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Person Centered Therapy

In: Philosophy and Psychology

Submitted By ton4son
Words 1108
Pages 5
Counseling Theory
October 12, 2013

Therapist like Bohart and Watson who runs individual therapies such as, person centered therapy; can greatly assume that clients strive to develop a greater degree of independence and integration for individuals in their surroundings and the people in their lives (Corey, 2013). Clients prepare to be open to the experience of counseling, to trust in them, to evaluate themselves internally, and to pursue willingness towards continued growth. Fear of any of these areas requires addressing prior to moving forward with current issues, as these will impede client growth. According to the text, clients will experience therapy differently depending on perceptions of both the past and the possibilities of future events (Corey, 2013). Exploring a wider range of beliefs and feelings aids clients during this process, helping clients to better appreciate who they are and what they are capable of accomplishing. When clients come to counselors that they just want to talk, so they can sort out things and listen to themselves on what they are saying are on of the problems that they would have to the therapist. As a future counselor I believe that setting a topic therapy for the client is a way that can help the client to talk about how they are feeling. For instance I work at Carrier Clinic as a Mental Health Technician and right now I'm a shadowing group with the clients. And eventually as I will run group by my self one of my topics would be, for the client to pick a seashell that is in a basket. And when they pick the sea shell, I would then tell them, that while they are choosing a shell, I want they to choose a shell that describe on how they are feeling right now. As I was walking in the beach, I discovered one of them most beautiful shells I have ever seen in my life, so I collected a great amount of it. By observing each shell, I saw how each shell was different, on how it looked, how big it was, all of the different colors, the shapes and the size. Each shell was born a different way and has a different look, the only similarity that is has, is its all shells. Which goes for the patients in general, we are all human being, yet we are born different, we were raised differently and we have different stories to tell on how we feel. So having the patients choose a shell on how they feel that day is something that I know patients will appreciate. It’s something that them and the shell can relate, whether they have a swirly shell that can define on how their head is spinning or confused and more.
With that being my contribution, it will work well with clients who come from different cultures in therapy setting. The reason why that is, because during my work groups therapy sessions that I have shadowed, there was a Jewish man who was talking about his feeling on how his mother was a screamer and that now he married a woman who is also a screamer, than he talked about they way his life is as a Jew, on how hard it is and how strict his family is. All of the other patients came from all religious backgrounds, like Catholics, atheist, Baptist and etc. Yet while all of the other patients besides the Jewish patients listening to his story, they all learned about how a Jewish man lives. Nowadays people think of Jews that they are mean, strict and happy, which they are, yet the patients saw something different, they saw and was taking in what it is like as a Jewish man. The patients in the end of the group learned about each other’s cultures which in fact, all of the patients saw everyone else differently when they left the session, than when they walked in the person- centered therapy session. One thing that I cherish about person centered therapy, is that it gives the client a mind to think and talk about their issue so that they can find and realize who they are so they can solve their concern that can be resolved. I am now taking 601 orientations at the college of Saint Elizabeth; just the other day the professor assigned us to get into groups and to pick a therapy session that we find most interesting. I choose to do the person center therapy, when using the theory towards the student I was working with. I enjoyed the student expressing everything that he/she went through that day, yet I than realized that I the therapist couldn’t say much to the client because the client is suppose to interfere with themselves in their life, not me. When they client kept talking, there was so much I wanted to say, to help, to talk about and to relate, yet again in this theory unlike other therapies the client is responsible for improving his or her life, not the therapist. This is a deliberate change from both psychoanalysis and behavioral therapies where the patient is diagnosed and treated by a doctor. Instead, the client consciously and rationally decides for themselves what is wrong and what should be done about it. The therapist is more of a friend or counselor who listens and encourages on an equal level. With prying to the client during the person centered therapy session, is one of the aspects I dislike about it.
Personally, using objects like (shell) that can describe on how I feel, in person centered therapy relates in my daily life, because it than tells me on what shell exactly is relevant that day. The shell is also significant in person centered theory because, when the client is telling the counselor on how the shell describes them during that day, it implies that the client is working and realizing themselves because they are aware of how they feel from the shell, they have expressed to the counselor. For instance if I am feeling tough, I would than have shell that is thorny and rough. Or if I have soft heart towards someone, I would than pick a smooth shell that represents me being charming. Overall, I strongly believe that theory should come out of practice rather than the other way round, Rogers developed his theory based on his work with emotionally troubled people and claimed that we have a remarkable capacity for self-healing and personal growth leading towards self-actualization. He placed emphasis on the person's current perception and how we live in the here-and-now.

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