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  • Essay / Client-Centered Therapy - 1391

    It is inevitable that in psychotherapy there are many theories. Theories arise from scientific investigations into ideas about human behavior. Human behavior is an extraordinarily interesting subject and therefore produces a plethora of ideas from a variety of theorists. These theorists are influenced by their education, their culture and their times. Carl Rogers is an influential theorist. His contributions to human behavior changed many theories that preceded him, and his theory contributed to many theories that followed. I am interested in exploring client/person-centered therapy. This is a type of therapy developed by Carl Rogers. This therapy is different because, as the name suggests, it focuses solely on the client. “By focusing on the client, their feelings are deeply explored. The assumption, however, is that the client was never able to make his feelings heard by the people around him. Person-centered therapy would allow the client to openly express their feelings. According to Strupp (1971), “the psychotherapeutic relationship is in principle indistinguishable from any good human relationship in which a person feels fully accepted, respected and valued” (p. 39). There must therefore be a therapeutic alliance between the therapist and the client. This therapeutic alliance must create an environment for the client in which the client feels that the therapist is free from judgment. I find Roger's theory interesting and apparently affecting. It makes sense that a change in a client's negative relationship patterns would give them the freedom to express themselves emotionally. According to Strupp (1971), “the client is therefore not a sick and needy patient. ..... middle of paper ...... these are problems. Instead, it should allow the client to feel like they have support for diving into emotions they may have been afraid of before beginning client-centered therapy. It is interesting to note according to Raskin et al. (2011), “Our core practice [client-centered therapy] remains true to the core conditions, regardless of who our client is. We also assert that our ability to form an initial therapeutic relationship depends on our own openness and appreciation of respect for all kinds of differences” (p. 183). I believe that the cultural diversity maintained by CCT is important in a therapeutic environment open to multiplicity. The implications of a non-discriminatory form of therapy are that it can be used in all populations. This allows wider use of this theory and the chances of obtaining positive results are increased because the availability.