One of the wonderful things about the internet is the ability to to find out things you would not know if you did not have it ……. For example Carl Rogers involvement with the CIA  in 1958, detailing his work with the Society for the Investigation of Human Ecology – a front organisation for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) This interesting piece by  Stephen P. Demanchick and Howard Kirschenbaum, which contextualizes  'Rogers secret  work ' in America during the 1950s, his academic ambitions and the mysterious 'Subproject 74'is available for download below

Carl Rogers CIA

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Hello and welcome to my first post in 2013.

in this post I would cover, key concepts of person centred counselling, as I know a lot of students will be preparing to take exams and I thought this video would be very useful to you.

To fully understand Rogers theory you need to first understand that he go a lot of his ideas from his experiences living on a farm in Oak, Park  Illinois, near Chicago  in the United States of America, He moved to the farm when he was around 12 years in age  and as the 4th of six children ,Rogers was encouraged to help run the farm ( he raised sheep).  Rogers believed that every living thing be it a plant , animal or human being had the ability to grow and develop to the best of it’s ability  in spite of it’s ( or their) circumstances.

This basic idea sets Rogers apart from other psychological thinkers of the time, as he believed that every one had the ability to grow and develop, and was basically born ’OK’ , The  key concepts of Person Centred Counselling Theory video explains,  Rogers terminology in everyday language.

I hope you enjoy it

Rory

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Shame in psychotherapy is one of the most powerful emotions clients can experience, and perhaps the most contradictory and difficult to work with as a therapist.

One of the most powerful reflections on shame was quoted by AdamAppleton a writer of personal development books who had suffered an abusive childhood;

“Share whatever it is you're ashamed about. You may think you can hide your shame by not talking about it, but in reality, it's your shame that's hiding you”.

Many clients come to therapy feeling shame which has been ‘pre-programmed’ from other people such as lovers, parents, teachers or abusers.Shame is like an internal voice which criticises, judges and repeats what may have been said to you by others such as you are ugly , stupid , bad , or ‘if it wasn’t for you ’.

The reason shame can be hard to work with is that it is surrounded by a set of very able ‘bodyguards’ such as anger, fear, embarrassment, denial and love.

All of which provide a very effective mechanism to deny the client access to their real self and as importantly their ability to self heal.

Shame can take many forms, physically a person may not make eye contact with you, or avoid you gaze. blushing, being defensive, anger, denials as well as affecting the individual’s ability to think or see the world rationally are all the products of feeling this strong and self esteem corroding emotion.

Exaggeration or a desire to overly please can trace their roots back  to a shamed psyche, which impacts on our ability to form intimate relationships or know our self worth. 

As a therapist I have become a lot more aware of how shame can manifest itself in the therapy room,a few years ago I was working with a *client whose father had regularly hit her since she was a child, now a woman in her middle age she looked stunned when I reflected back to her that he had been abusive.

She said that she had been a ‘difficult child’ if she had behaved better this would not have happened before adding “how else do you discipline your children?” 

It took 10 more sessions before she reflected that her father’s abuse had a massive impact on her life, I reflected that she had used the ‘A’ word, for the first time and we both acknowledged that she was being herself, no longer the ‘shamed’ child thinking she deserved to be hit. 

The psychologist Carl Rogers, wrote a lot about the non judgmental attitude of the therapist and how it helped defeat ‘Conditions of worth and Introjected values’ others attitudes which we take on as our own and use to emotionally beat ourselves up.

Rogers who as a child was brought up on a farm and by all accounts was shamed on a regular basis , reflected in his later years that a therapist must provide “the  soil of a different kind ‘  which is experienced by the client as a non judgmental approach by the therapist .

In his elegant theory Rogers hypothesises that along with empathy and a genuine approach by the therapist, being non Judgmental, provides the emotional nutrition for the client to grow and flourish.

When this is experienced by the client, in my experience the ‘bodyguards of shame’ fade in to the shadows of the past, and shame itself slips out of the back door , leaving only the client and their newly acquired self worth behind.

It’s lovely to see……….but you have to dodge the bodyguards !

* Some details have been changed to protect the identitiy of the client 

// ]]>

Carl Rogers and Gloria

Carl Rogers and Gloria, there cannot be many counsellors or students of counselling that have not watched the film ‘Three approaches to Psychotherapy’ and wondered who Gloria was and what was the story behind the film?

‘Three approaches to psychotherapy’., filmed in 1964 was Everett Shostrom’s second attempt at filming the world of counselling and psychotherapy, the first, made 3 years earlier featured an actor ‘playing’ the role of the client , he considered her performance to be 'inauthentic', consequently the film never got a wider screening.

Three Approaches, showed a real client ‘Gloria being’ interviewed in turn by Carl Rogers, Albert Ellis and Fritz Perls ‘,the idea was to produce an academic firm used for the training of Psychotherapists, however it slipped out of academia and ended up being played in cinemas across America.

The story of how Gloria became involved in the project is as an intriguing as the film itself, In the book Living with ‘The Gloria Films’ ,written by Gloria’s daughter – Pamela J Burry, (referred to in the film as Pammy ),she states that both Gloria and herself were individually in therapy with Everett and Miram Shostrom, acquaintances of Fritz Perls.

The film itself was ground breaking, showing Gloria talking about having sexual relationships with men, and how she would explain this to her young daughter ‘Pammy’, the material by contemporary standards is fairly,tame, however in the historical context of 1960’s American society it was quite shocking, Gloria’s courage in talking openly and being filmed should not be underestimated.

Asked after filming which therapist she preferred, she stated that if she was at the beginning of therapy she would have chosen Rogers, but in her current position preferred Perls whom had dominated her in the interview, however later on her opinion changed.

.A year or so later Gloria contacted Carl Rogers and asked to attended the annual psychology convention hosted by the Western Behavioural Sciences institute, La Jolla ,California. Rogers agreed but warned Gloria that the publicity around the film may be unsettling for her, she attended anyway. As part of the event the film was screened to an audience, according to contemporary accounts at the end Gloria stood up in front of over 100 delegates angrily stating “ Why did I do all those things that he asked me to do! Why did I let him do that to me! ” referring to her session with Perls.

The next day Rogers describes meeting Gloria for lunch with his wife Helen, he goes on -

“The second aspect of the weekend which I wish to report is the luncheon she shared with me and my wife. I had wanted to learn how life was going for her and I invited her to take lunch with us. She and Helen formed a very quick contact (Helen's interest in people was like a magnet) and we had a lively and enjoyable luncheon. As we were about to leave, she said she had a question she wanted to ask. Would we object if, in her thinking, she regarded us as her parents in spirit? We both understood her to mean that she wished to see us as parents she would have liked to have had. We each replied that we would be pleased and honored to have that status in her life. Her warm feelings for us were reciprocated.” (Levant, Ronald F. and Shlien, John M.,)

So who was Gloria?, Gloria Szymanski was born in October 1933 to a polish family that had recently emigrated to America. In 1953 she Married Bill Burry a Korean war veteran , however the marriage did not last and in 1958 she found herself with daughter Pammy going West literally to build a new life in California .

After the film Gloria’s life took her in many directions, she married again in 1968 separating in 1978, the same year later she published an academic paper entitled’ Comments on the art of psychotherapy’ ,she trained and practised as a nurse, had in interest in eastern philosophies, and by all accounts lived a varied and full life, although not always happy.

