Person Centered Therapy

PERSON CENTERED THERAPY
Submitted to:
Agnes Montalbo
Rizal Technological University

Person Centered Approach
•Is base on concepts from
humanistic psychology.
Introduction

•In early 1940’s
•The single most influential
psychotherapist of the past
quarter century
(Psychotherapy Networker
Survey, 2006).

•He become known as a “Quiet
revolutionary”, who both
contributed to theory
development and whose influence
continues to shape counseling
practice today.

•Person centered approach
shares many concepts and
values with the existential
perspective.

Roger’s Basic Assumptions
•People are essentially trustworthy.
•They have a vast potential for
understanding themselves and resolving
their own problems without direct
intervention on the therapist’s part.

• They are capable of self-directed
growth if they are involved in a
specific kind of therapeutic
relationship.

Prime Determinants Of The Therapeutic
Process Outcome
•Attitudes and personal
characteristics of the therapist.
•Quality of the client-therapist
relationship.

Secondary Position
•Therapist knowledge of
theories and techniques.
•Rogers revolutionized the field of psychotherapy
by proposing a theory that centered on client as the
agent for self change.

Contemporary Person-Centered Therapy
•Is the result of an evolutionary
process that continues to remain
open to change and refinement.

FOUR PERIODS OF DEVELOPMENT
THE APPROACH

First Period (1940’s)
•Roger’s develop Non-directive Counseling
-Which provided a powerful and
revolutionary alternative to the
directive approaches to therapy
then being practiced.

Rogers (1942) published Counseling And
Psychotherapy: Newer Concepts In Practice
•Which described the philosophy and practice of
nondirective counseling.
•Rogers’s theory emphasized the counselor’s
creation of a permissive and nondirective climate.

Nondirective Counselors
•Avoids sharing a great
deal about themselves
with client .

• Instead focused mainly on reflecting and
clarifying the clients’ verbal and nonverbal
communications with the aim of helping clients
become aware of the gain
insight into their feelings.

Second Periods (1950)
•Rogers approach was renamed to Client-
Centered Therapy
•This period was characterize by a shift from
clarification of feelings to a focus on the
phenomenological world of the client.

• Rogers assumed that
the best vantage point
for understanding how
people behave was
from their own internal
frame of reference.

Third Period (1950-1970)
•“On Becoming A Person” (1961)
•Which addressed the nature of
“becoming the self that one truly is.”
•He described the process of
“becoming one’s experience”

Fourth Period(1980-1990)
•Was marked considerable
expansion to education,
industry, groups, conflict
resolution, and the search for
world peace.

Person-centered Approach
•1980’s when Rogers applied this
approach to politics and
especially to the achievement of
world peace.

Comprehensive Review of the
Person-centered Therapy
•In the earliest years of the approach, the
client rather than the therapist was in charge.
Bozarth and colleagues (2002)
concluded the ff:

1. Increased self-understanding
2. Greater self-exploration
3. Improved self-concepts.
This style of nondirective therapy was associated
• Later a shift from clarification of feelings to a focus
on the client’s frame of reference developed.

Core conditions assumed to be necessary and
sufficient for successful therapy.
•Attitude of the therapist
•Emphatic understanding of the client’s world.
• Ability to communicate a nonjudgmental
stance to the client.

GLADYS R. ESPEDIDO
Prepared By:

•Existentialism is a philosophical way of
thinking that is very different from other
philosophical ideas. It sees humans,
with will and consciousness , as being in a
world of objects which do not have those
qualities. The fact that humans are conscious of
their mortality, and must make decisions about
their life is what existentialism is all about

JEAN-PAUL SARTRE
• June 21, 1905 –April
15,1980
• French existentialist phil
osopher, playwright,
novelist, screenwriter,
political activist,
biographer, and literary
critic.

HUMANISM
•Humanism is a philosophy or "way of
thinking about the world". Humanism is set
of ethics or ideas about how people should
live and act. People who hold this set of ethics
are called "Humanists".

CLIENT’S EXPERIENCE IN AUTHORITY
•Psychoanalysis and psychodynamic therapies.
~This approach focuses on changing
problematic behaviors, feelings, and thoughts
by discovering their unconscious meanings
and motivations

BEHAVIOR THERAPY
•This approach focuses on
learning's role in
developing both normal
and abnormal behaviors.

