CLIENT-CENTERED THERAPY

The first of the humanistic trends is called the psychotherapy of Carl Rogers, or client-centered therapy. Although many with sufficient reason to include in humanistic psychotherapy and gestalt therapy F. Pearls.

The ideas and practical approaches of Karl Rogers to the maximum realization of the inner abilities of man have found distribution not only in psychology and psychotherapy, but also in pedagogy, social work, jurisprudence. They were adopted in politics, in industry, in the army, are widely used in religious work, influenced the development of modern philosophy and theology.

As already mentioned, Karl Rogers and his followers proceed from the assertion that positive forces are inherently incorporated into the body and personality of any normal person, contributing to health, development and improvement. Rogers believes that the desire to achieve their level of competence and self-development is not always conscious, and this level itself can differ significantly from each other in terms of biologically incorporated inclinations.

It is the achievement of one’s own level of competence, or at least a movement in this direction, that creates an individual’s sense of integrity, a certain degree of self-sufficiency, and saves him from many psychological problems, anxiety, dissatisfaction, and neuroses.

Rogers attaches a decisive role in the life and development of a person to self-concept , that is, to his self- image.

It is this I- concept (self-image) that determines the behavior and actions of a person in certain situations.

Every person thinks or feels that he is in such and such a situation and should do so. Moreover, his opinion of himself is often not sufficiently objective, and sometimes not significantly relevant to reality.

Initially, an objective assessment of one’s own self was not incorporated into a person’s consciousness. However, this bias is largely compensated by life experience, which constantly introduces a correction to an individual’s self-esteem, allowing him to better feel his capabilities, as well as other people’s perception of themselves.

An important leading mechanism in the objectification of self-esteem and one’s behavior is the feeling of resolving (or weakening) internal conflict, alternating with internal satisfaction, which comes (or rises) as self-realization.

Rogers believes that the prerequisite for a more authentic and easier acceptance of others is the acceptance of the personal self, that is, the objectification of self-esteem. In turn, the adoption of the individual by others contributes to the process of adopting himself in the same form.

It can be said that the essence of the process of personal growth (according to Rogers) consists in constantly improving feedback, which is carried out as a simultaneous process of adjusting one’s relations with others and one’s self- concept, refined in the process of this relationship and acceptance of others.

In Rogers therapy, as in other types of humanistic therapy, the main role is transferred from the therapist to the client. Rogers believes that the client himself has the keys to solving his problems. The therapist can only help him find these keys and show how best to use them.

In this case, the main task of the therapist is the establishment of friendly creative cooperation with the client and the creation of such an atmosphere of psychological comfort and security in which the client himself will begin to “release” and realize the potential of his true self . It is this atmosphere that will accelerate the process of objectification and the adoption of a real image of oneself and others.

In this case, the therapist himself is required to completely abandon the role of the psychotherapist and move from the professional manner of communication and terms to the expression of his simple and natural feelings and thoughts. Otherwise, the client will unwittingly play along with the psychotherapist, remaining in the role of a passive client, who is waiting for him from the psychotherapist, and not from himself to solve his own problems. It is very important that the client feel not only simple companionship, but also the full freedom of the therapist from the moral evaluations of the statements and behavior of the client, that is, accepting the interlocutor as he is.

The necessary quality of the therapist should be the ability to constantly maintain a positive attitude towards the client, or rather, faith in the positive beginnings of his essence, which should be released from under the life obstructions and false defenses of the individual. Only in this case he will be able to simultaneously maintain the openness of natural communication and at the same time not react with negative emotions to negative manifestations of the client’s personality.

E. Burn compares this position of the psychotherapist with the position of the spiritual teachers of the East (gurus), which refer to any person regardless of his behavior as a divine creation. Such communication allows the client to gradually withdraw from the defensive confrontation and become more and more congruent (relevant) to the psychotherapist as an equal partner in communication.

