Person-Centered
Therapy
Carl Rogers
1902-1987
Biography

Child Guidance Clinic- Rochester
 1939
Published The Clinical Treatment of
the Problem Child

Ohio State University – Professor 1939
 1942
Published Counseling and
Psychotherapy
 Tapes and transcribes therapy sessions to study more
objectively therapy process and outcome
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Biography
U. of Chicago, Professor and Director
Counseling Center 1945
 U. Wisconsin-Madison 1957

 Research
with hospitalized patients
Higher levels of accurate empathy leads to more positive
outcomes
 Client's perception of the relationship is better predictor of
outcome than therapist's perception of the relationship


Center for Studies of the Person in California
1968
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Humanistic Psychology
Each of us has a natural potential that we
can actualize and through which we can
find meaning in life
 Emphasizes the importance of the
person's subjective experience

approach – exploration
method that uses human experience as main
source of data
 Phenomenological
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Human Nature: Main Concepts

Self-Actualizing Tendency
 Basic
human drive toward growth, completeness,
and fulfillment

Internal Locus of Evaluation
 Events
that enhance the self actualizing tendency
are judged positively and vice-versa.

Need for Positive Regard
 Feeling
accepted by others
5
Human Nature: Main Concepts

Self-Concept/Self-Regard
 Learned
through the perceptions of regard
and acceptance from others

Conditions of Worth
 Expectations
or demands we perceive from
others in order to receive their acceptance
 These perceptions are internalized and
sometimes are out of our awareness
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Psychopathology

INTERNALIZED CONDITIONS OF
WORTH block the natural SELFACTUALIZING TENDENCY, creating a state
of INCONGRUENCE between what
 we
experience from within (internal locus) and
 what we believe we should be (conditions of
worth)

To resolve the conflict, typically we distort or
block the experiences from within
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Anxiety

State of uneasiness or tension that occurs when
the discrepancy between what I feel I need to
be or do to be accepted and what I really want
to do (internal locus of control) threatens to
emerge
 Defense
mechanisms are invoked to distort the
"experiencing" from within, so that the person can
conform with internalized external expectations
(perceived or real)
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Goal of Therapy


Facilitate the client’s exploration of the parts of
themselves that they have denied or distorted, to
promote the self actualization process
Given right therapeutic climate, clients will
 Become more open to experience
 Achieve self-trust
 Develop an internal source of evaluation
 Be willing to continue growing
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Therapy Relationship: Three Conditions

Congruence or genuineness
 Agreement
between the feelings and attitudes a
therapist is experiencing and his or her
professional demeanor

(Un)conditional positive regard
 Nonpossessive caring

and acceptance of the client
Accurate empathic understanding
 ability
to deeply grasp the client's subjective
world
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Evolution of the Approach

Non-Directive Therapy

Client Centered Therapy

Person Centered Therapy
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Person Centered Therapy

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
 Being present in the relationship and focus on the
client’s immediate experience
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Interventions
 Communicating
Empathy
Attentive/Active
listening
Express understanding
Openness to the client’s perspective
Techniques
 Reflection
of feeling: explicit and implicit
 Paraphrasing and synthesizing
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Motivational Interviewing

Humanistic, client-centered, psychosocial, directive
counseling approach

Initially designed as a brief intervention for problem
drinking

Promotes a collaborative process that focuses on
solutions for behavioral problems – avoids a
confrontational style

Emphasizes client’s abilities, strengths, resources,
and competencies
Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy - Chapter 7 (15)
©2013 Brooks/Cole
Cengage Learning
Motivational Interviewing

Goal: reduce ambivalence and increase intrinsic
motivation to change
 Reluctance to
change - considered normal and expected
part of the therapeutic process
 Reflective listening, empathy,
open-ended questions, nonconfrontational approach to resistance, support
 To
increase motivation to change, reflect discrepancies
between behaviors and values
 Elicit and
reinforce “change talk”
Stage of Therapy
Process
• Pre-Contemplation
No intention of changing
Counselor: Nurturing Parent
• Contemplation
Awareness of problem, no
commitment to change
Counselor: Socratic teacher
• Preparation
Intend to take action; small changes
Counselor: Coach
• Action
Engaged in change process
Counselor: Consultant
• Maintenance
Consolidate gains and avoid relapse
Counselor: Consultant
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Contributions Roger’s Theory

Importance of the person of the counselor and
of the relationship in the therapeutic process

Initiated research in therapy process and
outcome by taping sessions and studying the
transcription of tapes

Research findings provide support for the
importance of empathy in therapy outcome
(Watson’s 2002 review)
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Limitations
Therapeutic conditions are necessary but
not sufficient
 Lack of clear goals and structure
 Lack of challenge to clients
 Lack of guidance regarding behavioral
change

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