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Comparison Between Client-Centered Therapy and Behavior Therapy

Introduction
A succession of treatment approaches has emerged throughout the evolution of
psychological counselling and therapy. Since Freud's establishment of psychoanalytic
therapy, two additional schools of psychotherapy theories and methods have emerged:
behavioural therapy and client-centred therapy (Rogers, 2013). These three major
treatment schools have substantial theoretical foundations as well as a set of relatively
mature treatment methods and operational procedures. There are currently more than
250 types of psychotherapies, but counsellors adhere to relatively few theoretical
models. Among them, behaviour therapy and client-centred therapy play an important
role in these theoretical models, and their characteristics can be attributed to their
divergent perspectives on human nature (Witty, 2007). The concept of human nature
is fundamental to the formation of the school of psychological counselling. It
influences the theoretical construction of a treatment school and plays a significant
role in many other areas, including the investigation of abnormal psychological
causes, the formulation of counselling objectives, and the application of counselling
techniques. Our counselling practice must be guided by a clear and comprehensive
understanding of behavioural therapy and client-centred therapy (Bozarth, Zimring, &
Tausch, 2002). This paper begins with the behavioural therapy and client-centred
therapy theories of psychotherapy compare their differences in theory and therapy and
reveal the psychological mechanism underlying their respective effects.

Behavior Therapy
Behavioural therapy is an umbrella term for several treatments for mental
illness; it is a form of therapy designed to identify and assist in the modification of
potentially self-destructive or unhealthy behaviours. Behavioural therapy is predicated
on the premise that all behaviours can be learned and altered. Treatment focuses
primarily on current issues and their resolution (Wilson, 2005). Numerous types of
behavioural therapy exist, including cognitive behavioural therapy, cognitive

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behavioural play therapy, acceptance and commitment therapy, and dialectical

behavioural therapy. Cognitive-behavioural therapy combines behavioural therapy,
which focuses on action patterns, and cognitive therapy, which focuses on thought
patterns, and is extremely popular. Cognitive-behavioural therapy focuses on the
influence of a patient's thoughts and beliefs on his or her behaviour and emotions.
Cognitive-behavioural play therapy is frequently used as a treatment for children's
mental health conditions. By observing children’s play, therapists gain insight into
how uncomfortable a child is when expressing himself or not being able to express
himself. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy is a type of psychotherapy in which
mental health professionals conduct behavioural analysis. Dialectical Behavior
Therapy is grounded in relational framework theory and focuses on analyzing mental
processes and human language.
Behavioural therapy is founded on classical conditioning, operant conditioning,
and social learning theory, beginning with the premise that an organism's behaviour is
shaped by its acquired environment (Spiegler, 2015). Behavioural therapy holds that
normal or abnormal behaviour, whether functional or non-functional, is acquired
through learning and can be modified, increased, or eliminated through learning as
well. Abnormal psychology is the acquisition of maladaptive behaviour through
learning. Given that it is acquired through learning, it can also be eliminated through
learning, and new adaptive behaviours can be acquired through learning (Beck &
Beck, 2011). Consequently, the therapeutic objective of behavioural therapy is to
create new conditions for the client to relearn, eliminate maladaptive behaviours and
learn more beneficial behaviours, identify factors that influence behaviours, and find
solutions to problem behaviours.
Behavioural therapy is founded on relevant psychological experiments and the
belief that all individual behaviours are the result of learning. If the client has a
problem, the problem is the behaviour, not the internal cause, or even if the internal
cause is acknowledged, the therapeutic effect is pursued solely from the perspective of
changing behaviour during treatment (Wright, Brown, Thase, & Basco, 2017).

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Although behavioural therapy is uninterested in internal changes such as cognitive

improvement and emotional transformation, it does seek a behavioural modification,
which is an explicit change in behaviour. However, when the patient's morbid
behaviour is changed, the patient's interior will also change, i.e., the patient's anxiety,
fear, and other maladaptive emotions will also change. This indicates that the overall
effect can be achieved from the perspective of behaviour, which is also the
mechanism through which behaviourist therapy exerts its curative effect. Changes in
behaviour will also result in some cognitive alterations.