Here are the main sequential steps of psychotherapeutic care according to Carl Rogers:

1. The client turns to the psychotherapist for help.

2. The psychotherapist clarifies the reason for the treatment, that is, “determines the situation”.

3. The psychotherapist creates an atmosphere conducive to the free expression of the client.

4. The psychotherapist accepts the client as he is and helps to better understand himself.

5. Gradually, the expression of positive feelings is becoming more frequent and stable.

6. The psychotherapist identifies the driving forces (true causes, impulses) of the client’s positive reactions.

7. The client is non-violent (and due to the creation of a favorable atmosphere of sincere communication) is led to insight (insight, conjecture about the true causes of his problem).

8. The client consciously comes to the choice of the correct strategy of behavior (the psychotherapist only helps to more accurately realize this choice).

9. The client begins to take real actions aimed at implementing the chosen strategy.

10. As the client is persuaded of the success of the actions taken, he has an increased ability of insight (insights, discoveries of his reserve capabilities and ways to implement them).

11. This (paragraph 10) contributes to the attainment of self-confidence and a sense of independence (the ability to independently solve its problems); growing independence.

12. And this (p.11), in turn, gradually reduces the need for outside help and reinforces the growing sense of independence with concrete independent decisions and actions.

That is, we see a consistent practical implementation of the psychotherapeutic concept of Carl Rogers, which consists in the consistent transfer of responsibility for solving the problems of the client to the client. The psychotherapist only creates the necessary atmosphere for this and unobtrusively contributes to this process as a consultant, encouraging steps in the right direction and eliminating doubts.

Job Account Groups

In our psychological and psychotherapeutic literature, the term enukter-group is translated as a group of meetings . This is not entirely correct, or rather, it does not sufficiently convey the meaning that Carl Rogers, the founder of this therapeutic device, put into this term. The fact is that the English word encounter has several meanings and the first one is translated into Russian as a collision . In the future, we will see that this interpretation very substantially complements the term of the group of meetings adopted by us, which is too general and needs to be clarified, which groups, which meetings, for which, etc. Therefore, we believe that, although less smoothly, it would be more accurate to speak of meeting-collision groups .

Briefly describe the essence of the work of such groups.

Here, as well as in the individual work of the psychotherapist with the client, the most important condition is to create an atmosphere of security, a feeling that you are accepted as you are (without moral evaluations), and you also accept other members of the group.

Group work, as well as individual, goes through several stages, but has its own more complex specificity. Such work as compared with the individual has both advantages and disadvantages. Its advantages lie in the fact that, in the opinion of Carl Rogers and his followers, the group, with its atmosphere and support, strengthens (or at least can strengthen) all the processes of solving personal problems. And the downsides are that at the first stage many members of the group are disappointed that no one purposefully deals with them and at first glance they are left to themselves, ordinary everyday conversations that are not directly related to solving the problems with which they turned to the therapist. .

It can be said that this is the first critical period in the work of the group, as some participants who are tuned in to a quick and effective solution of their problems not by themselves, but by a psychotherapist, stop studying at this stage and leave the group. However, those who decide to stay in the future gradually begin to see in such work less and less minuses and more and more advantages.

The fact is that such an unorganized start of group communication is precisely included in the program of Carl Rogers. He believes that it is precisely such uncertainty of people who are forced to find some form of communication (since they have been put together in a group) and will make it possible to form the most natural way of communication for everyone. The psychotherapist only suggests that they begin to communicate with each other on arbitrary topics, gradually reveal themselves and study others, and then determine for themselves what they will do in a group. Of course, some information about what they do in such groups, they already have or can find out from the psychotherapist, but they should try to make the final choice themselves.

This, as a rule, causes many members of the group to be disappointed, as they would like to work with them immediately and purposefully to solve their problem. However, the psychotherapist tries to convince them that if they are already involved in the system of the counting group, they must go through all strictly defined stages, the first of which is such a spontaneous self-organization, which all begin with such difficulties and disappointments. Therefore, it is necessary to show some independent efforts to establish intra-group communication and interaction.

