Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Control In Therapy

As you may or may not remember I am still semi in the process of deciding my theoretical orientation for counseling. I am 99% sure that I am going to be a Gestalt/Reality therapist with a little solution focused, cognitive and existentialism and Adlerian thrown in my mix as needed when clients deem it appropriate.  I have been reading a book called Life Techniques in Gestalt Therapy. I just started it a few days ago and I came to a section about control in therapy that got me thinking about control in the therapeutic relationship and how it works/doesn't work.

If we stop for a moment and consider the very nature of the relationship between a therapist and their client we will see the "control" although I am not sure I like to call it that. A counselor in essence must be in control and the client must be willing to allow the counselor to be. I do not mean control in the typical sense but a client must believe the counselor knows what they are doing and has to believe that the suggestions and advice given will lead towards the clients self professed goals. So by control this is what I mean.

This might come as a shock but I never looked at it this way until I read this chapter. Never. Not once did I consider the counselor having the need to control the counseling relationship and until I read this chapter I most likely would have said the client should be in control. Now I am not so sure about that. So this chapter has me considering how control will play into the counseling relationships I form with my clients...interesting.

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