CHAPTER 4 Initiating and maintaining a working relationship

[Audio] Good afternoon everyone and welcome. Today I'll be discussing how to build and maintain a positive relationship between counselors and their clients based on Carl Rogers' theories of incongruence and congruence, unconditional positive regard, and empathy. We'll also look at our own entry behaviors, genuineness, and positive regard as well as relationship-building skills. Let's start by exploring how to initiate and maintain a working relationship..

[Audio] To ensure counseling is successful, it is important for the counselor and client to have a positive relationship. Carl Rogers proposed that for the client to get the most out of counseling, they must be in a state of incongruence, while the counselor should be in a state of congruence along with having unconditional positive regard and being able to communicate empathetically. Entry behavior can be a hurdle for counseling to be effective, so it should be looked at..

[Audio] Entry behavior refers to the superficial layers which protect us from harms, also known as image management. It is how we want others to view us, instead of our actual feelings. Entry behavior can be either positive or negative, and usually is formed through our experiences. As counselors, we must understand our own entry behavior, and also be able to demonstrate understanding of both the narrative and implied meaning behind it, using positive and advanced levels of empathy, in order to show acceptance of the client's experience..

[Audio] Empathy plays a key role in creating and maintaining a successful relationship between counselor and client. We will explore the concept of empathy as proposed by Rogers and the two stages of empathy, positive and advanced. Furthermore, we will examine Brené Brown's video on empathy and how it can support counselors in their development of understanding. Let us now delve deeper into the world of empathy and its role in establishing a working relationship..

[Audio] In this part of the presentation, we will discuss how to initiate and maintain positive relationships between counselor and client. To do so, the counselor needs to demonstrate genuineness, which is the ability to respond to the client as a real person and not simply as a therapist. This is also known as congruence or consistency. The counselor should also show unconditional positive regard, recognizing the client's inherent worth and dignity. Furthermore, the counselor should focus on and relate to the client's world, suspending their own self-directed thinking. This can help them understand how the client must be feeling. To summarize, by displaying genuineness and offering unconditional positive regard, along with focus and relation to the client, a counselor can help to initiate and maintain a successful, positive relationship..

[Audio] We have now reached the fourth chapter of this presentation, which deals with how professionals can initiate and maintain a positive relationship with their clients. The core of this chapter is learning how to construct and sustain a favorable relationship between therapist and patient. To achieve this, we must refine and enhance our relationship-building abilities, both verbal and non-verbal. Non-verbal attentiveness enables us to convey messages about our interest and attitude to the client through body language, facial expressions, and other means. Verbal attentiveness is also significant, and helps us to actively listen and attend to the message the client is attempting to convey. We can do this by using verbal encouragements, such as "mmhm" or "go on...", as well as clarifying, paraphrasing, and asking open-ended questions. We can also add emphasis through our verbal underlining, ensuring to emphasize certain words or phrases. Our eventual aim is to focus on the client, restating, paraphrasing and reflecting their thoughts and feelings. If we accurately apply these methods, we can easily construct and maintain a positive relationship with our clients..

[Audio] A strong foundation for a positive relationship between counselor and client relies on conveying genuineness and positive regard. This includes being honest and genuine (congruence), sharing appropriate personal information with the client (openness and discreet self-disclosure), being in the present moment with the client (immediacy), communicating both verbally and nonverbally (nonverbal behaviors), and providing nonjudgmental encouragement and affirmation (enhancing and acceptance responses). Implementing these conditions helps to build and maintain a positive relationship between counselor and client and ultimately leads to a productive relationship..

[Audio] At the end of our presentation, we reach the chapter on Initiating and Maintaining a Working Relationship. A therapeutic relationship is important to establish an atmosphere of trust and safety. The client may, however, feel threatened by the attention or mistrust the counselor's intentions. When counseling children, it is important to keep in mind their limited vocabulary, the size difference that may give a sense of superiority, and the short attention span. Genuineness is key in all cases. That concludes our presentation. Thank you for your attention..