COGNITIVE THERAPY
• Cognitive therapy
emphasizes what people
think rather than what
they do.

HUMANISTIC THERAPY
•This approach emphasizes people's capacity
to make rational choices and develop to their
maximum potential. Concern and respect for
others are also important themes.

GESTALT THERAPY
•emphasizes what it calls "organismic holism," the
importance of being aware of the here and now
and accepting responsibility for yourself.

EXISTENTIAL THERAPY
• focuses on free will, self-
determination and the search for
meaning

INTEGRATIVE OR HOLISTIC THERAPY.
•Many therapists don't tie
themselves to any one
approach. Instead, they
blend elements from
different approaches and
tailor their treatment
according to each client's
needs.

Edherlyn Catapang 
Prepared by:

CLIENT EXPERIENCE IN THERAPY
Reported by: Bernalyn
Patanag

Therapeutic change depends on
clients’ perceptions of their own
experience in therapy and of the
counselors basic attitudes.

One reason clients seek
therapy is a feeling of
basic helplessness,
powerlessness, and an
inability to make decisions
or effectively direct their
own lives. They may hope
to find “the way” through
the guidance of the
therapist.

Relationship Between Therapist And
Client

Rogers (1957) based his
hypothesis of the “necessary
and sufficient conditions for
therapeutic personality
change” on the quality of the
relationship:

Roger’s hypothesis:
1)Two persons are in
psychological contact.
2)The first, whom we shall term
the client, is in a state of
incongruence, being vulnerable
or anxious

3) The second person, whom we
term the therapist, is congruent
(real or genuine) in the
relationship.
4) The therapist experiences
unconditional positive regard for
the client.

5) The therapist experiences an
emphatic understanding of the clients
internal frame of reference and
endeavors to communicate this
experience to client.
6) The communication to the client of
the therapist’s empathic
understanding and unconditional
positive regard is to a minimal degree
achieved.

From Rogers perspective
the client-therapist
relationship is characterized
by equality.
Therapists do not keep
their knowledge a secret or
attempt to mystify the
therapeutic process.

the process of change
in the client depends
to a large degree on
the quality of this
equal relationship.

This approach is perhaps best
characterized as a way of
being and as a shared journey
in which therapist and client
reveal their humanness and
participate in a growth
experience.

The therapist can be a
guide on this journey
because he or she is
usually more experienced
and more psychologically
mature than the client.

“ therapist cannot confidently invite their
clients to travel further than they have
journeyed themselves, but for person-
centered therapists the quality,

depth and continuity of their own
experiencing becomes the very
cornerstone of the competence
they bring to their professional
activity”.
(Thorne 2002b)

The core therapist conditions of
congruence, unconditional positive regard,
and accurate empathic understanding have
been subsequently embraced by many
therapeutic schools as essential in facilitating
therapeutic change.

these core qualities of
therapists, along with the
therapist’s presence,
work holistically to create
a safe environment for
learning to occur.

CONGRUENCE OR GENUINENESS
Congruence implies that therapist are real; that is,
genuine, integrated and authentic during the therapy
hour.
the quality of real presence is at the heart effective
therapy,

which Mearns and Cooper (2005)
capture thusly: “when two people come
together in a wholly genuine, open and
engaged way, we can say that they are
both fully present”.

UNCONDITIONAL POSITIVE REGARD AND
ACCEPTANCE
The second attitude therapists need to
communicate is deep and genuine caring for the
client as a person, or a condition of unconditional
positive regard.
Unconditional positive regard is accepting and
valuing another human being regardless of their
thoughts, beliefs and behaviors.

Acceptance is the recognition of clients’ right to
have their own beliefs and feelings; it is not the approval
of all behavior. All overt behavior need not be approved
of or accepted.
according to Rogers’s (1977) research, the greater
the degree of caring, prizing, accepting, and valuing of
the client in a non possessive way, the greater the chance
that therapy will be successful.

One of the main tasks of the therapist is to understand
clients, experience and feelings sensitively and accurately as
they are revealed in moment to moment interaction during
the therapy session.
The aim is to encourage clients to get closer to
themselves, to feel more deeply and intensely, and to
recognize and resolve the incongruity that exists within
them.

