CHAPTER 7 Person-Centered Therapy
Introduction
This approach emphasizes the following:
oPersonal characteristics of the therapist
oQuality of the therapeutic relationship
oPerson’s capacity for self-directed growth if involved in a therapeutic relationship
Four Periods of Development of the Approach
This approach challenges the following:
oAssumption that “the counselor knows best”
oValidity of advice, suggestion, persuasion, teaching, diagnosis, and interpretation
oBelief that clients cannot resolve their own problems without help
The first period (nondirective counseling) provided a powerful alternative to the directive and
interpretive approaches.
The second period (client-centered therapy) reflected emphasis on the client rather than
nondirective methods.
The third period addressed the necessary and sufficient conditions of therapy.
The fourth period marked by considerable expansion of education, couples and families, industry,
and groups.
Emotion-Focused Therapy
Evidence-based approach developed by Leslie Greenberg
Rooted in a person-centered philosophy but synthesizes aspects of Gestalt and existential therapies
Emphasizes awareness, acceptance, and understanding of emotion and the visceral experience of
emotion.
Emotional change can be a primary pathway to cognitive and behavioral change.
A range of experiential techniques are used to strengthen the self, regulate affect, and create new
meaning.
Emotion-Focused Therapy strategies help clients with too little emotion access their emotions and
help clients who experience too much emotion contain their emotions.
It is effective in treating anxiety, intimate partner violence, eating disorders, and trauma.
Existentialism and Humanism
Tended to be confusing for students and theorists alike
Share a respect for the client’s subjective experience and the uniqueness and individuality of each
client
Emphasis on concepts such as freedom, choice, values, personal responsibility, and meaning
Abraham Maslow’s Contributions to Humanistic Psychology
The positive psychology movement shares concepts on the healthy side of human existence with
the humanistic approach.
Core characteristics of self-actualizing people are self-awareness, freedom, basic honesty and
caring, and trust and autonomy.
Hierarchy of needs is a source of motivation, with the most basic needs being physiological needs.
View of Human Nature
At their core, humans are trustworthy and positive.
Humans are capable of making changes and living productive and effective lives.
Humans innately gravitate toward self-actualization.
Given the right growth-fostering conditions, individuals strive to move forward and fulfill their
creative nature.
Counselor’s creation of a “growth-promoting” climate
The following are the three therapist attributes that create a growth-promoting climate:
oCongruence: Genuineness or realness
oUnconditional positive regard: Acceptance and caring
oAccurate empathic understanding: The ability to deeply grasp the subjective world of another
person
Clients Experience in Therapy
Clients have the opportunity to explore their feelings, beliefs, behavior, and worldview.
Client may hope to find “the way” through the guidance of the therapist.
Therapy relationship provides a supportive structure within which clients’ self-healing
capacities are activated.
Relationship Between Therapist and Client
The following six conditions are necessary and sufficient for personality changes to occur:
1. Two persons are in psychological contact.
2. The first, the client, is experiencing incongruence.
3. The second person, the therapist, is congruent or integrated in the relationship.
4. The therapist experiences unconditional positive regard or real caring for the client.
5. The therapist experiences empathy for the client’s internal frame of reference and endeavors to
communicate this to the client.
6. The communication to the client is, to a minimal degree, achieved.
Is invested in developing his or her own life experiences to deepen self-knowledge and move toward
self-actualization
Is genuine, integrated, and authentic
Can openly express feelings and attitudes that are present in the relationship with the client
Serves as a model of a human being struggling toward greater realness
Evolution of Person-Centered Methods
Effective therapy requires therapists to be fully present and engaged with their clients.
“Being with” clients and entering imaginatively into their world of perceptions and feelings
Listening, accepting, respecting, understanding, and responding must be honest expressions by the
therapist.
Immediacy, or addressing what is going on between the client and therapist, is highly valued.
It is essential for therapists to adapt their therapeutic style to accommodate the unique
needs of the clients.
Person-centered approach works in diverse ways.
