Rogers_Core_Conditions

Using your learning journal as an aid Describe Rogers Core Conditions: Evaluate Rogers' use of the core conditions as demonstrated in the 'Gloria' video. This essay is based on Carl Rogers’s non directive the client centred theory of counselling which is based on his three core conditions. I am going to discuss, explain and compare Rogers’s theory with video shown in class about woman called Gloria who is newly divorced and facing problems related to her sex life and her relationship to her daughter. In order to evaluate Rogers’s session with Gloria, it is essential to understand Rogers three core conditions, which will help us explore and expand on the idea of person centred therapy. I intend to draw on all three core conditions Congruence, empathy and Unconditional positive regard and how effectively Rogers used them during his counselling session with Gloria. Rogers is a leader in the field of the client centred or person centred therapy and counselling (Class notes, Carl Rogers 1902 -1987), where the client is not given any suggestion or guidance. According to Rogers individuals are sensible and wise enough to make their own choices. This approach is related to the Rogers’s three core conditions. The purpose and idea behind Rogers’s core conditions is not to treat the client as an object and oppose the “robotic concept of humans” (Class notes, Carl Rogers 1902 -1987). According to Rogers the client should be treated as an individual and be free to lead his or her own therapy to develop understanding of the problem which Rogers called “therapeutic movement” (Thorne, 2003: 10) which can bring “constructive change” (Class notes, The Core Conditions) in the client. His theory supports that all people have both good and bad personality traits, behaviours, and concepts which can be altered since every human being goes through “natural growth process and healing from within” Reilly and Jacobus (2008) by providing empathetic manners, effective use of language and listening, congruence or genuiness and unconditional positive regard without being judgmental. Congruence is Rogers first core condition, which means genuineness and realness of people which indicates, in order to be transparent ones inner feelings, emotions and reactions have to match his or her behaviour, manners and actions (PD LOG), which encourages the client to open up and help achieve the objective of counselling. Being congruent is a very important but difficult and slow process condition because it is “The ability of the counsellor to present as a ‘real’ person who is willing to be known to the client and not as a ‘professional’ performing a role” (Class notes, The Core Conditions). In reaction to Gloria’s conversation style Rogers efficiently presents his congruence by using and merging the similar words and non expert language in his reply also by showing his involvement which was evident how effectively he developed his understanding with Gloria in a short period of time. Rogers also softens his way of explaining and avoids giving risky comments at various places during the video such as “I sure wish I could give you the answer (esherborne3, 2008. Part 2: 2.45), I guess (esherborne3, 2008. Part 3: 2.15), what concerns me (esherborne3, 2008. Part 3: 3.23), I’ll be glad to know whatever concerns you (esherborne3, 2008. Part 2: 0.45)”. Rogers’s second important core condition is empathy, Empathy is the ability to understand people’s thoughts, emotions and circumstances and also respect their opinion and relate to them without judging them (PD LOG). “Empathy involves listening to clients, understanding them and communicating this understanding to them so that they might understand themselves more fully and act on their understanding (Class notes, Egan (1994), Defining Empathy). Empathy is not a habitual or routine process as it requires course of interaction with client. To develop empathetic behaviour and understanding with the client requires communication. It is important for the therapist to sense, understand and express in the manner that he or she feels heard and understood (Class notes, Defining Empathy). Empathetic behaviour and understanding is based on empathic Listening. “Encourager and Reflective listening” are two very important parts of the Empathic Listening. Encourager are "continuers they can be they can be verbal, non verbal or a mixture” (Class notes, Defining Empathy) which helps the therapist to communicate with the client in better way. A non verbal encourager includes body language, facial expressions, making sounds (Class notes, Defining Empathy). A verbal encourager includes asks for more information, gives direction to keep conversation on track etc. Reflective listening or repetition allows the client to recognise that the therapist heard and understood what the client has said, but also helps counsellor to make sure that what he heard is correct (Class notes, Defining Empathy). Gloria repeatedly mentions that she is confused, facing conflict with in herself, she feels guilty and wants encouragement i.e. “I want reassurance” (esherborne3, 2008. Part 4: 0.40) and “I want you to help me get rid of my guilt feelings” (esherborne3, 2008. Part 2: 5.28) for that reason she constantly asks for help and guidance She requests him to answer many direct questions “I know you can't give me a direct answer but...” (esherborne3, 2008. Part 3: 1.28) which could be difficult and tricky for any counsellor being reactive to the client’s desire to make suggestions. Rogers politely and thoughtfully dealt with that through out the session i.e. “And I guess . . . this is the kind of very private thing that I couldn't possibly answer for you (esherborne3, 2008. Part 2: 5.45). He frequently used verbal and non verbal encourager and reflective listening techniques to avoid direct answers or comments by asking for more information, making sounds like Mm, hm nodding his head, smiling, repeating, paraphrasing etc which effectively shows his