Empathy is a deep and
subjective understanding of the
client with the client. Empathy is not
sympathy, or feeling sorry for a
client.
Therapist are able to share the
client’s subjective world by tuning in
to their own feelings that are like the
client’s feelings

Empathy helps client:
1)Pay attention and value their experiencing;
2)See earlier experiences in new ways;
3)Modify their perceptions of themselves, others, and the
world;
4)Increase their confidence in making choices and in
pursuing course of action.
Accurate empathic understanding Implies that the
therapist will sense clients’ feelings as if they were his
or her own without becoming lost in those feelings

Accurate empathy is the cornerstone of the person centered
approach. It is a way for therapist s to hear the meanings
expressed by their clients that often lie at the edge of their
awareness.
(Bohart & Greenberg, 1997)
Full empathy entails understanding the meaning and
feeling of a client’s experiencing. Empathy is an active
ingredient of change that facilitates clients’ cognitive processes
and emotional self-regulation.
(Watson 2002)

Empathy is the most powerful determinant of
client progress in therapy.
When empathy is operating on all three levels-
interpersonal, cognitive, and affective- it is one of
the most powerful tools therapists have at their
disposal

APPLICATION:
THERAPEUTICS TECHNIQUES
AND PROCEDURES

EARLY EMPHASIS ON
REFLECTION OF FEELINGS

EMPHASIS WAS ON
GRASPINGTHEWORLD OF
THE CLIENT AND
REFLECTINGTHIS
UNDERSTANDING.
AS HISVIEW OF
PSYCHOTHERAPY
DEVELOPED, HOWEVER,
HIS FOCUS SHIFTED AWAY
FROM A NONDIRECTIVE
STANCE AND EMPHASIZED
THETHERAPIST’S

ROGERS AND OTHER
CONTRIBUTORS TO THE
DEVELOPMENT OF THE PERSON-
CENTERED APPROACH HAVE BEEN
CRITICAL OF THE STEREOTYPIC
VIEW THAT THIS APPROACH IS
BASICALLY A SIMPLE RESTATEMENT
OF THE CLIENT JUST SAID.

EVOLUTION OF PERSON-CENTERED
METHODS

CONTEMPORARY PERSON-
CENTERED THERAPY IS BEST
CONSIDERED AS THE RESULT OF
AN EVOLUTION PROCESS OF THE
MORE THAN 65 YEARS THAT
CONTINUES TO REMAIN OPEN TO
CHANGE AND REFINEMENT.

ONE OF ROGER’S MAIN CONTRIBUTIONS
TO THE COUNSELING FIELD IS THE NOTION
THAT THE QUALITY OF THE THERAPEUTIC
RELATIONSHIP, AS OPPOSED TO
ADMINISTERING TECHNIQUES, IS THE PRIMARY
AGENT OF GROWTH IN THE CLIENT. THE
THERAPIST’S ABILITY TO ESTABLISH A STRONG
CONNECTION WITH CLIENTS IS THE CRITICAL
FACTOR DETERMINING SUCCESSFUL
COUNSELING OUTCOMES.

ACCORDING TO BOHART (2003),
THE PROCESS OF “BEING WITH”
CLIENTS AND ENTERING THEIR
WORLD OF PERCEPTIONS AND
FEELINGS IS SUFFICIENT FOR
BRINGING CHANGE.

THE PERSON-CENTERED PHILOSOPHY
IS BASED ON THE ASSUMPTION THAT
CLIENTS HAVE THE
RESOURCEFULNESS FOR THE
POSITIVE MOVEMENT WITHOUT THE
COUNSELOR ASSUMING AN ACTIVE,
DIRECTIVE ROLE.

WHAT IS ESSENTIAL FOR CLIENTS’
PROGRESS IS THE THERAPIST’S PRESENCE,
WHICH REFERS TO THE THERAPIST BEING
COMPLETELY ENGAGED AND ABSORBED IN
THE RELATIONSHIP WITH CLIENT.
THE THERAPIST IS EMPATHICALLY
INTERESTED IN THE CLIENT AND IS
CONGRUENT IN RELATION TO THE CLIENT.

