Advanced Therapy Partnership
What is Counselling
It is a process
designed to help the client resolve conscious conflicts with the focus on
setting goals and problem solving. A wide variety of techniques may be used,
mostly verbal communication. Counsellors assist the client to focus on
constructive behaviours which will help the client reach specific goals. A
counsellor's training background may be from a variety of fields, including
education, health care, and psychology.
The approach to counselling we use at the
Advanced Therapy Practice is based on a model developed by the world
famous American Counsellor, Carl Rogers.
He originally called his method
non-directive, because he felt that the therapist should not lead the
client, but rather be there for the client while the client directs the progress
of the therapy. As he became more experienced, he realized that, as
"non-directive" as he was, he still influenced his client by his very "non-directiveness!"
In other words, clients look to therapists for guidance, and will find it even
when the therapist is trying not to guide.
So he changed the name to
client-centered counselling. He still felt that the client was the one who
should say what is wrong, find ways of improving, and determine the conclusion
of therapy -- his therapy was still very "client-centered" even while he
acknowledged the impact of the therapist
Nowadays, though the terms
non-directive and client-centered are still used, most people just call it
Rogerian therapy. One of the phrases that Rogers used to describe his
therapy is "supportive, not reconstructive," and he uses the analogy of learning
to ride a bicycle to explain: When you help a child to learn to ride a bike,
you can't just tell them how. They have to try it for themselves. And you
can't hold them up the whole time either. There comes a point when you have to
let them go. If they fall, they fall, but if you hang on, they never learn.
It's the same in therapy. If
independence (autonomy, freedom with responsibility) is what you are helping a
client to achieve, then they will not achieve it if they remain dependent on
you, the therapist. They need to try their insights on their own, in real life
beyond the therapist's office! An authoritarian approach to therapy may seem to
work marvellously at first, but ultimately it only creates a dependent person.

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