Examples Of Congruence In Counselling

Person centred counselling According to McLeod (2003) states that “the emphasis is on the client as an expert and the counsellor as a source of reflection and encouragement and this is captured in the designation of the approach as a ‘non-directive’ form of counselling.” Empathy, congruence (genuineness) and acceptance (unconditional positive regard) are known as the three ‘core conditions’. These core conditions are essential for effective counselling. According to Gillon (2007) “from a therapists’ point of view, an empathic attitude is a desire to understand a client’s perceptual world as if it was his or her own”. Meaning that the Therapist must listen and follow what the client is trying to communicate to them and that the therapist tries

This condition helps people get the most out of their counselling session and in turn this helps them reach their full potential as they feel valued as the counsellor accepts them for who they are. Congruence is also known as genuineness and according to Rogers “it is the most important attribute in counselling due to the way that it underpins the experiencing of unconditional positive regard and empathy”. Seligman (2006) states that if a counsellor’s body language does not reflect what they are saying, clients will pick up on this and it will reflective on the counsellor client relationship as trust could be lost. Congruence means the counsellor needs to be real and

Self actualisation is another strength to this form of therapy as it “helps the client to fully concentrate on themselves and guide in decision making for growth and develop into an honest, selfless and independent person” according to Mearns (1994). This helps the client to have autonomy, gives them self growth and self acceptance and all of which I feel are necessary for Gloria. Rogers strives on having a good relationship between the client and therapist whereas Ellis believes that this is not necessary for effective counselling session or for personality change. However, the negative side to person-centred counselling could be that the client is not challenged by anyone as the therapist does not give opinions or suggestions. There is no structure to the therapy session and therefore it relies on the client to be heavily involved in the counselling session and this maybe too optimistic for some clients as they are not getting answers, so they may find it hard to progress. According to Seligman (2006) it also “Fails to prepare clients for the real world due to the unconditional positive regard of the