A D P C A

The Association for the Development of the Person Centered Approach.

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Volume 8. Number 2 (2001)

THE ORIGINAL CONDITIONS:  A CLIENT’S PERSPECTIVE OF THERAPY - Ellen Mriga, B.A. - Minneapolis, MN

Empathic understanding allows clients to contact the inner knowing of their childhood wisdom.  The person-centered approach (PCA) can be viewed as offering an alternative therapeutic approach for those people, including me, who were “successfully” thrown off their track by developmentally inappropriate attitudes and conditions propagated by mainstream culture.  The PCA can be observed as facilitating an individual’s shift back to the  natural way of being that was denied him rather than as a method of  "curing" the harm that was done.  Although I have not experienced person-centered therapy as a client, its emphasis on empathic understanding, in particular, can be understood as restorative to the child thrown-off in her raising.  Because  one's inner wisdom becomes hidden in the absence of the necessary attitudes and conditions, it can be discovered when those conditions are provided.

AUDIO TAPE PRACTICE IN EMPATHY - Eric D. Macklin, B.S. - Bucks Association for Retarded Citizens, Program Manager. -  Quakertown, PA. USA.

This presentation of a semester-long counselor-client relationship between the author and his in-class client was submitted as part of as a requirement for and introductory masters training course in counseling.  It is being published following the faculty member’s recommendation that it represents excellent achievement in demonstrating empathetic understanding, process, and outcome.  A broader description of the course from which the presentation derives from can be reviewed in Hamilton, Carlson, and Sabol (2001, this issue, pp. 71-97).  All participants in the below exercise have provided informed consent to publish this work.

VIDEO TAPE PRACTICE IN EMPATHY - Stephanie Hontz, B.A. - M.Ed. Student Affairs Student in Higher Education Kutztown University. PA. USA.

This presentation of a semester-long counselor-client relationship between the author and her in-class client was submitted as part of as a requirement for and introductory masters training course in counseling.  It is being published following the faculty member’s recommendation that it represents excellent achievement in demonstrating empathetic understanding, process, and outcome.  A broader description of the course from which the presentation derives from can be reviewed in Hamilton, Carlson, and Sabol (2001, this issue, pp. 71-97).  All participants in the below exercise have provided informed consent to publish this work.

EMPATHY EXPERIMENT REPORT: A MOTHER AND A FRIEND - Karen Breidinger, B.A. - Graduate Assistant - Kutztown University. PA. USA.

Responding empathetically has proven to be both a unique and educational experience during the course of this exercise.  After quite some consideration, I decided to choose a family member, my mother, and a friend to test the reactions and results of my empathetic responses.  The first participant was my friend.  I usually address her as “Steelie.”  She is a long-time college friend who has a bolstering sense of humor.  She resides relatively close to me and enjoys spending time with her friends on the weekends.  We are of the same age and have many of the same interests.  She and I were both college athletes and have endured and shared many of the same memories that result from this experience.  The second participant was my mother.  She is a 53 year-old mother of four, grandmother to two, owns and runs a business, and a household.  She is a strong-willed, stubborn Italian woman, and at the same time she is very nurturing and caring.  She has always been moving and going at 115 miles per hour since I can remember.  She has never missed a single event in any of her children or grandchildren’s lives, but sometimes she pays the price and can become very frustrated and angry.  Naturally, I felt she could benefit from some empathetic understanding.  Neither participant was informed of this exercise, as I thought it would be more meaningful for all parties involved.  I do, however feel that my mother began to become aware of what I was attempting to do.

EMPATHY EXPERIMENT REPORT: A LIFELONG FRIEND AND A CHILD CLIENT - Lori Meitzler, B.S. - Pinebrook Services for Children and Youth -  Allentown, PA. USA.

In doing this empathy experiment I had chosen two potential clients originally.  As the experiment began to progress, only one of the original clients remained part of the experiment.  This was due to the fact that one of my clients at work seemed to be a prime candidate for an empathy experiment and the other initial client did not seem to be very cooperative with “an experiment.” The relationship that I had with each of these clients in this experiment is very different.  One client I have known all my life and the other is a child on my caseload at work whom I have only known for about two and a half months.

EMPATHY EXPERIMENT REPORT: A SISTER AND A BOYFRIEND - Katherine  Martin, B.S. -  M.Ed. Elementary School Counseling Student -  Kutztown University. PA. USA.

The two individuals whom I selected for this experiment were both very close to me, but in two very different ways.  The first person that I chose was my sister, MaryBridget, who is seventeen and a senior in high school.  The second person I chose was my boyfriend Ryan who I have been dating for three years.  I obviously have known MaryBridget for her entire life and I have known Ryan for about four years.  At first Ryan and I were just friends, I met him in college.  Then after about a year of knowing him, we started dating and have been ever since. 

BOOK REVIEW - Family, Self, and Psychotherapy:  A Person-Centered Perspective - Ned L. Gaylin - Herefordshire, UK: PCCS Books (2001) - 174 pages ISBN # 1-898059-36-5. Reviewed by: Paula Plageman.

The field of family therapy has become extremely well established.  As a graduate student specializing in Marital and Family therapy, I have learned many of the theories designed to help assess and determine interventions with families.  The structural, strategic, and eco-systemic approaches have been developed specifically for this specialty.  The paradigm shift in conceptualization that these theories require is a big leap from working with individual issues.  That is not to say that theories designed to work with individuals cannot be modified when the family is the client.  Indeed, it is the creativity required because each case is unique that allows us as therapists to continually learn and refine our skills.

BOOK REVIEW -  Family, Self, and Psychotherapy: A Person-Centered Perspective - Gaylin, Ned L. - Herefordshire, UK: PCCS Books (2001) - 174 pages ISBN # 1-898059-36-5.

What a pleasure to read this beautifully written and edited volume of previously published articles, presented papers, as well as revised and exclusive chapters written by Ned L. Gaylin.  The author waltzes personally and academically through key areas of Person-Centered family therapy and being.  He argues with intellect and passion about his struggles, his thoughts, his feelings, his existence as a genuine person-centered family member, academic, clinician, and human being.

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