Counselling Skills.

Anne Brennan ABLES C&T

Updated: 2016

The Therapeutic Container

This space is both
A physical space
And
A virtual space
Simultaneously

How do you make yours?

Space is:
Client Centred
Client Led
Time bound
Contracted
Collaborative
Maintained by
What is the
Capacity, skills,
clients ritual
knowledge
for entering
the space? What is the
clients ritual
for leaving
the space?

Client and
Therapist move Client and Therapist
into the move back to day-to-
Collaborative day world from the
Space from the collaborative space
day-to-day world
What is the
What is the Therapists ritual
Therapists ritual for leaving the
for entering the space?
space?

Client/Person Centred Therapy - Carl Rogers

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Counselling Skills. Anne Brennan ABLES C&T
Updated: 2016

Carl R. Rogers on his own thinking:

..Carl said, I didnt want to find a client centred way. I wanted to find a way to help
people. [cited in Gendlin, E. T (1996), from introduction to: Carl Rogers: The Quiet
Revolutionary, An Oral History. Rogers & Russell]

When I truly hear a person and the meanings that are important to him at that moment,
hearing not simply his words, but himI have often noticed that the more deeply I
hear the meaning of this person, the more there is that happens. [Rogers: A Way of
Being. 1980 p10]

When I am exposed to a growth-promoting climate, I am able to develop a deep trust in

myself, in individuals, and in entire groups. [Rogers: A Way of Being. 1980 p44]

I have learned that in any significant or continuing relationship, persistent feelings had
best be expressed. If they are expressed as feelings, owned by me, the result may be
temporarily upsetting but ultimately far more rewarding than attempting to deny or
conceal them. [Rogers: A Way of Being. 1980 p44]

I have found that for me interpersonal relationships best exist as a rhythm: openness
and expression, and then assimilation; flow and change, then a temporary quiet; risk and
anxiety, then a temporary security. [Rogers: A Way of Being. 1980 p44]

It is necessary for me to stay close to the earthiness of real experience. I cannot live my
life in abstractions.At least one foot must be in the soil of reality. [Rogers: A Way of
Being. 1980 p44]

Carl R. Rogers: theory of Personality:

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Counselling Skills. Anne Brennan ABLES C&T
Updated: 2016

In order for a person to grow and become SELF-aware self-acceptance is a prerequisite.

Rogers did not see the self as vague. He defined it as a gestalt or whole and described
it as a configuration in which the alternation of one minor aspect could possibly alter
whole picture (Person Centred Therapy, 1959 p200]

He described the self as: the organised, consistent, conceptual gestalt composed of
perceptions of the characteristics of the I and the perceptions of the relationships of the
I or me to others and to various aspects of life, together with the values attached to
these perceptions. (Person Centred Therapy, 1959 p200]

In A Way of Being [p114] Rogers describes two tendencies in the natural organising
process of the universe which are identified as being present in organic life. These are:

1. The Actualising Tendency organisms tend to want to complete

the growth processes and the growth cycles.

2. The Formative Tendency identified by science as being present

in the universe generally and which describes the tendency for all things in the
universe to from, shape and to enter into relationships with other things in the
universe.

He states that these are the foundation blocks of the person centred approach.

From these Rogers [p115] re-iterates the basis of his approach which is:

Individuals have within themselves vast resources for self-understanding and for
altering their self-concepts, basic attitudes, and self-directed behavior; these
resources can b e tapped if a definable climate of facilitative psychological
attitudes can be provided.

He says that there are three [external] conditions which are fundamental
to enabling access by an individual to these internal resources. These
conditions apply in any relationship which has organismic value (for the actualising
tendency) and which are growth promoting (for the formative tendency).

Growth is promoted because meeting these conditions creates conditions in which Worth,
Self-worth, Unconditional Positive Self-regard can emerge. [Dr.C.G.Boree: Carl Rogers.
ETherapy Article]

1. Genuineness/realness/congruency:
Therapist is a person in the relationship
The client can see what the therapist IS in the relationship

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Counselling Skills. Anne Brennan ABLES C&T
Updated: 2016

Therapist is openly being the feelings and attitudes that are flowing in the
moment.
Therapist makes him/her self transparent to the client
What the therapist is experiencing is available to awareness
What the therapist is experiencing can be lived in the relationship
What the therapist is can be communicated in the relationship (if appropriate)
[Adapted]
Thus, there is a close matching, or congruence, between what is being
experienced at gut level, what is present in awareness, and what is expressed to
the client.
[All p115/6]

