THERAPEUTIC RELATIONSHIPS

Therapeutic Relationships

Therapeutic Relationships

Introduction

Person-centred theory (and the emergence of humanistic psychology) provided an alternative to the mechanistic theories prevalent in psychology in the 1930' sand 1940'. It has come to represent one of the main theoretical formulations in the field. Rogers is most noted in counselling psychology for his emphasis on the therapeutic relationship and as the author of the article entitled "The necessary and sufficient conditions for constructive personality change". His hypotheses' regarding the facilitative condition leads to the personal growth that has stimulated and influenced counselling research and has been practiced since its inception.

Discussion

Therapeutic relationship is an important aspect with respect to the psychology that takes into account different and unique factors for solving the indivdual's problem. As the paper is mainly focused on the therapeutic relationship and the changes that it can brought, the theories introduced by the Carl Rogers are of utmost importance. Carl Rogers (1902-1987) is one of the most prominent counselor and psychologist of his time and considered to be the pioneer of person centred therapy that offers different approach to the individual's problem. The paper is focused on the use of therapeutic relationship in order to facilitate the changes in the clients approach. The paper is also greatly focused on the differences between the person centred therapy and other helping relationships that exist within the society.

Carl Rogers and Person Centred Approach

Carl Rogers is well-known among counselling professionals as the originator of client-centred therapy, a philosophy and orientation which he later expanded into a person-centred approach to life. His influence on the initial growth and continued expansion of humanistic psychology is perhaps unparalleled by any other single person. Rogers is less well-known for his self theory of personality, both in its early form, and in its most technical and mature forms. In essence, he proposes a self theory that focuses on the importance of a person utilizing his organic valuing process, an innate, intra-psychic communication process which facilitates the person's realizing his self potential. The self potential is the increased awareness of one's self experience (Cohen, 2000).

Though self potential is the central concept of his formulations, and his self theory remains the theoretical grounding for all of his hypotheses regarding the facilitative conditions for effective personal growth, a thorough examination of Rogers' concept of self potential and its development is often neglected by interpreters of Rogers. Despite the consolidation of person-centred theory and the wealth of research it has stimulated, Rogers still lacks a thoroughly defined concept of self, its understanding, integration of the developmental aspects and issues of self being particularly inadequate. Several decades after Rogers' original writings, a psychoanalyst, Heinz Kohut, began to concentrate on the importance of self potential as the centre of one's personality. Kohut identified self potential as a crucial element in childhood development and in psychotherapeutic endeavours. He gradually developed self psychology as a theoretical complement to Freudian meta-psychology (Gray, 1994).

Rogerian Theory

The theory given by the Carl Roger is known as the Rogerian ...