empathetic behaviour which also draws attention to his genuineness (Class notes, The Core Conditions). Rogers several times speaks on Gloria’s behalf or can be seen as reading her thoughts, which could have made her realise that he is listening and understanding her view point which can be perceived as empathy and congruence for example, Gloria said “I feel big hurt down there…. I feel cheated” in reply Rogers said “not easier to be little flip because then you feel big lump inside” (esherborne3, 2008. Part 5: 0.18, 0.26) Unconditional positive regard is defined “as being a deep, respectful and genuine unconditional caring or ‘prizing’ of clients - ‘unconditional’ in the sense that the caring is not contaminated by evaluation or judgement of the client’s feelings, thoughts and behaviour as good or bad” ( Class handout, The Core Conditions). It also requires the counsellor to show a variety of qualities to the client including positive and non possessive care, full acceptance, respect, equality. The therapist should slowly create an environment where the client should not feel anxious or afraid to explore or discuss the conditions and circumstances he or she is in. Unconditional positive regard is directly linked with the non directive approach of Rogers’s theory which proposes that the counsellor should accept, respect and support every form of communication among them regardless of client’s religion, ethnic back ground and cultural differences (Class notes & lecture). During Rogers’s session with Gloria he used this core condition effectively several times for example Rogers’s refusal to answer Gloria’s questions displayed his unconditional positive regard for Gloria by believing in her that she will recognise her capacity to come to her own decision. But in some places Rogers’s language and responses possibly left Gloria feeling criticized which can be categorised as confrontational remarks for example “Perhaps the person you are not being fully honest with is you” (esherborne3, 2008. Part 3: 2.12) which is opposite to Rogers’s theory of unconditional positive regard but it shows his genuineness. Even though this video is a good example to demonstrate or represent core conditions, it could be seen as a deceptive or ambiguous example because the session was set in an artificial environment, Gloria was familiar and aware of counselling procedure. Self awareness is a process which is an important factor for ‘therapeutic movement’ because a person needs to be aware of his or her problems, guilt, shame and fault including negative and positive aspects of their personality. Self awareness can help identify and solve difficulties someone might be facing (PD Log). Rogers hoped ‘therapeutic movement’ (Thorne, 2003: 10) occurred towards the end of the session, in a way that Gloria’s inner feelings came out as she speaks about her relationship with her father where she mentions “I missed that my father couldn’t talk to me like you are” (esherborne3, 2008. Part 4: 7.50) which shows that she is missing her father’s support and perceived Rogers as a father figure “underneath feel like real close to substitute father” (esherborne3, 2008. Part 4: 1.10). Rogers also shows his congruence and unconditional positive regard by spontaneously saying “you look to me like pretty nice daughter” (esherborne3, 2008. Part 4: 08.09) also when he mentioned to her “I am feeling that I feel close to you this moment” (esherborne3, 2008. Part 5: 1.37). She also goes through self realization of what she actually wants which was apparent from when she said “I wish you could say to me, to be honest and take the risk” (esherborne3, 2008. Part 3: 5.15). Even though Gloria seems more comfortable speaking her heart out and desperately wants his approval or advise “I want you to approve of me” (esherborne3, 2008. Part 4: 7.50), but due to Rogers’s approachable yet nondirective manner she looked frustrated at the end of session which could be due to excessive repetition or her questions not being answered how she wants. Unconditional positive regard is unrealistic and hardly exists. Putting big differences like beliefs, religion ethnicity and culture aside very close relations can also fail to accomplish unconditional aspect of positive regard for example the role of a parent for their child (Class Discussion). Rogers's core conditions are compulsory in theory but barely achievable in practice, the chances of manipulating the situation are likely because it is hard to judge whether some one is actually congruent, empathetic and showing unconditional positive regard or not. References Class discussion. Class notes, Carl Rogers 1902 -1987. Class notes, Defining Empathy. Class notes, The Core Conditions. Class notes & lecture. esherborne3 (2008) ‘CARL ROGERS AND GLORIA COUNSELLING PT 1’. http://www.youtube.com/watch'v=ZBkUqcqRChg&list=WL7EBBE62D974CA083&index=143&feature=plpp_video [accessed 21-11-2011]. esherborne3 (2008) ‘CARL ROGERS AND GLORIA COUNSELLING PT 2’. http://www.youtube.com/watch'v=m30jsZx_Ngs&feature=BFa&list=WL7EBBE62D974CA083&lf=plpp_video [accessed 21-11-2011]. esherborne3 (2008) ‘CARL ROGERS AND GLORIA COUNSELLING PT 3’. http://www.youtube.com/watch'v=RX_Y3zUPzEo&feature=BFa&list=WL7EBBE62D974CA083&lf=plpp_video [accessed 21-11-2011]. esherborne3 (2008) ‘CARL ROGERS AND GLORIA COUNSELLING PT 4’. http://www.youtube.com/watch'v=zHxl5NtcDow&feature=BFa&list=WL7EBBE62D974CA083&lf=plpp_video [accessed 21-11-2011]. esherborne3 (2008) ‘CARL ROGERS AND GLORIA COUNSELLING PT 5’. http://www.youtube.com/watch'v=L19nXMvbS8E&feature=BFa&list=WL7EBBE62D974CA083&lf=plpp_video [accessed 21-11-2011]. Reilly, J. & Jacobus, V. (2008) Journal of Humanistic Psychology. 48 (32) pp. 33. http://jhp.sagepub.com/content/48/1/32 [accessed 20-11-2011]. Rogers, C. (1951) Client Centered Therapy. London: Constable and Company Ltd. Rogers, C. (1961) On Becoming a Person. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company. Thorne, B. (2003) Carl Rogers. London: SAGE Publications Ltd.