This assignment will set out to compare person centered counseling and psychodynamic counseling. The two theories will be examined in comparison with each other and its different approaches to client work.

It seems that love him or loath him Freud's theory is the basis which all modern day theories are built on. Psychodynamics is believed to have strong association with Freudian psychoanalysis, Although modified by some, the key concepts still remain, Freud believed that human behavior was determined by the unconscious , biological and instinctual drives and placed a lot of the importance of the first six years of human development. He stated that in order to move on , a person had to confront what was going on in their unconscious. He was the pioneer of psychodynamic, and the fundamental notion was that individuals are the way they are due to the forces of the unconscious. This is further supported by Burnard who wrote:

Essential to the approach is the notions that people are , to a greater or lesser extent, affected by the unconscious motives and drives.

However his approach was further challenged in the 1940's and 1950's by

Rogers believed this could only be achieved on the qualitative characteristics of the therapist together with the relationship of the client and the therapist. This is back up by the historical data collated by Corey:

a new movement, the humanistic counseling, believing the individual were able to determine and be responsible for their own state of mind and not the as the psychodynamic put forward the unconscious forces of the mind. Its was from this very school of thought that emerged the person centered counseling developed by Carl Rogers. The aim of person centered counseling is the belief that the individual's capacity to work through their problems without directional work from the counselor. Corey also backed up and stated :

What has been described above is the basic concepts of both theories in setting up the therapeutic skills and tools used ,what follows now is the a more detailed analysis of both counseling approaches in relation to each other.

Two person are in a psychological contract ; the first , whom we shall term the client; is experiencing in congruency; the second person, whom we shall term the therapist, is congruent or integrated in the relationship; the therapist experience an empathic understanding of th

Some common words found in the essay are:
Carl Rogers, , person centered, person centered counseling, centered counseling, psychodynamic counseling, counseling psychodynamic, understand past, empathic understanding, characteristics therapist, therapist relationship, psychodynamics believed, unconscious forces,
Approximate Word count = 839
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)