Gloria died of leukaemia in September 1979 at home in Carmel California, she was 46 years old, her passing, as her life seemed to have a profound effect Carl Rogers , who later wrote :

“In the ensuing years she wrote me about many things in her life, but I do not feel free to reveal the content. I will only say that there were very good times, and there were tragic times, especially of family illness, and she showed sensitivity, wisdom, and courage in meeting the different aspects of her experience. I felt enriched by knowing the open way in which she met difficult issues. I was often touched by her letters. I believe that those who view (or read*) the interview will gain more from it by knowing a small part of my later interaction with Gloria. I am awed by the fact that this fifteen-year association grew out of the quality of the relationship we formed in one thirty-minute period in which we truly met as persons. It is good to know that even one half-hour can make a difference in a life.“ (Levant, Ronald F. and Shlien, John M.,)

Perhaps the legacy of what is now known as the ‘Gloria Film’,shows the therapies in historic context providing inspiration not a template or instruction book of how to practice.

Have you seen the film?
What are your thoughts, how did it influence your learning?

Please leave a comment  below 

Reference list Burrell Pamela J ., Living with the ‘Gloria Films’ . Ross on Wye PCCS Books .2008 Levant, Ronald F. and Shlien, John M., Client-Centered Therapy and the Person-Centered Approach: New Directions in Theory, Research, and Practice. New York, Praeger Publishers, 1984, pp. 423-425

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The revelations published in the Wall St Journal that Facebook in 2012 had manipulated information on the news feeds of 689,000 users home pages, in an attempt to make people feel more positive or negative through a process called ‘emotional contagion’ has set the psychological world talking – mainly about research ethics.

In an open letter to the Guardian Newspaper on the 1st of July 2014 Professor Kate Bullen (Chair,ethics committee),and Professor John Oates (Chair, research ethics reference group) British Psychological Society stated Facebook’s ‘experiment’  ;

‘Infringed the autonomy and dignity of individuals by interfering with the personal decision-making as to the posts that people wished to make to their chosen groups and, most importantly, by failing to gain valid informed consent from the participants……

..The intervention was socially irresponsible, in that it clandestinely meddled in people’s social lives with consequences that are very likely to have had significant negative effects on individuals and groups. ‘

The term ‘emotional contagion’ could be described as mass empathy, the tendency for humans to be able to identify with another’s suffering or happiness on a mass scale, for example someone sharing a picture of a cute puppy on Facebook which is shared 1000′s of times, those who use social media have all experienced this phenomenon to one degree or another.

Not to put to finer point on it, Facebook were trying to manipulate the emotions of 689,000 people, some may use the term ‘brain washing’.

The history of psychology is awash with unethical experiments, for example ;-

The story of Little Albert (1920)

John Watson the father of behaviourist psychology, wanted to test his theory that fear was a conditioned or an inbuilt response.

To do this he used a nine month old child called Albert, the child was given laboratory white rat to play with, at this point the child showed no fear of the animal.

Watson then stood behind Albert and every time the child picked up the Rat, he would hit a metal bar with a hammer, which startled the child.

Eventually the child associated the rat with fear and would cry every time the rat came near, the unfortunate after effects of this experiment soon became clear, Albert showed fear of anything that was white and fluffy, a reaction that Watson could not reverse.

Watson however, went on to leave psychology and join the advertising firm J Walter Thompson……

MKUltra (1953)

MK Ultra was the code came of the CIA’s mind control program during the 1950′s – 60′s, which recruited an army of psychologists to it’s research programs including our very own Carl Ransom Rogers.

Yes, uncle Carl worked on a project for the CIA code named sub-project 74 when he was a Wisconsin University, the research was carried out according to Colin A. Ross in his book The C.I.A. Doctors: Human Rights Violations by American Psychiatrists on ‘Schizophrenic patients and ‘Normals’!

Although little information is available on what actual research Carl Rogers undertook, we do know that MKUltra was a wide ranging research project concerning itself with behavioural control of humans amongst the many projects undertaken in this research , were experiments with the drug LSD , use of electro stimulation on the brain and Hypnosis.

One theme which connects all the above research to the Facebook debacle is the lack of informed consent amongst research participants and quite dubious reasons for undertaking research in the first place.

However one question still unanswered is why Facebook undertook the research in the first place , for whom and why ?

One possible clue might be the Cornell University connection, I found a press release on their website distancing themselves from the Facebook Research while confirming that;

: ‘Jeffrey Hancock and Jamie Guillory, a Cornell doctoral student at the time (now at University of California San Francisco) analyzed results from previously conducted research by Facebook into emotional contagion among its users. Professor Hancock and Dr. Guillory did not participate in data collection and did not have access to user data.

Their work was limited to initial discussions, analyzing the research results and working with colleagues from Facebook to prepare the peer-reviewed paper “Experimental Evidence of Massive-Scale Emotional Contagion through Social Networks,” published online June 2 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science-Social Science’

Incidentally Cornell is one of  many University’s contributing  to the America Military’s Minerva project who describe their activities as follows.

‘Seek to define and develop foundational knowledge about sources of present and future conflict with an eye toward better understanding of the political trajectories of key regions of the world’

In other words find out what we think and do …

If you are are a student interested in undertaking research as part of you course studies and look out for my new course guide ‘Rory’s Easy Research’ available as a paid download in  September 2014.

Click here to download Tim Bonds excellent guide on conducting ethical research

Why not comment on your research experiences ? we would love to hear your ideas ?

References

Not Credited. (2014). Facebook’s ‘experiment’ was socially irresponsible. Available: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/jul/01/facebook-socially-irresponsible. Last accessed 25th July 2014 .

Colin A. Ross (2006). The C.I.A. Doctors: Human Rights Violations by American Psychiatrists. Texas: Manitou Communications. 14. Public Relations department . (2014).

 Media statement on Cornell University’s role in Facebook ‘emotional contagion’ research. Available: http://mediarelations.cornell.edu/2014/06/30/media-statement-on-cornell-universitys-role-in-facebook-emotional-contagion-research/. Last accessed 25th of July 2014. Various . (2014). 

University-Led Research. Available: http://minerva.dtic.mil/funded.html. Last accessed 25th July 2014.

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Ask anyone who has studied counselling, what psychologist Carl Rogers is best known for, 9 times out of 10 the reply will be “ The Core Conditions”, which is interesting if we consider that Rogers never used the term.

What Rogers did promote was the ‘ Six Necessary and Sufficient Conditions’ of which three are, Empathy ,Congruence and Unconditional Positive Regard.

So why have these conditions become separated and popularised , while the other three conditions have become ‘lost’ or ‘hidden’ ?

The answer may lie in how counselling theory is taught, and popular misinterpretations of Rogers work, which has contributed to a dilution of the theory.

Also, when Rogers work was brought to the UK in the late 1970’s ,some practitioners, theorists and trainers ‘reinterpreted’ the model for a UK audience, hence the term ‘Core Conditions’ slipped in to the lexicon of language used in the British Person Centred movement.

So what are these lost conditions ?, Are they important ? Can we practice without fully understanding them?

Like with any theory, if we are not equipped with all the information, and an understanding of it’s importance, our understanding and application of it becomes compromised , perhaps arguably unethical.

