ADVANCED TRAINING IN PERSONCENTRED THERAPY

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ADVANCED TRAINING IN PERSON-CENTRED THERAPY

• March 20-21, 2009
• (This presentation can be downloaded from
  www.davemearns.com)

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• REVISION OF ROGERS SELF THEORY

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ROGERS 3 MAIN THEORETICAL STATEMENTS

• Rogers, C.R. (1951) A theory of personality and
  behavior, pp 481-533 in Client-Centered Therapy.
  Boston Houghton Mifflin.

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• Rogers, C.R. (1959) A theory of therapy,
  personality and interpersonal relationships as
  developed in the client-centered framework, pp
  184-256 in S. Koch (ed.), Psychology A Study of
  a Science, Volume 3 Formulations of the Person
  and the Social Contract. New York McGraw-Hill.

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• Rogers, C.R. (1963) The actualizing tendency in
  relation to motives and to consciousness, pp
  1-24 in M. Jones (ed.), Nebraska Symposium on
  Motivation. Lincoln University of Nebraska Press.

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• Rogers California Period
• A Unitary Theory

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The value-added actualising tendency

• Feelings valued over thoughts
• Non-self-conscious being valued over
  considered action
• Free-expression valued over censoring
• Radical choices valued over conservative
  choices
• Volume-up expression of feeling valued over
  volume-down expression of feeling

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• COULSON, W. (1987) Reclaiming Client-Centered
  Counseling from the Person-Centered Movement.
• Center for Enterprising Families, P.O. Box 134,
  Comptche, Ca 95427, USA.

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• Reconfiguring Rogers
• Concept of the Self

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Rogers (1959 200)

• Self Self-Concept

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Mearns Thorne (2000)
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• A Dialogical Person-Centred
• Theory of the Self

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• Growthful Configurations
• (self-expressive)
• Not for growth Configurations
• (self-protective)

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Proposition 1
The actualising tendency is the sole motivational
force.
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THE ACTUALISING TENDENCY IS NOT POSITIVE

• SHEILA is unsettled in her relationship with
  Maureen. The relationship has lasted fifteen
  years despite the considerable age difference
  (Sheila is 35 and Maureen 54). But during the
  past couple of years Sheila is placing less value
  on the security the relationship has always
  offered and is craving a more exciting lifestyle.

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• NIGEL was a prisoner of his fathers physical and
  emotional abuse throughout his first 14 years.
  His father would ceremonially tie him up and beat
  him once a week on some pretext the slightest
  piece of disobedience could bring out his
  fathers belt. Nor were the beatings only
  physical when Nigel showed signs of doing well
  at school he became subject to a torrent of
  insults. Nigel survived by going underground as
  a person. Now, at 22 years of age, he runs a drug
  empire. He tightly controls

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• his operation and the people in it, exerting
  authority at times with considerable public
  cruelty. He gained supremacy in the gang wars
  partly through violence but also due to his
  intellect.
• (Mearns, D. Thorne, B. 2007. Person-Centred
  Counselling in Action, third edition. London
  Sage. Chapter 2.)

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• I could do more with my life but I am scared to
  lose what I have.
• I need to stop this road I can see where it
  points and I dont want it not yet anyway.

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• I fought my way out of a relationship previously,
  and I lost more than I ever imagined.
• Part of me says go for it and part of me says
  watch it I need to stay with watch it for
  now.

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• I look at what other people have got and I want
  it like a child wants everything. But my child
  isnt going to make all my decisions.
• Everything seemed to point in the direction of
  leaving the job I needed to be free of it. But
  my family would have lost too much and that
  would mean me losing too much. So I rolled up my
  sleeves and made the best of it.

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Proposition 3
A psychological homeostasis develops between
the drive of the actualising tendency and the
restraint of social mediation. The configuring
and re-configuring of this homeostasis is the
actualising process.
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• In this revision of the theory, the central
  concept becomes the actualising process which is
  described by the homeostasis of the imperatives
  of the actualising tendency and social mediation
  within different areas of the persons social
  life space and the reconfiguring of that
  homeostasis to respond to changing
  circumstances.
• (Person-Centred Therapy Today p184)

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Proposition 4
Disorder is caused when the person becomes
chronically stuck within his/her own actualising
process such that the homeostatic balance cannot
reconfigure to respond to changing circumstances.
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A Tyranny of Growth
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• After countless years of going against my
  instinct and fitting into other peoples wishes I
  finally broke free. For a time after that I was
  impossible to live with I couldnt compromise
  at all.

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• Its like I couldnt go against my view of
  events and what was right for me in the moment.
  Having finally got hold of myself I wasnt going
  to let go I suppose I was scared I would lose
  myself again.

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• I can see that my sense of myself isnt working.
  Other people are giving back a different view of
  myself, and they are pretty unanimous. They say
  that I look cold and detached, when I feel
  warm. It is difficult to know who to trust.

