How Can the Person-Centred Model Enable You to Establish Rapport and to Gain an Understanding of the Client’s ‘here and Now’; and the Psychodynamic and Analytical Models Help You to Gain Understanding of a Client’s Past and Future?

How can the Person-Centred model enable you to establish rapport and to gain an understanding of the client’s ‘here and now’; and the Psychodynamic and Analytical models help you to gain understanding of a client’s past and future?

This essay will attempt to; explore and evaluate the Person-Centred model with focus on the model’s view of human personality, look at using this approach in the beginning stages of therapy with a client and study the use of the model in establishing client-therapist rapport. Application and experience of the core conditions in attempts to build a relationship with the client will be considered as well as an overview of implementing the Person-Centred model in the process of gaining understanding of the client’s ‘here and now’. A delve into the Psychodynamic and Analytical models will firstly, investigate their conception of personality before then exploring the contribution of these models in enabling the therapist to work with a client’s past and future. By looking at the Person Centred and Psychodynamic and Analytical models, it is hoped that further understanding and learning about both the client and therapists journey through the therapeutic process will be achieved.

“Person Centred therapy is based on the assumption that human personality is positive,” (Reeves, 2012, p69) and “human goodness and a pro-social character are a given” (Rogers, 1951, Maslow, 1949). Furthermore, the Person-Centred approach assumes that all people hold within them, an internal drive towards personal growth and fulfilment of the potential of their most positive and complete self-concept (Maslow, 1949, Rogers, 1959 & 1951, Reeves, 2012). This “motivational concept” of an internal “life force” (Mearns, Thorne & McLeod, 2013, p 15) forms the very essence of personality from a Person-Centred/Rogerian perspective and is at the core of Person Centred practice when working with clients.

As the name suggests, the Person-Centred model places the person or the client at the centre of the therapeutic process and as such it is the client who holds the answers, the client who will direct the therapy and the client who holds the wisdom and knowledge needed to reach the goal or achieve the potential to self-actualise (Reeves, 2012, Mearns et al, 2013, Maslow, 1949). In other words, the Person-Centred model begins with the view that the client is the expert in themselves (Rogers, 1959, Reeves, 2012, Mearns, Thorne & McLeod, 2013). In the development of the Person-Centred approach, Carl Rogers explored the importance of the feelings and emotions being displayed by the client and emphasised the importance of the therapist picking up on these and acknowledging and accepting anything that may be presented by the client (Zimring & Raskin, 1992, as cited in Reeves 2012). Further development of the model saw Rogers identify the conditions that would be most likely to elicit change in the client (the core conditions) and the importance of the relationship between client and therapist that would hopefully be achieved through provision of these conditions (Rogers, 1959, 1951).

The theory underpinning the Person-Centred model- that all human beings hold an actualising tendency (Rogers, 1951, 1959) provides a starting point for the therapist. The therapist role would initially be to facilitate the client’s journey towards exploration and increased understanding of the self-concept, peeling away the possibly imposed ‘conditions of worth’ (Rogers, 1951. 1959) that may contribute towards a blind spot, a clouding of a client’s self-awareness, an inability to display their ‘true’ or ‘orgasmic self’ or an otherwise unknown part of the self (Rogers, 1951, 1959, Luft, 1969-Johari Window). This immediately raises some potential vulnerability for the client- a stepping out of what is known or perhaps what has been understood by the client for a long time suddenly becoming less rigid. Although this could be experienced as potentially ‘freeing’ there is likely to be a need for safety, for security if the client is to be able to explore the possibilities of achieving that goal that may not have even been present in consciousness until this point. Facilitating an environment in which the client’s familiar conditions of worth perhaps stop creating a sense of chaos, a lack of self-belief or any other emotional responses experienced by the client, requires containment and a sense of safety. It is here that the role of the therapist as a companion in the client’s therapeutic journey can begin. This concept of safety is introduced from the outset when utilising the Person-Centred approach via the application of the first of the core conditions- that is, unconditional positive regard (Rogers, 1959, 1951). A therapist consistently presenting with an attitude of unconditional positive regard in response to the client, valuing the client and viewing the client as a person of worth (even when the client does not view themselves in this way) can be immediately powerful in relationship building and development of rapport This could be especially evident when the unconditional positive regard creates dissonance for the client in relation to the ‘conditions of worth’ they may have adjusted their own self- concept to suit. The opportunity to begin to experience something different with the therapist may well be the first step in the client feeling able to (perhaps more openly) explore with the therapist the client’s ‘here and now’ with a view to both client and therapist gaining understanding of the starting point of their therapeutic journey and indeed relationship.

However, demonstrating this to the client may be challenging- the ‘attitude’ conveyed via unconditional positive regard needs to be both explicit and implicit in the therapist’s approach. The client must experience this via the words and actions, manner and body language of the therapist. A challenging aspect of unconditional positive regard is when a client says or does something that impacts on the therapist. Therapists need to maintain a full and present awareness of themselves and their own feelings and responses as well as those of their client. It is perhaps important to remember a therapist can be accepting of a client as a person whilst not liking some of the things they say or do.

Roger’s ‘core conditions’ (1951, 1959) also include Empathy and through empathic responses from the therapist in response to the client’s experiences, the client is further able to experience a sense of safety in their personal exploration and expression, indeed, the experience of empathic responses may be new to the client and as such hold reparative value. This process of being ‘with’ the client (Reeves, 2012) can be viewed as a positive foundation upon which client-therapist rapport and relationships can be built.