So if Rogers did not use the term ‘Core Conditions’ what did he state was the formula for a therapeutic relationship to be of any benefit to clients ?

One reference can be found in the ‘Journal of Consulting Psychology’ 1957 ,in a paper written by Rogers entitled :

‘The Necessary and Sufficient Conditions of Therapeutic Personality Change‘

In it he described the Six Conditions as:

1. Two persons are in psychological contact.

2. The first, whom we shall term the client, is in a state of incongruence, being vulnerable or anxious.

3. The second person, whom we shall term the therapist, is congruent or integrated in the relationship.

4. The therapist experiences unconditional positive regard for the client.

5. The therapist experiences an empathic understanding of the client’s internal frame of reference and endeavours to communicate this experience to the client.

6. The communication to the client of the therapist’s empathic understanding and unconditional positive regard is to a minimal degree achieved.

He goes on to state :

“No other conditions are necessary. If these six conditions exist, and continue over a period of time, this is sufficient. The process of constructive personality change will follow. “

If we remove conditions 3, Congruence, 4, Unconditional positive regard, and 5 , Empathy.

Which could be described as the ‘Clients conditions,’ those that ensure the client is heard and valued in the therapeutic relationship.

We are left with three others which could be deemed as the therapists conditions, and most importantly, those which ask the therapist to assess if Person Centred Therapy would be useful or ethically applicable for a client.

Lets look at the ‘hidden’ or ‘lost, conditions to find out why ;

1. Two persons are in psychological contact.

Is your client able to understand what they are embarking on , can they give informed consent ?

Barriers to this could be severe mental health issues such as active psychosis , severe learning difficulties or attending under the influence of prescribed medication or mental incapacity due to the use of drugs or alcohol.

If psychological contact cannot be made , then there is an ethical issue around autonomy , the ability for the client to make an informed choice in contracting with the therapist.

2. The first, whom we shall term the client, is in a state of incongruence, being vulnerable or anxious.

Does the client have issues to deal with , can they identify what they would like to look at in therapy?

Sometimes clients, come to therapy for other reasons such as “making friends” or issues which therapy cannot help with such as debt or legal advice.

It could be that a client is not ready for change, blaming others for their misfortune or not taking responsibility for their actions, Rogers himself said the PCT was a growth model.

6. The communication to the client of the therapist’s empathic understanding and unconditional positive regard is to a minimal degree achieved.

This last condition boils down to trust, if for some reason the client does or will not trust you, then it is very unlikely that they will feel safe enough to discuss what is really on their worried mind.

This condition is perhaps the toughest one to work with as it asks two things , the first is to give enough time for the client to build that trust ,the second is to be congruent enough in the relationship to explore with the client if you feel they are reluctant to fully engage with you.

Finally, it is incumbent on us as therapists to have a functional understanding of the therapy we practice, if we don’t ,are we really offering the best possible service to our clients?

Reference

Carl Rogers. (1957).The Necessary and Sufficient Conditions of Therapeutic Personality Change .Available: http://www.shoreline.edu/dchris/psych236/Documents/Rogers.pdf. Last accessed 10th of May 2015.

The news of Natalie Rogers death, shocked and saddened the world of counselling and psychotherapy in equal measure.

Natalie Rogers was born in 1928 to Carl Rogers and Helen Elliot, and went on to become, like her father an influential voice in the world of counselling and psychotherapy.

In 1960 she enrolled Brandeis University’s graduate psychology program, training initially under mentorship of Abraham Maslow. In 1973 she completed her MA and started her first role as a psychologist at the University Counselling Centre in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Best known for her pioneering development of Person Centred expressive arts therapy, describe by her father Carl Rogers as “ploughing new ground”, Natalie Rogers was commemorated in 1998 with a Lifetime Achievement Award presented by the International Expressive Arts Therapy Association.

A prolific author, Natalie Rogers wrote extensively on feminist issues, written in 2006 ‘Seeing the soul of the “Other”: Bringing Israeli and Palestinian women together for a peaceful future’ is a first-hand account of the experience her work with women from a troubled area of the middle east, using dialogue and expressive arts to form a mutual understanding.

Natalie Rogers died peacefully in her home on Oct. 17, 2015 at 87 years of age.

Shame in psychotherapy is one of the most powerful emotions clients can experience, and perhaps the most contradictory and difficult to work with as a therapist.

One of the most powerful reflections on shame was quoted by AdamAppleton a writer of personal development books who had suffered an abusive childhood;

“Share whatever it is you're ashamed about. You may think you can hide your shame by not talking about it, but in reality, it's your shame that's hiding you”.

Many clients come to therapy feeling shame which has been ‘pre-programmed’ from other people such as lovers, parents, teachers or abusers.Shame is like an internal voice which criticises, judges and repeats what may have been said to you by others such as you are ugly , stupid , bad , or ‘if it wasn’t for you ’.

The reason shame can be hard to work with is that it is surrounded by a set of very able ‘bodyguards’ such as anger, fear, embarrassment, denial and love.

All of which provide a very effective mechanism to deny the client access to their real self and as importantly their ability to self heal.

Shame can take many forms, physically a person may not make eye contact with you, or avoid you gaze. blushing, being defensive, anger, denials as well as affecting the individual’s ability to think or see the world rationally are all the products of feeling this strong and self esteem corroding emotion.

Exaggeration or a desire to overly please can trace their roots back  to a shamed psyche, which impacts on our ability to form intimate relationships or know our self worth. 

As a therapist I have become a lot more aware of how shame can manifest itself in the therapy room,a few years ago I was working with a *client whose father had regularly hit her since she was a child, now a woman in her middle age she looked stunned when I reflected back to her that he had been abusive.

She said that she had been a ‘difficult child’ if she had behaved better this would not have happened before adding “how else do you discipline your children?” 

It took 10 more sessions before she reflected that her father’s abuse had a massive impact on her life, I reflected that she had used the ‘A’ word, for the first time and we both acknowledged that she was being herself, no longer the ‘shamed’ child thinking she deserved to be hit. 

The psychologist Carl Rogers, wrote a lot about the non judgmental attitude of the therapist and how it helped defeat ‘Conditions of worth and Introjected values’ others attitudes which we take on as our own and use to emotionally beat ourselves up.

Rogers who as a child was brought up on a farm and by all accounts was shamed on a regular basis , reflected in his later years that a therapist must provide “the  soil of a different kind ‘  which is experienced by the client as a non judgmental approach by the therapist .

In his elegant theory Rogers hypothesises that along with empathy and a genuine approach by the therapist, being non Judgmental, provides the emotional nutrition for the client to grow and flourish.

When this is experienced by the client, in my experience the ‘bodyguards of shame’ fade in to the shadows of the past, and shame itself slips out of the back door , leaving only the client and their newly acquired self worth behind.

It’s lovely to see……….but you have to dodge the bodyguards !

* Some details have been changed to protect the identitiy of the client 

// ]]>

The post Shame in Psychotherapy appeared first on Counselling Tutor.

Carl Rogers and Gloria

Carl Rogers and Gloria, there cannot be many counsellors or students of counselling that have not watched the film ‘Three approaches to Psychotherapy’ and wondered who Gloria was and what was the story behind the film?

‘Three approaches to psychotherapy’., filmed in 1964 was Everett Shostrom’s second attempt at filming the world of counselling and psychotherapy, the first, made 3 years earlier featured an actor ‘playing’ the role of the client , he considered her performance to be ‘inauthentic’, consequently the film never got a wider screening.

