Can a Humanistic Model of Counselling Be Integrated with a Cognitive (or Cognitive – Behavioural) One? Discuss with Reference to Rogers and Either Beck or Egan.
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Can a humanistic model of counselling be integrated with a cognitive (or cognitive – behavioural) one? Discuss with reference to Rogers and either Beck or Egan.
In the first part of this essay I will summarise the main features of humanistic counselling and the cognitive approach. Rogers used a humanistic person centred approach to therapy and I will look at his view of people, their potential, what goes wrong and what can help them to change. Egan was a cognitive therapist and I will address the above points in relation to his “Skilled Helper” model. Similarities and key differences in theory, practise and value base between the two approaches will then be discussed.
In the second part of the essay, I will use my own…show more content… Each person is valued as a unique individual.
Within Humanistic therapy the potential is there for the re integration of self and organism, thus
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enabling self-actualisation to take place. A phrase used by Kierkegaard the first modern existentialist – to be that self which one truly is – I feel expresses the idea of self-actualisation very well, indicating the potential for growth and change believed by Rogers to be inherent within all of us. Rogers puts forward the view that the client held in the therapeutic relationship, when given the freedom to fully experience his feelings realises his potential to experience being (increased self- awareness) and becoming (self-actualisation).
What goes wrong, thus bringing a client into therapy? Rogers considers the problem to be lack of balance in a person’s life, conflict between what has been internalised as belief, conditions of worth and values, and what the person is presently experiencing. Dissolution of protective defence mechanisms that had previously enabled the client to function in their daily life, leads as they experience a life changing event to dysfunction with mental, emotional and sometimes physical disintegration. To reverse this process and bring about reintegration and balance through humanistic therapy, the relationship needs to be firmly established and the core conditions of the therapeutic relationship modelled by the therapist. Within
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