Theoretical Views
Name of theory: Person-Centered Therapy
Founder of the theory: Carl Rogers (1940-1980)
- Background
Carl Rodgers is the most influential therapist of all time and developed the most influential
approach to counseling called the person-centered theory (Granello & Young, 2012). Person-
centered therapy (PCT) comes from the experiential and relationship-oriented therapy tradition.
PCT is based on faith in and empowerment of human beings to be joyful, creative, self-fulfilled
and willing and able to connect with others, both socially and emotionally (Boyer, 2015). Based
on Maslow’s (1970) studies of self-actualizing people found the actualizing tendency is a
directional process of striving toward realization, fulfillment, autonomy, and self-determination
(Corey, 2013).
Human Motivation
Rogers believed three key attributes of a counselor foster a growth-promoting climate. These
attributes are congruence (genuineness, or realness), unconditional positive regard (acceptance
and caring), and accurate empathic understanding (an ability to deeply grasp the subjective world
of another person (Corey, 2013). According to Boyer (2015), when care, acceptance, and
understanding are not available, people may lose contact with themselves and resort to facades
and pretenses. These facades and pretenses, created by a client, demonstrate an incongruity
between client self-perceptions and their experience, which might lead to anxiety and personal
vulnerability.
Roles and Goals
-Roles of Client (Describe 2 or more.)
A client must be experiencing a difference between what they want to be and what they are, thus
creating anxiety, frustration, and vulnerability (Boyer, 2015). Clients need to arrive at their own
decisions while focused on their cognitive and emotional experience of the problem (Granello &
Young, 2012).
-Counselor Goals
In person-centered therapy goal setting is not done because the therapist accepts the client as
they and takes them where they want to go (Granello & Young, 2012). According to Boyer
(2015), a counsellor’s goal is to be genuine while modeling the human struggle to be real through
the expression of emotion behaviors that match feelings while expressing and experiencing
unconditional positive regard for the client. The counselor strives to provide support and helps
the clients own sense or positive regard by not imposing conditions of worth on the client
(Granello & Young, 2012). As clients experience a counsellor who really likes them, they begin
to drop many of the pretenses or lies they believed about themselves and realize they can be real,
with themselves and with the counsellor (Boyer, 2015).
Central Constructs/Key Concepts (Describe 3)
From Rogers’s perspective, the client–therapist relationship is characterized by equality.
Therapists do not keep their knowledge a secret or attempt to mystify the therapeutic process, but
the process of change in the client depends to a large degree on the quality of this equal
relationship (Corey, 2013). Rogers believed counseling should be nondirective by allowing
clients to talk about important issues to them (Granello & Young, 2012). Key concepts of person-
centered therapy are self-concept, congruence/genuineness, unconditional positive regard, and
accurate empathetic understanding (Corey, 2013).
Therapeutic Techniques (Describe 3)
Rogerian techniques became basic skills all helping professionals learn and these skills are
incorporated into other theories (Granello & Young, 2012). Empathy broken down into skills and
techniques that all counselors use such as paraphrasing, reflecting feelings, and reflecting
meaning (Granello & Young, 2012). PCT counsellors using a multiple-perspective model of
empathy include three ways of experiencing a client: (a) subjective empathy, which enables
counsellors to experience what it is generally like to be the client; (b) interpersonal empathy,
which involves understanding the client’s internal frame of reference, or private meanings, for
their experiences; and (c) objective empathy, which involves having knowledge that is outside
client’s frame of reference (Boyer, 2015). This multiple perspective model creates a foundation
for accurate empathic understanding in which the therapist will sense clients’ feelings as if they
were his or her own without becoming lost in those feelings (Corey, 2017). Immediacy, or
addressing what is going on between the client and therapist, is also highly valued in this
approach (Corey, 2017).
Multicultural Strengths & Shortcomings (Describe 2 of each)
Strengths
The individualized and personalized nature of the person-centered approach lends itself to
working with culturally diverse clients. In this therapeutic relationship, the therapist does not act
as an authority, but rather defers to the judgment of the client, and attempts to learn about a
different culture in this two-way relationship (Corey, 2013). Person-centered philosophy and
practice can now be studied in several European countries, South America, and Japan. His work
has reached more than 30 countries, and his writings have been translated into 12 languages
(Corey, 2013).
