Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T03:33:06.777Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Developing Adaptive Change Capabilities Through Client-Centred Therapy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 January 2013

Terry Bowles
Terry Bowles*
Affiliation:
Melbourne Graduate School of Education, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VICAustralia
*
Address for correspondence: Terry Bowles PhD FAPS, Senior Lecturer, Postgraduate Educational and Developmental Psychology, Melbourne Graduate School of Education, University of MelbourneVIC 3010, Australia. Email: [email protected]
Get access

Abstract

Clients undergo change as a function of engaging in a therapeutic experience. To date, little research into the residual effects of therapy have been completed using client-centred therapy. Some therapies provide didactic experiences to gain and practise skills and understandings so they can be recalled after the conclusion of therapy. Other therapies preclude such interventions and instead emphasise the insights of the client and the transformative therapeutic alliance to facilitate change. This research is an investigation of the possibility that client-centred therapy provides clients with experiences to allow insight into, and understanding of processes to optimally facilitate change through therapy. The aims of the research were to establish: whether factors known to enhance change in therapy increased for clients from the beginning to the end of therapy; whether the clinical group (n = 28; intervention) scores differed from a nonclinical group at both time points (n = 22; control); and establish whether gender differences were present. Analyses showed that nonclinical respondents’ scores at Times 1 and 2 were consistently higher on all factors compared with clinical respondents. The findings indicated that scores did not vary significantly between Time 1 and 2 for either the clinical or the nonclinical groups of respondents. The state/trait-like characteristics of the factors are discussed in reference to their application in therapeutic and applied settings.

Keywords

client-centred therapyadaptive changehumanistic therapytherapeutic experience
Type
Standard Papers
Information
Behaviour Change , Volume 29 , Issue 4 , December 2012 , pp. 258 - 271
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2013

