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D240 Counselling: exploring fear and sadness
TMA02: Compare and contrast the person-centred and mindfulness approaches to understanding and working with fear and sadness. Which of these two approaches do you feel more drawn to and why?
This essay will consider two therapeutic approaches which have both emerged relatively recently in mainstream Western culture: the person-centred approach, which is considered to be one variant of humanistic psychotherapy, and mindfulness, which draws on the philosophy of
Buddhism. I will present a summary of both approaches followed by critical reflection upon their respective origins, similarities, differences and usage in practice.
Carl Rogers, originator of the person-centred approach, conceived it in the late 1940s at a time when the therapeutic establishment was dominated by psychoanalysis, which holds that psychological problems result from childhood fixations and biological drives buried in the unconscious mind, and behaviourism, which focuses on the animalistic mechanism of habits developing as a reaction to stimuli. Rogers disagreed with these approaches’ conception of the client as ‘weak’ or ‘broken’ and the therapist as the expert with the tools to ‘fix’ him (Casemore,
2011).
Conversely, the person-centred approach is thought to be rooted in three interrelated philosophies (Casemore, 2011): humanism, existentialism and phenomenology. Humanism is fundamentally a belief in the dignity and worth of each individual, and that each person is engaged in a struggle towards ‘self-actualisation’, i.e. fulfilment of potential in some way, which should be acknowledged and respected. Existentialism holds that there is no objective truth or meaning and that humans are therefore ‘condemned to be free’, with total responsibility for creating meaning in our individual lives, and phenomenology is a related method of social/philosophical enquiry concerned with understanding the subjective reality experienced by each individual.
Drawing on
TMA02: Compare and contrast the person-centred and mindfulness approaches to understanding and working with fear and sadness. Which of these two approaches do you feel more drawn to and why?
This essay will consider two therapeutic approaches which have both emerged relatively recently in mainstream Western culture: the person-centred approach, which is considered to be one variant of humanistic psychotherapy, and mindfulness, which draws on the philosophy of
Buddhism. I will present a summary of both approaches followed by critical reflection upon their respective origins, similarities, differences and usage in practice.
Carl Rogers, originator of the person-centred approach, conceived it in the late 1940s at a time when the therapeutic establishment was dominated by psychoanalysis, which holds that psychological problems result from childhood fixations and biological drives buried in the unconscious mind, and behaviourism, which focuses on the animalistic mechanism of habits developing as a reaction to stimuli. Rogers disagreed with these approaches’ conception of the client as ‘weak’ or ‘broken’ and the therapist as the expert with the tools to ‘fix’ him (Casemore,
2011).
Conversely, the person-centred approach is thought to be rooted in three interrelated philosophies (Casemore, 2011): humanism, existentialism and phenomenology. Humanism is fundamentally a belief in the dignity and worth of each individual, and that each person is engaged in a struggle towards ‘self-actualisation’, i.e. fulfilment of potential in some way, which should be acknowledged and respected. Existentialism holds that there is no objective truth or meaning and that humans are therefore ‘condemned to be free’, with total responsibility for creating meaning in our individual lives, and phenomenology is a related method of social/philosophical enquiry concerned with understanding the subjective reality experienced by each individual.
Drawing on
References: Ballantine Dykes, F. (2010) ‘Humanistic approaches’. In Barker, M. Vossler, A. and Langdridge, D. www.manubazzano.com (accessed 29th July 2013) Casemore, R Open University (2010a) D240 Counselling: exploring fear and sadness, ‘Audiovisual material excerpt 12: Mindfulness’, Milton Keynes, The Open University Open University (2010b) D240 Counselling: exploring fear and sadness, ‘Audiovisual material excerpt 9: Basic person-centred concepts’, Milton Keynes, The Open University Pinker, S. (2011) The Better Angels of Our Nature. London, Penguin Roth, A