Three Approaches, showed a real client ‘Gloria being’ interviewed in turn by Carl Rogers, Albert Ellis and Fritz Perls ‘,the idea was to produce an academic firm used for the training of Psychotherapists, however it slipped out of academia and ended up being played in cinemas across America.

The story of how Gloria became involved in the project is as an intriguing as the film itself, In the book Living with ‘The Gloria Films’ ,written by Gloria’s daughter – Pamela J Burry, (referred to in the film as Pammy ),she states that both Gloria and herself were individually in therapy with Everett and Miram Shostrom, acquaintances of Fritz Perls.

The film itself was ground breaking, showing Gloria talking about having sexual relationships with men, and how she would explain this to her young daughter ‘Pammy’, the material by contemporary standards is fairly,tame, however in the historical context of 1960’s American society it was quite shocking, Gloria’s courage in talking openly and being filmed should not be underestimated.

Asked after filming which therapist she preferred, she stated that if she was at the beginning of therapy she would have chosen Rogers, but in her current position preferred Perls whom had dominated her in the interview, however later on her opinion changed.

.A year or so later Gloria contacted Carl Rogers and asked to attended the annual psychology convention hosted by the Western Behavioural Sciences institute, La Jolla ,California. Rogers agreed but warned Gloria that the publicity around the film may be unsettling for her, she attended anyway. As part of the event the film was screened to an audience, according to contemporary accounts at the end Gloria stood up in front of over 100 delegates angrily stating “ Why did I do all those things that he asked me to do! Why did I let him do that to me! ” referring to her session with Perls.

The next day Rogers describes meeting Gloria for lunch with his wife Helen, he goes on –

“The second aspect of the weekend which I wish to report is the luncheon she shared with me and my wife. I had wanted to learn how life was going for her and I invited her to take lunch with us. She and Helen formed a very quick contact (Helen’s interest in people was like a magnet) and we had a lively and enjoyable luncheon. As we were about to leave, she said she had a question she wanted to ask. Would we object if, in her thinking, she regarded us as her parents in spirit? We both understood her to mean that she wished to see us as parents she would have liked to have had. We each replied that we would be pleased and honored to have that status in her life. Her warm feelings for us were reciprocated.” (Levant, Ronald F. and Shlien, John M.,)

So who was Gloria?, Gloria Szymanski was born in October 1933 to a polish family that had recently emigrated to America. In 1953 she Married Bill Burry a Korean war veteran , however the marriage did not last and in 1958 she found herself with daughter Pammy going West literally to build a new life in California .

After the film Gloria’s life took her in many directions, she married again in 1968 separating in 1978, the same year later she published an academic paper entitled’ Comments on the art of psychotherapy’ ,she trained and practised as a nurse, had in interest in eastern philosophies, and by all accounts lived a varied and full life, although not always happy.

Gloria died of leukaemia in September 1979 at home in Carmel California, she was 46 years old, her passing, as her life seemed to have a profound effect Carl Rogers , who later wrote :

“In the ensuing years she wrote me about many things in her life, but I do not feel free to reveal the content. I will only say that there were very good times, and there were tragic times, especially of family illness, and she showed sensitivity, wisdom, and courage in meeting the different aspects of her experience. I felt enriched by knowing the open way in which she met difficult issues. I was often touched by her letters. I believe that those who view (or read*) the interview will gain more from it by knowing a small part of my later interaction with Gloria. I am awed by the fact that this fifteen-year association grew out of the quality of the relationship we formed in one thirty-minute period in which we truly met as persons. It is good to know that even one half-hour can make a difference in a life.“ (Levant, Ronald F. and Shlien, John M.,)

Perhaps the legacy of what is now known as the ‘Gloria Film’,shows the therapies in historic context providing inspiration not a template or instruction book of how to practice.

Have you seen the film?
What are your thoughts, how did it influence your learning?

Please leave a comment  below 

Reference list Burrell Pamela J ., Living with the ‘Gloria Films’ . Ross on Wye PCCS Books .2008 Levant, Ronald F. and Shlien, John M., Client-Centered Therapy and the Person-Centered Approach: New Directions in Theory, Research, and Practice. New York, Praeger Publishers, 1984, pp. 423-425

The post Carl Rogers and Gloria appeared first on Counselling Tutor.

The revelations published in the Wall St Journal that Facebook in 2012 had manipulated information on the news feeds of 689,000 users home pages, in an attempt to make people feel more positive or negative through a process called ’emotional contagion’ has set the psychological world talking – mainly about research ethics.

In an open letter to the Guardian Newspaper on the 1st of July 2014 Professor Kate Bullen (Chair,ethics committee),and Professor John Oates (Chair, research ethics reference group) British Psychological Society stated Facebook’s ‘experiment’  ;

‘Infringed the autonomy and dignity of individuals by interfering with the personal decision-making as to the posts that people wished to make to their chosen groups and, most importantly, by failing to gain valid informed consent from the participants……

..The intervention was socially irresponsible, in that it clandestinely meddled in people’s social lives with consequences that are very likely to have had significant negative effects on individuals and groups. ‘

The term ’emotional contagion’ could be described as mass empathy, the tendency for humans to be able to identify with another’s suffering or happiness on a mass scale, for example someone sharing a picture of a cute puppy on Facebook which is shared 1000’s of times, those who use social media have all experienced this phenomenon to one degree or another.

Not to put to finer point on it, Facebook were trying to manipulate the emotions of 689,000 people, some may use the term ‘brain washing’.

The history of psychology is awash with unethical experiments, for example ;-

The story of Little Albert (1920)

John Watson the father of behaviourist psychology, wanted to test his theory that fear was a conditioned or an inbuilt response.

To do this he used a nine month old child called Albert, the child was given laboratory white rat to play with, at this point the child showed no fear of the animal.

Watson then stood behind Albert and every time the child picked up the Rat, he would hit a metal bar with a hammer, which startled the child.

Eventually the child associated the rat with fear and would cry every time the rat came near, the unfortunate after effects of this experiment soon became clear, Albert showed fear of anything that was white and fluffy, a reaction that Watson could not reverse.

Watson however, went on to leave psychology and join the advertising firm J Walter Thompson……

MKUltra (1953)

MK Ultra was the code came of the CIA’s mind control program during the 1950’s – 60’s, which recruited an army of psychologists to it’s research programs including our very own Carl Ransom Rogers.

Yes, uncle Carl worked on a project for the CIA code named sub-project 74 when he was a Wisconsin University, the research was carried out according to Colin A. Ross in his book The C.I.A. Doctors: Human Rights Violations by American Psychiatrists on ‘Schizophrenic patients and ‘Normals’!

Although little information is available on what actual research Carl Rogers undertook, we do know that MKUltra was a wide ranging research project concerning itself with behavioural control of humans amongst the many projects undertaken in this research , were experiments with the drug LSD , use of electro stimulation on the brain and Hypnosis.

One theme which connects all the above research to the Facebook debacle is the lack of informed consent amongst research participants and quite dubious reasons for undertaking research in the first place.

However one question still unanswered is why Facebook undertook the research in the first place , for whom and why ?

