In this weeks episode of the Counselling Tutor podcast Rory and Ken look at Power in the therapeutic relationship, Rory shares a biography of Carl Rogers, Ken looks at the skill of challenge and we end with a debate about Psychopathology and how it varies from the Person Centred Approach.

 

This weeks question comes from Anne Walker who asks We are talking about power role in a therapeutic relationship. Who has the power how does it shift Etc. Just wondered your thoughts are.

 

Power in Counselling

 

Ken and Rory explore how one of the roles of the therapist is to pick up on any perceived power differences the client may perceive. 

 

The first task is to determine the basis of such a perception, which could be around the

client's own feelings of vulnerability, which may drove him or her to seek counselling in

the first place.

 

It could also be due perception, that the client feels that the therapist is an expert in

psychology which may make them feel inferior or someone who needs to be ‘treated' for a

mental illness. 

 

Whatever the basis for it, once the reason for the power perception is determined, the

therapist can work to relieve it.

 

One way to accomplish this is by building rapport with the client, this can be done simply

by asking non therapeutic questions about the client’s friends or family, just be thoughtful

not to be intrusive or nosey. 

 

Showing genuine interest in what the client says can produce an environment in which the

client feels more understood and therefore more equal.

 

Sometimes considered self disclosure by the therapist can produce a greater sense of

empathy, by offering experiences from their own life which may connect with a client’s

experience of themselves.

 

Once mutual trust and empathy are established, the client can feel safe enough to begin

to access their own resources of self trust and respect – sometimes known in person

centred terms as Organismic valuing.

 

Biography of Carl Rogers

Rory has a special interest in the life and work of Carl Rogers. In this episode of Theory with Rory he dives into some lesser known facts about the founder of the Person Centered Approach to counselling. 

This is a very interesting look at the man and his work and I am certain you will get some good facts that you can use for your assignments.

 

The skill of Challenge in counselling

Ken looks at the advanced skill of challenge in the therapeutic relationship.

Challenge can be defined as the counsellor highlighting incongruence between the client's verbal and nonverbal communication in order to facilitate the client's awareness of conflicts associated with specific issues of topics.

We explore the dangers of using challenge too early in the therapeutic relationship and Ken speaks about high challenge needing a base of high support.

Ken covers some examples of gentle challenge and we look at what effects good challenge can bring about in the counselling relationship.

In Ask Ken And Rory, we debate a question posted by Nicola Puma.

“I was just wondering if one of your podcasts could include information on psychopathology, specifically the person centred approach vs the medical model”

Join in the debate and add your thoughts on this interesting topic on the Counselling Tutor Facebook Group.