ONE OF THE MAIN WAYS IN
WHICH PERSON-CENTERED
THERAPY HAS EVOLVED IS THE
DIVERSITY, INNOVATION, AND
INDIVIDUALIZATION IN PRACTICE
(CAIN, 2002A).

IMMEDIACY, OR ADDRESSING WHAT IS
GOING ON BETWEEN THE CLIENT THE
THERAPIST, IS HIGHLY VALUED IN THIS
APPROACH.
THIS DEVELOPMENT ENCOURAGES
THE USE OF A WIDER VARIETY OF
METHODS ALLOWS FOR CONSIDERABLE
DIVERSITY IN PERSONAL STYLE AMONG
PERSON-CENTERED THERAPISTS
(THORNE, 2002).

THE SHIFT TOWARD GENUINENESS
ALLOWS PERSON-CENTERED THERAPIST
BOTH TO PRACTICE ON MORE FLEXIBLE
AND ELECTRIC WAYS THAT SUIT THEIR
PERSONALITIES AND ALSO TO HAVE
GREATER FLEXIBILITY IN TAILORING THE
COUNSELING RELATIONSHIP TO SUIT
DIFFERENT CLIENTS (BOHART, 2003).

TURSI AND COCHRAN (2006) PROPOSE
INTEGRATION OF CERTAIN COGNITIVE
BEHAVIORAL TECHNIQUES WITHIN A
PERSON-CENTERED FRAMEWORK. THE
ASSERT THAT COGNITIVE BEHAVIORAL
TASKS OCCUR NATURALLY WITHIN THE
PERSON-CENTERED APPROACH, THAT
KNOWLEDGE OF COGNITIVE BEHAVIOR
THEORY CAN INCREASE EMPATHY,

THAT COGNITIVE BEHAVIORAL
TECHNIQUES CAN BE CAREFULLY
APPLIED WITHIN A PERSON-CENTERED
RELATIONAL FRAMEWORK, AND THAT A
HIGH LEVEL OF THERAPIST PERSON
SELF-DEVELOPMENT IS NOT REQUIRED
TO INTEGRATE THESE SKILLS AND
TECHNIQUES.

CAIN (2002, 2008) BELIEVES IT IS ESSENTIAL
FOR THERAPISTS TO MODIFY THEIR THERAPEUTIC
STYLE TO ACCOMMODATE THE SPECIFIC NEEDS
OF EACH CLIENT.
CAIN CONTENDS THAT, IDEALLY, THERAPISTS
WILL CONTINUALLY MONITOR WHETHER WHAT
THEY THERAPEUTIC STYLE IS COMPATIBLE WITH
THEIR CLIENTS’ WAY OF REVIEWING AND
UNDERSTANDING THEIR PROBLEMS.

CAIN (2008) HAS ARGUE THAT PERSON-
CENTERED THERAPY NEEDS TO BE
ADAPTED WHEN IT DOES NOT FIT THE
NEEDS OF THE UNIQUE INDIVIDUAL
SETTING BEFORE THE THERAPIST. IN
WRITING ABOUT HIS JOURNEY AS A
PERSON-CENTERED THERAPIST.

ASSESSMENT IS FREQUENTLY VIEWED AS A
PREREQUISITE TO THE TREATMENT
PROCESS.
The Role of

MANY MENTAL HEALTH AGENCIES
USE A VARIETY OF ASSESSMENT
PROCEDURES, INCLUDING DIAGNOSTIC
SCREENING, IDENTIFICATION OF CLIENTS’
STRENGTHS AND LIABILITIES, AND
VARIOUS TESTS.

FROM AN PERSON-CENTERED
PERSPECTIVE, THE BEST SOURCE OF
KNOWLEDGE ABOUT THE CLIENT IS THE
INDIVIDUAL CLIENT. FOR EXAMPLE, SOME
CLIENT MAY REQUEST CERTAIN
PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTS AS A PART OF THE
COUNSELING PROCESS.

IF A COUNSELING RELATIONSHIP BEGAN
WITH A BATTERY OF PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTS
AND A DETAILED CASE HISTORY, HE
BELIEVED CLIENTS COULD GET THE
IMPRESSION THAT THE COUNSELOR WOULD
BE PROVIDING THE SOLUTIONS THEIR
PROBLEM.

