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)
