Equality

                                                      Equality



                                              

“A feminist is anyone who recognizes the equality and full humanity of women and men.”

              Gloria Steinem

Yesterday (6-26-11), was a historic day for equality. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of equality. Anything in favor of equality is positive in my view. In my therapy with people, I treat them as equals. This is extremely important in relationships of all kinds, but I'd say it's particularly important in Therapy.

However, equality is much neglected and minimized in my experience. Therapists are trained to take a one up position, whether this is explicit or implied, particularly before someone like Carl Rogers came along. He launched what became known as the humanistic psychology movement with his 1961 publication of “On Becoming A Person.”

Rogers shares his personal and professional journey to “discovering” that the most therapeutic relationship that can be had is one of human-to-human. This became known as client centered therapy. This form of therapy is also exemplified in the model known as Motivational Interviewing whereby the therapist becomes almost like a journalist or anthropologist in their neutrality and inquisitive curiosity of how the client; sees it, feels it, conceives, and experiences what they are talking about.

Both of these school have greatly influenced my approach, as well as mindfulness practice which helps client's fully experience themselves in the present moment. In order to facilitate this a therapist must truly believe, feel, and convey to the client the utmost respect, caring, and equality. This gives a dignity to the process and the person.

People come into therapy because they are feeling less than in some way. They feel bad about making certain choices, bad about how they respond to others and life in general, and bad about how they feel about themselves.

It is part of my core values as a person and professionally that all people are equal, so I convey this in every moment to the best of my ability. I let people know they will not be judged, and that I will care enough about them to be honest and genuine at all times. I emphasize how important it is for the client to give me feedback. I explain; because they are paying me to give them feedback, I need their feedback to help me stay on track and be accurate in my reflections back.

Lastly, I give client's homework to treat themselves as an equal and to stop judging themselves and to note any self-defeating negativity that we can discuss.