Jaime Goff's Archive

Welcome to the MFT program at ACU!

0 Commentsby   |  08.18.09  |  Uncategorized

Let me take this opportunity to welcome you to the MFT family here at ACU! We are so excited to have you here with us for this exciting two-year journey. It’s going to be a lot of hard work, and there may be days (like the first week of classes when you’re receiving all those syllabi) when you wonder what you’ve gotten yourself into. But I hope that you will also have fun getting to know each other and immersing yourself into the fascinating world of systems. We also expect that this journey will be personally challenging for you as we ask you to examine yourself and “practice what you preach” to your clients. More »

Jaime Goff's Comment Archive

  1. Jaime Goff on Genuineness
    9:36 pm, 09.07.09

    Hmmm…too much genuineness? Although I don’t think it could be classified as genuineness, perhaps some people would think of too much self-disclosure as being overly genuine. Like we talked about in class last week, therapists should always be careful about their motives when choosing to self-disclose. Genuineness doesn’t mean being a completely open book; this might actually be unhelpful at best and harmful at worst for clients. It does, however, mean being yourself, being in the moment, and being comfortable with whatever feelings come up in the session, whether they are positive or negative.

  2. Jaime Goff on Accurate Empathy
    9:30 pm, 09.07.09

    Thanks for posting this video of Carl Rogers, Jacqueline. He is the father of unconditional positive regard and the creator of Person-Centered Therapy, which focuses on reflecting and validating feelings. Here are some things I noticed about this video:

    -He immediately puts her at ease by taking a one-down position, saying “I don’t know what we’ll be able to do in 30 minutes.”
    -He acknowledges that she has asked for advice but tells her he won’t give it to her.
    -Even Rogers gets it wrong in terms of accurate empathy. Twice, she tells him he hasn’t gotten it. -He gets to the most basic negative emotional experience, her fear of not being accepted by others and by herself. Interestingly, current research shows that strong negative emotional experiences are typically related to attachment needs/fears

    An interesting question that came to mind for me is this: Can you sit with your own anxiety when the client wants you to solve his/her problems?