One possible clue might be the Cornell University connection, I found a press release on their website distancing themselves from the Facebook Research while confirming that;

: ‘Jeffrey Hancock and Jamie Guillory, a Cornell doctoral student at the time (now at University of California San Francisco) analyzed results from previously conducted research by Facebook into emotional contagion among its users. Professor Hancock and Dr. Guillory did not participate in data collection and did not have access to user data.

Their work was limited to initial discussions, analyzing the research results and working with colleagues from Facebook to prepare the peer-reviewed paper “Experimental Evidence of Massive-Scale Emotional Contagion through Social Networks,” published online June 2 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science-Social Science’

Incidentally Cornell is one of  many University’s contributing  to the America Military’s Minerva project who describe their activities as follows.

‘Seek to define and develop foundational knowledge about sources of present and future conflict with an eye toward better understanding of the political trajectories of key regions of the world’

In other words find out what we think and do …

If you are are a student interested in undertaking research as part of you course studies and look out for my new course guide ‘Rory’s Easy Research’ available as a paid download in  September 2014.

Click here to download Tim Bonds excellent guide on conducting ethical research

Why not comment on your research experiences ? we would love to hear your ideas ?

References

Not Credited. (2014). Facebook’s ‘experiment’ was socially irresponsible. Available: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/jul/01/facebook-socially-irresponsible. Last accessed 25th July 2014 .

Colin A. Ross (2006). The C.I.A. Doctors: Human Rights Violations by American Psychiatrists. Texas: Manitou Communications. 14. Public Relations department . (2014).

 Media statement on Cornell University’s role in Facebook ‘emotional contagion’ research. Available: http://mediarelations.cornell.edu/2014/06/30/media-statement-on-cornell-universitys-role-in-facebook-emotional-contagion-research/. Last accessed 25th of July 2014. Various . (2014). 

University-Led Research. Available: http://minerva.dtic.mil/funded.html. Last accessed 25th July 2014.

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Ask anyone who has studied counselling, what psychologist Carl Rogers is best known for, 9 times out of 10 the reply will be “ The Core Conditions”, which is interesting if we consider that Rogers never used the term.

What Rogers did promote was the ‘ Six Necessary and Sufficient Conditions’ of which three are, Empathy ,Congruence and Unconditional Positive Regard.

So why have these conditions become separated and popularised , while the other three conditions have become ‘lost’ or ‘hidden’ ?

The answer may lie in how counselling theory is taught, and popular misinterpretations of Rogers work, which has contributed to a dilution of the theory.

Also, when Rogers work was brought to the UK in the late 1970’s ,some practitioners, theorists and trainers ‘reinterpreted’ the model for a UK audience, hence the term ‘Core Conditions’ slipped in to the lexicon of language used in the British Person Centred movement.

So what are these lost conditions ?, Are they important ? Can we practice without fully understanding them?

Like with any theory, if we are not equipped with all the information, and an understanding of it’s importance, our understanding and application of it becomes compromised , perhaps arguably unethical.

So if Rogers did not use the term ‘Core Conditions’ what did he state was the formula for a therapeutic relationship to be of any benefit to clients ?

One reference can be found in the ‘Journal of Consulting Psychology’ 1957 ,in a paper written by Rogers entitled :

‘The Necessary and Sufficient Conditions of Therapeutic Personality Change‘

In it he described the Six Conditions as:

1. Two persons are in psychological contact.

2. The first, whom we shall term the client, is in a state of incongruence, being vulnerable or anxious.

3. The second person, whom we shall term the therapist, is congruent or integrated in the relationship.

4. The therapist experiences unconditional positive regard for the client.

5. The therapist experiences an empathic understanding of the client’s internal frame of reference and endeavours to communicate this experience to the client.

6. The communication to the client of the therapist’s empathic understanding and unconditional positive regard is to a minimal degree achieved.

He goes on to state :

“No other conditions are necessary. If these six conditions exist, and continue over a period of time, this is sufficient. The process of constructive personality change will follow. “

If we remove conditions 3, Congruence, 4, Unconditional positive regard, and 5 , Empathy.

Which could be described as the ‘Clients conditions,’ those that ensure the client is heard and valued in the therapeutic relationship.

We are left with three others which could be deemed as the therapists conditions, and most importantly, those which ask the therapist to assess if Person Centred Therapy would be useful or ethically applicable for a client.

Lets look at the ‘hidden’ or ‘lost, conditions to find out why ;

1. Two persons are in psychological contact.

Is your client able to understand what they are embarking on , can they give informed consent ?

Barriers to this could be severe mental health issues such as active psychosis , severe learning difficulties or attending under the influence of prescribed medication or mental incapacity due to the use of drugs or alcohol.

If psychological contact cannot be made , then there is an ethical issue around autonomy , the ability for the client to make an informed choice in contracting with the therapist.

2. The first, whom we shall term the client, is in a state of incongruence, being vulnerable or anxious.

Does the client have issues to deal with , can they identify what they would like to look at in therapy?

Sometimes clients, come to therapy for other reasons such as “making friends” or issues which therapy cannot help with such as debt or legal advice.

It could be that a client is not ready for change, blaming others for their misfortune or not taking responsibility for their actions, Rogers himself said the PCT was a growth model.

6. The communication to the client of the therapist’s empathic understanding and unconditional positive regard is to a minimal degree achieved.

This last condition boils down to trust, if for some reason the client does or will not trust you, then it is very unlikely that they will feel safe enough to discuss what is really on their worried mind.

This condition is perhaps the toughest one to work with as it asks two things , the first is to give enough time for the client to build that trust ,the second is to be congruent enough in the relationship to explore with the client if you feel they are reluctant to fully engage with you.

Finally, it is incumbent on us as therapists to have a functional understanding of the therapy we practice, if we don’t ,are we really offering the best possible service to our clients?

Reference

Carl Rogers. (1957).The Necessary and Sufficient Conditions of Therapeutic Personality Change .Available: http://www.shoreline.edu/dchris/psych236/Documents/Rogers.pdf. Last accessed 10th of May 2015.

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The news of Natalie Rogers death, shocked and saddened the world of counselling and psychotherapy in equal measure.

Natalie Rogers was born in 1928 to Carl Rogers and Helen Elliot, and went on to become, like her father an influential voice in the world of counselling and psychotherapy.

In 1960 she enrolled Brandeis University’s graduate psychology program, training initially under mentorship of Abraham Maslow. In 1973 she completed her MA and started her first role as a psychologist at the University Counselling Centre in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Best known for her pioneering development of Person Centred expressive arts therapy, describe by her father Carl Rogers as “ploughing new ground”, Natalie Rogers was commemorated in 1998 with a Lifetime Achievement Award presented by the International Expressive Arts Therapy Association.

A prolific author, Natalie Rogers wrote extensively on feminist issues, written in 2006 ‘Seeing the soul of the “Other”: Bringing Israeli and Palestinian women together for a peaceful future’ is a first-hand account of the experience her work with women from a troubled area of the middle east, using dialogue and expressive arts to form a mutual understanding.

Natalie Rogers died peacefully in her home on Oct. 17, 2015 at 87 years of age.

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Self-Actualisation – Solving Ethical Problems – Seven Stages Of Process in Practice 2 – Difference between Counselling and Psychotherapy

In episode 12 of the Counselling Tutor Podcast, Rory Lees-Oakes and Ken Kelly look at Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Rory presents an approach to solving ethical problems, while Ken continues his application of Carl Rogers’ seven stages of process to counselling practice. Finally, ‘Ask Ken and Rory’ asks: what are the differences, if any, between counselling and psychotherapy?