Client-Centered Therapy
Client-centred therapy begins with the concept of human nature, which holds
that people are fundamentally trustworthy and have a proclivity for self-realization
and proposes the phenomenon field and self-theory as the theoretical foundation of
client-centred therapy. Rogers believes that an individual's subjective experience
world is a type of phenomenon field and that each person's phenomenon is unique.
Only the individual can truly and completely comprehend his experience world, and
no one else can comprehend himself as the client does. As a result, the client's leading
role in the treatment process is respected. According to the ego theory, when an
individual is motivated by the basic power of self-realization, ideal development can
be attained through the automatic function of the body's evaluation process (Bozarth
& Brodley, 1991). However, because the individual is under the control of the self-
attention motivation that requires the individual to feel worthwhile and worthy of care
during the process of self-formation, the value condition provides the yardstick for
judging the experience rather than simply under the guidance of the organism's
evaluation process. When there is inconsistency and conflict between experience and
self, and the individual's defences are ineffective, i.e., the experience cannot be
successfully distorted or denied, the individual develops neurotic adjustment
problems. As a result, the root of the problem of psychological adaptation lies in
individuals' ineffective self-concepts that contradict their nature (Brodley, 1997). As a

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result, the goal of psychotherapy is to create a safe environment for the client to
explore himself, identify the factors that impede growth, and become more open and
trusting in himself. Simply put, client-centred therapy seeks to restore one's nature,
assist one in living life according to one's nature, enrich it, and assist one in better
realising oneself.
Client-centred therapy holds that people have an innate desire to be positive and
self-actualized and that when this desire is thwarted, they will deny and distort their
own experience and experience through defence mechanisms. When the defence
mechanism is out of control, the individual experiences negative emotions and
psychological distress, as well as psychological disorders. The emergence of
psychological disorders is the result of suppressed self-realization potential. Client-
centred therapy believes that psychological counselling and therapy should be used to
establish a client-centred therapeutic relationship. Create an environment in which
clients can experience being paid attention to and respected, confronting their own
emotional experiences, recognising their potential for self-development, and finally
achieving the effect of treatment through the client's self-realization potential.

Comparison between Behavior Therapy and Client-Centered Therapy

How client-centred psychotherapy and behavioural therapy work differ
fundamentally and the difference in psychological mechanism and way is derived
from its fundamental characteristics. Client-centred therapy distinguishes itself by
creating an environment conducive to the development of the client's personality,
allowing the self-actualization tendency to be expressed normally in the field of
consciousness and the client to experience benign emotions for therapeutic effect.
Behaviour therapy achieves the treatment goal directly through a single external
behaviour modification method, causing benign changes in the patient's cognition and
emotion at the same time. Client-centred therapy determines the atmosphere and
support that should be provided to the client based on the future orientation of human
self-actualization. Behavioural therapy is more focused on the present, and on solving

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the client's current problems. Both methods are effective.

Furthermore, the time orientation of focusing on problems differs between
client-centred psychotherapy and behavioural therapy therapeutic theories. Client-
centred psychotherapy holds that people have the potential for self-realization and that
psychological issues are primarily to blame for their repressed or frustrated search for
future meaning in life. Client-centred psychotherapy solves existing problems by
excavating and guiding the meaning of their future lives, and it adheres to the
purposeful tendency of human development and decision-making. The difference is
that behaviour therapy corrects the client's existing bad behaviours and
misunderstandings, whereas cognitive behavioural therapy believes that the client's
current performance is the problem and that the client's current behaviour and
cognition reflect the nature of the disease.
The emphasis on the therapeutic relationship also differs between client-centred
psychotherapy and behavioural therapy. The therapeutic relationship is considered a
necessary and sufficient condition for the treatment to be effective in client-centred
therapy. The goal of psychotherapy is to foster a positive relationship climate in which
the client lowers his defences against threatening experiences, allowing them to be
symbolised in consciousness and thus free to explore feelings. Behaviour therapy, in
general, does not place a high value on the therapeutic relationship. They believe that
while empathy, understanding, tolerance, and acceptance are necessary, they are
insufficient for behaviour change. Although the therapeutic relationship is important,
it only plays a minor role. Behavioural therapy emphasises the role of the
psychologist, believing that the psychologist, like a teacher or trainer, can assist the
client in learning more effective behaviours and acting as a positive guide. However,
it is also believed that maintaining a positive working relationship between the
psychologist and the client is essential for guiding behaviour change. In this regard,
the therapeutic relationship takes the primary position in client-centred therapy, which
is a necessary and sufficient condition for the treatment to be effective, whereas, in
behavioural therapy, the therapeutic relationship does not take the primary position.

