Training in counseling and psychotherapy: An evaluation of an integrated didactic and experiential approach.

Abstract

An approach to training in counseling and psychotherapy integrating the didactic-intellectual approach which emphasizes the shaping of therapist behavior with the experiential approach which focuses upon therapist development and growth was successfully implemented with both a group of graduate students in clinical psychology and a group of lay hospital personnel, including 3 attendants, a volunteer worker, and an industrial therapist. The program relied heavily upon scales which in previous and extensive research had been predictive of positive patient outcome in estimating levels of therapist empathy, positive regard, and congruence and patient depth of self-exploration. It was found that the trainees could be brought to function at levels of effective therapy quite commensurate to those of more experienced therapists in less than 100 hours of training.

Towards a Consensus of a Competency Framework for Clinical Supervision in Nursing: Knowledge, Attitudes, and Skills

“…By way of an example, demonstrating and communicating an empathic "felt sense" of the supervisees' difficulty(ies) is often posited as an important element of supervision (see, for example, Sloan, 2006). The literature, both current and that of a recognized vintage, is clear in pointing out how individuals have different innate levels of empathy or "empathic maturity" (Carkhuff & Traux, 1965;Rogers, 1975;Connor, 1994;Cutcliffe & Cassedy, 1998;Olsen, 2001). Furthermore, while equipping supervisors with the technical skills to communicate empathy is an appropriate competency to include, focusing only on skills and knowledge can create a situation where supervisors are able to communicate a feeling (empathy) that they are not necessarily feeling; the skills have no grounding in attitude/quality (Cutcliffe & Cassedy, 1998).…”

A community-oriented program for training and using volunteers

“…This change held up even when compared to a group of students majoring in mental health curricula. The acquiring of skills in communication and discrimination is one important variable according to Carkhuff and Truax (Carkhuff & Truax, 1965;Truax & Carkhuff, 1967;Carkhuff, 1969). In addition to acquiring increased skills in communication and discrimination, the volunteers also obtained positive ratings from their staff supervisors.…”

“…In addition a large segment of this portion involved training the volunteers in communication and discrimination via the use of videotapes and role playing. Communication and discrimination techniques utilized in the program were modified from Carkhuff's (1969) system for training individuals in the helping professions. Discrimination in the current program is defined as the ability to identify what affect is being expressed and pinpointing the area of difficulty for the individual.…”

Rosenhan was wrong: The staff was lousy

“…Wells and Don Miller, at the School of Social Work, University of Pittsburgh (Wells and Miller, 1973). Their work was based on data presented by C. B. Truax and R. R. Carkhuff in Toward Effective Counseling and Psychotherapy (1967), and other studies (Carkhuff and Truax, 1965;Truax and Mitchell, 1968). The basic thesis is that the relationship is central in any helping process, and that certain personal qualities of the helping person, no matter what his discipline, are the important ingredients in effecting movement.…”