Preparation for Counseling and Physiotherapy Practice (Thesis Sample)

Preparation for Counseling and Physiotherapy Practice
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Preparation for counseling and Physiotherapy Practice
Rogers, (1951) explained that counseling and psychotherapy refer to the practice of encouraging people and making them agree and adhere to some situations and conditions that they did not imagine of. Additionally, it is a form of consolation that assists in evasion of intended crises among others. There are, therefore, various philosophies and principles that the counselors work under. These are humanistic philosophy, person-centered approach and others (Rogers, 1951).
The humanistic philosophy refers to the stress and emphasis laid on the value of human beings. This occurs both individually and collectively. It is a theory that prefers critical thinking and provision of evidence for faith or established doctrines. There are basic principles that define the humanistic philosophy. First, humans think for themselves as individuals thus becoming humanists. To humans, there is no area of thought that they are afraid of exploring, doubting, questioning or challenging. They are always free to inquire, agree or disagree with claims given. They don’t follow doctrines that don’t convince then personally. Due to this, human beings do take responsibility for their own decisions and conclusions that they make (Sanders & Hill, 2004).
Perls, talks of the second principle of the humanistic philosophy is when the humans arrive at reasoned decisions because they think that approaches having unreasoned decisions are inadequate in convincing them. They thus abandon some kind of reasoning that do not convince them. The humans thus find it possible that a person’s thinking is driven by authority, faith, revelation, changed states of consciousness, religious experience among others (Perls, 1992).
Mearns & Thorne,(2013) added that, there is this principle that explains how humans base their understanding of the world on things that they can perceive through their senses and thus comprehend with the mind. Anything that is thought to make sense should make sense to the humans. There are those intuitions or transcendent knowledge that humans cannot relate with due to lack of concrete correlation. Humans believe that the only thing they can refer to as knowledge is that which is grounded well in their acceptance and understanding and not those about religious beliefs and others. Humans also maintain that human values are only sensible in the human life context. They believe that the supposed life after death should not considered as being part of the values under which they operate. They believe that the physical world is the only one that is relevant to the ethics, goals and aspirations under which they operate (Mearns & Thorne, 2013).
The person-centered theory, also called client-centered, or Rogerian therapy refers to the approach of counseling and in psychotherapy that seems to put much responsibility on how the client is treated by not taking any directive role. The person-centered theory aims at increasing the self-esteem of the client and having a high degree of openness especially to experience. This form of therapy seeks to foster things such as a better self-understanding of the client, an understanding between the ideals of the client and the actual self, reduced levels of understanding, insecurity, guilt, an improved capacity for experience, expressing feelings when they occur and relationships that are more positive (Pavio, 2013).
According to Meery, (2000), The person-centered theory was developed by the American psychology Carl Rogers in the 1930s. Rogers focused more on personal growth and the idea of self-actualization. Additionally, he pioneered the use of encounter groups and adapting the use of sensitivity training methods that were developed by Kurt Lewin (1890-1947). the use of the person-centered theory is felt more in the schools of thought than the way it did to him personally (Merry, 2000).
The person-centered theory has many applications such as in children’s clinics, although was not intended for a specific purpose. Rogers, for instance, worked more with people with schizophrenia later in his career. It can thus be used in family, group or individual therapies. When applied to young kids, it is used as play therapy (Greenman & Johnson, 2012).
Evidence on the person-centered theory can be interpreted in various ways. First, when people are in a romantic relationship. Basing on this, Rogers affirms that his approach can be taken as ‘broader hypothesis regarding all human relationships,’ and that he hoped it would give a greater freedom to giving out and getting in turn love. It is thus highly idealistic and valid. It should make individuals realize that his approach strengthens relationships. Thus, people in a relationship should always be open to each other, be congruent and always speak out their mind. They should also realize that they must be ready always to take each other’s argument and reason over it (Greenberg & Pascual-Leone, 2006).
Greenberg & Watson argued that psychological distress refers to the feelings that are unpleasant or the emotions that have an impact on the level of functioning of an individual. It can thus lead to a person developing negative views of others, the environment around them, and self. It has symptoms such as anxiety, sadness, and distractions and also symptoms of mental illness. There are various origins of psychological distress. The origins can base on major life transitions such as moving to a new place, graduating from college, and others. The above can be psychological distress only if the individual is unable to adjust to the new conditions due to some difficulties. Additionally, occurrences such as the sudden demise of loved ones, or someone being fired from their jobs can also manifest psychological distress. Also, other sources of psychological distress are divorce, infertility, cancer and other medical conditions, being a victim of bullying, adverse experiences at schools, workplaces, mental illness and beginning on a new job (Greenberg & Watson, 2010).
The three core conditions for the therapeutic change in person-centered theory are empathy, unconditional support that is positive and congruence. They do present a challenge to the practitioner of the person-centered theory due to the fact that they are not skills that can be acquired. Congruence is mostly seen as a quality of the therapist, more than action or skill. First, the condition empathy is one of Rogers’ most common therapeutic conditions. Additionally, it is one of the conditions that attracted most attention initially (Totten, 2009). The condition is characterized by the idea of understanding the subjective reality of another person the way they experience it at any moment. Basing on Greenberg, the practitioner puts themselves in the shoes of the client and feels for them. It involves the situation of trying to enter and fit into the other person’s life and experience. The practitioner leaves their world and tries to understand the client’s perpetual world. Empathy plays the curative role to the client, and this makes them feel that people actually understand what they are experiencing (Greenberg, 2011).
Unconditional positive regard has also been seen by many as a primary dimension of the person-centered theory that is change related. This concept emerged in the mid-1950s, although it used to be referred to as acceptance, warmth, prizing and respect. The condition refers to the practitioner undergoing experience, and offering of an acceptance, non-judgmental and valued attitude that is accorded the client. The client is thus accepted and given the love, support and care they need under their psychological being. Practitioners argue that it is the most challenging of all the conditions. It thus involves offering non-conditional love and support with the quality required (Greenberg, 2010).
Congruence is also a concept that emerged in the 1950’s. it is usually taken to denote the state in which the experiences of self and organismic experiences are in alignment. It is thus formulated as the state of being within the relationship of counseling. Rogers argued that when it comes to congruence, the therapist shares their experience with the client, allowing the client to test, live by and experience them. With this, they can be in a good position of understanding the therapy. Due to this, congruence can denote the capacity of the therapist to be abreast and aware of the full extent of their own experience. Congruence underpins the undergoing through of empathy and unconditional positive regard (Gibbard & Hanley, 2008).
Elliot, Watson, Goldman & Greenberg (2009) illustrated how post-modern psychology explains the fact that human beings have abandoned the idea of soul and embraced the idea of selves. In addition, people used to think that culture and nature are the most important for the development of humans. Currently, postmodernists advocate for culture as the only one shaping human culture, doing away with nature. The post-modern psychologists are also based on these. They seem pressure much on people identifying their "self" by "being themselves”. Post-modern psychologists evaluate the self in terms of spotlight effect, whereby there is overestimating of how other people notice and evaluate others performance. Additionally, there is self-esteem that revolves around a person’s feelings of high or low self-worth; self-serving bias entails giving priority of a person’s goals and dealing mainly with one’s priorities. Finally, collectivism entails giving priority to the goals of a person’s goals and identity accordingly. The above aspec...