Бондаренко Ольга Рифкатовна «Клиент-центрированное консультирование в России (Вчера, сегодня, завтра)». Международный научный журнал по клиент-центрированной психотерапии Person. Вена, Австрия, 1, 2004, стр. 66-69 (на немецком языке). www.personzentriert.at Bondarenko, Olga (2004), Die Klientenzentrierte Psychotherapie in Russland: gestern, heute und morgen, in: PERSON 1 (2004) 66-68. Olga Bondarenko Ph.D., Associate Professor of Psychology Nizhni Novgorod State University, Russia 2004 CLIENT CENTERED THERAPY IN RUSSIA: YESTERDAY, TODAY AND TOMORROW This paper attempts to evaluate Client Centered Therapy in Russia today. For ten years The Professional Psychotherapy League has organized annual international conferences on Psychotherapy and Counseling in Russia. This shows that psychotherapeutic practice is alive and developing. However, while the programs of these conferences include many different psychotherapeutic approaches, the Client-Centered Approach is not one of them. And so, the status of Client-Centered Therapy in Russia is that there is no theoretical research and no practical experience. At the same time, humanistic ideas are very popular in Russia. Carl Rogers s ideas find a certain resonance in Russian history, culture and the Russian soul. The question is why such popular ideas have not been realized in psychotherapeutic practice? Historical background There are several distinct periods in the development of psychotherapy in Russia. Freud s work was published in the Soviet Union in the 1920s, but ten years later was banned by the Soviet Government because his ideas were considered incompatible with Marxist ideology. As a result, all approaches based on the concept of psychoanalysis, which were developing in the West, were not developed in Russia. People s psychotherapeutic needs were partly met with a
medical approach. But those who were not mentally ill -- people with emotional, personal or interpersonal conflicts and problems -- had to seek help from friends and relatives or healers. There was no access to professional counseling or treatment. However, since 1970, information about modern western theories and methods began to filter into Russia. But while some information filtered through, it was not taught in universities. That was the time when I started graduate study at the Psychology Department of Lomonosov Moscow State University. I remember clearly that the information about foreign psychotherapeutic practices was in the air finding its way into samizdat texts and unofficial group training. This was a great discovery which opened the door to a world of practical psychology addressing the real needs of real people. The information came mostly from Poland, East Germany and Lithuania. The knowledge that the Soviet psychologists obtained at that time laid the ground for the surge of interest in western psychotherapy after the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1986. Interpersonal relations began to change in Russian society, which became more open and more unpredictable following the collapse of the totalitarian system. At the same time the situation created new personal and professional problems, which needed to be addressed by professional counselors and psychologists. After Perestroika many prominent psychotherapists from Europe and the USA came to Russia ( Moscow and St. Petersburg). Carl Rogers s visit to Moscow in 1986 was momentous for the entire psychological community of the Soviet Union. The Russian psychologists who met him count it as an unforgettable experience and the most important one in both their personal and professional lives. This experience overturned the existing ideas of psychotherapeutic practice. Before Rogers s visit, the exposure to humanistic ideas was mostly theoretical. Russian psychologists accepted the concept of the uniqueness of one s personality, of a person s potential for growth and development, of congruence as a basis for honest relations. But they had no experience of translating these ideas into the reality of everyday life and then applying them to counseling. Rogers s visit to Russia sparked a real reassessment of Client-Centered Therapy practice. Russian history, Russian culture, Russian soul and Carl Rogers s ideas. Rogers s influence on practical psychology in Russia lies in the realm of spiritual, moral and ideological values. His name is associated with the key principles of psychotherapy: empathy, rejection of manipulation and genuine contact. In theory, the Rogerian approach is very close to Russian mentality and the humanistic traditions of Russian philosophy and literature. This tradition has a long and rich history and reached its climax at the end of the 19 th to the beginning of the 20 th century. It is evident in the writings of Russian existential philosophers, and in particular in the work of two philosophers of the 1920s, Bakhtin and Ukhtomsky. They divided human existence into monologue and dialogue. In his analysis of Dostoyevsky, Bakhtin showed that a person can live in two worlds: one where he functions as an object and sees himself and others as objects, and the other where a person is the subject of his world. The dilemma lies in the choice between the two: a world that is alive and vibrant and a lifeless, deadening existence. Bakhtin has demonstrated that Dostoyevsky dealt with the person in the world of the living.
