Comparing Client-Centered and Psychodynamic Therapies

on the client’s immediate problems. With psychodynamic therapy the client learns to control their actions and responses through the acknowledgment of the power of the unconscious.

Enhancement of life can be gained by both therapist and client from the understanding that’s perceived during the therapy and unlike client-centered it is a shorter term of therapy. Despite the many differences there are some main similarities between client- centered and psychodynamic therapy in that they are both approaches to counseling helping clients overcome obstacles to personal growth and to bring a better quality of life for the client. Also both are focused on the problems/issues that may or have already hindered the client from successful relationships.

They are both based on empathy, acceptance and understanding providing ways of responding to a wide range of human needs and providing opportunities for those seeking help to work towards ways of living in more satisfying and resourceful ways. My article for this week was The Client–Counselor Match and the Corrective Emotional Experience: Evidence from Interpersonal and Attachment Research written by Annie Bernier and Mary Dozier from the University of Delaware.

The article suggest the client-counselor match as a helping condition for a healing emotional experience and revisits the appropriate facts from attachment and interpersonal studies. In reading the article this week I believe it does lend validity to client-centered therapy, with client-centered therapy, the therapist and client must have a building relationship, understanding and a meeting of the minds so to speak.

It is generally recognized that the client–counselor match is an important predictor of successful therapeutic relationships (Berzins, 1977; Beutler, 1991; Reis ; Brown, 1999). Beutler (1998) made the conclusion that after a

review of variables contributing to the outcome of therapy, that the therapist- client match was the strongest outcome of predictors. The article also read that counselor and client similarities on beliefs, coping, personal values, attitudes and expectations toward counseling has also been linked to the outcome of positive treatment (Tally et al. 1990). According to the statistics provided in the article performed by (Beutler, 1991) At least 175 categories of client characteristics and 40 therapist traits have been studied as potential predictors of treatment effectiveness and it has been suggested that the client–counselor match accounts for a greater portion of the outcome than does any single characteristic of the client or of the counselor. REFRRENCES: Corsini, J. R. amp; Wedding, D. (2011). Current Psychotherapies. Ninth Edition, Belmont, CA. Brooks/Cole, Cengage Learning. Coon, Dennis (2003). Essentials of Psychology. Ninth Edition, Belmont, CA. Wadsworth/Thomason Learning Bernier, Annie ; Dozier, Mary, University of Delaware (2002). Psychotherapy: Theory/Research/Practice/Training, Educational Publishing Foundation, (2002), Vol. 39, No. 1, 32–43 Jacquelyn Brown-Bullock Psychology/Counseling