Compare and contrast person centered and cognitive behavioural approaches understanding and making use of the counseling relationship

Introduction

This assignment is an attempt to discuss two different types of therapy, cognitive behavioural therapy and person centered therapy and highlight some important similarities and differences between them.

Cognitive behavioural therapy

John Watson (1957) believed psychology should be concerned with the observable, as behaviour could be measured and influenced (McLeod, 2008). Skinner, (1953) cited in McLeod (2008), believed a person has a repitior of possible responses to a stimuli and they exhibits the response that is reinforces or rewarded (operant conditioning).

The central …show more content…

It recognises that favorable conditions are needed, if parents impose conditions of worth this will affect the child's self concept resulting in feelings of incongruence (Mcleod 2008). The person will lose touch with what there own experience means to them and they are more likely to be guided by eternal values.
Clients enter therapy in a state of incongruence (self concept does not fit with reality) and the role of the therapist is to reverse this situation (McLeod 2008). Rogers, (1957) cited in Mcleod (2008), encouraged clients to focus on current issues (here and now), believing that the client has the ability to heal themselves.
The therapist aims to increase the persons feeling of self worth by provide a collaborative environment in which the person doesn’t feel threatened or judged despite what they may think or say. The therapist works to understand the experience from the clients point of view; this enables the client to experience and accept more of who they are and reconnect with their own values and sense of self-worth (Mcleod 2008).
The therapists attitude will only help if the client experiences them as real and genuine, so the nature of the relationship between counsellor and individual is crucial to the success of therapy (Mcleod 2008). The therapist does not suggest how the person can change but uses the three core conditions, congruence (genuiness), acceptance and empath to allow the person to form a