ASSESSMENT SEEMS TO BE GAINING IN
IMPORTANCE IN SHORT-TERM TREATMENTS
IN MOST COUNSELING AGENCIES, AND IT IS
IMPERATIVE THAT THE CLIENTS BE
INVOLVED IN A COLLABORATIVE PROCESS IN
MAKING DECISIONS THAT ARE CENTRAL TO
THEIR THERAPY.

APPLICATION OF THE
PHILOSOPHY OF
THE PERSON-CENTERED
APPROACH

BOZRATH, ZIMRING, AND TAUSCH (2002) CITE
STUDIES DINE IN THE 1990’S THAT REVEALED THE
EFFECTIVENESS OF PERSON-CENTERED
THERAPY WITH A WIDE RANGE OF PROBLEMS
INCLUDING PSYCHOSOMATIC PROBLEMS .

PERSON-CENTERED THERAPY HAS BEEN
SHOWN TO BE AS VISIBLE AS THE MORE GOAL-
ORIENTED THERAPIES. FURTHERMORE,
OUTCOME RESEARCH CONDUCTED IN THE
1990S REVEALED THAT EFFECTIVE THERAPY IS
BASED ON THE CLIENT-THERAPISTS
RELATIONSHIP IN COMBINATION WITH THE
INNER AND EXTERNAL RESOURCES OF THE
CLIENT (HUBBLE, DUNCAN, & MILLER 1999).

THE BASIC PHILOSOPHY OF THE
PERSON-CENTERED APPROACH HAS
APPLICATION TO EDUCATION FROM
ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TO GRADUATE
SCHOOL. THE CORE CONDITIONS OF
THE THERAPEUTICS RELATIONSHIP
HAVE RELEVANCE TO EDUCATIONAL
SETTINGS.

IN FREEDOM TO LEARN,
ROGERS AND FREIBERG (1994)
DESCRIBE JOURNEYS TAKEN BY
DIFFERENT TEACHERS WHO HAVE
MOVED FROM BEING CONTROLLING
MANAGERS TO FACILITATORS OF
LEARNING.

ACCORDING TO ROGERS AND
FREIBERG, BOTH RESEARCH AND
EXPERIENCE SHOW THAT MORE
LEARNING, MORE PROBLEM
SOLVING, AND MORE CREATIVITY
CAN BE FOUND IN CLASSROOMS
THAT OPERATE WITHIN A
PERSON-CENTERED CLIMATE.

IN SUCH A CLIMATE LEARNERS
ARE ABLE TO BECOME
INCREASINGLY SELF-DIRECTING,
ABLE TO ASSUME MORE
RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE
CONSEQUENCES OF THEIR
CHOICES, AND CAN LEARN MORE
THAN IN TRADITIONAL
CLASSROOM.

APPLICATION TO CRISIS INTERVENTION
THE PERSON-CENTERED APPROACH IS
ESPECIALLY APPLICABLE IN CRISIS
INTERVENTION SUCH AS AN UNWANTED
PREGNANCY, AN ILLNESS, A DISASTROUS
EVENT, OR THE LOSS OF THE LOVE ONE.

PEOPLE ON THE HELPING PROFESSION
(NURSING, MEDICINE, EDUCATION, THE
MINISTRY) ARE OFTEN FIRST ON THE SCENE IN A
VARIETY OF CRISES, AND THEY CAN DO MUCH IF
THE BASIC ATTITUDES DESCRIBE IN THIS
CHAPTER PRESENT.

WHEN PEOPLE ARE IN CRISIS, ONE
OF THE FIRST STEP IS TO GIVE
THEM AN OPPORTUNITY TO FULLY
EXPRESS THEMSELVES.
SENSITIVE LISTENING, HEARING,
AND UNDERSTANDING ARE
ESSENTIAL AT THIS POINT.

ALTHOUGH A PERSON’S CRISIS IS NOT
LIKELY TO BE RESOLVED BY ONE OR TWO
CONTRAST WITH A HELPER, SUCH CONTACTS
CAN PAVE THE WAY FOR BEING OPEN TO
RECEIVING HELP LATER.
IF THE PERSON IN CRISIS DOES NOT FEEL
UNDERSTOOD AND ACCEPTED, HE OR SHE
MAY LOSE HOPE OF “RETURNING TO NORMAL”
AND MAT NOT SEEK HELP IN THE FUTURE.