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• Either they share the same illusion or I have a
  huge blind spot that I cant see past. It is
  really difficult to go against my sense of myself
  I have no sense of being wrong. But these are
  good people I need to pause awhile.

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The cross-cultural challenge

• Inayat, Q. (2005). The Islamic concept of self,
  Counselling Psychology Review, 20 2-10.
• Proctor, G., Cooper, M., Sanders, P. Malcolm,
  B. (eds.) (2006). Politicizing the Person-Centred
  Approach. Ross-on-Wye PCCS Books.

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Morita, Kimura, Ide, Hirai, Murayama.

• Counselling in the school system of Fukuoka,
  Japan. Papers presented to the Conference of the
  World Association for Person-Centered and
  Experiential Psychotherapy and Counseling.
  Potsdam, Germany.
• The student client is not only part of his
  community
• His community is part of him.

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• AN INTRODUCTION TO RESONANCE

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RESONANCE

• Through self-awareness in therapy the therapist
  becomes conscious of their experiencing, ie. the
  immediate present flow of experiences. What they
  experience is resonance to both the clients
  world and/or for their own world. Resonancemeans
  the echo in the therapist triggered by the
  relationship with the client (p.181).
• Schmid, P.F. Mearns, D. J. (2006). Being-With
  and Being-Counter Person-centered psychotherapy
  as an in-depth co-creative process of
  personalization. Person-Centered and Experiential
  Psychotherapies, 5(3) 174-190.

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FORMS OF RESONANCE

• SELF-RESONANCE
• EMPATHIC RESONANCE (concordant and complementary)
• PERSONAL RESONANCE

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SELF-RESONANCE

• Client Shall I love him or hate him? I
  dont know, I am confused.
• Therapist thinking of his own partner Good
  question! You never know. (Mearns Thorne, 2007
  p. 183)

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CONCORDANT EMPATHIC RESONANCE

• Client Shall I love him or hate him? I
  dont know, I am confused.
• Therapist primarily sensing the clients
  confusion There are mixed feelings in you. You
  experience affection, you experience dislike and
  these are in you at one and the same time. (p.
  183)

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COMPLEMENTARY EMPATHIC RESONANCE

• Client Shall I love him or hate him? I
  dont know, I am confused.
• Therapist sensing primarily that the client
  gradually has been growing tired of the person he
  talks about.or even forget about him? (p. 183)

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PERSONAL (RELATIONAL) RESONANCE

• Client Shall I love him or hate him? I
  dont know, I am confused.
• Therapist personally touched by his clients
  bewilderment..which makes me aware how much I
  truly hope you come to the right decision this
  time. (p. 185)

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When self-resonance spills over

• Box 6.3 on page 141 of Mearns, D. Thorne, B.
  (2007). Person-Centred Counselling in Action.
  Third edition. London Sage.

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• AN INTRODUCTION TO EXISTENTIAL TOUCHSTONES

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Definition of existential touchstones

• Life events and self-experiences that have given
  us glimpses of different dimensions of ourself
  and which we can enter to put us into a feeling
  state that is closer to our clients present
  experiencing and thus act as a bridge for us
  into a fuller meeting with our client.
• Mearns, D. Thorne, B. (2007). Person-Centred
  Counselling in Action. Third edition, p.147,
  London Sage.

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Existential Touchstones Vulnerabilities turned
into strengths

• Five counsellors give us glimpses of earlier,
  difficult experiences that have become
  existential touchstones for them in their work
• The memory of my own earlier aloneness is
  something I can touch to bring me closer to my
  isolated or cut off clients.

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• It took me years to get over my own early
  experiences of humiliation but now it doesnt
  frighten me any more now I can even use it as a
  way of getting closer to my clients experience
  of humiliation or abuse.
• I dont think you ever get over a major
  bereavement. But it gets to a point that it
  deepens you as a person and helps you to be with
  your client in their own depths.

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• My clients anger was frightening in its power.
  At first I shrank from it but I got back close
  to it by touching how my old anger had felt. It
  was interesting to see me use that for the very
  first time.
• Seeing myself survive some threatening situations
  has become a source of strength for me. I am
  never frightened by my client. If he offers
  threat, often as a way of pushing me away, I am
  not pushed away.

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Exercise What are, or might become, my
touchstones?

• WHAT KIND OF SIGNIFICANT SELF EXPERIENCES HAVE I
  HAD IN MY LIFE THAT HAVE HAD CONSIDERABLE
  EXISTENTIAL SIGNIFICANCE FOR ME?
• DO I DRAW DEPTH FROM ANY OF THESE IN MY WORK AS A
  THERAPIST?
• ARE THERE ANY THAT I HAVE NOT USED, BUT THAT I
  COULD MAKE USE OF?
• ARE THERE ANY THAT I AM NOT YET READY TO USE, BUT
  THAT I MAY USE AT SOME POINT IN THE FUTURE?
• ARE THERE ANY THAT I THINK I WILL NEVER BE ABLE
  TO USE?