Introduction to Guidance and Counselling

An Analysis of Person- Centered Approaches of Counselling by Carl Rogers and Gloria

 

PURPOSE

This is an assignment based on one of the module named “Introduction to Guidance and Counselling” and the general purpose of this article is to critically analyze a counselling session between Carl Rogers and his client Gloria in the training film, which was documented as “Three Approaches of Psychotherapy” (Shostrom E. , 1965) to examine the process of counselling and various skills he used in the session in order to help his client to overcome with the issues that she had in her life.

INTRODUCTION

                   “What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters, compared to what lies within us”                                                                                               (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

Life is a challenge, in the journey of such challenging life every human being’s faces great difficulties and several kind of problems that varies from one another. Among these, the problems which lies within the person is much more complicated than the problems that he/she already experienced or those on the way. However the most important yet difficult thing is learning to deal with these conflicts and difficulties through guidance and counselling.

Counselling is not just helping somebody or doing something for one another. Moreover, it requires an active involvement and mutual understanding between both parties such as, the client and the counsellor or the group Basically, it is a professional activities that utilize an interpersonal relationship between the trained counsellor and the client which enables the client to develop self- understanding and establishing an effective decision making to overcome with the issues that occurs in their life and also it demands collaboration. (Hughes & Kinder, 2007)

Like no human beings are alike, every counsellor and the approaches he/she use for a counselling session may differ from one another. In order to make the session fruitful the counsellor must use various techniques and it should have certain characteristics. In the history of counselling their have being several resources such as books, journals, videos and audios which discussed how counselling session can make an effective session for the client.

Likewise, “Three approaches to Psychotherapy (Shostrom, 1965a),” is a famous training film based on Carl Rogers’s counselling session with Gloria.  It is among the most discussed resource in the history of counseling and it continues to be used as a powerful source for learning about psychotherapy and especially about the Carl Rogers’s developed theory of “Person-centered approach of counselling (Rogers, 1957; 1959; 1980; 1986a).” In this film the client is recently divorced, a 30 year old single mother who is having difficulty in opening up with her daughter mostly  about her sex life.

Therefore,  this article is based on this particular session which primarily focuses on critically analyzing the counselling process, and it mainly discussed the different stages of counselling such as forming relationship with the client, examine the problem and establishment of goals or objectives which enables the client to ‘open up’ the area of concern through the conversation and guiding the client to look into inner self with positive attitude and find out the strength which lies within the person that leads to effective decision taking and finally ending the session.  In addition, it also discussed the various types of counselling skills he used in order to help Gloria which includes showing empathy, being genuine and unconditional positive regards.

THE PROCESS OF COUNSELLING and THE SKILLS USED IN THE SESSION

As Murgatroyed, Velleman, & Aris (2010) discussed counselling process is an organized, well planned and structured series between the client and the counsellor. It is also an indulgent, harmonious process where the counsellor help the client to understand the crust of the problem or the obstacles that the person is going through in life. As a team they develop alternates to deal with and find cure which enables the client to live a healthy normal life. This process includes Relationship building, Exploration, Setting a Goal, Empowering action and Termination of the session.

Building a Relationship: The very first step involves in a counselling session is empowerment through relationship and emphasizing on engaging client to explore hindrance that personally affect the client.  According to Carl Rogers (1957; 1959; 1980; 1986a) and many other psychologist it is the core of effective counselling.  The absence of collaboration between the collaborators none of techniques or skills can make the session fruitful. As relationship building is the very first phase of the session the client not only doubts own self but also the capabilities of the counsellor and the effectiveness of counselling. Therefore, it is important for the counsellor to understand what the client is going through by showing respect, appreciating, being attentive and actively engages in the session by actively listening to the client’s issues and genuinely responding to the subject.

In this session, at the beginning of the session also it was clearly visible Rogers’s being congruence and showed unconditional positive regards toward Gloria as he greeted her addressing by her name, making her feel comfortable and inviting her to have a seat that encouraged her to trust him and open up her concerns. Eventually that enables him to proceed the session to the next level.

