Developing and applying theories in a pluralistic society – The Person Centred Method

For this assignment I leave be considering Carl Rogers cardinal-on-one totalityd mode and its operation to homosexual women in a pluralist rescript, I bequeath be drawing upon the theoretic frame survey previously employ in my presentation.Carl Rogers (1902-1987) was the baseer of the mortal centred mode his theories ar associated with the Humanistic psychology it is to a fault associated with Maslow(1908-1970) and phenomenological onslaught.Phenomenology is a philosophical assessment of the soul it was authentic by Husserl (1975), the focus is on the subjective perplex. The manner involved requires the headmaster to suspend their impudence and interpretation of the clients world, thereby wholeowing the client to interpret and explore their avouch contracts and thoughts.It is master(prenominal) to consider the context in which psychological theories innovationualised and developed. Humanistic psychology developed in the industrial age and in the 50s and 60s it therefrom places great importance on the individualist as a psyche striving for independence, egotism-importance actualisation and their uttermost potential.Dryden et al (1989) ingest besides inclined an outline of the origins of the military manistic theory, that these were in the flush(p) era of the 50s and 60s in California, terms much(prenominal)(prenominal) as self actualisation, lavatory be just a slogan that is utilise without all(prenominal) real meaning, when contrasted between the prosperous, optimistic inn of California, it washstand stimulate a contrastive meaning for those people that argon in poverty argon unemployed or homeless.The judgment of self actualisation which is considered prerequisite by psychologists much(prenominal) as Rogers throw out be explored in relation to homosexual women and how society conceptualises them.Homosexuality has been steaded by psycho healers and psychiatrists as a mental illness, and was considered as much(prenominal) until 1974 when the Ameri shtup Psychiatric Association free it, in time there was considerable electrical resistance to this from psychformer(a)apists, psychoanalysts, and medical stumper psychiatrists ( Mcleod J, 1998), in-fact psychformer(a)apy was theatrical roled to refine to cure homosexuality.Although the work of Rogers has encouraged progress and has been associated with drive elbow room a authority from the previous medical sticker of mental illness, one the draw backs of Rogerian soulfulness centred therapy out lined by Ivey et al (1997) is that it is a highly verbal technique, which is over-concerned with the denseer meaning of manners rather than tackling problems and finding solutions. indeed it whitethorn not be suited to all clients especially those with mental health problems and so forthRogers therapy kn take in as person centred and non-directive aimed to diverseness the balance of power towards that of the client, and to treat the individual as a client rather than a patient.However this point underside be debated as to whether the balance of power is really shifted and the control is with the recipient, rather than the provider of the therapy. critical review of therapies, such as Rogerian, psychodynamic and cognitive behavioral according to Ivey et al (1997) is that they place responsibility for the problem with the client rather than considering structural, governmental and environmental issues that ar relevant to the clients find.The person centred method in relation to sapphic women births to be applied in a way that is sensitive to them, therefore if the counsel is male he will need to be aware that he does not impose his own assumptions and interpretation onto the client, firstly about his ideas about womens roles in spite of appearance society and as nurturers, wives and m early(a)s, secondly uninspired perceptions about sapphicism.Feminists criticise models of the destiny relatio nship which have their origins in the white center(a) class male ideology, they relate this to the way a patriarchal society oppresses women into subservient roles, Banks (1999) besides questions whether male healers can substantiate a female clients experiences in a male dominated society.Hetro-sexual women can in any case oppress homosexuals through and through controvert assumptions and homophobia that can bakshish to imposing our own set and assumptions about lesbian relationships, McLeod (1998) gives a right example where a female healer tried to actively encourage her lesbian client to date men.The person centred approach places feature emphasis on the drill of the core conditions, genuiness, compressed controlling sham and empathy, and its view of human world nature is official and optimistic in comparison to Freudian psychology. The core conditions out lined by Rogers plays an essential part in construction a therapeutic relationship, between the therapist and the client.From my lord experience when working(a) as education cordial worker relating to a teenage pregnancy, the girl was fifteen eld old and Asian. I was surprised when she utter that she thought she was a lesbian, but working with the young person and applying Rogers core conditions, of genuiness, empathy and unconditional positive move, enabled me to realize that people need to discover their sexuality and who the real person is society can place impel on young people to conform to the norms of a white, straight person society and thereby place conditions of worth on them. peremptory positive regard which is accepting the clients experiences without popular opinion is essential in progressing a therapeutic relationship, however if the counsellor has negligent negative, homophobic assumptions about homosexuality, from the society that he/she lives in then these whitethorn consciously or unconsciously be transferred on to the client. Humanistic psychotherapist Don Clark (1987) has explicit that therapeutic neutrality is impossible to maintain, since we have taken on board societys negative stereotypes of homosexuality, he has stated that it is presumptuous to withdraw that counsellors who have been taught about valuable concepts such as unconditional positive regard are able to apply them with alert-lesbian clients if they are not aware of their own straightaway or homophobia biases (Davies and Neal,1996)A lesbian women may for example find it difficult to amount to terms with her own sexuality, because of negative stereotypes and disgrace associated with it, Lesbian women are raised to view themselves as a half person without a man, they may see marriage as a door to individualized contractth, adult hood, freedom, and motherhood. ( Davies and Neal,1996) the counsellor may therefore need to enable the lesbian charwoman to restore her self wish and her concept of being a woman, the traditional female roles, as mother and wife m ay not be stereotypes that she aspires to.The push of Homophobia on the self concept of a lesbian woman will spend a penny conditions of worth, therefore lesbians may feel they are not worthy individuals if they are not heterosexual, do not have children, have a male partner and take as society expects women to do.Bradshaw (1998) has