Relationship‐Centered Counseling: A Humanistic Model of Integration

Abstract

Relationship-centered counseling is a development in the client-centered tradition. It represents a humanistic integration that gives primacy to the humanizing and counseling relationship, conceives technical expertise as the instrumental extension of relationship, and affirms the necessity for an in-depth synthesis of both for effective counseling. Significant findings from contemporary process and outcome research are presented as supportively consistent with the relationship-centered integration, which has implications for research, practice, and training. A significant trend in counseling is toward integration in theory and eclecticism in practice Wachtel, 1991). Although integrative and eclectic efforts are not new (Arkowitz, 1992), increasing emphasis on bridging the multiple dimensions of human development and behavior (e.g., biological, psychological, and cultural) and efforts to combine strengths from singletheory approaches have given further impetus to this trend.I have described elsewhere a humanistically based integration termed relationship-centered counseling (Kelly, 1994). This integrative approach is formulated as a higher order conceptualization that systematically combines and unifies the humanistic and technical components of counseling within a comprehensive empirical and meta-empirical perspective. The purpose of this article is to present an updated summary of the basic propositions of a relationship-centered approach, to place the approach in the larger context of current counseling research, and to suggest implications and recommendations for theory, research, and practice. The article is organized in four parts: (a) background and statement of the problem; (b) basic theoretical principles; (c) research supportively consistent with a relationship-centered integration; and (d) applications of a relationship-centered approach.

Carkhuff's Human Technology: A Verification and Extension of Kelly's (1997) Suggestion to Integrate the Humanistic and Technical Components of Counseling

“…Thus, HTs formulations about human processing satisfy the recommendation offered by Kelly (1997) that counseling needs to combine and unify the humanistic and technical components of counseling (p. 337).…”

“…HT uses the term human processing to describe a procedure used by human beings to systematically integrate human values with objective data obtained from both internal and external sources, as depicted in Figure 2. Thus, HTs formulations about human processing satisfy the recommendation offered by Kelly (1997) that counseling needs to combine and unify the humanistic and technical components of counseling (p. 337).…”

Counselling a Taiwanese woman with infertility problems

“…The counsellor employed relationship centred counselling (RCC) (Kelly, 1994(Kelly, , 1997, an eclectic counselling style to counsel this client. The RCC represents as a humanistic integration that gives primacy to the humanizing and counselling relationship, conceives of technical expertise as the instrumental extension of relationship, and af rms the necessity for an in-depth synthesis of both for effective counselling.…”

Cognitive‐Behavioral Tasks Accomplished in a Person‐Centered Relational Framework

“…Other theorists have proposed using interventions in addition to providing Rogers's core conditions (Carkhuff, 1987;Culley, 1992;Kelly, 1994Kelly, , 1997Tausch, 1990;Truax & Carkhuff, 1967).…”

“…Carkhuff's (1987) approach appears similar to Rogers's (1951Rogers's ( , 1961 in some ways, although it includes interventions that are much more directive, such as goal setting. Kelly (1994Kelly ( , 1997 proposed the relationship-centered counseling model. He stated that "the therapeutic relationship is the primary, integrative core of counseling," and "technical expertise constitutes the secondary, instrumental component of counseling" (Kelly, 1997, p. 339).…”