Usually, such communication begins indecisively, with meaningless phrases, but gradually the topics of conversations in one way or another begin to focus on the problems for which each has turned out to be here.

Most of those who first met in such a group psychologically protect their problems and are inclined to talk about them in general, and not specifically. Then they gradually concretize their problems, but presenting them not objectively, but in a favorable perspective. Moreover, such protection (in the form of some distortion of reality) can be both conscious and unconscious (self-deception).

At the same time, at the first stage of the functioning of such groups, initial resistance to the personal expression of oneself or the study of others arises. The group leader (psychotherapist) at this stage only keeps the activity of the group members in line with self-study and study of each other. At the same time, he tries unobtrusively to correct the discussion of problems on today's actual experiences and events according to the “here and now” principle.

The fact is that the majority of group members, especially at the first stage, show a tendency to discuss exactly past events, problems and people who are not present in this group. By this they as if defend their present, that which hurts and worries right now. It is difficult for them to move from stories about the past to discussion of today's problems. Therefore, we should not wait immediately for a smooth and calm discussion of them. The first attempts at analyzing the present are most often superficial, inconsistent and in line with negative emotional evaluations, complaints and accusations.

Here it is important to remember that the term ancounter translates as a collision. The members of the group, thinly provoked by the psychotherapist, begin to encounter with various emotional evaluations of each other's experiences, sayings, and behaviors. Here, the psychotherapist requires both creative courage and a heightened sense of proportion.

The fact is that his task is to combine two contradictions. On the one hand, he must create (and sometimes provoke) an atmosphere of maximum emancipation, revealing his true self and spontaneous expression of his emotions, including negative reactions to the statements and behavior of other members of the group. (Based on the concept of Rogers, without such a vivid emotional clash, group members will not be able to self-discover, expose the true causes of their problems and gain freedom of expression, free themselves from self-deception, accept themselves and others in their true form.)

The psychotherapist should try not to bring emotional collisions to the point where it leads to active rejection of the other and to the disintegration of the group. However, such preservation of the group should not come at the expense of insufficient self-disclosure of its members - even better a group of people who turned out to be incompatible will fall apart, than will work to eliminate problems whose causes are not sufficiently disclosed, and people are not ready for further work, a necessary condition of which is full self-disclosure and accepting yourself and others despite emotional clashes.

It can be said that this is the second critical period , during which some groups often break up completely, while others leave individual members of the group.

Those groups that, having passed the test of a collision, do not disintegrate, acquire a certain unity, they form a single personally significant (for each group member) material, a so-called climate of trust is established.

Rogers and his followers believe that only after all these tests, after the disclosure of their true feelings and thoughts, does the group acquire self-healing ability, that is, the mere presence in the group, its atmosphere begin to have a healing effect.

Looking at himself through the eyes of others, the individual begins to objectify his own self-perception and self-acceptance. This mechanism is called feedback, which allows both consciously and unconsciously to correct self-esteem, in fact, this process can be called the path to yourself through others .

Proponents of this type of psychotherapy believe that even the discovery of significant shortcomings and mistakes in themselves is a means of self-disclosure that is necessary for positive personality changes and its manifestations in the form of internal mental states and external behavioral responses.

Repeated overcoming of oneself, deception of oneself and others, direct and honest assessments of oneself and others after some time become a need, and protective self-deceptions begin to cause more and more active aversion.

Noticing the slightest insincerity of one of the members of the group, other participants demand to stop lying and become natural and truthful.

Interestingly, the majority of individuals, refusing under the influence of a group of such self-deception and self-justification, begin to feel more confident and protected. They see that the group accepts them as they are, does not reject and does not force them to pose as not what they really are.

Repeated repetition of such experience increasingly reinforces a sense of security, security, self-confidence and leads to a decrease in the level of anxiety, gives us confidence in our own ability to overcome life problems.