Portnoy (1999) discussed the importance of relationship for a meaningful counselling as it enables both client and the counselor to establish a genuine relationship. In addition, as discussed by Rogers (1958)  and many other scholars such as ( Farber, et al., 1996, Snowman, et al, 2000 &     Myers, 2000) agrees that the main ingredients of healing is depend on how both parties formed a mutual relationship which allow them to be congruence and empathetic.  Therefore, at the very beginning of the session Roger’s used his ability of congruence and established an effective, meaningful relationship with his client.  

Exploration: While establishing relationship among the counsellor and the client the next stage is taking place as it involves the gathering information, understanding and analyzing the client’s problem. In order to know the client’s issues, the counsellor need to understand the client’s internal frame of reference by mirroring, being empathetic and analyzing the problem in terms of client’s perspectives (Faber, et al.1996).

As discussed by Wickman and Campbel (2003) in order to explore the client’s reason of counselling Rogers’ used his nonexpert language which communicated genuineness and unconditional positive regards as such in his opening statement;            

The statement itself had a remarkable impact on Gloria’s perception   and it made her more comfortable, relaxed and also trust him which led her to ease and discuss her problem with Roger.

In person- centered therapy a great deal of emphasizes is given on the client, which means more importance are on the client’s self-assessment and self- perception (Wickman & Campbell, 2003).  In term of this, in the session Rogers actively engaged in listening to Gloria’s talk without interrupting.  Use of meta-statement such as “I don't like the ...”, “I realize ....”, “I feel like…” by both Gloria and Rogers explain that he showing genuineness towards Gloria through self- reliance.

Furthermore, in order to show her that he cared, he understand her problems and genuinely interested in the session he used both verbal and non-verbal cues which enables to  make inferences about both the situation of counselling and the counselor. As (Hughes & Kinder, 2007), by using gestures, expressions, body language, verbal and non-verbal communication are crucial elements of effective counselling because it not only help the counselor to gathered information or explored the problems but also it helps both the client and the counsellor to keep consistently maintain the relationship and as well as it allowed the client to relaxed and talk freely without any hesitation. 

Looking into Roger’s case one must agree that he had done an excellent job on doing such things. For instance, take a look at how he had used verbal cues such as an “mmh”, “hmmm” and non-verbal cues like nodding, smiles and also the way he displayed himself in the session.

Decision making: Myers (2000), discussed that client often tend to seek an advice from the counsellor as he/she came to understand the actual problem/s that lies within themselves during the exploration stage. As a   counsellor one must understand it is easy to trap in providing such advice however, such request must be deliberately avoided.  Thus by doing it the counsellor might hurt the feeling of the client and it might be even frustrating to that client. Therefore the counsellor should implicit such request in a positive manner.

As in the Gloria case, many times she directly asked Roger’s advised as such in this example;

However, Roger expertly avoid giving such advice instead of that he responded by telling her that he is not supposed to know what is best for her rather it is her who is master of her  life  and as it is very private thing  she must find an answer by herself. He also assured her that he would do anything that will help her to find an answer for that.

In addition she also clearly ask him to “fix” things for her and he too refused to do so. By doing this Rogers showed that his trust and respect towards her expertise and help her to become aware of her inner strength.  Meanwhile he demonstrate empathy toward her by being congruent and understanding her pain and showing unconditional positive regards.

Taking an Action : When Rogers refused to fix thing for Gloria, at the same time he was moving towards the next stage of counselling which is enforcement or taking an action. Before reaching at this level he made her realized of her expertise, capabilities and understand the crust of the problems which was ultimately not only discussing her personal desire to her daughter, moreover it was how she wanted others to accept her as the way she was and feel good about herself.

According to Portnoy (1999), making the client understand the issues lead him/her to take the stage of action taking.  At this stage the important focused of the counsellor must be guiding the client to solve the issues in order to make the client heal and function effectively.  

In order to help Gloria in taking an action Rogers used the skill of problem reformulation or paraphrasing that Gloria’s statements. By doing this Roger was able to demonstrate empathy and unconditional positive regard which help him to interpret the misconception and avoid unclear doubts effectively.  The newly learned information also helped her understand the depth of the problems, identify the alternative solution and understand the consequences of the solution that she chose in order to deal with conflicts.

