D Person-Centred Therapy – Configurations of Self

8/10/2019 D Person-Centred Therapy – Configurations of Self

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Adapted from a presentation of Professor

Dave Mearns



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When you are close to me I go „inside‟myself - and see the different parts ofme. From the outside I look confusedand self-defeating - I don‟t look alive atall. But „inside‟ me I see the differentparts in their own right. I see the scared

and angry „little girl‟ and her „big sister‟who bosses her around, but who reallyloves and protects her. Both of theseparts are very alive.

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Mearns, D. (1999) „Person-centred therapywith configurations of Self‟. Counselling ,10(2): 125-130.

Chapter 6: „The nature of “configurations”

within Self‟. Chapter 7: „Person-centred therapy with“configurations” of Self‟ in Mearns, D. &Thorne, B. (2000) Person-Centred Therapy

Today: New Frontiers in Theory andPractice. London: Sage.

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A „configuration‟ is a hypothetical constructdenoting a coherent pattern of feelings,thoughts and preferred behaviouralresponses symbolised or pre-symbolised bythe person as reflective of a dimension of

existence within the Self.

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Sometimes people experience themselves as

having different „parts‟ to their Self. Eachpart, or „configuration‟, is well-developed,with its own feelings, thoughts and ways ofbehaving which may be quite different fromother parts.

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„I walk around watching people and myself.I watch myself watching myself. I have a“me” that I use for everyday life. It does all

the “normal‟ things that other people do - itgoes to work - it talks with other people - itgoes to the store - it even makes love withmy wife. It carries on as though nothing has

happened. And I watch it. I stand in thebackground and wonder how I can do allthat stuff‟.

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Staying close to the client‟ssymbolisation;

Listen for the parts, but don‟t invent them;

Avoiding „zero-sum‟ responding; Empathic mediation: helping the parts to

hear each other; Multi-directional partiality: prizing all the

parts; Therapist‟s use of her configurational

Self.8





The Therapist‟s use of

her

configurational self?

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Dave 1: I really don‟t understand why you are leavingthe job.

Clair 1: No, I knew you wouldn‟t.

Dave 2: You mean you knew that I wouldn‟t understand

it?Clair 2: Yes ….. I‟ve seen it for ages. We are o.k. whenwe are working on my strong Self - that workhas been great - I wouldn‟t take anything awayfrom it. But my „little girl‟ isn‟t so sure aboutyou.

Dave 3: She doesn‟t trust me.

Clair 3: She doesn‟t think you want to know her ….. Sheis pretty scared you know.

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Extract 1



Dave 4: (pause) I suppose we haven‟t spent enough time onher. (pause) I guess I didn‟t hear her very well - Ididn‟t realise how bad she felt. I see now that Ididn‟t hear her very well.

Clair 4: I didn‟t let her come out very often with you. MaybeI thought you wouldn‟t like me if I really showed youher.

Dave 5: And perhaps I wasn‟t as open to her as I could havebeen …..

Clair 5: Well, she has got to come out now. She needs tobecome a big girl now. So I am holding her handand walking her out.

Dave 6: And what are you feeling, little girl?

Clair 6: I am scared ….. and I am angry. I am not sure if Ican trust you ….. But I want to trust you.

Dave 7: I want to apologise to you for not really listening toyou until now.

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Clair 1: It is better now, in here. It feels as though thereare four of us working together.

Dave 1: You mean, two of you and two of me?Clair 2: Yes.Dave 2: The two parts of you, you have called your „strong

Self‟ and your „little girl‟. But you also sense twoparts to me here?

Clair 3: Yes, don‟t you? Dave 3: Yes, but I haven‟t given them names yet - in here

at least - what is your sense of them?Clair 4: One is watching over everything that is

happening. He is pretty competent, but he is alsonervous. The other is not so used to being herebut he has been invited. He has got a softnessand vulnerability which is really good for me. Hehelps me to be „soft‟ with myself.

Dave 4: He helps you to be soft with yourself …..?

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Extract 2 (two sessions later)



Clair 5: When it was only your „strong, competent‟ selfthat was here - then my strong self just gottogether with you and there was no space for„softies‟ - no space for „softies‟ in either of us.