Shortcomings
Although the person-centered approach has made significant contributions to counseling people
from diverse social, political, and cultural backgrounds, there are some shortcomings to
practicing exclusively within this framework (Corey, 2013). A shortcoming of the person-
centered approach is that it is difficult to translate the core therapeutic conditions into actual
practice in certain cultures (Corey, 2013). According to Jookyoung (2017), Rogers' concept of
self-actualization has been criticized because person centered therapy disregards cultural
variations in the conceptions of self. Rogers generalizing self-actualization of all individuals as
the actualization of the self is done at the expense of others. In some cultures, the self is
conceptualized to exist in terms of social interdependence with others rather than independence
from others. How individuals conceptualize themselves is highly influenced by their cultures.
Numerous empirical studies have shown that in general people from individualistic cultures are
inclined to have the independent self-concept, whereas those from collectivist cultures are likely
to have an interdependent self-concept. What influences individuals' construction of self-
concepts would include not only cultures but also religions, ethnicities or races, genders, ages,
and so on. Hence, there may exist differences in self-concepts not only between different cultures
but also within the frame of culture.
Research (Describe 3 pieces of research (peer-reviewed) supporting effectiveness of the
theory in a school counseling setting.)
According to Boyer (2015), Axline was known as the originator of child-centered play therapy
and identified the importance of promoting mental health of teachers and children as a way to
support a successful, safe and sound practices in the classroom. Therefore, in the classroom,
Rogers’ core conditions of caring are intrinsically linked with safe, sound, and successful
educational practices. When early childhood educators put themselves in the child’s shoes and
consider what it would be like to be the child, feeling what the child feels and seeing the child’s
perspective, early childhood educators acquire an appreciation for the child’s emotional and
social support needs (Boyer, 2015). This can be helpful in planning opportunities where children
can practice problem solving with varied self-regulation and emotion regulation strategies
(Boyer, 2015).
Jones (2020) researched the effects of bullying on children and how person-centered therapy may
help children being bullied within the school environment. It was found that due to the lack of
emotional support in the school environment, there was added trauma that the victims
experienced from bullying. Person-centered therapy was useful when working with the victims
and helped many of them overcome the trauma and anxiety experienced due to the bullying.
A study done by Fors et al. (2020) suggests person-centered therapy is effective when working
with students living with chronic pain in the school setting. Research suggests that a strong sense
of self‐efficacy can reduce subjective pain intensity and is associated with a favorable outcome.
It was shown that higher levels of self‐efficacy among children and adolescents was related to
higher levels of self‐esteem and less complaints of somatic problems.
Limitations/Criticisms (Describe 2).
In research supporting the use of person-centered therapies, there is often a lack of control
groups, a reliance on self-reports, and difficulty in replication (Corey, 2013). Another problem
when applying this approach is that therapists may neglect to adequately challenge their clients,
in the interest of being supportive, nor may therapists be able to put aside their own judgments
effectively (Corey, 2013).
Boyer, W. (2015). Person-Centered Therapy: A Philosophy to Support Early Childhood
Education. Early Childhood Education Journal, 44(4), 343-348. doi:10.1007/s10643-015-0720-7
Corey, G. (2013). Theory and practice of counseling and psychotherapy (9th ed.). Brooks/Cole /
Cengage Learning.
Fors, A., Wallbing, U., Alfvén, G., Kemani, M. K., Lundberg, M., Wigert, H., & Nilsson, S.
(2020). Effects of a person‐centred approach in a school setting for adolescents with chronic pain
—The HOPE randomized controlled trial. European Journal of Pain, 24(8), 1598-1608.
doi:10.1002/ejp.1614
Granello, D., Young, M. (2012). Counseling today: Foundations of professional identity. Pearson
Education.
Jones, C. (2020). Is person‐centered counselling effective when assisting young people who have
experienced bullying in schools? Counselling and Psychotherapy Research, 20(4), 657-665.
doi:10.1002/capr.12312
Jookyoung Kim (2018). Consideration of the applicability of person-centered therapy to
culturally varying clients, focusing on the actualizing tendency and self-actualization – from East
Asian perspective, Person-Centered & Experiential Psychotherapies, 17:3, 201-
223, DOI: 10.1080/14779757.2018.1506817
