Episode 3: Congruence

Being unscripted, open and not-knowing can be a terrifying prospect for new (and experienced!) therapists alike. Join us for a meaty look at a key, and yet often misunderstood, aspect of person-centred theory. Spoiler alert: it doesn’t mean, ‘I think it, so I’ll say it…’

Also in the podcast, what do we mean by pluralism, and what is our relationship to other psychological approaches?

Rachael speaks to Dave Hansen (he/him) a person-centred therapist, EMDR therapist and trainer.

Rachael writes:- Dave and I wrestled with some unanswerable questions in our encounter which made for a rich and stretching experience! The discussion considered the importance of respectful dialogue around theoretical differences while honouring our experiences and perspectives on therapy. The Person-Centred Association has recently provided valuable commentary on respectful dialogue which further develops our understanding. We were also mindful of Andy Rogers’ thoughtful contribution in his blog.

We agreed that congruence can be a slippery term. A very useful, consolidated discussion has been published by PCCS Books. The frequent misconception of congruence (i.e. necessitating self-disclosure in therapy practice) has been robustly critiqued by Sheila Haugh. Sheila (a guest on Episode 8) has done some valuable work untangling the knottiness of congruence. She terms this misconception, ‘I felt it so I said it’ and her work is included in the same PCCS Books title.

As our discussion largely focused on pluralism/plurality of human experience rather than pluralism as a model of therapy, Dave and I felt that there was space for other words/descriptors in our discussion such as ‘multiplicity’ to balance breadth and specificity.

All theory is a hypothesis, to be held lightly for ongoing reflection rather than being perceived as ‘fixed truth’; we tried to embrace this tentativeness through dialogue. At the heart of the discussion was the fact that theories of therapy are concepts developed largely (if not all) within white, cisgender, heterosexual, non-disabled, middle class western cultural contexts. This can equally be said of person-centred concepts such as the actualising tendency and theories outside of the person-centred world including transference/counter-transference.

Rachael refers to Carl Jung and leaving theory ‘at the door’ when stepping into a therapy encounter. Jung’s full quotation is, ‘know all the theories, master all the techniques, but as you touch a human soul be just another human soul’.

We agreed it is important to be open to uncertainty; paradoxically, uncertainty can often be the only thing that guides us in our practice. Rachael felt certainty operates as an expression of power in therapy and beyond. 

We considered the role intersectionality plays in understanding multiplicity/plurality of experiencing from a social perspective(s). Kimberley Crenshaw developed this term and further details can be found here.

Finally, we make several references to Art Bohart’s published work. Information about the reference to EMDR is available here and a more general, recent publication from 2021 is here.