This is a two part assignment looking at clients with a range of bereavement and mental issues, how person centred therapy could be used. It will also examine other theories and systems that are available to clients outside of the therapy room.

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This is a two part assignment looking at clients with a range of bereavement and mental issues, how person centred therapy could be used. It will also examine other theories and systems that are available to clients outside of the therapy room.

Part 1

John is 42; 3 years ago he lost his partner of 15 years to cancer which had only recently been diagnosed. Since then he tells me that he has lost his job as a car mechanic and his house and has an increasing struggle with everyday tasks such as getting up in the morning and basic hygiene. Most days he feels worthless and has no place in the world anymore.

John recently went to see his G.P. about his situation, was assessed and prescribed anti-depressants by way of sertraline and was referred for counselling. After an initial assessment by the primary mental health team he was put on an 18 month long waiting list.

Two months after seeing his G.P. he had decided to seek counselling privately.

With so many losses in the last 3 years, his partner, job and house, it would be easy to make assumptions about how John has come to be where he is at this moment. It is important to allow the client to lead as ‘person-centred therapists take their direction from their clients’ (Wilkins 2010:257) and as with any client, to provide the core conditions of congruence, unconditional positive regard and empathy in a non directive way. John expressed how, after losing his partner, he has been unable to accept her loss at such a young age and how he feels his life has fallen apart since.

Knowledge of the specific theories surrounding any life experience, and in this case bereavement, is useful in the same way that knowledge of person centred theory harbours good person centred practice. Extra theory helps to change our awareness and is useful as it can help us understand how we feel about a subject. The change of awareness that this extra theory gives us is illustrated by Wilkins (2010) as he states ‘...this has less to do with how the client feels…and more to do with aiding therapists to deal with their own uncertainties.’

The knowledge of other theories surrounding this subject should not change how we are with any client as every client is an individual and the processes and experiences that have led to their way of being are unique to them. It is important during the therapeutic session not to dwell on this knowledge but to have it integrated into ourselves. It could be said that ‘theory influences how we see the world and, therefore, our way of being’ (Haugh 2011:15). Haugh (2011) also suggests that this extra theory can aid our understanding of what may be happening to the client and help us to stay in the room with them.

Currently in the U.K. there are 3 theories that draw a significant amount of attention. These are the ‘stage’ theory proposed by Elizabeth Kűbler-Ross, the ‘phases’ by Colin Murray Parks and the ‘tasks’ of William Worden. Although these theories have an ‘order’ to them the authors of each has written that this order is not necessarily followed and there is often a toing and froing through the order, a revisiting of a stage that has been experienced already and the ability to be at more than one stage at any particular time with Parkes (1998) stating ‘the phases of grief should not be regarded as a rigid sequence that is passed through only once’.  It should also be considered that not all bereaving clients will go through each stage or the stage may be so brief as to not be seen. That said; person centred therapy means that we should not expect the client to pass through and out the other side of any process but we stay with the client wherever they are at that time.

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For John, it has been 3 years since the death of his partner. The fact that John has gone to his G.P. of his own accord after this time demonstrates some kind of recent movement or change. He has also made the effort to find counselling privately and not to simply wait for his NHS referral. Anti-depressant drugs such as sertraline are often used for ‘...combating the most deliberating effects of clinical depression [and often] take several weeks to have any demonstrable effect’ Kinsella and Kinsella (2006:58). This step to counselling has come around 2 months after starting his anti-depressant ...

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