2. Unconditional Positive Regard (acceptance, caring, prizing):

The therapist experiences what the client IS at that moment
The therapist has a positive acceptant attitude
The therapist is willing for the client to be whatever immediate feeling is going
on..
The client is prized as a whole person (no conditions not even change).
[Adapted: A Way of Being p116]

3. The third attitude which facilitates the process is

Empathic Understanding:

The therapist senses accurately the feelings the client is experiencing

The therapist senses accurately the meanings the client is experiencing
The therapist communicates her/his understanding of each to the client

When functioning at its best, the therapist is so much inside the private world of
the other that he or she can clarify not only the meanings of which the client is
aware but even those just below the level of awareness.

Rogers goes on to say:

this kind of sensitive, active listening is exceedingly rare in our lives.Yet

listening, of this very special kind, is one of the most potent forces for change that
I know.
[A Way of Being, p116]

What does Rogers considers EMPATHY does is [A Way of Being p 151 - adapted]

Empathy dissolves alienation the recipient experiences themselves as a connected to the

human race

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Counselling Skills. Anne Brennan ABLES C&T
Updated: 2016

The recipient feels valued, accepted as he/she is at that moment.

The non-judgemental quality of empathy has the impact of providing a sensitive

understanding allowing the communication of understanding of that persons inner world.
True empathy is always free of any evaluative or diagnostic quality. [p154]

Empathic conditions allow a person to reveal things they have never revealed/thought
before. It allows for wider exploration.

Empathy works in all kinds of relationships to deepen the experience the person/group
have of themselves.
When persons are perceptively understood, they find themselves coming in close
touch with a wider range of their experiencing. This gives them an expanded
referent to which they can turn for guidance in understanding themselves and in
directing their behavior. It the empathy has been accurate and deep, they may
also be able to unblock a flow of experiencing and permit it to run its uninhibited
course. [p156]

The individuals greater understanding of and prizing of themselves opens to

them new facets of experience which become part of a more accurately based self-
concept. [No 3 p159]

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 Counselling Skills. Anne Brennan ABLES C&T
Updated: 2016

What are we speaking of when we speak of

counselling or therapy?

Carl R. Rogers was very clear that it is a relationship of a specific type. There are a wide
range of definitions from many sources. A generic definition from which to start is
useful. The following is one such definition of Counselling/Therapy:

Counselling isa principled relationship characterised by the application of one

or more psychological theories and a recognised set of communication Skills
[Colin Feltham: Dictionary of Counselling]

Characteristics:
Knowledge: Congruence or
Meaning and genuineness
words Empathic understanding
Value of Unconditional Positive
repeated words Regard
& phrases Not the only ingredients
Feelings and [Rogers 1958]
expressions
Attributes added by
Rogerian practitioners:
Effects of Counselling &
Self-awareness
permissions Therapy
(non-direct) Unconditional Positive
Regard
Identify
Imagination &
recurrent Skills Creativity
themes Enabling Skills
Process Sense of humour
Active/Empathic
Legal Simplicity
Listening
knowledge Patience
Awareness
Knowledge of Personal style of
Attentiveness
containing counselling
Availability of Eye [OFarrell 1988]
spaces Contact
Knowledge of Awareness of non-verbal
collaborative communication
spaces Ability to be in silences
Theoretical Therapists who follow a
Facilitation Skills Rogerian model are aware of
knowledge Containing Skills every nuance of the moment.
Humanistic Challenging skills Rogers said that we should
Knowledge Summation Skills pay attention to the simple.
Philosophical/ Verbal Reflection Skills [quoted by Therapist Karl
Value/Belief
Body Mirroring Skills Barkley at an encounter
Systems
Clarification Skills group]
Use of congruency e.g
stop/breath/be
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Counselling Skills. Anne Brennan ABLES C&T
Updated: 2016

EXTRA:
In an article entitled In Tune With Carl Rogers [http://www.TheGoldScales.com] the following list is given
as a Freewheeling overall conception of a person based in the theories of Carl R. Rogers:

The individual is trustworthy

To be fit for healthy growth in major ways the individual is best to be in a non-defensive state
An individual is predominantly subjective
The individual is striving for optimal adjustment of the fully functioning person [Rogers
simile was to a giant computer weighing, assessing etc]
Every person exists in a continually changing world of experience of which he is the centre
An individual has an innate tendency towards actualisation
The individual has his internal frame of reference
The person may react to threats by defensive skills (if feeling vulnerable breeds anxiety and
brings about neurotic behaviour)
The individual is wiser than his intellect, wiser than his conscious thought

Conditions that support the relationship

Facilitative conditions help the individual to profit from what his organism attempts to
communicate from inside
These conditions are: warm acceptance, mentor genuineness, respect and accurate empathy
Therapists need to have belief in the dignity of the individual and capability of the individual to find within
themselves, given a supportive, facilitative, contained, aware environment, the solutions to their personal
dilemmas, issues, questions and challenges.

