What Is Counselling?

It is a process designed to help the client resolve conscious conflicts with the focus on setting goals and problem solving. A wide variety of techniques may be used, mostly verbal communication. Counsellors assist the client to focus on constructive behaviours which will help the client reach specific goals. A counsellor's training background may be from a variety of fields, including education, health care, and psychology.

The approach to counselling we use at the Advanced Therapy Practice is based on a model developed by the world famous American Counsellor, Carl Rogers.

He originally called his method non-directive, because he felt that the therapist should not lead the client, but rather be there for the client while the client directs the progress of the therapy.  As he became more experienced, he realized that, as "non-directive" as he was, he still influenced his client by his very "non-directiveness!"  In other words, clients look to therapists for guidance, and will find it even when the therapist is trying not to guide.

So he changed the name to client-centered counselling.  He still felt that the client was the one who should say what is wrong, find ways of improving, and determine the conclusion of therapy -- his therapy was still very "client-centered" even while he acknowledged the impact of the therapist

Nowadays, though the terms non-directive and client-centered are still used, most people just call it Rogerian therapy.  One of the phrases that Rogers used to describe his therapy is "supportive, not reconstructive," and he uses the analogy of learning to ride a bicycle to explain:  When you help a child to learn to ride a bike, you can't just tell them how.  They have to try it for themselves.  And you can't hold them up the whole time either.  There comes a point when you have to let them go.  If they fall, they fall, but if you hang on, they never learn.

It's the same in therapy.  If independence (autonomy, freedom with responsibility) is what you are helping a client to achieve, then they will not achieve it if they remain dependent on you, the therapist.  They need to try their insights on their own, in real life beyond the therapist's office!  An authoritarian approach to therapy may seem to work marvellously at first, but ultimately it only creates a dependent person.

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