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| Comparison
of person centred therapy with rational emotive therapy
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The main aim of psychotherapy is to help people. There are
a lot of methods and approaches specialists use to help their
patients. In my work I will try to analyse, compare and contrast
two very popular person centred therapy with rational emotive
therapy.
Rational emotive behaviour therapy (REBT) was developed by
Albert Ellisand that lately appeared as a branch of "cognitive-behavioral"
therapy. This therapy counts on the assumption that all human
beings strive to be alive and to achieve happiness. Some irrational
concepts, believes and behavioural patterns hold people from
this happiness. Irrational concepts appear from wrong perceptions
of “musts” and “shoulds”, which do
not correspond with real desires and liking of the person.
This contrast results separation in the mind of person and
makes him unhappy.
In other words, core assumption of this approach is a though
that not external situations make us unhappy, but our attitude
to them. The role of rational emotive therapy is to show the
person the difference between healthy negative emotions, which
are natural and unhealthy emotions, which are destructive.
In other words the aim of REBT is to replace person’s
absolute philosophy, full of “musts” and “shoulds”,
which makes him unhappy with more flexible models. Rational
emotive therapy teaches person to be more flexible to himself
and others, to understand the necessity and naturalness of
wishes and desires.
Client-Centered Therapy (CCT) was developed by Carl Rogers
between 40s and 50s years of the last century. Person-centered
therapy puts the client in the main focus of attention. It
states that all the problems appear because of misbalance
between ideal and real Selves of the person. Only good balance
between these two aspects of the personality can bring good
mental health. We can find similarities between Rational Emotional
therapy and person-centered therapy as they both see oppositions
to be the main source of the problems. In REBT this opposition
is created by higher moral standards and will and wishes of
the person and in person-centered therapy this opposition
is created by real and ideal selves. They propose different
methods to resolve the problem. REBT’s aim is to change
philosophical dogmatic “shoulds” and “musts”
in order to justify person’s wishes and desires. Person-centered
therapy tries to establish balance between two different aspects
and tries to resolve inner conflict. Person-centered councilor
centers on present situation and present place trying to find
the reason, which could create the situation as it looks now.
Person-centered therapy is a non-directive approach. It means
that councilor doesn’t direct patients actions, doesn’t
force him to do or feel something and doesn’t impose
him any feelings, thoughts or conclusions. Non-directive approach
makes this therapy different from REBT as it uses a directive
approach where councilor steers the client’s actions
in such a way that it helps him to change some of his concepts.
One of the main aims of person-centered therapy is to make
person sure that all his actions, emotions, wishes and desires
are good. This way the client gets rid of his feeling of guilt.
Therapist will ask person about his problem in order to find
feelings and emotions, which were blocked when he met this
problem and make his feel these feelings.
The main difference between person-centered therapy and REBT
is the focus of treatment. In rational emotional therapy councilor
focuses on the thoughts and believes of the client trying
to identify those, which create problems. At the same time
person-centered therapy centers merely on the feelings of
the patient, regarding them as the main source of the problem.
The main question of REBT will be “what do you think
about that?” and in person-centered therapy the question
will be “how do you feel about that?”.
Unconditional acceptance of all client’s thoughts and
feelings is one of the main principles of person-centered
therapy. In this therapy councilor makes everything possible
to help the client to express his feelings and emotions freely
and without fear or shame. Rogers defined congruence, unconditional
positive regard, and empathy as their main qualities, which
should be used during this therapy. Such an approach aims
to develop the feeling of trust between counselor and patient
and to make the patient be honest with himself and his councilor.
The process of self-discovery the patient’s experiences
during this therapy should pass in a safe and friendly manner
in order to bring positive results. Both, rational emotional
therapy and person-centered therapy regard the relationship
between counselor and client as very important. REBT also
recognises the same principles as person-centred therapy,
such as empathy, positive regard and counsellor’s authority.
But at the same time, in REBT these principles are not as
crucial as in person-centered therapy.
Assessing and reflecting the person's feelings is not easy
to do. The therapist must be an active listener and able to
understand and share the essence of another's feelings.
The importance of councilor’s penetration into the problem
is very important factor in both therapies. They both emphasize
on the necessity to understand client, his inner state and
his problems in order to help to resolve them.
Rogers, the founder of person-centered approach used individual
approach for every client in order to achieve best results.
“He also pioneered the use of encounter groups, adapting
the sensitivity training (T-group) methods developed by Kurt
Lewin and other researchers at the National Training Laboratories
in the 1950s” (Myers,79).
The main methods used in REBT are personal consultations.
The work states with identifying the problem and possible
disturbances caused by this problem. After patient recognizes
the problem next step will be to find philosophical believes
which resulted the appearance of this problem
Rational Emotional therapy is based on didactic approach when
changing general way of thinking, some basic philosophical
assumptions councilor causes the change in person’s
behavior and attitudes. Rational Emotional therapy is based
on learning theory. For each patient councilor makes a treating
plan with formed goals and objectives of treatment and methods
to achieve them. In this kind of therapy, such methods as
relaxation, assertion, behavioral rehearsal, coaching, cognitive
restructuring, modeling, desensitization and new social skills
development can be used. The role of patient should be active
in this therapy, as he should perceive the rules proposed
by the councilor and express initiative to self-improvement.
Rational emotional therapy is suitable for patients with depressions,
different kinds of sexual disorders, stammering. It also proved
to be very helpful for dealing with disorders in children’s
behavior.
Rational Emotional therapy is most suitable for the clients,
“who want and are able to conceptualize their problems
and who are committed to active participation in the process
of identifying and changing rational believes including performing
homework assignment in support of the latter “ (Dryden,
85). From the other side, this kind of therapy will not be
suitable for passive clients, who do not want to take risks
and escape active roles in treatment. Another possible danger
appears with the clients, who like moralizing and speculation
on philosophical assumptions. In this case treatment also
can be less affective and another method is to be chosen.
In general, person-centered therapy can be applied to wide
range of patients, practically without any limitations. Rogers
himself has successfully used this kind of therapy for people
with schizophrenia. This kind of therapy was successfully
applied for people who suffered from depressions, anxiety,
alcohol addictions, people with cognitive dysfunction and
different kinds of personality disorders.
REBT is comparatively new method and its empirical data is
very poor yet. A lot of research and observations are to be
made before final judgements about the effectiveness of these
methods are made.
Those, who criticize person-centered approach in therapy state
that the role of councilor is rather passive in this kind
of treatment. There is a danger that councilor becomes passive
and does nothing but listen to the patient. Another possible
problem lies in the fact that the results of this therapy
can be not as quick as in some other therapies, which assume
more active role of the councilor.
The choice of the therapy is a person choice of the councilor
and in each situation it can vary in order to meet the needs
of every client. Practice shows that combinations of several
methods can give very good results. In this case different
methods supplement each other and patients have the opportunity
to choose the most appropriate one for him.
Bibliography
1. Kensit, Denise A. "Rogerian Theory: A Critique of
the Effectiveness of Pure Client-Centred Therapy." Counselling
Psychology Quarterly 13, no. 4 (2000): 345-351.
2. Myers, Sharon. "Empathic Listening: Reports on the
Experience of Being Heard." Journal of Humanistic Psychology
40, no. 2 (2000): 148-173.
3. Rogers, Carl. Client-Centered Therapy. Boston: Houghton
Mifflin, 1951.
4. Windy Dryden, Larry K. Hill, editors, Innovations in Rational-Emotive
Therapy (1993)
5. Daniel Druckman and Robert A. Bjork, editors, In the Mind's
Eye: Enhancing Human Performance (1992)
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