Exploration and Attending Rogerian Influence Client Centered Therapy

Exploration and Attending

Rogerian Influence Client Centered Therapy: All people have capacity for healing and growth towards SELF ACTUALIZATION Therapist role : facilitate a relationship that is conducive to that quest Theory of Personality Development: Unconditional Positive Regard from early attachments (parents) provide the basis for healthy development

Conditions of Worth Conditional Positive regard: teaches children that their essential self is not sufficient and to replace it with that which is dictated by parents Exp: “ I won’t praise you unless you excel above all others” “I will not love you unless you allow me to control you” “I will not love you unless you take care of my feelings” “You must be intelligent and perfect to earn my love and praise” These are stark examples, most often the conditions of worth are less blatant and communicated tacitly through patterns of reward/praise.

Conditional Regard Incongruency in self-concept: leads to conflicted sense of self Clients have difficulty acknowledging their feeling, inner life Clients have difficulty knowing who they are These children have chosen to replace their true self with that which parents imposed. These children choose parental admiration over self-acceptance. Defenses: perceptual distortion (parents are not abusive, just stressed), Denial (client refuses to acknowledge the lack of time her parents devote to her)

Reintegration Key: Awareness of Distorted or Denied Experience Six Conditions that Facilitate Change towards Reintegration: Emotional connection in therapy Client experiences incongruency; anxiety (must not feel comfortable) Therapist creates a congruent and genuine relationship Therapist promotes Unconditional Positive Regard Therapist feels empathic towards client Client is able to experience the congruency, unconditional positive regard, & empathy

Goals for Exploration Stage Rapport: Therapist conveys understanding and values the client Trust: Develops through circles of congruent statements Attending: Nonverbal communication (eye contact, posture, facial expressions, head nods, space, silence) Matching clients’ grammatical style Listening : reflecting accurately Observing: attentive to clients’ nonverbal process; attunement

Nonverbal Communication 90+% of the message is in the nonverbal behavior Why? Kinesics: Body Language Cultural Variation Norms Vary Culturally, Family norms American Culture ? Southern European Culture? Middle Eastern Culture? East Asian Culture?

Nonverbal Behaviors in Therapy Facilitate Attending: Emblems: Replace words with gestures (hand over mouth) Illustrators: using gestures to accompany verbal meaning (pointing up or down for scaling feelings) Regulators: controls the flow of conversation (pauses, head nods, body shifting) REDUCES Attending: Adapters – gestures that are independent of the message (playing with pen, head scratching, etc); can be NONVERBAL LEAKAGE

Eye Contact Cross-Cultural Variation: Eye contact varies in meaning Aggression – esp. if with strangers and authority Interest – Western Culture Rude – East Asian Respect – N. American, European Disrespect/offensive (Native American, African American – with authority) Therapy: Eye contact needs to be moderated depending on the clients’ norms of behavior.

Facial Expressions Universal in Meaning: Joy, Disgust, Happiness, Anger (frown, clenched jaw, rolling eyes, etc. ) Can be Masked Artificial or forced Expression : undermines trust Smiling: communicates warmth but can be distancing in therapy

Touching in Therapy? Potentially Problematic: BEST TO AVOID Boundary Violation Potentially Exploitive Distorts nature of therapeutic relationships Consider Clients’ Presentation: Hx of Sexual or Physical Abuse Hx of disempowerment Hx of exploitation

Paraverbal Behaviors in Therapy Facilitate Attending: Tone of Voice: Strong decisive voice, soft empathic voice, matter of fact voice Which is most appropriate for the client? Soft empathic voice most facilitates exploration Grammatical Style: Match your client’s language and grammatical style. That is, keep your vocabulary at the same range; does not mean speak the same slang style as your client!

Class Exercise: Attending Client: Talk about a problem you are currently grappling with and elicit strong feelings. Therapist: Use attending behaviors to communicate involvement; observe client’s response process; Remain silent, focus solely on attending, observing, listening Observer: Ask Therapist about the following: Facial expression, eye movement, eye contact, body posture, breathing patterns, & gestures. Ask therapist to summarize what client said. (see next slide)

Class Exercise: Attending Observer (cont): Ask therapist to summarize what the client said. Did you notice shifts in conversation, volume, tone, pace of speech? Describe the client’s speaking style. (direct, clear, logical, circumstantial, casual, tangential, loose, etc. ) Did you tune out or stop listening at any point? Did anything make it hard to listen? Client: How did you feel in this process? How easy or difficult was it to share?