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Discussion
Client-centred therapy values the client's ability and emphasises the role of the
therapeutic relationship. It has a significant positive impact on psychotherapy, but it
inevitably has limitations. One is that this therapy prioritises people's emotional
feelings over their ability to reason, which is suspected of being overly sensitive. The
second orientation is individualism, which emphasises the full performance of the
individual's functions while ignoring responsibility for others and a clear and definite
goal and purpose. The third issue is that psychological counsellors are too passive and
are easily manipulated by patients. Fourth, the use of specific strategies and
techniques is ignored, as is any diagnosis or assessment.
According to the human nature view of behaviourist therapy, human behaviour
is the result of acquired environment and education, and unsuitable behaviour is
acquired through acquired learning. Because the focus of therapy is on external
behaviour, behavioural therapy is known for its bright and concise style, but it has
also been criticised from various angles. One is that behavioural therapy involves the
psychologist manipulating and controlling the patient, which violates basic human
rights. Second, because behaviour therapy ignores the historical causes of current
behaviour and only focuses on the elimination of external symptoms, the phenomenon
of symptom substitution will occur. Third, behavioural therapy exaggerates the effect
of external behavioural control and overemphasises the influence of the environment
on the individual. Fourth, behavioural therapy focuses on surface behaviour rather
than dealing with the patient's feelings.
At the same time, the study discovered that various psychotherapy theories have
some flaws, to varying degrees. In general, different schools of psychotherapy can
integrate and complement each other, complement each other, and gather the strengths
and weaknesses of various schools. Integration is more than just combining therapies,
it is a comprehensive and deepening of treatment methods at a higher level based on
the patient's situation, and it has revolutionised patient psychotherapy practice and

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made a breakthrough in the promotion of psychotherapy theory. This is the

significance of the emphasis on the integration of psychotherapeutic theory in this
article.

Conclusion
Through the above description of the two schools of psychotherapy from the
perspective of human nature, differences in the views of human nature have led to
differences in the theoretical basis of counselling, the goals of treatment, and the
emphasis placed on therapeutic relationships. All are unfinished and flawed, so they
are inevitably subject to criticism from every angle. Considering this, one cannot
simply adhere to one therapy and oppose other therapies in the future practice of
psychological counselling and treatment. The appropriate method should be utilised
comprehensively, utilising its strengths while avoiding its weaknesses. This paper
examines the behavioural therapy and client-centred therapy psychotherapy theories.
The working mechanisms, methods, and forms are distinct and may even appear to be
in opposition to one another on the surface, but each has its foundation and efficacy
and cannot be substituted for the other. Instead, we are unable to select a single
pattern. Consequently, by the complex reality of the laws of human psychology, we
can integrate and employ several psychotherapy theories. The current trend in
psychotherapy and counselling is mixed psychotherapy, which integrates elements of
various theoretical and methodological frameworks, such as the Lazarus function, into
a comprehensive treatment system. There is a common psychological mechanism in
different treatment theories and methods, namely the change of patients' cognition, the
adjustment of emotion and behaviour, and the correction of behaviour, which explains
why different schools of psychotherapy can be effective.

(2135 words)

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Bozarth, D.J., Zimring, M.F., & Tausch, R. (2002). Client-centered therapy: The

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Brodley, T.B. (1997). The nondirective attitude in client-centered therapy. The

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Spiegler, D.M. (2015). Contemporary behavior therapy. Cengage Learning.

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Wright, H.J., Brown,K.G., Thase, E.M., & Basco, R.M. (2017). Learning cognitive-

behavior therapy: An illustrated guide. American Psychiatric Pub.

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