CLIENT-CENTERED THERAPY
Nathaniel J. Raskin, PhD     

Purpose of the Series

The American Psychological Association Psychotherapy Video Series presents distinguished psychotherapists of different theoretical orientations demonstrating their own ways of conducting psychotherapy in entire sessions.

Designed for clinical training as well as for continuing education, the videotapes show spontaneous and unscripted sessions, typically representing the third or fourth session in an ongoing course of psychotherapy and typically lasting 40 to 45 minutes. The clients are portrayed by professional actors on the basis of real case materials.

The session you will view attempts to capture the feminist theoretical approach and clinical style in as close to real circumstances as possible.

Toward this end, a number of steps were taken to ensure that both the therapist and the client were anchored, conceptually and experientially, in the clinical material, each other, and previous sessions. First, therapists indicated the type of client and clinical problem with which they typically work or believed allowed the best demonstration of their approach. Second, a client profile was independently developed that included demographic data, clinical history, presenting problem, precipitating event, and other background information. Third, the therapist reviewed this profile for its representativeness and then described what he or she typically would do and would have hoped to accomplish in the first two or three sessions. Fourth, professional actors adept at improvisation were immersed in this clinical history and presentation through formal role induction of the actors by an independent practitioner, to assure that the actor had both a cognitive understanding and an experiential sense of what the client was struggling with, thinking, and feeling. Finally, the actor (in role) and the therapist reviewed the content and process of their earlier sessions immediately before the videotaping so that they were both anchored in the context of the course to date of the particular therapeutic relationship.Client-Centered Therapy

As a client-centered therapist, Raskin tries to convey to his client implicitly,and occasionally explicitly, this cluster of attitudes: "I believe I can be of most help to you by offering you a relationship in which I try to understand, in your own terms, your problems, your feelings, your hopes and fears, the way you see yourself and others. As we go along, you will be able to correct me when I am off the mark. Working with you in this way, I hope to help you clarify the problems that brought you here and how you might resolve them, to come to know yourself more fully, and to become more of the person you want to be. I see myself more as a companion in this search than the traditional expert who figures out what is wrong with you. I won't try to change you to fit my model of what you should be, but will respect your values. I'll look to you to bring up whatever you choose in each session, to decide how often you would like to meet, and when you would like to stop coming."

Client-centered therapy was put forward by Carl Rogers in 1940 as an alternative to the existing orientations that relied on guidance or interpretation. Using electronically recorded cases, citing a growing body of research, and eschewing diagnosis, Rogers provided evidence that an orderly process of client self-discovery and actualization occurred in response to the provision by the therapist of a consistent empathic understanding of the client's frame of reference, based on an attitude of acceptance and respect. This was later refined into Rogers' triad of the "necessary and sufficient conditions" of empathy, congruence, and unconditional positive regard, which were investigated in hundreds of research projects. Many of these research projects reported a correlation between these therapist-offered conditions and such client outcomes as the expansion of self-awareness; the enhancement of self-esteem; a greater reliance on self for one's values and standards; and a more free, spontaneous, and open mode of experiencing one's self and the world.

This videotaped example illustrates the consistent provision of client-centered empathy that makes this approach distinctive. This consistency is maintained when the client pleads for guidance; the therapist conveys his appreciation of the intensity of her wish and also makes explicit his conviction that there is no expert solution to her dilemma, and his willingness to stay with her in the difficult struggle of obtaining answers that are right for her. In this interview, "Cynthia" seems to respond positively to this approach in several ways. She takes the initiative generally in the exploration of her problems. She sees possible relationships between different areas of her life, such as her friendships with men and the way she grew up. She explores her relationships with her parents, sees a possible similarity between her own childhood and her father's, and wonders about the quality of the relationship that exists between her parents. She also arrives at the conclusion that she may be able to arrive at her own answers. The fact that "Cynthia" is an actress who has been provided with specific background information and the basis for a script may contribute to the fact that her exploration of issues during the interview is largely lateral; there is more "side-to-side" movement than forward progress. Although interviews with real clients using this approach, including demonstration interviews, may exhibit some of this "I suddenly remember this..."or "I wonder if this could be connected with that" behavior, they usually include a more consistent pursuit of unresolved issues, such as the reason for Cynthia's sudden outburst of anger.


ORDER CODE: APA4310250-V
VIDEO