Person-centred counsellors’ experiences of working within time boundaries: A heuristic informed enquiry

Abstract

Many counselling services are finding it necessary, due to limited resources, to limit the total number of sessions available to each service user, whilst also providing quality evidence-based practice. This creates a challenge for those delivering services in terms of achieving measurable results in a brief time scale, and particularly for person-centred counsellors who value process over outcomes and will perhaps not have been trained to deliver brief therapy. The aim of this small-scale study is to interview five person-centred counsellors with experience of both open-ended and time-limited practice, to explore their experiences of time-limited therapy. Using the qualitative heuristic inquiry methodology I have endeavoured to capture each co-participants’ experience and compare this with the experiences of the other co-participants to discover emerging themes which were discussed in relation to the literature review. Until recently, little has been written about a model of person-centred brief therapy. Early studies were conducted on brief therapy and time-limited therapy. Person-centred practitioners are divided on their view of brief therapy being compatible with the approach. Those who do believe it to be compatible consider experiential integration to be the essential ingredient to success. Classical person-centred practitioners would argue that this does not embrace the non-directivity of the approach. Results from this study correlate with recent literature and research findings that integrating experiential processing allows for successful brief person-centred therapy. Working in this way is demanding of the therapist, and is influenced by the environment and culture. It does not require working with strategies or techniques, but is practiced as an adaptation of the person-centred philosophy. Three areas were highlighted by all participants as being of particular relevance to this work: the relationship and process, the confidence of the counsellor and their attitudes.