Early childhood development and the basic estrangement [conditional acceptance plays a part here] of the
person from themselves and from meaningful contact with others is at the heart of the difficulties individual
experience in relationships. This deals with:

(a) An organismic valuing process, which regulates conduct through sensible feedback
mechanisms.
(b) Remembering that very automatic responses like fright, fight or flight deal with aspects of life
too
(c) A developing self concept
(d) Conditions for worth develop through the need for positive self-regard in interactions
(e) The internalising of incongruence between the self and experience affects the developing self
(f) Estrangement of the person from the self, from their genuine experiencing or from the world can
happen
(g) Children reared to conform can become estranged in the ways described above

Bibliography
Gendlin, E.T. (1978), Focussing: How to Gain Access to Your Bodies Knowledge: How
to Open Up Your Deeper Feelings and Intuition. South Africa (Pty) Ltd: Random House
OFarrell, U. (1988), 2nd Ed: First Steps in Counselling. PB: Veritas.
Rogers, C.R. (1959): Person Centred Therapy
Rogers, C.R. (1980): A Way of Being. PB: Mariner Books/Houghton Mifflin.
http://www.infed/rogers
http://www.E:Therapy\Foreword\Gendlin
http://www.E:Therapy\Rogers\Boeree
http://www.TEforum\CarlRogers
http://www.TheGoldScales\Rogers

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Counselling Skills. Anne Brennan ABLES C&T
Updated: 2016

CTC Ltd

Exercises for Training Day

Exercise: Group brainstorm on the different ways we listen 5-7 mins

Exercise: First Conscious Listening (can do the NLP information here on stages of
learning Unconscious Incompetent, Conscious Incompetent, Conscious Competent and
finally Unconscious Competent as useful information input)

Dyads: Hobby Horse Listening Exercise

What might be difficult for you to hear? - Why it is hard for us to hear certain issues,
emotional engagement (sympathy/dismissal or empathy?). The place of personal therapy
in freeing up our listening.

The client can travel on their journey only as far as the place the counsellor has stopped
on theirs. [Carl Barkley during a conversation at an IAC meeting in 1992]

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Counselling Skills. Anne Brennan ABLES C&T
Updated: 2016

Exercise: The Goldfish Bowl of Congruent Responses

Needs:
1. Photocopied feedback sheets each person needs at least one sheet
2. Coloured record cards for round 2
Roles: Client, Listener-responder, recorder

Process Round 1:
Put your name on the sheet supplied. The majority of the group are listeners for the
whole process except when they are part of the working triad. Listeners must consider
what their congruent response might be and note this if it is different from the response
given in any way
The tutor takes the role of client, takes a chair and sits before each member of the
group in turn.
The Client makes one statement (it has to be a statement that is startling, said with
appropriate emotional emphasis, and/or gestures the statement is designed to unsettle
complacency)
The listener responds in what they consider a congruent manner
The recorder records the statements from both
The listener records own impressions feelings etc and then returns to group listening
The exercise moves to the next person
Group Discussion on the responses -

Round 2:
If it is possible (time allowing) there is a second round:
In this round members of the group take a turn to make statements to other members
who are listeners. Recorders follow the same procedure
Each person collects a green card when they have been the speaker, a blue one for listener
and a yellow one for recorder so that everyone is sure to have a turn at each.
Group feedback
This exercise will take an hour and the time must be well managed to allow for a second
round and feedback

Listening Exercise Real Material

Before the exercise:
Honouring those who inspire not naming names: finding ways to maintain confidentiality
in a closed group
Dyads: Listening Exercise
Talk for 10 minutes about your developing practice using play
Make notes on being the speaker/listener
Change Partners
Repeat
Feedback in the large group on what it was like to be heard and on what it was like to be
the listener
Feedback on what it was like to have the opportunity to be heard, how did
they know listening took place and the value of that listening in the journey
of learnin