TECHNIQUE OF COMPANIONSHIP THERAP MODEL

Goodman’s project took place in Berkeley in the mid-sixties. The “clients” were 5th-grade and 6th-grade boys, selected by a systematic citywide screening of the public schools. The counselors were male Berkeley undergraduates, recruited through advertisements in the newspaper. The “companionships” were structured to meet from one to four hours per visit, with two visits per week, and to last for the duration of the academic year. The typical pair met approximately fifty times over a span of eight months, and their average meeting lasted almost three hours.

The techniques of Companionship Therapy do not exist so much at the level of the response — such as interpretation in psychoanalysis, or confrontation in encounter — but more at the level of the relationship as a whole. They consist of the methods used to compose and structure the individual companionships.

The program was influenced by the client-centered tradition. Following Carl Rogers, the hypothesis was that people can change through other people’s openness, understanding, and acceptance. Thus, counsellors were selected for their capacity to self-disclose, empathize, and show positive regard for the feelings of others in actual performance situations. They were given a brief orientation about the value of being more honest with themselves and their clients, and of avoiding giving advice or trying to “treat” their boy.