Ending a session: In a counselling session one of the most important stage is ending the session effectively. At this stage, it is extremely important for the client to be satisfied with the session and to certain extent achieved a goal which help him/her to understand the problem and learn how to deal with those conflicts in a positive manner.

In the case of Gloria it is clearly visible that Roger’s has helped her in a way that she never expected. Rogers’s way of dealing with her issues, respecting her as a person, showing empathetic behavior and most importantly accepting her as with her limitation really touched her. An example of Gloria’s satisfaction can be seen in the statement that she talked about how her farther neglected her as a child and how desperately she wanted a substitutes that can respect her ,feel more closed to and then she admitted that she wanted someone like Rogers. For a counsellor it was simply a remarkable achievement which proved the effectiveness of the session.

CONCLUSION

 

By analyzing Carl Rogers and Gloria counselling session and relating it with the process of counselling session, I believed Rogers has consistently followed all the five stages of counselling session  as mentioned in the beginning of this article. Meanwhile, he had mange to maintain a relationship throughout the session and followed the process in a sequential order. In addition, he had perfectly moved from one stage to another by developing certain skills and helping his client.

As discussed in this article, Rogers’s used various counselling skills that is also very important aspect in person centered therapy. The way he used all those skill in one single session was quite remarkable as such he was able to show genuineness and congruence, empathy and, unconditional positive regards. In addition he also used the skill of paraphrasing, restating the statement, active listening, non-judgmental attitude, and also respecting the client and her frame of reference. Furthermore, he managed to use verbal and non-verbal cues, gestures. 

Most importantly Rogers’s has done an amazing job of understanding the essence of his client’s issue within such a limited time as she was having trouble of withholding the truth about her post- divorced sexual life or discussing it  with her daughter “Pammie.” With his skills, during that limited time Roger’s was able to moved Gloria’s surfaced concern to more complex problem such as Gloria’s self- acceptances , felling of being herself and wanting others to accept her as her limitations.

Throughout the session Roger’s help Gloria by attentive listening and unconditionally respecting her internal frame of reference. In terms of the effectiveness of this session, one must acknowledge that Rogers’s and his client Gloria were able to build a very close relationship. However, this bond they created within the session was one single thing that contradict in person-centered theory which means the study proved that getting too close to the client is not very ethical.    Thus, I believe as long as the counselor can help in maintaining the relationship and help the client in healing, it should not be considered as an obstacle.

REFERENCE

 

Farber, B. A., Brink, D. C., & Raskin, P. M. (1996). The Psychology of Carl Rogers: Cases and commentary. New York: Guilford Press.

Hughes, R., & Kinder, A. (2007). Guidlines for counselling in the workplace. BACP. Retrieved from www.counsellingatwork.org.uk.

Murgatroyed, S., Velleman, R., & Aris, S. (2010). Counselling and Helping. Cambridge: The British Psychological Society.

Myers, S. (2000). Emphatic Listhening: Reports on the Experience of Beign Heard. Journal of Humaistic psychology, 40(2), 148-173.

Portnoy. (1999). Relatedness: Where Humanistic and Psychoanalytic Therapy Converge. Journal of Humanistic Psychology 39 (1), 19-34.

Rogers, C. (1958). A Process Conception of Psychotherapy. American Psychologist,13 (4), 142 - 149.

Shostrom, E. (Producer). (1965). Three approaches of psychotheraphy [Film] [Motion Picture]. Retrieved from Retrieved from: www.youtube.com/

Snowman, J., Biehler, R., & Bonk, C. J. (2000). Psychology applied to teaching (9th ed.). Boston: Hougton Mifflin.

Wickman, S. A., & Campbell, C. (2003). An Analysis of How Carl Rogers Enacted Client-Centered Conversation with Gloria. Journal of Counselling and Development, 81, 178-184.

Wickman, S. A., & Campbell, C. (2003). The Coconstruction of Congruency: Investigating the Conceptual Metaphors of Carl Rogers and Gloria. Counselor Education, 43, 16-24.