THE PERSON-CENTERED
APPROACH HAS BEEN APPLIED
EXTENSIVELY IN TRAINING
PROFESSIONALS AND
PARAPROFESSIONALS WHO
WORK WITH PEOPLE IN A
VARIETY OF SETTINGS.

PEOPLE WITHOUT ADVANCED
PSYCHOLOGICAL EDUCATION ARE ABLE TO
BENEFIT BY TRANSLATING THE
THERAPEUTIC CONDITION OF
GENUINENESS, EMPHATIC UNDERSTANDING,
AND UN-CONTROLLING POSITIVE REGARD
INTO BOTH THEIR PERSONAL AND
PROFESSIONAL LIVES.

APPLICATION TO GROUP
COUNSELING

The primary function of the facilitator is
to create a safe and healing climate – a
place where the group members can
interact in honest and meaningful ways.

With the presence of the facilitator and
the support of other members,
participants realize that they do not have
to experience the struggles of change
alone and

that groups as collective entities
have their own source of
transformation.

Rogers (1970) believed that groups tend to
move forward if the facilitator exhibits a
deep sense of trust in the members and
refrains from using techniques or exercises
to get a group moving.

Person-centered Expressive Arts
Therapy
Natalie Rogers (1993) expanded on her father,
Carl Rogers (1961) theory of creativity using
the expressive arts to enhance personal
growth for individuals and groups. Rogers’s
approach, known as expressive arts therapy.

PRINCIPLES OF EXPRESSIVE ARTS
THERAPY
Expressive Arts Therapy uses various artistic forms
– drawing, painting, sculpting, music, writing and
improvisation

PRINCIPLES
-- All people have an innate ability to be
creative
--The creative process is transformative and
healing
--Self-awareness, understanding, and insight are
achieved by delving into our feelings.

Personal Growth takes place in a safe,
supportive environment created by counselors
or facilitators who are genuine, warm, empathy,
open, honest, congruent and caring.

CREATIVITY AND OFFERING STIMULATING
EXPERIENCES
When one feels appreciated, trusted, and
given support to use individuality to develop
a plan, create a project, write a paper, or to
be authentic, the challenge is exciting,
stimulating, and gives a sense of personal
expansion.

Carl Rogers (1961) two conditions:
Psychological Safety consisting of
accepting the individual as of
unconditional worth and
understanding empathically.
Second is Psychological Freedom.

Natalie Rogers adds a third condition:
Offering stimulating and challenging
experiences

Conditions that foster creativity require
acceptance of the individual, a nonjudgmental
setting, empathy, psychological freedom and
availability of stimulating and challenging
experiences.

WHAT HOLDS US BACK?
N. Rogers believes that we cheat ourselves
out of a fulfilling and joyous source of
creativity if we cling to the idea that an artist
is the only one who can enter the realm of
creativity.

VINCE REGINALD G. BULATAO
Prepared by:

CONTRIBUTIONS OF
NATALIE ROGERS

Has built upon a person-centered
philosophy and incorporated
expressive and creative arts as a
basis of personal growth.

2.Developed a form of
therapy that extends
person-centered
counselling into a new and
existing domain.
3.Conducts workshops in
many countries.

One of the strengths of person-
centered approach is its impact on the
field of human relations with diverse
cultural groups.

Cain (1987) “Our international family
consists of millions of persons worldwide
whose lives have been affected by Carl
Rogers’s writings and personal efforts as
well as his many colleagues who have
brought his and their own innovative
thinking and programs to many corners of
the earth”.

According to Bohart and Greenberg
in the year 1997, empathy has moved
far beyond simple “reflection,” and
clinicians now draw from a variety of
empathic response modes.

Cain (2008) views this
approach as being a
potent way of working
with individuals
representing a wide
range of cultural
backgrounds.

Bohart (2003) claims that
the person-centered
philosophy makes this
approach particularly
appropriate for working
with diverse client
populations.