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Andrews, G. (1999). Efficacy, effectiveness and efficiency in mental health delivery. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 33, 316–322.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ankuta, G.Y., & Abeles, N. (1993). Client satisfaction, clinical significance, and meaningful change in psychotherapy. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 24 (1), 70–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Armitage, C.J., & Arden, M.A. (2002). Exploring discontinuity patterns in the transtheoretical model of planned behaviour. British Journal of Health Psychology, 7, 89–103.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bowles, T. (2006). The Adaptive Change model: An advance on the transtheoretical model of change. The Journal of Psychology: Interdisciplinary and Applied, 140 (5), 439–457.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bowles, T. (2010). Readiness to adaptively change under three conditions: Clinical, careers, and natural change situations. Australian Journal of Psychology, 62 (4), 216–226.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bowles, T., & Fallon, B.J. (2006). Changing and coping and the stimulus to change from an adolescent perspective: A replication of adult research. Australian Journal of Psychology, 58, 8–16.Google Scholar
Bozarth, J. D. (2002). Nondirectivity in the preson-centered approach. Critique of Kahn's critique. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 42 (2), 78–83.Google Scholar
Bridle, C., Riemsma, R.P., Pattenden, J., Sowden, A.J., Mather, L., Watt, I.S., & Walker, A. (2005). Systematic review of the effectiveness of health behaviour interventions based on the transtheoretical model. Psychology and Health, 20, 283–301.Google Scholar
Budd, R., & Hughes, I. (2009). The dodo bird verdict — Controversial, inevitable and important: A commentary on 30 years of meta-analyses. Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, 16, 510–522.Google Scholar
Burnett, P.C., & Van Dorssen, L. (2000). What clients learn from counselling? International Journal of Advancement in Counselling, 22, 241–254.Google Scholar
Campbell, H. (2008). Therapeutic process and outcome: The interplay of research. Australian Journal of Guidance and Counselling, 18 (1), 47–52.Google Scholar
Cohen, R., Montague, P., Nathanson, L., & Swerdlik, M. (1988). Psychological testing: An introduction to tests and measurement. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Publishing.Google Scholar
Crisp, R. (2010). A person-centred perspective to counselling in educational and vocational agencies. Australian Journal of Guidance and Counselling, 20 (1), 22–30.Google Scholar
Daniels, J., & Wearden, A. J. (2010). Socialization to the model: The active component in the therapeutic alliance? A preliminary study. Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy, 39, 221–227.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Etter, J. F. & Sutton, S. (2002). Assessing ‘stages of change’ in current and former smokers. Addiction, 97, 1171–1182.Google Scholar
Flatt, N., & King, N. (2008). Building the case for brief psychointerventions in the treatment of specific phobias in children and adolescents. Behaviour Change, 25 (4), 191–200.Google Scholar
Gibbard, I., & Baker, N. (2008). Person-centred therapy in primary care. Therapy Today, 19 (8)14–17.Google Scholar
Gibbard, I., & Hanley, T. (2008). A five-year evaluation of the effectiveness of person-centred counselling in routine clinical proactice in primary care. Counselling and Psychotherapy Research, 8 (4), 215–222.Google Scholar
Greenberg, L., & Rhodes, R. (1991). Emotion in the change process. In Curtis, R. & Stricker, G. (Eds.), How people change in and outside therapy (pp. 39–59). New York: Plenum Press.Google Scholar
Godin, G., Lambert, L., Owen, N., Nolin, B., & Prud'holmme, D. (2004). Stages of motivational readiness for physical activity: A comparison of different algorithms of classification. British Journal of Health Psychology, 9, 253–267.Google Scholar
Grimley, D., Prochaska, J., Velicer, W., Blais, M., & DiClemente, C. (1994). The transtheoretical model of change. In Brinthaupt, T. & Lipka, R. (Eds.), Changing the self: Philosophies, techniques, and experiences (pp. 201–228). New York: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
Herzog, T.A. (2005). When popularity outstrips the evidence: Comment on West (2005). Addiction, 100, 1040–1050.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Herzog, T.A., Abrams, D.B., Emmons, K.M., Linnan, L.A., & Shadel, W.G. (1999). Do processes of change predict smoking stage movements? A prospective analysis of the transtheoretical model. Health Psychology, 18, 223–375.Google Scholar
Josefowitz, N., & Myran, D. (2005). Towards a person-centred cognitive behaviour therapy. Counselling Psychology Quarterly, 18 (4), 329–336.Google Scholar
Kahn, E. (1999). A critique of nondirectivity in the person-centered approach. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 39 (4), 94–110.Google Scholar
Kahn, E. (2002). A way to help people by holding theory lightly: A response to Bozarth, Merry, Brodley, and Sommerbeck. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 42 (2), 88–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaplan, R.M., & Saccuzzo, D.P. (1989). Psychological testing: Principles, applications, and issues (2nd ed.). Pacific Grove CA: Brooks/Cole Publishing.Google Scholar
Kensit, D.A. (2000). Rogerian Theory: A Critique of the Effectiveness of Pure Client-Centred Therapy. Counselling Psychology Quarterly 13 (4), 345–351.Google Scholar
Langhoff, C., Baer, T., Zubraegal, D., & Linden, M. (2008). Therapist-patient alliance, patient-therapist alliance, mutual therapeutic alliance, therapist–patient concordance, and outcome of CBT in GAD. Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy: An International Quarterly, 22 (1), 68–79.Google Scholar
Littel, J.H., & Girvin, H. (2002). Stages of change. A critique. Behavior Modification, 26, 223–273.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Luborsky, L., Rosenthal, R., Diguer, L., Andrusyna, T.P., Berman, J.S., Levitt, J.T., Seligman, D.A., & Krause, E.D. (2002). The dodo bird verdict is alive and well — mostly. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 9, 2–12.Google Scholar
Merry, T., & Brodley, B.T. (2002). The nondirective attitude in client-centered therapy: A response to Kahn. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 42 (2), 66–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Myers, S. (2000). Empathic listening: Reports on the experience of being heard. Journal of Humanistic Psychology 40 (2), 148–173.Google Scholar
Nunnally, J.C. (1978). Psychometric theory (2nd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Prochaska, J., & DiClemente, C. (1984). The transtheoretical approach: Crossing the traditional boundaries of therapy. Homewood, IL: Dow Jones/Irwin.Google Scholar
Prochaska, J., DiClemente, C., & Norcross, J. (1992). In search of how people change: Applications to addictive behaviors. American Psychologist, 47, 1102–1114.Google Scholar
Prochaska, J., & Norcross, J. (1994). Systems of psychotherapy: A transtheoretical analysis (3rd ed.). Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole.Google Scholar
Prochaska, J., Norcross, J., & DiClemente, C., (1995). Changing for good: A revolutionary six-stage program for overcoming bad habits and moving your life positively forward. New York: Harper Collins.Google Scholar
Rogers, C. (1951). Client-centred therapy: Its current practice, implications and theory. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.Google Scholar
Rogers, C.R. (1957). The necessary and sufficient conditions of therapeutic change. Journal of Consulting Psychology, 21, 97–103.Google Scholar
Rogers, C.R. (1961). On becoming a person. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.Google Scholar
Scaturo, D.J. (2010). A tripartitie learning conceptualization of psychotherapy: The therapeutic alliance, technical interventions, and relearning. American Journal of Psychotherapy, 64 (1), 1–27.Google Scholar
Segan, C.J., Borland, R., & Greenwood, K.M. (2004). What is the right thing at the right time? Interactions between stages and processes of change among smokers who make a quit attempt. Health Psychology, 23, 86–93.Google Scholar
Seligman, M. (1993). What you can change and what you can't: The complete guide to successful self-improvement. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.Google Scholar
Sommerbeck, L. (2002). Person-centreded of eclectic? A response to Kahn. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 42, 84–87.Google Scholar
Stubbs, J.P., & Bozarth, J.D. (1993). Career assessment and the person-centered approach. Journal of Career Assessment, 1, 341–353.Google Scholar
Tabachnick, B.G., & Fidell, L.S. (1996). Using multivariate statistics (3rd ed.). New York: Harper Collins.Google Scholar
Thakkar, J., & Ward, T. (2010). Relapse prevention: A critique and proposal reconceptualisation. Behaviour Change, 27 (3), 154–175.Google Scholar
Wampold, B.E. (2001). The great psychotherapy debate: models, methods and findings. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
West, R. (2005). Time for a change: Putting the Transtheoretical (Stages of Change) Model to rest. Addiction, 100, 1036–1039.Google Scholar