May 2024 Clinical Supervision Topic: Congruence and Genuineness
“Do I dare to communicate myself as I am? . . .
. . .Or must my communication be somewhat less than or different from this? The sharpness of this issue lies in the often vividly foreseen possibility of threat or rejection, to communicate one’s full awareness of the relevant experience is a risk in interpersonal relationships, it seems to me that it is the taking or not taking of this risk, which determines whether a given relationship becomes more and more mutually therapeutic, or whether it leads in a disintegrative direction”, Carl Rogers in On Becoming a Person.
Rogers continues, “Thus, we can say with some assurance, that a relationship characterized by a high degree of congruence or genuineness in the therapist. . .will have a high probability of being an effective therapeutic relationship”.
What I’m wondering is:
which parts of your inner experience do you share with your clients?
which parts do you keep private?
how do you make these determinations?
how do you judiciously share in a way that supports the real relationship?
when and how have you seen congruence and genuineness affect your therapeutic relationships?
Let’s read this article, which says congruence is “1) The ability to be aware of one’s own internal experience, and 2) transparency, the willingness to communicate to the other person what is going on within. Rogers (1961), in using the notion of being ‘real’ with other people, appeared to emphasize both dimensions. By being congruent he meant not only being aware of one’s own internal experience but also of sharing it with the other. Thus congruence clearly has two components — an internal component involving awareness of one’s own flow of experience and transparency, an outer component, that refers to explicit communication.”
Let’s also check out this article, which says (in the downloadable handout), “Genuineness in therapy means that the therapist is his actual self during his encounter with his client. Without façade, he openly has the feelings and attitudes that are flowing in him at the moment.”
Can’t wait to see you. See previous years here.