Glauser and Bozarth
(2001) “Person-centered
counseling cuts to the core
of what is important for
therapeutic success in all
counseling approaches. The
counsellor-client
relationship and the use of
client resources are central
for multicultural
counseling.”

• Many clients who come to
community mental health
clinics or who are involved in
outpatient treatment want more
structure than this approach
provides.

• In applying the person-centered
approach with client from
diverse cultures pertains to the
fact that this approach extols
the value of an internal locus
of evaluation.

Many individuals from both the majority
individualistic culture and from collectivistic
cultures are oriented less toward self-
actualization and more toward intimacy and
connection with others and toward what is best
for the community and the common good.

Rigid intense on nondirective style of
counseling for all clients, regardless of their
cultural background or personal preference,
might be perceive as an imposition that does
not fit to the client’s interpersonal needs.

SUMMARY & EVALUATION
PERSON-CENTERED THERAPY, IS BASED ON A
PHILOSOPHY OF HUMAN NATURE THAT
POSTULATES AN INNATE STRIVING FOR SELF-
ACTUALIZATION.
ROGER’S THEORY RESTS ON THE ASSUMPTION
THAT CLIENTS CAN UNDERSTAND THE FACTORS

in their lives that are causing
them to be unhappy.
Roger’s view of human nature
is phenomenological; that is, we
structure ourselves according to
our perceptions of reality.

EXAMPLE:
A CALLER EXPERIENCING A
HEARTBREAKING SITUATIONS. HE ASK THE
DJ ON RADIO. WHAT HE ARE GOING TO DO
FOR SUCH PROBLEMS? THE DJ CITED SOME
POSSIBILITIES THAT MIGHT HAPPEN & ALSO
EXPLAINING THAT THE BEST ANSWER COMES
WITHIN HERSELF ALONE.

THERAPISTS WHO CONTRIBUTED TO THE
EVOLUTION OF PERSON-CENTERED THEORY
NATALIE ROGERS (1993,1995)
CONDUCTS WORKSHOPS AND TEACHES PERSON-
CENTERED EXPRESSIVE ARTS THERAPY
VIRGINIAAXLINE (1964,1969)
MADE SIGNIFICANT CONTRIBUTIONS TO CLIENT-
CENTERED THERAPY WITH CHILDREN & PLAY
THERAPY.

EUGENE GENDLIN (1996)
DEVELOPED EXPERIENTIAL TECHNIQUES, SUCH
AS FOCUSING, AS A WAY TO ENHANCE CLIENT
EXPERIENCING.
LAURA RICE (RICE & GREENBERG, 1984)
TAUGHT THERAPISTS TO BE MORE EVOCATIVE
IN RE-CREATING CRUCIAL EXPERIENCES THAT
CONTINUE TO TROUBLE THE CLIENT.

PEGGY NATIELLO (2001)
WORKS ON COLLABORATIVE POWER &
GENDER ISSUES.
ART COMBS (1988,1989,1999)
DEVELOPED PERCEPTUAL PSYCHOLOGY.

LESLIE GREENBERG & COLLEAGUES
(GREENBERG, KORMAN, & PAIVIO, 2002;
GREENBERG, RICE, & ELLIOT, 1993) FOCUSED
ON THE IMPORTANCE OF FACILITATING
EMOTIONAL CHANGE IN THERAPY AND
ADVANCED PERSON-CENTERED THEORY
AND METHODS.

DAVID RENNIE (1998)
PROVIDED A GLIMPSE AT THE INNER
WORKINGS OF THE THERAPEUTIC PROCESS.
ART BOHART (2003; BOHART & GREENBERG,
1997; BOHART & TALLMAN, 1999)
CONTRIBUTED TO A DEEPER
UNDERSTANDING OF EMPATHY IN
THERAPEUTIC PRACTICE.

JEANNE WATSON (2002)
DEMONSTRATED THAT WHEN EMPATHY
IS OPERATING ON THE COGNITIVE,
AFFECTIVE & INTERPERSONAL LEVELS
IT IS ONE OF THE THERAPIST’S MOST
POWERFUL TOOLS.

DAVE MEARNS & BRAIN
THORNE (1999, 2002)
CONTRIBUTED TO UNDERSTANDING NEW
FRONTIERS IN THE THEORY & PRACTICE OF
THE PERSON-CENTERED APPROACH &
HAVE BEEN SIGNIFICANTLY FIGURES IN
TEACHING & SUPERVISING IN THE UNITED
KINGDOM.

