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?

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Challenges here can be highlighted by the concept of phenomenology in that the client and therapist may have different perspectives or ‘frames of reference’ (Casemore, 2011). However, in being ‘with’ the client where the ‘here and now’ is more fully understood, the therapist must attempt to “stay in the frame of reference of the client” (Reeves, 2012 p 69) when engaged in an empathic process. This leads into the third ‘core condition’ (Rogers, 1951, 1959)- Congruence. Congruence could also be described as honest or real or true- although the therapist may well attempt to be in the client’s frame of reference, they must be mindful to avoid becoming overwhelmed by the client’s experience. The thoughts, feelings and experiences of the therapist will also come into play and ultimately, the therapist will also experience the relationship ultimately from their own frame of reference- whilst attempting to perceive circumstances from their client’s point of view. This difficult set of demands further highlights the complexity of the therapist role when working within a Person-Centred approach.

The relationship between the client and therapist is the fundamental to the effectiveness of the Person-Centred model and in being part of this relationship, the therapist is required to implement the third core condition- Congruence. The therapist being real, true, authentic or genuine supports research highlighting the experienced value for the client to be in a ‘real’ relationship (Clarkson, 2003). It is within such a real relationship that the environment required to explore the client’s ‘here and now’ can be created. However, attempts to immediately implement rather than ‘earn’ congruence could result in over self-disclosure by an enthusiastic therapist. As such, the therapist needs to be appropriate and relevant- getting the balance right- noticing and being aware of self, feelings and thoughts that come in during interactions within the client-therapist relationship. Congruence is difficult- it takes time to earn this from the client and it will likely take time for the client to demonstrate it in return. The therapist must model this sensitively whilst noticing both personal and client responses.

Moving towards the ‘mid-game’ and ‘end-game’ of the therapeutic process firstly involves exploration of the client’s past and its connection to their presenting issue as well as consideration with the client about their future and ultimately- where they want to be. Psychodynamic and Analytical theory, models and approaches will be at the forefront of this stage of therapy due to the significance they place on the past and emphasis they place on unconscious drives (Reeves, 2012). The origins of Psychodynamic models sit with Freud’s (1856-1939) psychoanalytic approach which, despite some criticism, has formed a basis from which many developments in therapy have since been created-(Reeves, 2012) (Jung, 1875-1961- analytical psychology, Klein 1882-1960- object relations).

Psychodynamic theories of personality include; Freud’s assertion that the psyche is made up of the often conflicted ‘pleasure’ ID, ‘reality’ Ego and ‘perfection’ Super-ego, driven by the instincts towards death, life and sex (Reeves, 2012), however, with only the “tip of the ice-berg” being in our conscious (Freud, Reddick & Edmundson 2003), a person may not be aware of interaction between the ID, Ego and Super-Ego. Psychodynamic theory tells us that unconscious drives lead to behaviour which can then result in problems for the client- perhaps in the form of ego defence mechanisms (Jacobs, 2010, Reeves, 2012). These problems and defence mechanisms may inhibit the client from being able to both look to or imagine any future goals- that is, restrict ability to think beyond the issue, problem or behaviour and see where they want to be. Therefore, the therapist role here would be to support the client in linking the past and the present and (to quote a Freudian term) ‘make the unconscious- conscious’ (Freud et al, 2003, Freud, 2013). If adult behaviour is determined and indeed, adult personality is directly formed during our early childhood experiences, or (according to Freud) during our ‘psychosexual stages of development’ (Howard, 2009, Freud et al, 2003, Freud, 2013, Mearns et al, 2013) then this highlights the impact and power the past can hold and the potential for “conflict resolution” (Reeves, 2012 p61) via increased client awareness. Understanding the past and its impact on the present can enable a client to remove the cloudiness or walls that may stop them from visualising their future.

2.1: Evaluate the strengths and limitations of Analytical Psychology:

Analytical Psychology (Jung, 1875-1961) provided an alternative to Freud’s psychoanalytical theory and methods and focused on understanding different types of personality (extrovert/introvert) in conjunction with the tendencies of sensation, thinking, feeling and intuition. Identification of a client’s personality type and tendencies would be of great benefit to the therapist in gaining understanding and in turn supporting the client in increasing self-awareness of the issue as well as visualising beyond conflict resolution. This is likely to be beneficial in working towards ‘Individuation’- “a becoming and being of one’s unique self” (Sedgwick, 2001 p10), that is, an integration of the individual self- including the elements of the psyche identified by Jung- like Freud’s but with the introduction of the ‘collective unconscious’ and ‘archetypes’ that feature across this collective (Reeves, 2012, Jacobs, 2012, Fordham, 1991). Interestingly, the ‘integration’ element of Jung’s work holds echoes of the Person -Centred Model (Rogers, 1959) and actualising tendency in that reaching a point of awareness of the inner self or indeed, bringing the unconscious into consciousness is a shared goal across schools of thought. This suggests a potential ease of transition for therapists during the therapeutic journey in moving between approaches/models as required in supporting the client. However, it should be noted that Analytical Psychology does not focus on relationships in the same way as a Rogerian approach, instead the focus is on the “process of growth and development seen as taking place within” (Storr, 1975 p 10). A limitation of Analytical Psychology is the difficulty in testing it empirically however there is a spiritual/religious, even ‘other worldly’ thread to Jung’s approach- which is one factor that sets it apart from other models. Another strength of Analytical Psychology is that the process involved in this type of therapy looks both to the past and to the future- beyond the point of individuation for