Research Paper on "Life Transition"

/>Analysis

In the video, the therapist is giving the client signs of empathy, unconditional positive regard, congruency and relating to the person. This includes unwavering eye contact. What is great is that she is using the kids names a lot. This is very positive, but taking off the therapist's hat for a minute, she only used Max's name once. This author found Dale Carnegie's approach very helpful in closing deals whereby strategic use of the person's name at the right time was critical. While this may seem to be an apples and oranges approach, Carnegie had put his finger on what is now common knowledge which is that we like to talk about ourselves and this is a way to immediately relate to a person (Carnegie, 1981 76). Using Max's more would probably have opened him up more quickly. Even though the stated goal was to help his kids and his marriage, the thing that drove him to the therapist was the conflict going on inside of him due to the marital problems. While it may seem a little weird to treat this like a sales session, we as therapists are purveyors of the goods of emotions and quicker and more smoothly we get to them, the client will more "bang for the buck" so to speak from an initial intake and will want to come back for more. Additionally to using the patient's name more often, I would concentrate on him instead of the kid's so much. While this may seem to In the humanistic-existentialist approach, Carl Rogers maintained a holistic approach to human existence that was dependent upon through and complete investigations of values, meaning, freedom personal responsibility, tragedy, spirituality, human potential, and personal self-actualization. The term humanist implies the belief that people are inherently good. Humanistic psychology looks beyond the purely medical model of psychology to open up a non-patronizing view of a person. From the readings, we see that the therapist deliberately downplays the pathological aspects of a client's life and plays up the in healthy metrics instead. One key ingredient of this approach is the meeting (especially the intake) between the client and the therapist to establish the possibilities for dialogue. The mission of humanistic therapy is to help the client themselves approach their situation with a stronger and more healthy sense of themselves (self-actualization). All of this is a part of humanistic psychology's primary motivation to be a science of human experience while still focusing on the experiential level of their lives. In other words, one must throw off the hat of the scientist and treat his client in a personal manner. The therapist had to connect with his real feelings to treat the person (Rogers, 1974, 33-34). In the opinion of this author, at least in this case, there is no science in this social science. We have to connect on a humanistic level because the person is not a chemical in a lab. Rather, they are a complex thing that has to be seen in the totality of their existence.

This striving puts in this author's mind something they read from the philosopher Maimonides where golden middle path (Rosenfeld, 2007). Tracy Knight in her article writes about her striving to find this balance. However, she also realises the "limitations" of the method. She finds it a problem to be too centered on the client:

Being primarily concerned with individuals' inner processes and a nondirective therapist approach, the person-centered framework does not address the frequent centrality of clients' social perceptions and expectations as they apply to the therapy situation, that is, their conceptions of the therapy enterprise and the ideal roles each participant is to assume within that context. The ultimate "truth" of the person-centered perspective is largely irrelevant if clients perceive the therapist as behaving in an inattentive, elusive manner (Knight, 2007, 113).

It is fine that the therapist is connecting with Max about his family. He is responding, but almost in textbook fashion. If he did not respond about his kids, he would not be considered to be normal. The key to the Carl Roger's approach is to get into the person's psyche and fish out what is there. After all, no matter what happens to him, it is what is going on in his head that matters the most and will impact all of his loved ones. It is this persona that has to be engaged fully before it can be confronted in the therapeutic manner. Connecting with his psychological essence will do this more quickly (and subtly) than the more indirect manner that we see in the video.

There are some other things that this author would do as well was indicated in the first paragraph. Additionally to using the patient's name more often, this author would concentrate on him instead of the children so much. While this may seem to Carnegie like, it pays to follow a philosophy that creates openings in people's lives. After all, it takes a lot to open someone's wallet, which is close to their heart, ergo the heart should follow this approach.

This author would hammer home the question of why Max feels that by withdrawing from the situation he will make things better for his kids. He is living in a counterfactual fantasy. If what he is saying is correct (and any good therapist would want to check this out objectively), then this author would bring up the fact that he has always backed down to his wife. That may be all right if he can take this kind of abuse. However, his kids did not choose to be where they are they deserve to have a peaceful environment to grow up in.

Obviously, the therapist has to have a balance between extremes to properly serve their client. The solution-focused therapy that Dr. Jeanne C. Watson is advocating in her article. As miss Watson says, this is more process oriented, that is more mechanical and less goal and action oriented. This approach is more subtle and takes more time to pull off. As she points out in her analysis, self-awareness is not the only goal. She points to Roger's observations that sometimes his patients were out of touch with themselves, a profound observation highlighting that the balance… READ MORE