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From: Ellen-Marie Silverman
Date: 04 Oct 2012
Time: 19:24:55 -0500
Remote Name: 76.230.146.138
Hello, Francisco. Thank you for your interest in the topic of client readiness for therapy. It is a very basic one and needs to be considered from a variety of perspectives and in varying degrees of depth and in a continuing way client-by-client. /// I want to take a little time responding to the concept "counseling approach," but first I'd like to direct you to my reply to Elizabeth Koonst (about two prior to yours) where the comments I made are basically what I would make to you. So take a look at it, and if you don't find that it satisfies your need to know about working with a client who comes to therapy without the desire and willingness to participate as fully in therapy as you believe is required for therapy to help facilitate desired change, then please feel free to ask a follow-up question if you care to. /// Now, about "counseling approach:" You know even after training to be a transactional analysis counselor and even after teaching a course to graduate and undergraduate students majoring in speech-language pathology on counseling and even after working working as a therapist, I do not know what a "Counseling Approach" is, should be, or could be. That may sound a little strange, maybe even a little harsh or critical. But I'm not criticizing you. What I am saying is that I prefer a more descriptive account of how to relate as clinician to a client, and that is, for me, to view myself as an educator. /// I have embraced the philosophy of my trasactional analysis trainers who stated, "The power is in the patient." (In fact, there was a book written with that slogan as its title pubished in the '70's.) So, I structure the time I spend with new clients seeking my service and, with those I work with thereafter, to cultivate their ability to make necessary, helpful decisions for themselves about whether or not they want to participate in a program of therapy with me, and how they want to participate. This, of course, is the starting point for mutual decision-making between the two of us. /// I long ago eschewed the authoritarian approach favored by some clinicians who believe they are the ones to make decisions about the client's participation in therapy, not the client himself or herself. I feel comfortable working with clients as an educator who respects and cultivates the client's ability to make and carry-through with helpful decisions for themselves. /// Well, Francisco, this is the approach I have followed. You might want to consider trying it out if you haven't already. Thank you for your question. Ellen-Marie Silverman