Self-Actualisation

This is a growth model, based on the idea that we need the basics of existence in place before we can think about the next level. Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs has five levels, each possible to achieve only once the previous one is in place:

• physiological needs
• safety needs
• love and belonging needs
• esteem needs
• self-actualisation.

Self-actualisation represents a person being (in Rogers’ terminology) fully functioning and fluid. It is natural that people move between levels; for example, in a natural disaster, people who had self-actualised would again prioritise their physiological needs.

Solving Ethical Problems

Tim Bond is the main author of the new Ethical Framework for the Counselling Professions, produced by the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP). In the ‘Ethics’ section, paragraph 7 (p. 3) reads: ‘A decision or course of action does not necessarily become unethical merely because it is controversial or because other practitioners would have reached different conclusions in similar circumstances. A practitioner’s obligation is to consider all the relevant circumstances with as much care as possible and to be appropriately accountable for decisions made.’

Defensible decision-making is paramount for any practitioner, and being able to account for our decisions appropriately means following a systematic process. If you face an ethical dilemma, you should consult your supervisor, and could call your professional body (e.g. BACP). But it is vital too to have our own tool, for times when these options may be unavailable; Rory uses Bond’s six-step matrix:

1. Produce a short description of the problem or dilemma – Rory recommends writing this down by hand if possible.
2. Ask yourself: whose dilemma is it (the client’s, the counsellor’s or both)? If the problem is purely the client’s, then you may not need to proceed further.
3. Consider all available ethical principles and guidelines (your professional body’s framework, and your agency’s policies/procedures), as well as the law.
4. Identify all courses of action, even those that sound implausible.
5. Select the best course of action and test it against three ideas: universality (would others in the same position do the same thing?); publicity (would it stand up to public scrutiny?); and justice (is it doing the right thing?).
6. Evaluate the outcome (would you do the same thing again?).

This matrix encourages the counsellor to consider and respond to various aspects of the ethical dilemma, and so enables them to account appropriately for the decision. It can highlight issues that may lead the counsellor to make a different decision from that they originally expected. It can also help the counsellor to reflect on difficult decisions made, so providing learning for dealing with future ethical dilemmas.

Seven Stages of Process in Practice 2

Continuing from last week’s podcast, Ken looks at how people at stages 4 to 7 are likely to present to us in counselling:

• Stage 4: Like stage 3, this is a common stage to enter therapy, and the client is willing and is actively seeking involvement in the therapeutic relationship. However, the counsellor may find the client lacks trust in them; the counsellor also needs to take care not to collude with a client’s use of humour to distance themselves from the full impact of here-and-now feelings.
• Stage 5: This is a very productive stage in therapy, as the client can express present emotions and begin to rely on their own decision-making abilities. The counsellor is likely to see the client taking action in their life.
• Stage 6: Once at this stage, the client is unlikely to regress. They may choose not to continue with therapy, now being able to treat themselves with self-care and love.
• Stage 7: It is very unlikely that you will ever have a client at this stage in your therapy room; they are likely to find their own growth within their own lives, without counselling.

Difference between Counselling and Psychotherapy

Some therapists claim differences between these two terms, affecting views on relative pay rates and status – rather like the Two Ronnies’ sketch, ‘I know my place’! However, the BACP does not distinguish between them. Some modalities prefer one term over the other (e.g. person-centred therapy tends to call its practitioners ‘counsellors’, and transactional analysis ‘psychotherapists’).

Key to any therapy success, whatever the modality, is the client–practitioner relationship. It is good to have a pluralistic approach to therapy, as different approaches suit different clients and presenting issues. Rory refers to the dodo-bird verdict.

Links and Resources

Counselling Tutor Facebook group

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022 – Client Notes and Confidentiality – Actualising Tendency – Offering a Free First Meeting – Research in Practice

In episode 22 of the Counselling Tutor Podcast, Rory Lees-Oakes and Ken Kelly talk about client confidentiality and its many grey areas. ‘Theory with Rory’ looks at the actualising tendency, and ‘Person-Centred Business’ considers offering a free initial meeting in private practice. The presenters conclude the podcast by discussing the importance of research in practice.

Client Notes and Confidentiality

Counselling notes can be accessed by:

• the client themselves (under the Data Protection Act 1998)
• the coroner (if the client has died)
• the police (if the client gives you their written permission, or otherwise by court order)

It may be unclear exactly whether the term ‘notes’ refers simply to the clinical notes (where the factual themes are recorded briefly in writing) or also to the counsellor’s process notes (which by nature may include conjecture).

Counsellors working in the NHS should be aware that if a client dies, the executor of their will or a relative can request the health records to be released.

Podcast 11 looked in detail at note-taking. Particular issues to bear in mind in terms of client confidentiality – and so to cover in contracting – are:

• what the limits of confidentiality are
• who can access which notes
• for how long notes are retained
• agency policies on disclosure, and on sharing notes with other bodies where there is inter-agency working

The Actualising Tendency

The concept of the actualising tendency is commonly associated with Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers, but in fact it was first introduced by Kurt Goldstein, a German neurologist and psychiatrist, in 1934 in a book entitled The Organism. However, the idea did not gain traction until 1943, when Maslow’s paper ‘A Theory of Human Motivation’ was published in Psychological Review. This formed the basis of the model that would later become known as ‘Maslow’s hierarchy of needs’.

Many people assume that all humanistic psychologists think the same, but in fact there were differences between Goldstein’s, Maslow’s and Rogers’ views of the actualising tendency. Goldstein first put forward the concept as a theory of motivation, whereas Maslow related it to the human desire to be the best that you can be. Maslow also asserted that certain conditions needed to be fulfilled – that is, meeting physiological, safety, relationship and esteem needs ­– in order to self-actualise. Maslow believed that only 1% of people reach self-actualisation.

In 1959, Rogers outlined his own ideas on the actualising tendency in a book chapter, ‘A Theory of Therapy, Personality and Interpersonal Relationships’. While he shared Maslow’s values relating to the intrinsic goodness of human nature, and the innate capacity of individuals for personal growth, he disagreed that the actualising tendency was self-driven and automatic. Instead, Rogers argued that people need the right emotional environment in order to grow emotionally; in particular, we must receive empathy, genuineness and acceptance.

Rogers wrote about this too in his final book, A Way of Being, in 1980, seven years before his death. He illustrates this with the story of potato plants kept in unfavourable conditions, which nonetheless demonstrated a tendency to try their best to grow. Rory provides a quotation relating to this, available in the handout that you can get below. Just like potato plants, we humans have an innate drive to be the very best we can be, given the circumstances in which we find ourselves.

Offering a Free First Meeting

Following a potential client’s initial enquiry, counsellors in private practice may wish to offer an initial session free of charge. Ken discusses the benefits to both parties of doing this, and the issues that you need to bear in mind in order to act ethically and respectfully in this situation. Ken has found that over 90% of people who come for a free first meeting do continue to paid counselling.

