Introduction
“On the Shoulders of Carl Rogers: The Contribution of the Therapeutic Relationship to Treatment Outcome” is the chapter from the book by Scott Miller, Barry Duncan, and Mark Hubble Escape from Babel: Toward a Unifying Language for Psychotherapy. This chapter is a small research that helps to comprehend how important therapeutic relationship might to be and how influential this relationship may be to the outcomes of the chosen treatment.
Carl Rogers played an important role in the development of psychotherapy; his approaches and his ideas were so fresh and captivating that his name was used in the title of the chapter and his works serve as the main grounds for this chapter. On the Shoulders of Carl Rogers helps to find out the essence of therapy and clear up how the relations between a therapist and a patient may influence the outcomes of such treatment.
Discussion
General Information about the Book
The book, the chapter comes from, is a unique collection of the ideas of several writers concerning the problem of proper treatment to clients and their satisfaction with the services. The point is that innovative technologies or solid theoretical background of the therapists are not that significant for successful work and positive outcome.
The carrying attitude and responsibility is the key to client’s satisfaction and treatment. The peculiar feature of the book and the chapter under consideration in particular is that the authors want to share their experience, their knowledge, and their ideas of how to improve clients’ treatment. They underline how it turns out to be important to respect a client, to understand his/her problems, and to present several solutions to his/her problem.
Who Is Carl Rogers?
Carl Rogers was one of the pioneers, who developed the ideas of therapeutic relationship in order to change the nature of practices at clinics (Duncan et al., 81). This influential psychologist offered to pay more attention to a client and his/her problems.
His nineteen propositions and idea not to judge a person negatively help many professionals improve their skills and present best treatments to their clients. The point is that therapeutic relations should not be like a doctor and a patient. It is better for a therapist to contact to a client like an ordinary person, who may have the same problems and offer solutions in a kind and friendly way.
Carl Rogers proves that many things in therapy depend on therapist’s attitude to his/her duties and to his/her clients. The therapist has to be honest to him/herself and to his/her clients, only honesty and belief may provide the client to open and tell about own problems. The therapist is the person, who should be responsible for therapeutic relations’ work.
It is necessary to burn with a desire to help own client and demonstrate respect and some kind of kinship. It is not that important to cry together, to sympathize, and to agree that this life costs nothing. However, at the same time, it is not that obligatory to judge and learn all the time. The counsellor should be smart enough in order to demonstrate his/her understanding and support, and, at the same time, be able to analyze the problem and give some pieces of advice from time to time.
Content of the Chapter
With the help of this chapter, it becomes clearer that the choice of the approach for treatment is not that significant, because therapists should care more on their attitude to their patients.
If a client trusts his therapist, if he or she is not afraid to share own problems and worries, and if the conversation is more friendly than educative, this therapist has all chances to find the necessary contact, discover the problem, and offer the best solution. In this situation, the relationship between a doctor and a patient will lead to positive and successful outcomes.
To my personal opinion, the language and the structure of this chapter is quite winning. The reader has a chance to evaluate past researches on the field under analysis, to identify the main people, who made certain contribution to the development of this article, and, finally, to realize what actually makes treatment successful.
The content of the chapter may even help ordinary people to be more attentive to the problems of other people and be able to present reliable solutions. This is why the value of this book and this chapter is really great and helpful.
Conclusion
Each literary work should learn its readers to take right steps and improve own life or, at least, be able to learn by means of the others’ mistakes. On the Shoulders of Carl Rogers: The Contribution of the Therapeutic Relationship to Treatment Outcome is a wonderful source of information that analyzes the work of Carl Roger and his ideas of how to improve our therapeutic practice and help people.
This chapter concentrates readers’ attention on the ability to listen, to analyze, and not to be judgmental. To my mind, the characteristic of therapy like therapeutic treatment should be regarded as the major one in order to provide clients with proper treatment and successful outcomes.
Works Cited
Duncan, Barry, L., Miller, Scott, D., and Hubble, Mark. “On the Shoulders of Carl Rogers: The Contribution of the Therapeutic Relationship to Treatment Outcome”. In Escape from Babel: Toward a Unifying Language for Psychotherapy Practice. New York: Norton, W.W. & Company Inc., 1997.