C.H. PATTERSON (1995)
SHOWED THAT CLIENT-CENTERED
THERAPY IS A UNIVERSAL SYSTEM OF
PSYCHOTHERAPY.
MARK HUBBLE, BARRY DUNCAN, &
SCOTT MILLER (1999)
DEMONSTRATED THAT THE CLIENT-
CENTERED RELATIONSHIP IS ESSENTIAL
TO ALL THERAPEUTIC APPROACHES.

“AN EXTENSIVE BODY OF RESEARCH
HAS BEEN GENERATED & PROVIDES
SUPPORT FOR THE EFFECTIVENESS OF
PERSON-CENTERED THERAPY WITH A
WIDE RANGE OF CLIENTS & PROBLEMS
OF ALL AGE PROGRAM.

“SIXTY YEARS OF DEV. IN THEORY, PRACTICE &
RESEARCH HAVE DEMONSTRATED THAT
HUMANISTIC APPROACHES TO PSYCHOTHERAPY
ARE AS EFFECTIVE TO OTHER MAJOR THERAPIES.

EMPHASIS ON RESEARCH
ONE OF ROGER’S CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE
FIELD OF PSYCHOTHERAPY WAS HIS
WILLINGNESS TO STATE HIS CONCEPTS AS
TESTABLE HYPOTHESES & TO SUBMIT
THEM TO RESEARCH.

THE IMPORTANCE OF EMPATHY
AMONG THE MAJOR CONTRIBUTIONS OF
PERSON-CENTERED THERAPY ARE THE
IMPLICATIONS OF EMPATHY FOR THE
PRACTICE OF COUNSELING.

FOR INSTANCE:
THE COGNITIVE BEHAVIORAL APPROACHES
HAVE DEVELOPED A WIDE RANGE OF
STRATEGIES DESIGNED TO HELP CLIENTS
DEAL WITH SPECIFIC PROBLEMS, & THEY
RECOGNIZE THAT A TRUSTING & ACCEPTING
CLIENT—THERAPIST RELATIONSHIP IS
NECESSARY FOR SUCCESSFUL APPLICATION
OF THESE PROCEDURES.

INNOVATIONS IN PERSON-CENTERED THEORY
ONE OF THE STRENGTHS OF THE PERSON-
CENTERED APPROACH IS “THE DEV. OF
INNOVATIVE & SOPHISTICATED METHODS TO
WORK WITH AN INCREASINGLY DIFFICULT,
DIVERSE, & COMPLEX RANGE OF
INDIVIDUALS, COUPLES, FAMILIES & GROUPS”

LIMITATIONS & CRITICISMS OF THE PERSON-
CENTERED APPROACH
--ACCUSATIONS OF SCIENTIFIC SHORTCOMING
INVOLVE USING CONTROL SUBJECTS WHO
ARE NOT CANDIDATES FOR THERAPY, FAILING
TO USE AN UNTREATED CONTROL GROUP,
FAILING TO ACCOUNT FOR PLACEBO EFFECTS,
RELIANCE ON SELF-REPORTS AS A MAJOR WAY
TO ASSESS THE OUTCOMES OF THERAPY, &
USING INAPPROPRIATE STATISTICAL
PROCEDURES.

--A POTENTIAL LIMITATION OF THIS
APPROACH IS THAT SOME STUDENTS-IN-
TRAINING & PRACTITIONERS WITH A PERSON-
CENTERED ORIENTATION MAY HAVE A
TENDENCY TO BE VERY SUPPORTIVE OF
CLIENTS WITH OUT BEING CHALLENGING.

--PERHAPS THE MAIN LIMITATIONS OF
THE EXPERIENTIAL APPROACHES ARE A
REFLECTION OF THE PERSONAL
LIMITATIONS OF THE THERAPIST.

Person Centered Therapy

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot

What's hot (20)

Similar to Person Centered Therapy

Similar to Person Centered Therapy (20)

More from AgnesRizalTechnological

More from AgnesRizalTechnological (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Person Centered Therapy

Editor's Notes