Research in Practice

Rory likens research to a wedge of cheese, with the thick end being the substantial research that takes place in the higher-education environment, and the thin end representing the continuing professional development that we must all commit to doing. The Ethical Framework for the Counselling Professions (British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, 2016, p. 13) states: ‘We value research and systematic inquiry by practitioners as enhancing our professional knowledge and providing an evidence-base for practice in ways that benefit our clients.’ In the UK, all qualified counsellors have completed a research project as part of their training. It is vital that we research any unfamiliar issues relating to our clients, e.g. through reading and the internet.

Links and Resources

The Organism by Kurt Goldstein (first published in German in 1934, and now published as an English translation by MIT Press, 2000)

A Way of Being by Carl Rogers (Houghton Mifflin, 1980, with a new edition published in 1996)

Counselling Tutor Facebook group

Counselling Tutor website

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To Lead An Honorable Life

An invitation to Person Centred Counselling  

John M Shlien, a contemporary and former student of Carl Rogers. A former lecturer at Harvard University ,he remained one of the most influential voices in the world of  person-centered counselling until his death in 2002 .

Students who read this book will discover some of Shlien’s radical thinking . For example, a countertheory of transference in which he explained-

‘Transference’ is  a fiction , invented and maintained by therapists to protect themselves from their own behaviour ‘

John Shlien was also one of the few therapists to state his personal ideals . Described by him as a ‘Declaration of Principles;

• All theory is autobiographical.
• No theory is universal. If it claims to be, it exaggerates and has a totalitarian tendency, because the client is unique, has the right to fail as well as succeed and this is the main factor in success.
• In the history of ideas , everything is personal.
• The main human problem is: how to live an honorable life .
• My objectives are clarity and cleanliness.
• Do what you want . Call it what it is.
• Everyone knows everything.This is not a theory of knowledge , it is you, I, we, know every about ourselves . There may be defenses , denials ,l cover-ups secrets ,faults and overloads in memory , but we know …We are the ultimate source.

The last principle makes reference to a key idea in person-centered therapy . In other words, it is the client who knows what hurts .

What else will I learn ?

The chapter on Phenomenology and Personality offers a challenge to behavioural thinkers such as Skinner and Pavlov. By emphasising the importance of both free will and lived experience as a direction in personality formation.

Another chapter A Client-Centred Approach to Schizophrenia. Discusses that although Carl Rogers once believed that PCT was not a suitable therapy for psychosis. Shlien, argues  that the term Psychosis covers a wide spectrum of presentations some of which are treatable with PCT.

In conclusion, this collection of papers, research, and observations from John M Shlien , lovingly edited by Pete Sanders. Provides both an important historical record  and a refreshing insight in a widely practiced and still evolving therapy .

Suggested reference for the book .

Shlien, J M. et al (2003) To Lead An Honorable Life, Ross-on-Wye: PCCS Books.

Where can I get my copy?

To Lead An Honorable Life  published by PCCS Books and is available from their website.

Find out more about the Swivl Robot Here 

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025 – Introjected Values – Gerard Egan – Building a Website 2 – Gender in Counselling

In episode 25 of the Counselling Tutor Podcast, Rory Lees-Oakes and Ken Kelly discuss introjected values. ‘Theory with Rory’ looks at Gerard Egan’s model of counselling, and ‘Person-Centred Business’ suggests what pages and content you will need on your website. Finally, the presenters discuss gender in counselling.

Introjected Values

Ken and Rory discuss the difference between introjected values and conditions of worth, illustrating each with real-life examples. The concept of introjects comes from Carl Rogers’ person-centred theory; Rogers believed that introjects get in the way of people being their true (organismic) selves, causing them to adopt others’ values as their own truths. Challenging the introject of how women ‘should’ look (as implied by, say, magazine covers), Rory recommends The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf. A common condition of worth, meanwhile, is: ‘Big boys don’t cry.’

Gerard Egan

Currently Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Organisation Development at the Loyola University of Chicago, Gerard Egan wrote The Skilled Helper – one of the most widely read books on counselling and communication skills – in 1975.

Egan’s integrative model draws from the work of Carl Rogers and Robert Carkhuff (co-creator with Charles Truax of the Empathy Scale, available as a free download in Counselling Tutor Podcast episode 8). Egan developed a non-coercive way of helping people reach their own goals, based on three questions/stages:

1. What is going on (i.e. the current scenario)? This stage subdivides into the story, blind spots and leverage.
2. What do I want instead (i.e. the preferred scenario)? Here, the helper and client look at possibilities, the change agenda and commitment.
3. How might I get to what I want (i.e. action strategies)? The process concludes by examining possible strategies, identifying the best fit and making a plan.

Rory identifies the counselling skills that are needed at each stage. For example, in stage 1, the counsellor needs to use silence to listen to the story; reflection and paraphrasing to identify blind spots; and focusing to create leverage. Questioning is important at stage 2, which includes supporting clients to create objectives that are SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound.

Egan believed strongly that first impressions are lasting impressions, and so that establishing a sound therapeutic relationship from the start was vital to success. Key to ensuring that the client developed this trust in the counsellor was the concept of SOLER: sitting squarely, open posture, leaning forward and looking interested, eye contact, and relaxing.

Egan’s model is quite directive, and so in some ways fits better with cognitive behavioural therapy, transactional analysis and motivational interviewing (a technique used by health professionals) than with the person-centred approach. Nonetheless, there are many connections and common features with Rogers’ work. Rory asserts that much person-centred counselling training these days has integrative elements. Indeed, Egan’s model – though not as widely recognized as some other psychologists’ work – could be said to form the basis of much modern counselling.

Building a Website 2

Following on from last week’s podcast on whether to design your own website or commission a professional to do so, Ken explores the pages and content you need. You will be able to use much of the material already discussed in ‘Person-Centred Business’ – for example, the elevator pitch (in which you define your offer), explained in podcast 21, is ideal to use at the start of your home page. The home page is the ‘front door’ of your website: do include a recent photo of yourself, and try to put yourself in the shoes of visitors (who may be feeling very vulnerable).

In addition to the home page, Ken recommends including:

• an ‘About’ page – describing how your skills and experience enable you to help clients
• contact details – how they can get hold of you (including different methods, and considering issues of confidentiality)
• fee information – for transparency
• other useful information – on your style, philosophy, what counselling is, where it takes place, challenging the idea that those who come to counselling are weak etc.

Gender in Counselling

Traditionally, our culture thinks of gender as binary – i.e. you are either male or female. But there is a move towards seeing gender as based on phenomenology (subjective experience) rather than taxonomy (categorisation).

As a counsellor, it is important not to make assumptions about what gender means to a client, but to see this from the client’s own frame of reference. The ‘person of tomorrow’ (to use a phrase of Carl Rogers’) may be free to choose where they fit on the gender continuum, rather than having this prescribed for them.

Links and Resources

The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf (published by Vintage, 1991)

The Skilled Helper by Gerard Egan (first published in 1975; 10th revised edition published by Brooks/Cole in 2013)

Counselling Study Resource

Counselling Tutor Facebook group

Counselling Tutor website

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How to develop empathic understanding

Counselling-frame of reference

Counselling-frame of reference was first used by Carl Rogers, the founder of person-centred therapy, in 1959. He believed:-

“The state of empathy, or being empathic, is to perceive the internal frame of reference of another with accuracy and with the emotional components and meanings which pertain thereto as if one were the person” (Carl Rogers 1980 P140).

He felt that being understood is key for a person to feel secure enough to speak about their difficulties.

