Person-Centered

(Humanistic)Therapy
C6436 Individual Counseling
Theory and Practice
James J. Messina, Ph.D.
 Carl Rogers 1902-1987
 Born Oak Park, Illinois
 Fourth of six children
 Fundamental religious practices, little social
mixing, belief virtue Hard Work
 Solitary boy, outstanding student
 Studied in Seminary, became child psychologist
influenced by Adler’s concepts of work with
children and families
 Emphasized taking personal responsibility for
one’s own life
 In his life: questioning stance, deep openness to
change, courage to go into unknown places
Humanism
 Philosophical movement that emphasizes worth
of the individual and the centrality of human
values
 Attends to matters of ethics & personal worth
 Gives credit to the human spirit
 Emphasis on creative, spontaneous & active
nature of humans-optimistic
 Human capacity to overcome hardship & despair
Nondeterministic
 Rogers like the Existentialists would argue that it is
an oversimplification to view people as controlled by
fixed physical laws
 People cannot be viewed simply as “cogs in a vast
machine”
 Encouragement of therapy that considers individual
initiative, creativity, & self-fulfillment
 Focus on active, positive aspects of human growth
and achievement
 Self-Actualization

 Innate process by which a person tends

to grow spiritually and realize potential
 Through self-exploration person could
live in harmony with nature and all of
humanity by integrating various psychic
forces to become “whole” person
 Selfish drives could be explored,
understood & integrated with the spiritual
aspects of human
 The Experiencing Person
 Important issues must be defined by individual-
special concern are discrepancies between what
a person thinks of himself & total range of things
he experiences
 People tend to develop in a positive direction,
that unless thwarted, they achieve their potential
 Belief in natural goodness of people-Rousseau
 Inner self-control is better than forced, external
control
Human Potential Movement
 Begun in 1960’s-Roger’s ended his life in
this movement-His special focus Peace &
Racial Harmony
 Use small group meetings, self-disclosure,
& introspection
 People realize their inner potentials
 Encounter groups, massage, meditation,
consciousness raising, communing with
nature, organic food
 E.g.: Environmental concerns, Quality
Circles, Team self-management
 Person-Centered Therapy
 A reaction against the directive and
psychoanalytic approaches
 A reaction against “Medical Model” called
clients rather than patients
 People are essentially trustworthy, vast
potential for understanding selves, & resolving
their own problems without direct intervention
by therapist & are capable of self-directed
growth if involved in therapeutic relationship
Roger’s Challenged Traditional
Models of Therapy
 He questioned assumption that “the
counselor knows best”
 He questioned validity of advice, suggestion,
persuasion, teaching, diagnosis &
interpretation
 He challenged belief that clients cannot
understand & resolve their own problems with
direct help from experts
 He questioned focus on problems rather than
on people in therapy
Person-Centered Therapy’s
Emphasis
 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
 Necessary Conditions from Therapist
to Client Attitudes more important than knowledge
 Congruence - genuineness or realness, in
relations between therapist & client -being
oneself in the therapeutic relationship with
client
 Unconditional positive regard- acceptance
and caring, but not approval of all behavior
 Accurate empathic understanding –
understanding of client’s frame of references,
ability to deeply grasp the client’s subjective
world & communicate this to the client
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
Congruence & Genuineness
 Therapist is real, genuine, integrated &
authentic during therapy-model human
being struggling for realness
 Therapist has no false front, match of
inner & outer expression of experience
 Therapist can openly express feelings,
thoughts, reactions & attitudes present in
relationships with client
Unconditional Positive Regard
 Therapist communicates deep & genuine
caring for client as a person
 Caring is unconditional-no evaluation or
judgment of client’s feelings, thoughts or
behaviors
 Caring does not come from need of
reciprocal caring of therapist by client
 Acceptance & recognition of client’s right
to have own beliefs & feelings
Accurate Empathic
Understanding
 Therapist understands client’s experience &
feelings as revealed in interaction
 Therapist tries to sense client’s subjective
experience in here and now
 Sense the other’s feelings as if my own
 Capable of reflecting the experience of client
back to client-encourages client to be more
reflective
 Encourages client’s own understanding &
clarification of beliefs and worldviews
 Process of Therapy
1. Client’s communications about externals & not self
2. Client describes feelings but not recognize or “own”
them personally
3. Client talks about self as an object in terms of past
experiences
4. Client experiences feelings in present-just describes
them with distrust & fear
5. Client experiences & expresses feelings freely in
present-feelings bubble up
6. Client accepts own feelings in immediacy & richness
7. Client trusts new experiences & relates to others
openly & freely
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
Techniques used in Person
Centered Therapy
 Listening
 Accepting
 Respecting
 Understanding
 Responding