The key concept of Ukhtomsky s theory is that of the dominant, which means the focus on the other. In interpersonal communication, the dominant can be either on oneself or on the other. In a real dialogue the other becomes the dominant. Such an approach allows to see the other not as a double, a copy of oneself, but as another subject, a source of interest and discovery. Misunderstanding Client-Centered Therapy in present day Russia While at the theoretical level Russian psychologists share Rogers s ideas, there is an enormous gap between theory and practice of Client-Centered Therapy in Russia. Here are some of the key issues: 1. Many of the basic Rogerian terms, such as empathy, unconditional regard and congruence, are misunderstood. Very often empathy is understood as sympathy or pity towards the client. As a result, the therapist is quick to understand the client and to agree with him, which makes communication superficial and does not allow for a deeper understanding and the development of real empathy. Unconditional regard is often substituted for by softness, caring and simply positive regard for the client. That prevents the client from expressing negative emotions and makes it difficult to be in touch with one s own feelings. Not enough attention is given to congruence. This key aspect of therapeutic contact is not a popular concept with practicing therapists who believe that full focus should be placed on the client. As a result, a therapist is not in contact with himself and has difficulty reflecting on his own emotions and physical responses, which means that the therapeutic process cannot be reflected in its entirety. 2. It is wrong to assume that a client-centered therapist must be friendly and gentle towards the client at all times. Confrontation and conflicts should not be excluded from therapeutic relations. This leads to artificial and idealistic relations with the client and creates the impression that the client can perhaps be successful in therapy but not in real life. 3. There are limitations in applying the Client-Centered Approach. Some therapists believe that Client-Centered Therapy could be used only with the intelligent and educated, who are capable of introspection. Such a misconception places considerable limits on the application of the approach. 4. There is a viewpoint that a Client-Centered Approach is effective only at the beginning of therapy for establishing rapport and trust with the client but it is not sufficient for a long-term therapeutic process and that something more efficient and productive is required. Some therapists believe that such an approach is adequate only in short-term therapy for dealing with more or less superficial problems. 5. There is a misconception that it is not necessary for a therapist to be trained in the Client- Centered Approach in order to practice it. Many therapists wrongly believe that they can use the approach without having any special training. Encountering difficulties, they blame the method and invalidate it. 6. Some wrongly associate Client-Centered Therapy with religious orientation.
7. Others feel that Client-Centered Therapy is a product of Carl Rogers s personality and nobody could practice it with equally good results. There is a view that what works is not so much a special client-centered technology, but Rogers s personality as a main instrument of therapy. 8. It is an incorrect assumption that the therapist should remain passive, limiting his responses to reflection of what the client is telling him without using therapeutic techniques. As a result, there is no goal, direction or structure to the therapeutic process. On the whole, at present in Russia there is no deep understanding of Client-Centered Therapy. At the same time, based on superficial knowledge, the majority of practicing psychologists seem to have arrived at the conclusion that it does not work and is not for us. There is no information about current trends in Client-Centered Therapy development, nor are there training programs in the method. There is a great divergence between two major tendencies. On the one hand, Rogers s approach resonates with Russian mentality and the humanistic tradition of Russian culture. Russians respond to Client-Centered Therapy as it meets their needs. That is why after Rogers s visit there was such a huge wave of interest in his methods on the part of practicing psychologists. Rogers s ideas and practical work seemed so clear and self-evident and Rogers himself so natural and spontaneous in contact with the clients, that many Russian psychologists became very enthusiastic about the method and were determined to start using it in their work. On the other hand, in their attempts to practice Rogers s approach without any special knowledge or training, many of them became disappointed when they encountered difficulties and questions for which they did not have answers. In fact, there are still no psychologists in Russia who have had any special training in the Client-Centered Approach and who could teach others. The disenchantment resulting from a lack of knowledge and training was blamed on the method itself which was branded obsolete and having no future. Beginning of the Future Against this background the start of the Client-Centered Therapy Educational European program was a significant development for the Russian psychotherapeutic community. This long-term Russian-Austrian program for Russian psychologists began in Moscow in November 2000 and continues to this day. The trainers are Austrian therapists Dr. Norbert Sholts, Dr. Edwin Benko, Dr. Ulf Lukan, Dr. Chistoph Ficher, Dr. Joachim Sauer, Dr. Lore Korbei, Dr. Wolfgang Keil, Dr. Hiltrud. The program incorporates Client-Centered Therapy theory, selfanalysis, personal professional experience, practice and supervision. It is the first and only educational program in Client-Centered Therapy in Russia. As a participant in the program I would like to share some of the discoveries I have made over the course of the training: - First of all, it came as a big surprise that Client-Centered Therapy is very popular in Austria the birthplace of psychoanalysis.
- Second, I realized that Client-Centered Therapy is evolving very intensively and has various aspects and fields, such as clinical therapy, focusing, etc. - Third, I found out that Client-Centered Therapy combines ideas of both classical and contemporary approaches preserving its own identity and integrity, including its own roots, principles and basic assumptions. - Another discovery concerns the process of Client-Centered Therapy: namely the fact that the therapist makes wide use of confrontation and productive conflicts which could be beneficial for the client on the one hand, and demonstrate congruence on part of the therapist. - Finally, I gained a deeper and almost sensual understanding of the essential concepts of the Rogerian approach, such as empathy, unconditional regard, and congruence. This includes learning about hermeneutic empathy in Client-Centered Therapy, which means deeper empathic understanding of incongruence and also accepting that what, for the time being, cannot be responded to positively, can be understood through biographical context and by possessing emphatic knowledge. Particularly important is Wolfgang Keil s idea that only congruent nonaccepting and non-understanding of the client by a therapist offers the key to recognizing the incongruence of the client. Thus, for the first time, a new generation of client-centered therapists is emerging in Russia. It will set the stage for a rebirth of Client-Centered Therapy in Russia and its future development. REFERENCES Modern American psychology influence on the Russian practical psychology. Collection of interviews with Russian psychotherapists. Moscow. 1998 Wolfgang W. Keil Hermeneutic Empathy in Client-Centered Therapy From: Esser U., Pabst H., Speierer G.-W. Eds.): The power of the person-centered approach. Koln, GwG, 1996, pp. 65-80 Wolfgang W. Keil Explication of The Person-Centered Therapy Theory. Manuscript for the Lecture held at the 3 rd World Congress of Psychotherapy Vienna, 14-18 July 2002