How do you enter a client’s frame of reference?

By listening carefully to what the client is saying and trying to see their perceptual world, as they see it. This can be achieved by doing the following things:-

• Be aware that everybody has a unique view of their world and how it impacts on them.
• Don’t impose your views or Judgments (this may shut the client down)
• Use questions only to clarify your understanding.
• Be patient, clients may need to build up trust before sharing intimate details of their life.
• Be genuine and real in the relationship. Don’t hide behind a professional facade.
• Be warm and accepting toward your client.

The danger of the counsellor’s frame of reference

A skilled counsellor will be carful to make sure that his or her own frame of reference is not introjected into the counselling relationship.
This requires a high level of self awareness on the part of the counsellor so as to be able to put their own opinions and feelings aside and be fully integrated in what the client is bringing.

What skills does the counsellor use?

Entering to a counselling-frame of reference requires you to use a mixture of skills at an appropriate time, for example:-

• The skill of attending is used at the beginning of the session, to enable clients to feel accepted.
• Silence is also important as it allows the client to share their story.
• Reflecting emotions and paraphrasing. Helps the client hear that you are understanding them.

What about the Core Conditions?

To enter a client’s frame of reference, a counsellor needs to possess and demonstrate the following personal qualities. sometimes referred to as the Core Conditions 

• Empathy, the ability not only hear but feel the clients emotions.
• Congruence, the client needs to see that you are a real person genuinely interested in them.
• Unconditional Positive Regard, the ability of the therapist to listen without judgement.

How is therapeutic change achieved?

Person-Centred Theory, believes that psychological disturbance is caused by conditions of worth and introjected values. For example, a client who has been told throughout their lives that they are stupid and worthless.

The counsellor acts as a ‘companion’ to the client. By entering their frame of reference and seeing the world as they do. The theory states that slowly the client starts to build self-acceptance and internal trusting, this is sometimes referred to as organismic valuing. 

The client’s self-defeating cycle is broken. Now free of others judgments they can trust their own instincts and live life on their own terms.

References

Rogers, C. A Way of Being, 1980 edn., New York: Houghton Mifflin .P140

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Phenomenology in Person Centred Counselling

The philosophy of individual experience.

Carl Rogers, the ‘founding father’ of humanistic counselling embraced Phenomenology person centred counselling when moving away from the pessimistic views of human nature put forward by Sigmund Freud. Who believed that the human condition was involved in a constant battle between the Id Ego and Super-ego. Rogers’ Person-Centred theory is based on what he described as The Phenomenal field. Hence perceptions of taste, sound and how we experience the world are as individual as ourselves.

 What is Phenomenology?

It is an approach in Philosophy which concentrates on the study of consciousness and how we experience the world, it focuses on:-

• Individual perception
• Conscious experience
• Developing meanings from our perceptions
• Frame of reference 

A brief description of phenomenological movement will make it clear why Rogers theory and practice has been linked in this way. Developed at the beginning of the 19th Century by German philosophers Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger. They believed that reality consisted of objects and events, which they called ‘phenomena’ which represent our conscious perception of reality.

How did it influence Rogers thinking?

Rogers based his theory of personality outlined in his 1951 book Client Centred Therapy on the earlier work of Snygg & Coombs 1949 book Individual Behaviour: A New frame of reference for psychology.

In 1951 Rogers acknowledged the connection between the Person-Centred approach and phenomenology stating, ‘his theory of personality and behaviour was ‘basically phenomenological in character’ (Rogers cited in Douglas, P190). Clearly demonstrating the Phenomenology Person Centred Counselling overlap.

Rogers further expanded on his phenomenological view of personality in his 1961 book On Becoming a Person. He clearly stated his theoretical ideas of personality in this observation;-

“Experience is, for me, the highest authority. The touchstone of validity is my own experience. No other person’s ideas, and none of my own ideas, are as authoritative as my experience. It is to experience that I must return again and again, to discover a closer approximation to truth as it is in the process of becoming in me. Neither the Bible nor the prophets — neither Freud nor research — neither the revelations of God nor man — can take precedence over my own direct experience. 

My experience is not authoritative because it is infallible. It is the basis of authority because it can always be checked in new primary ways. In this way its frequent error or fallibility is always open to correction.” (Rogers Cited in Kirschenbaum P 25)

As we can see from the quote above, Rogers clearly linked Phenomenology Person Centred Counselling together.

How phenomenology links to Person Centred theory

Rogers developed his psychological ideas which included  ‘The Internal Locus of evaluation’ and ‘Organismic valuing’. In 1953 he published his theory of personality known as the Nineteen Propositions.

The first of the 19 observations make a very clear link to phenomenology and its ideas of how we perceive the world;

1. All individuals (organisms) exist in a continually changing world of experience (phenomenal field) of which they are the center.

In other words, our own experience is our reality, in any given moment of time.

Why is an understanding of phenomenology important?

Because it informs how a person-centred therapist works with clients:-

• View of themselves and others
• Experience of feeling
• Moment by moment experiencing
• Edge of awareness material

It also worth remembering that Person Centred therapy relies on the counsellors ability to be empathic, congruent and non-judgmental, sometimes referred to as the ‘Core Conditions. When used effectively the client feels that someone else can experience how they feel and be validated by the experience. which is how Phenomenology Person Centred Counselling is experienced.

References

Douglas, B. Et al (2016) The Handbook of Counselling Psychology, Fourth edn., London: Sage.

Rogers, C. (1995) Client Centered Therapy , London: Constable & Robinson.

Cooper, M. Et al (2007) The Handbook of Person-Centred Psychotherapy and Counselling, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Kirschenbaum, H. Lands Henderson, V. (1989) The Carl Rogers Reader, New York: Haughton Mifflin.

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Recent Developments in Person-Centred Therapy:

Carl Rogers and Beyond 

Recent developments in person-centred therapy have been cited in a number of books, in particular The Tribes of the Person-Centred Nation. Written by well-known voices in the world of humanistic therapy such as Nick Baker and Mick Cooper, it explores how the work and thinking of Carl Rogers developed since his death in 1987.

Some of the newer developments highlighted in the book are:

• Margaret Warner –Fragile process 
• Dave Mearns and Mick Cooper-Working at relational depth 
• Mick Cooper and John Mcleod-Pluralistic person-centred therapy 

Why are students encouraged to look at recent developments in person-centred therapy?

In most healthcare systems, the term ‘evidence-based practice’ is used to describe therapeutic interventions, research indicates will be successful.

This provides:

• Reassurance to the public that the therapy has a chance of succeeding.
• Counselling students know they are being taught updated information.
• Clear evidence that research is an important element in developing psychological interventions in any modality of therapy.

It also gives a clear message that we must not dismiss new ideas or ways of working when evidence clearly points us in the direction of change or new approaches.

How did Carl Rogers view new developments in therapy?

He was very clear about developing research into all therapies including his own. He states:

“The first challenge I wish to mention is not particularly new but is definitely unmet. It is this: Does our profession dare to develop a new conception of science which is so necessary if we are to have a true psychological science? Or will we continue as a pseudoscience? ” (P358)

Below, Professor Mick Cooper discusses Existentially informed person-centered therapy, another new development based on the work of Carl Rogers.

References

Kirschenbaum, H. Lands Henderson, V (1989) The Carl Rogers Reader, New York: Haughton Mifflin.

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