person centred helping

TITLEPerson Centred Approaches

Nathan Loynes

Historical Context

We only really began to hear about any organised services for people during the industrial revolution at the turn of the twentieth century” (Kilbane & McLean in Thompson et al)

People are not ‘things’!

1. Person Centred approaches evolved in the 1960’s as a critical response to the institutional and overly materialistic methods that had developed for dealing with ‘humans’.

2. It also sought to criticise the mechanistic methods that had evolved in behavioural psychology

Carl Rogers(1902-1987)

TitleCarl Rogers(1902-1987)

Principally known as the founder of person-centred psychotherapy and almost the inventor of counselling.

TitleTo Rogers, experiential learning is equivalent to personal change and growth.

All human beings have a natural propensity to learn; the role of the teacher is to facilitate such learning.

Title

What is Humanistic Teaching?

Title1. Setting a positive climate for learning.

2. Clarifying the purposes of the learner(s)

3. Organizing and making available learning resources.

4. Balancing intellectual and emotional components of learning.

5. Sharing feelings and thoughts with learners but not dominating.

Title

What is Humanistic Learning?

Principles:

1. Significant learning takes place when the subject matter is relevant to the personal interests of the student

2. Learning which is threatening to the self (e.g., new attitudes or perspectives) are more easily assimilated when external threats are at a minimum

3. Learning proceeds faster when the threat to the self is low

4. Self-initiated learning is the most lasting and pervasive.

A thought:

“The hard part of figuring out how to teach is learning when to keep your mouth closed, which is most of the time” (Carl Rogers, 1960, cited in Joyce, 2009, p105)

Reference: Rogers, C.R. & Freiberg, H.J. (1994). Freedom to Learn (3rd Ed). Columbus, OH: Merrill/Macmillan.

http://www.infed.org/thinkers/et-rogers.htm

De Bono’s Thinking Hats

Listening

“Listening is a magnetic and strange thing, a creative force… When we are listened to, it creates us, makes us unfold and expand”. (Ueland, 1992, cited in Thompson et al 2008, p.30)

“Listening carefully often results in an unleashing of energy in the person being listened to. Person centred planning seeks to utilise that energy for movement towards a chosen direction” (Ibid, p31)

Sharing Power

“Person centred planning supports self determination…(and)… challenges power balances between people… and professionals”. (Ibid, p.32)

Examples of professional “power sharing”:

• Setting appointments around the person’s preferences and routines.

• Agreeing together the outcomes for professional support.

Conditional Positive Regard

• The behaviourist view - extrinsic rewards are most effective.

• Extrinsic rewards are rewards from the outside world, e.g. praise, money, gold stars, etc. Contrast: Intrinsic rewards - from within oneself, rather like a satisfaction of a need. This is the humanistic approach:

• Education is really about creating a need within the child, or instilling within the child self-motivation. Behaviourism is about rewards from others. Humanism is about rewarding yourself!

Unconditional Positive Regard

“I might not like what you do, but I continue to like you”.

“This is the stance adopted by the person centred practitioner”

Cf: “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me”

Rogers’ 6 Necessary Conditions for Change (Mearns & Thorne)

• 1. In psychological contact• 2. The client is anxious.• 3. The mentor is integrated into the relationship.• 4. The mentor is experiencing UPR towards the

client.• 5. The mentor can empathise with the clients

internal frame of reference.• 6The client can perceive the mentors empathy

and UPR

Breaking Patterns of Behaviour

Conclusion

• Person Centred practice developed as a reaction towards mechanistic behavioural theories of human development.

• Human beings have an innate drive towards self-actualisation.

• The goal of person centred helping is to enable self actualization.

Conclusion, continued

• Although perhaps perceived as ‘lacking teeth’ or not fully appreciative of ‘consequences’ or cause and effect, PC approaches require a great deal of discipline to maintain as they can challenge the mentors own self-concept and concepts of ‘human worth’ that have developed through conditional positive regard socialisation processes.

• Nevertheless, PC approaches can be useful if the mentor is seeking to break an impasse in the mentoring relationship, or develop an new relationship where feelings of ‘worth’ and ‘regard’ are manifest (ie self-esteem).

• PC approaches can also effectively challenge the mentee’s ‘world view’ by seeking to break ‘self-defeating’ patterns of behaviour which limit transformational change.