Carl Rogers

One of the phrases that Rogers used to describe his therapy is "supportive, not reconstructive," and he uses the analogy of learning to ride a bicycle to explain: When you help a child to learn to ride a bike, you can't just tell them how. They have to try it for themselves. And you can't hold them up the whole time either. I think that this is a really good analogy to consider in career guidance, as overall the underlying goal of career guidanace and education is to assist the client in becoming independent as possible in his/her efforts to find and maintain suitable employment, and to be able to career plan effectivley through out their lives.

In Roger's approach, the use of attending, paraphrasing, mirroring, summarizing and questioning replace diagnosis, in the attempt to have the client arrive at a state of self-actualization. In order for this to happen, a warm and supportive relationship is to be established between the counsellor and the client. I much prefer this apprach to the matching theories such as the seven point plan, where the control of the interview lies with the practioner, the practioner makes assumptions under the folowing areas ; physical Make up, atainments, general inteilligence, special aptitudes, interests, disposition and circumstances. although these areas are still covered in depth during inerviews it is not in such a discriminatory manner.

Although I prefer Rogers apprach i also think that an element of matching or influence is sometimes inevitable, i witnessed this a bit in my placements, at career scotland, and employment opertunities. Even Rogers was aware that practioners would not be able to be completley uninflential to the client, this is why as he became more experienced he changed his theory from 'non directive approach' to the 'client centered'.