The Role of Assessment
Focuses on the quality of the therapeutic relationship
Engages in co-assessment with the client and does not value traditional assessment and diagnosis
Clients involved in a collaborative process in making decisions
Application of the Philosophy of the Person-Centered Approach
Emphasizes staying with clients as opposed to getting ahead of them with interpretations
Straightforward and easy to comprehend, and they encourage locating power in the person
Demands a great deal of the therapist
Without a person-centered way of being, mere application of skills is likely to be hollow
Application to Crisis Intervention
When people are in crisis, one of the first steps is to give them an opportunity to fully express
themselves.
Genuine support, caring, and nonpossessive warmth can motivate people to do something to work
through and resolve a crisis.
Communicating a deep sense of understanding should always precede other problem-solving
interventions.
Application to Group Counseling
Therapist takes on the role of facilitator who creates a therapeutic environment
oTechniques are not stressed
oExhibits deep trust of the group members
oThe responsibility for the direction of the group is on members, who set the goals for the group
oProvides support for members
The group setting fosters an open and accepting community where members can work on self-
acceptance.
Individuals learn that they do not have to experience the process of change alone; they grow from
the support of group members.
Principles of Expressive Arts Therapy
All people have an innate ability to be creative.
Creative process is transformative and healing. The healing aspects include meditation, art, and
music.
Consciousness achieved through self-discovery, self-awareness, and insight.
Self-awareness, understanding, and insight are achieved by delving into our feelings of grief, anger,
pain, fear, joy, and ecstasy.
oFeelings and emotions are an energy source.
oThe expressive arts lead us into the unconscious.
oOne art form stimulates and nurtures the other.
oA connection exists between our life force.
The various art modes interrelate in what Natalie Rogers calls the “creative connection.”
Creativity and Offering Stimulating Experiences
Following are the conditions that foster creativity:
oAcceptance of the individual
oA nonjudgmental setting
oEmpathy
oPsychological freedom
Stimulating and challenging experiences
Individuals who have experienced unsafe creative environments feel “held back” and may disengage
from creative processes.
Art is not only for the few who develop a talent or master a medium. We all can use various art
forms to facilitate self-expression and personal growth.
Motivational Interviewing
A humanistic, client-centered, psychosocial, directive counseling approach developed by William R.
Miller and Stephen Rollnick in the early 1980s
Applied to many clinical problems but was initially designed as a brief intervention for problem
drinking
Both MI and person-centered practitioners believe in the client’s abilities, strengths, resources, and
competencies.
MI Spirit
Is deliberately directive and aimed at reducing client ambivalence about change and increasing
intrinsic motivation
Honoring the “MI Spirit” is essential
Assisting clients to become their own advocates for change and primary agents of change
Achieving successful outcomes as the specific theoretical model
The Basic Principles of Motivational Interviewing
Therapists strive to experience the world from the client’s perspective without judgment or criticism.
Evoke and explore both discrepancies and ambivalence
Reluctance to change is viewed and expected part of the therapeutic process
Therapists support clients’ self-efficacy
Strengthening clients’ commitment to change and assist them in implementing a change plan
The Stages of Change
Precontemplation stage
Contemplation stage
Preparation stage
Action stage
Maintenance stage
Strengths From a Diversity Perspective
PCT has had a major impact on the field of human relations with diverse cultural groups.
Carl Rogers’ work has reached more than 30 countries, and his writings have been translated into 12
languages.
The therapist is viewed as a “fellow explorer” who attempts to understand the client’s
phenomenological world in an interested, accepting, and open way.
Shortcomings From a Diversity Perspective
Clients who expect a directive counselor may be put off by this unstructured approach.
It is difficult to translate the core therapeutic conditions into actual practice in certain cultures.
The focus on individual autonomy and personal growth may be viewed as “selfish” in cultures that
stress the common good.
Contributions of the Person-Centered Approach
Natalie Rogers’ use of nonverbal methods and expressive arts to enable individuals to heal and
develop has expanded her father’s pioneering work.
Carl Rogers literally opened the field to research.
The philosophy and principles of this approach permeate the practice of most therapists.
Extensive research supports the effectiveness of PCT with a wide range of clients and problems of all
age groups.
Limitations and Criticisms of the Person-Centered Approach
Emphasizes the role of techniques aimed at bringing about change in clients’ behavior
Therapeutic core conditions are necessary for therapy to succeed.
The therapist’s genuineness determines the power of the therapeutic relationship.
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