client-centered therapy. Rogers postulated a mental health motive, arising from the unconscious, that would impel people ultimately to correct themselves. That is why in therapy, a client-centered therapist had no need to advise, suggest, or cajole a client into what the therapist believed was the correct decision. The natural and inherent wisdom of the organism would self-regulate and self-heal.
Laying low: Unmasking the contributions of science and education to racism
Published in Journal of Occupational Science, 2021
Antoine Bailliard, Abigail Carroll, Kierra Peak
I felt powerless in those positions yet impassioned to make a change, which was the impetus for me to become an occupational therapist. As an occupational therapist, I have felt that the influence of racism in practice is pervasive at times, especially when underlying systemic structures and policies are the root cause of health disparities. To address these issues at a micro-level, I engage in therapeutic use of self to achieve empathic understandings of my clients. The experience of nurturing this rapport can sometimes blur the boundaries of the Other by fostering a sense of interconnectivity. I have found that providing client-centered therapy to people whose valued occupations do not align with socially sanctioned determinants of health often requires shared problem solving, critical reflection, and collaborative clinical reasoning to navigate ethical uncertainties and avoid imposing ways of being. Although I have tried to be a justice-oriented therapist at the micro-level, when it came to speaking up about systemic racism, I decided to lay low, feeling unequipped to challenge institutional power dynamics.
In the Huddle
Published in Journal of Sport Psychology in Action, 2018
Joanne Perry, Kelsey Kendellen
Carl Rogers' core conditions are a skill I continue to use in my consulting role. Carl Rogers is a humanistic-existential psychologist whose theory is often referred to as client-centered therapy. If you were to ask Carl Rogers for the necessary ingredients or attitudes that the practitioner needs to bring to the intervention for a successful outcome, he would say: Empathy (i.e., understanding the athlete's thoughts and feelings). When an athlete has a devastating moment (e.g., they do not qualify for the Olympic games), I need to be able to spend time supporting them in that moment.Congruence (i.e., being genuine and real). I have found athletes to be the most critical consumers. If you are not honest in your relationship with an athlete, they will not work with you.Unconditional positive regard (i.e., allowing the athlete to share their story without fear of being criticized or judged). Pursuing excellence means stepping outside your comfort zone, pushing your limits, trying to be the best in the world, and failing lots. Along the way, you will need to be unconditionally accepting of that athlete and provide an environment where they can share whatever is on their mind and in their heart.
The Role of Empathy in the Trustworthiness of the Psychotherapist
Published in Psychiatry, 2021
Writing over seven decades ago, Cottrell and Dymond made a plea for research on empathy and summarized their pilot study that helped prepare the ground for further investigations. At that time, Carl Rogers (1951) was developing Client-Centered Therapy, proposing the therapist’s empathy as a fundamental contributor to effective psychotherapy; practicing what she had preached, Rosalind Dymond [Cartwright] collaborated with Rogers in research (Rogers & Cartwright, 1954). Over the course of subsequent decades, empathy became one of the canonical common factors in psychotherapy. As extensive research attests, these common factors contribute more substantially to the treatment outcomes than the particular theory or method employed (Wampold & Imel, 2015). Consolidating this evidence, a recent meta-analysis demonstrating the therapeutic power of empathy aggregated 82 studies employing 6,138 patients (Norcross & Lambert, 2019).
Related Knowledge Centers
- Behaviorism
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
- Existential Therapy
- Humanistic Psychology
- Psychoanalysis
- Psychotherapy
- Unconditional Positive Regard
- Psychodynamic Psychotherapy
- Self-Disclosure