preview

Comparing Person Centred Therapy and Feminist Therapy

Better Essays

PERSON CENTRED THERAPY AND FEMINIST THERAPY

In looking at comparing person centred therapy with feminist perspectives I first thought that they were quite similar. However, with further research I discovered that in fact they are quite different approaches to therapy. In this essay I will compare and contrast both of these approaches to therapy. I will pay particular attention to key concepts, therapeutic goals, theory of change, the therapeutic relationship and situations where the therapies are appropriate and also inappropriate.

Key concepts

One of key concepts of person centred therapy is the belief that the client has the ability to become aware of their own problems and has the inherent means to resolve them. In this sense, …show more content…

While PCT believes in the personal uniqueness of individuals, this is also true for FT, however, FT goes further by explaining that the history and methodology of health and medicine means that women are organised/pathologised according to a masculine view of the world (Hurst 1995).
Both PCT and FT do not claim to be a methodology in themselves but a practice that can be taken to other therapeutic techniques. Central to PCT is the therapeutic relationship between client and counsellor and this is one of the key concepts that with the right environment and relationship a client can move toward positive change (Payne 2005). This is also important for FT practitioners who emphasise an egalitarian approach. Both maintain that the counsellor is not the expert and believe in active listening, empathy and positive regard as tenants of the relationship. Both believe in the value of self disclosure. However, the central concept of feminist therapy is the gender issues and sexism embedded in our social structures. PCT does not enter into or comment on these external factors as priority and concentrates on the internal world of the individual.

Ballou (1996) in Ivey (2002) comments on other concepts of feminist therapy. An understanding of pluralism is one. That is, the value of difference. Although focused on women it respects the multidimensionality of people and the understanding of power – that is that one cannot be free if others are restricted. PCT put this in

Get Access