defined the concept of Toxic bewilder in relation to internalised homophobia within the self-concept. This notion cannot be fully soundless without the use of a more eclecticist approach to counselling because it states that the self concept can be place, fragile and a traitorously self concept can develop, through denial, this may be conscious or unconscious but it will be due to the fear of discovery.Toxic shame can lead to the development of defences which can lead to alcohol, substance abuse, suicide attempts, distancing oneself from others, underachievement or over-achievement etc.Being functional or dysfunctional human being is in particul ar relevant to how lesbian womens individuality and self concept develops, beclimax functional human being requires being able to use ones own organismal valuing process, which maximises the potential to grow and become the true self. The dysfunctional human being lives to meet the values of others to subscribe love and respect. Coming out as a lesbian therefore is fraught with anxiety and even danger of rejection by family, friends and community.The primary question is will they be valued by society if they come out as Lesbian? The organismic need to come out and be accepted as a lesbian should be facilitated by the therapist to enable the client to accept their real individuation however the client should be localise to do this in her own time. Therefore acceptance from the therapist or social worker or other professional is an essential first step.However therapists as well as other professionals such as socialworkers can soft oppress lesbian women, an example from my feat ure out experience when working with the Education offbeat service in a illustration where the child was not attending give lessons regularly, during the home visit the client revealed that her relationship with her husband had broken down and that she had started a lesbian relationship, this immediately led me to make the assumption that the childs non-attendance may be link to this new relationship.On reflection I noticed how easy it was to jump to a conclusion relating to same sex relationships and would I have made the same assumption if the relationship was with a partner of the foeman sex?Drawing from my own experience I notice how easily professionals from circumstances organisations can make assumptions that can lead to discrimination and oppression, when working in a refuge for vulnerable women that had been the victims of domestic violence, a Black woman with four children came to the centre it was assumed automatically by the atom of staff taking down her history that the abusive partner was male. The woman found that she had to explain that she was in a lesbian relationship, and the abusive partner was another woman.This is a good example where social assumptions and stereotypes where women are perceived to be submissive, passive individuals that are the victims of domestic violence rather than the perpetrators of it. It also shows that assumptions are made by professionals regarding relationships that a partner automatically means individual of the opposite sex.The person centred method when applied to lesbians need to take into account the experience of the individual as a woman and also as lesbian her experience needs to be valued and respected, this method if used effectively according to Rogers, can build up the self -worth and self acceptance.However Davies and Neal (1996) state that few British training courses in counselling or psychotherapy cover working with lesbian, laughable and bi-sexual people. They propose a model of gay af firmative therapy this should be incorporated into other theoretical methods such as human-centred and psychodynamic etc.Gay affirmative therapy is not an independent system of psychotherapy. Rather it represents a special present of psychological intimacy which challenges the traditional viewsDavies and Neal (1996)Gay affirmative therapy is an eclectic model that incorporates both theories.2 definitive factors pointed out by Davies and Neal is firstly whether the counsellor is competent to counsel the homosexual individual, and secondly that it is important for the counsellor to examine their own ideas about values, moral and purport demeanors when working with clients who are culturally different. This is the important factor of genuiness or congruence that Rogers has defined, Kus (1990), states that a therapist should be open and honest about ad hominem prejudices that they hold about homosexuality, and refer clients on, however congruence can be much more difficult in pract ice, if the therapist or the client with holds information from each other in the relationship.Empathy is also an important core condition that was noted by Rogers with in the person centred approach, it is a deep perceiveing of the clients personal perspective of their problems, however it can be argued whether a heterosexual person can fully understand what it feels like to be a lesbian, besides can a white person fully understand what it feels like to be black? This question exposes the difficulty of cross-cultural counselling, especially if the counsellor or therapist is unaware of the their own prejudice for e.g. non-verbal behaviour, eubstance language or are stolid about the issues for lesbian women.However it is important for professionals such as therapists not to assume that all lesbians need counselling for coming to terms with their sexuality, counselling may be required for a wide range of other issues as with hetero sexual women. R.J, Kus (1990) states that one of the most frequent criticism concerning aid professionals is that they get fixated upon the homosexual life style and lose sight of the issues the help is being sought for, this means that the therapist assumes that the life style is the problem, despite the client stating other issues that help is sought for.The Humanistic perspective has contributed to social work practice by providing valuable criteria working in anti-oppressive and anti-discriminatory way with service users, the most useful ploughshare is the person centred approach, which facilitates building of genuine helping relationship and listening to the service user. It also acknowledges that the client is expert on his/her particular problems.The person centred method has many positive aspects that can be used by social workers and other helping professionals, and aspects of this model can be incorporated with other theories to provide an eclectic model that can be used effectively by them.For example the humanistic p erson centred method is a valuable tool to build warm, respecting and trusting relationship with clients such as lesbian women, it will facilitate judgement their present situation, and how they view them selves within society and explore their organismic needs. Aspects of the psychodynamic approach may be useful in the change the client to explore their unconscious feelings and motives, whilst multicultural perspectives, acknowledge the cultural background and identity of the individual.I think that for anti-discriminatory social work practice that can empower the individual an eclectic model may be the most useful approach in a helping relationship.