This episode of the Counselling Tutor podcast kicks off with Ken and Rory exploring the roll of the Personal Develop Group. Rory presents a critique of Carl Rogers and Ken delves into idiosyncratic empathy. The episode ends with a debate about what student counsellors should be mindful of what looking for a counselling placement.

A big part of studying counselling is self growth and the “personal development group” (PD) or “process group” acts as a respectful and safe place to explore self.

Carl Rogers called the PD group an Encounter Group and towards the end of his career Rogers facilitated many such groups throughout the world.

Rory and Ken discuss the roll of the process group and they look at some of the challenges that counselling students may face within the group.

In this weeks “Counselling Theory With Rory” we look at a critique of the person centred approach to counselling. Rory looks at the arguments against Carl Roger’s work and the varying views of the various schools of therapy.

The first, is what could be classified, as a sociological critique, the idea that the very roots of Person Centred Therapy are founded in a specific country and more to the point gained prominence in specific period in history.The second argument against Rogers’s ideas is that notion of the Core conditions being necessary and sufficient for therapeutic change to occur, may not be true in some client presentationsOne of the most popular criticisms , is referred to as the ‘Masson Critique’, In 1990 Jeffery Masson PhD, a former psychotherapist published a book entitled ‘Against therapy’ .In it he critiqued all the main schools of therapy, in the chapter entitled ‘The problem with benevolence’, Masson turned his attention to the work of Carl rogers “What guarantee is there, what guarantee could there possibly be , that any given therapist is the genuine person Rogers posits him to be? The unconditional positive regard that Rogers wants the therapist to feel is something that cannot be legislated in to existence any more than can love…‘Unconditional positive regard’ is not something that seems either likely or desirable (Masson 1990 , 234 ) In other words the way of being, encapsulated in how the therapist offers the client the conditions of empathy, congruence and un-conditional positive regard, is no more than a ‘professional façade an act put on for the therapy to work Counselling courses need to focus on both the strengths and weaknesses of the therapeutic models studied so we can learn to recognise when a model may not best suit a clients presentation or need.

In “Counselling Skills With Ken”, Ken explores idiosyncratic empathy.

Empathic connection between counsellor and client is recognised as being necessary for psychological contact to take place.

Empathy is about perception and communication. First the counsellor must perceive the feelings being shared by the client and then communicate back the understanding in such a way that the client feels they have been heard.

The phrase Idiosyncratic empathy was coined by J D Bozarth. He outlined the idea that empathy was dynamic and changed dependent on the context of the therapy. This takes empathy to a deeper level, past mere reflection of words to a more personal and individualistic level that is different in each therapeutic relationship. Empathy is as varied as the different clients we are likely to meet.

In closing Ken and Rory look at counselling placements. A level 4 or higher counselling course will require a certain amount of face to face client hours from the learner. Getting a counselling placement can be challenging so we explore what to look for and offer some tips on making sure the placement opportunity is a fit for you.