Person-Centered Therapy

Person-Centered Therapy
(A reaction against the directive and psychoanalytic approaches)

Challenges:

The assumption that "the counselor knows best"

The validity of advice, suggestion, persuasion, teaching, diagnosis, and interpretation

The belief that clients cannot understand and resolve their own problems without direct help

The focus on problems over persons

Emphasizes:

Therapy as a journey shared by two fallible people

The person’s innate striving for self-actualization

The personal characteristics of the therapist and the quality of the therapeutic relationship

The counselor’s creation of a permissive, "growth promoting" climate

People are capable of self-directed growth if involved in a therapeutic relationship

A Growth-Promoting Climate

Congruence - genuineness or realness

Unconditional positive regard- acceptance and caring, but not approval of all behavior

Accurate empathic understanding – an ability to deeply grasp the client’s subjective world

Helper attitudes are more important than knowledge

Six Conditions
(necessary and sufficient for personality changes to occur)

1. Two persons are in psychological contact

2. The first, the client, is experiencing incongruency

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

The Therapist

Focuses on the quality of the therapeutic relationship

Serves as a model of a human being struggling toward greater realness

Is genuine, integrated, and authentic, without a false front

Can openly express feelings and attitudes that are present in the relationship with the client