Dave 5: And it is important that we touch that „softness‟in you …..?

Clair 6: It is important that we are all here, together. Myparts both have strength - but they need to „get

along‟ together, like yours do. Dave 6: Maybe I am more „tentative‟, than I look, my „soft‟part kind of feels okay with this but is a bitunsure.

Clair 7: That is what „soft parts‟ are like, silly! Being

„unsure‟ is part of being „soft‟. Dave 7: I think you are more experienced at this than me,Clair.

Clair 8: Never mind, we‟ll help each other along!

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Mearns, D. & Thorne, B. (2000)„Advancing person-centred theory‟.Chapters 6&9 in Person-Centred TherapyToday: New Frontiers in Theory and

Practice . London: Sage. Mearns, D. (2002) Further theoretical

propositions in regard to Self Theorywithin Person-centered therapy. Person-

Centered and ExperientialPsychotherapies . 1(1&2): 14-27.

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Configurations may be establishedaround introjections about self.

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Proposition 2

Configurations may also be established

around dissonant self-experiences.



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Proposition 3

Formative configurations assimilate

other consistent elements.



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Proposition 4

Further elements may be accrued by the

self-fulfilling nature of configurations.



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Proposition 5

Configurations inter-relate and

reconfigure.



Theory does not predict the behaviour or theexperience of the client.

Theory expands the imagination of thetherapist.

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‘General’ Psychological Theory

+

‘Individual’ Psychological Theory



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Rogers, C.R. (1951) „A theory of personalityand behavior‟, pp 481-533 in Client- Centered Therapy . Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

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Reconfiguring Rogers‟

Concept of the Self

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Self = Self Concept

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Mearns & Thorne (2000)

Self = Self-Concept

+ Edge ofAwareness

Material



A Dialogical Person Centred

Theory of the Self

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„Growthful‟ onfigurations

„Not for growth‟

Configurations

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Proposition 6

The actualising tendency is the sole

motivational force.



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Proposition 7

The promptings of the actualising

tendency inspire their own resistancewithin the social life-space of the

person. A working label for this

resistance is the term ‘social mediation’ .



I could do more with my life but I amscared to lose what I have.

I need to stop this road – I can see where it

points and I don‟t want it – not yet anyway.

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• I fought my way out of a relationshippreviously, and I lost more than I ever

imagined.

• Part of me says ‘go for it’ and part of me

says ‘watch it’ – I need to stay with ‘watch

it’ for now.



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• I look at what other people have got and I

want it like a child wants everything. But

my child isn’t going to make all my

decisions.

• Everything seemed to point in the direction

of leaving the job – I needed to be free of

it. But my family would have lost too much

– and that would mean me losing toomuch. So I rolled up my sleeves and made

the best of it.



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Proposition 8

A psychological ‘homeostasis’ develops

between the drive of the actualisingtendency and the restraint of social

mediation. The configuring and re-

configuring of this homeostasis is theactualising process.



„In this revision of the theory, the central

concept becomes the actualising process which is described by the homeostasis of theimperatives of the actualising tendency andsocial mediation within different areas of the

person‟s social life space and thereconfiguring of that homeostasis to respondto changing circumstances‟.

(Person-Centred Therapy Today : p184)

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Proposition 9

‘Disorder’ is caused when the person

becomes chronically stuck within his/her

own actualising process such that the

homeostatic balance cannot reconfigure

to respond to changing circumstances.



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After countless years of going againstmy instinct and fitting into otherpeople‟s wishes I finally broke free.For a time after that I was impossibleto live with – I couldn‟t compromise atall.

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It‟s like I couldn‟t go against myview of events and what was right

for me in the moment. Havingfinally got hold of myself I wasn‟tgoing to let go – I suppose I was

scared I would lose myself again.

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I can see that my sense of myself isn‟tworking. Other people are giving backa different view of myself, and they are

pretty unanimous. They say that I look„cold and detached‟, when I feel„warm‟. It is difficult to know who totrust.

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Either they share the same illusionor I have a huge blind spot that Ican‟t see past. It is really difficult to

go against my sense of myself – Ihave no sense of being wrong. Butthese are good people – I need to

pause awhile.

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D Person-Centred Therapy – Configurations of Self