Chapter 5

Person-Centered Therapy

Person-Centered Therapy

Created by Carl Rogers in the early 1940s. Initial emphasis is non-directive and lets

the client take the lead in initiating the direction that change should take.

Carl Rogers

Born in 1902 in Oak Park, Illinois, and was the 4th of 6 children.

Studied briefly with Alfred Adler. Found that the psychoanalytical approach

to working with troubled individuals was time-consuming and often ineffective.

Established the Center for the Study of Persons in 1968.

View of Human Nature/Personality

People are essentially good. They are characteristically positive,

forward-moving, constructive, realistic, and trustworthy.

Each person is aware, inner-directed and moving toward self-actualization.

Rogers’ View on Human Infants

Whatever an infant perceives is reality. Infants are born with a self-actualizing tendency

that is satisfied through goal-directed behavior. Everything an infant does is interrelated. The experience of an infant may be seen as

positive or negative according to whether the experiences enhance the actualization tendency.

Infants maintain experiences that are self-actualizing and avoid those that are not.

Concepts of Carl Rogers’ Beliefs

Self-actualization is the most prevalent and motivating drive of existence.

Each person is capable of finding a personal meaning and purpose in life.

Phenomenological Perspective – what is important is the person’s perception of reality rather than an event itself.

Concept of Self

The self is an outgrowth of what people experience and an awareness of self helps individuals differentiate themselves from others.

For a healthy self to emerge, people need positive regard – love, warmth, care and acceptance.

Ideal Self and Real Self

Ideal Self – what the person is striving to become.

Real Self – what the person is.

The further the ideal self is from the real self, the more alienated and maladjusted

persons become.

Roles of the Counselor/Therapist

Take on a holistic role in their work. Establish a free and comfortable environment for

their clients. Work as facilitators rather than as directors. Make limited use of psychological tests. The use of diagnosis is avoided because the

diagnosis is philosophically incompatible with the objectives of this approach.

Goals

Geared to clients as people, not their problems.

Assist people in learning how to cope with situations.

Learn to not have need for defense mechanisms.

Rogers’ Goals for Clients

Clients will become: More realistic in their self-perception. More confident and self-directing. More positively valued by themselves. Less likely to repress aspects of their experiences. More mature, socialized, and adaptive in their

behavior. Less upset by stress and quicker to recover. More like the healthy, integrated, well-functioning

person in their personality structures.

Primary Goal

The primary goal is to bring about a harmony between the client’s self-concept and his or her perceived self-concept.

Evolution of Person-Centered Processes Non-Directive Period (1940-50)

– Emphasis on forming a relationship.– Main techniques were acceptance and clarification.

Reflective Period (1950-57)– Emphasis on creating nonthreatening relationships.– Main techniques included responding to clients’

feelings and reflecting underlying affect back to clients.

– Increased focus on the therapeutic relationship.

Evolution of Person-Centered Processes Experiential Period (1957-80)

– Began with Rogers issuing his statement on the necessary and sufficient (core) conditions of counseling:

• EMPATHY – the ability to feel with clients and convey this understanding back to them.

• POSITIVE REGARD – acceptance; a deep and genuine caring for clients and persons.

• CONGRUENCE – the condition of being transparent in the therapeutic relationship by giving up roles and facades.

Necessary and Sufficient Conditions for a Counseling Relationship

1. Two persons are in psychological contact.2. The first person, the client, is in a state of

incongruence and is vulnerable or anxious.3. The second person, the counselor, is congruent, or

integrated, in the relationship.4. The counselor experiences unconditional positive

regard for the client.5. The counselor experiences an empathic understanding

of the client’s internal frame of reference and attempts to explain his/her experiences to the client.

6. There is at least a minimal degree of communication to the client of the counselor’s understanding and unconditional positive regard.

Methods that Help Promote the Counselor-Client Relationship

Active and passive listening. Accurate reflection of thought and feelings. Clarification. Summarization. Confrontation. General or open-ended leads.

Multicultural and Gender Sensitive Issues

Mixed reviews for appropriateness to a multicultural context.– Some elements are not universal in

application. Mixed reviews for gender issues as well.

– Rogers did not truly address the gender issue.– Some question as to whether one gender can

truly empathize and relate to the opposite gender.

Strengths and Contributions

Revolutionized the counseling profession by linking counseling with psychotherapy.

Applicable to a wide range of human problems. Has contributed to the field by generating a great

deal of research. Effectiveness of the approach. Focuses on the open relationship established. Relatively quick to learn. Positive view of human nature.

Limitations and Criticisms

Provided few instructions for counselors on how to establish relationships with clients and bring about change.

Depends on bright, insightful, hard-working clients for best results.

Ignores diagnosis, the unconscious, and innately generated sexual and aggressive drives.

Seen by critics as limited because it is directed by clients and may only deal with surface issues.

The Case of Linda: Person-Centered Therapy

How would you conceptualize this case using Person-Centered therapy?

What would be your treatment plan for this client using a Person-Centered approach?