Evaluate the Claim That Person-Centred Therapy Offers the Therapist All That He/She Will Need to Treat Clients

Empathy is a two way process, its about trying to fully understand what your client is saying and feeling and also showing your understanding to your client.

Person-centered therapy views people from a positive perspective. While therapists may not always agree with the choices that a person makes, they always try to accept a person for who they are. The belief is that people can change and become self-actualized. Person-centered therapy focuses on the belief that people’s personalities are influenced by internal and external factors. These experiences will be different for everyone, because we are all exposed to different social and

Human beings are seen has having capacity to strive for fulfilment and growth. Rogers referred this capacity as the ‘ideal self’. Enabling a person to move in the direction of their self defined ideals is major aim of the person centred therapy. Human beings are viewed as fully functioning persons who are open to experience and able to live existentially, trusting in own organism, expresses feelings freely, acts independently, are creative and lives a richer life which involve a process and a direction, and not a destination (Rogers, 1961, p.186).Therapy can develop and psychologically change those who do not have an optimal childhood in order restore the organismic valuing process (Rogers, 1959).This idea portrays an importance strand contrast to psychoanalysis whose orientation of their theory as reflected by Freud was towards understanding and explaining pathology or illness.

This assignment is an attempt to discuss two different types of therapy, cognitive behavioural therapy and person centered therapy and highlight some important similarities and differences between them.

Person-centred therapy came about through Roger’s theory on human personality. He argued that human experiences were valuable whether they were positive or negative so long as they maintained their self actualising tendency. Through one’s experiences and interactions with others Roger believed that a self-concept/regard was developed. Carl Rogers believed that a truly therapeutic relationship between client and counsellor depends on the existence, of three core conditions. The core conditions are important because they represent the key concepts and principles of person-centred therapy. These core conditions are referred to as congruence, unconditional positive regard and empathy. Congruence is when the therapist has the ability to be real and honest with the client. This also means that the therapist has to be aware of their own feelings by owning up to them and not hiding behind a professional role. For example, a therapist may say ‘I understand where you are coming from’’ to the client. However the therapist has expressed a confused facial expression while saying this. The clients can be become aware of this and may feel uncomfortable in expressing their feelings, which might impact their trust and openness towards the therapist. Therefore the major role of the therapist is to acknowledge their body language and what they say and if confusion happens the therapist needs to be able to

One of key concepts of person centred therapy is the belief that the client has the ability to become aware of their own problems and has the inherent means to resolve them. In this sense,

(Wilkins, 2002) discusses one of the most common misunderstandings about person-centred therapy are the three core conditions needed for successful therapy. According to (Rogers, 1957), this is not the case and spoke of six core conditions believed to be necessary

The person –centred approach was born from the work of Carl Rogers as a method of counselling and psychotherapy .According to Rogers (1980) “individuals have within themselves vast resources for self –understanding and for altering their self –concepts, basic attitudes and self-directed behaviour; these resources can be tapped into if a definable climate of facilitative psychological attitudes can be provided.” This approach places emphasis on putting the client at the centre of health care practice and giving them choice and control over the care plan and service provided for them. The person-centred approach is about engagement between the service provider and the service user whereby the health care worker treats the client with empathy and

Person Centered Therapy was developed by Carl Rogers in the 1940’s and 1950’s. It remains a relevant technique practiced today. This article researched the relevance of Person Centered Therapy since Carl Rogers’s death in the late 1987. The article determined the relevance of this by using three measures. First, how often Person Centered Therapy was included in organizations, journals, and institutes dedicated to this approach. Secondly, it researched how often Person Centered Therapy was included in new research since Rogers’s death. Finally, any current research that has validated Roger’s core conditions (Kirschenbaum & Jourdan,

We learn to view ourselves as others view us, ignoring our inner experience whatever we feel it is in conflict with the values of those significant others on whom we depend. Roger’s term for this was locus of evaluation. By this, he meant the tendency of some people to rely on the evaluations of others for their feelings of acceptance and self esteem (Mearns & Thorne, 2007). Unconditional positive regard defined as being non-judgmental, accepting, and respectful toward the client (Mearns & Thorne, 2007).

These correct conditions which are required within person centred therapy in order that the client can achieve self actualisation and personality change were outlined by Carl Rogers and he believed that if this 6 conditions were met, it would facilitate change within the client: Two persons are in psychological contact- both client and counsellor are present physically and psychologically. The client is in a state of incongruence, (which will be discussed in more detail) the communication of the counsellor’s empathetic understanding and unconditional positive regard is met at a minimal level. The last condition mentioned involves 3 other conditions, which are essential attitudes and qualities necessary for the counsellor to posses for successful therapy; empathic understanding, unconditional positive regard and congruence. (Rogers C, 1957).

Evaluate the claim that Person-Centred Therapy offers the therapist all that he/she will need to treat clients.

Person centred therapists believe that people are driven by two distinct needs. The first is self-actualisation (the ability to be the best we can be), the second is the need to be loved and valued.

It is important that the therapist conduct sessions in a way where they are showing themselves in the session without pretense. This allows a growth-promoting climate with the psychoanalysis of the client’s behavior. An important factor for a successful person-centered therapy allows clients the freedom to develop and control their own lives, rather than being tied to their past (Goodwin, 2008). This method also denotes and consists of psychotherapy theory and humanistic therapy where the concentration is on the present rather than the past, and the humanistic analyst tends to underlines awareness instead of being unaware. Both theories share a common method while patients and clients converse their feelings vocally and the therapist provide analyses.

Person-Centered therapy applied in a therapeutic relationship by the therapist being empathetic and allowing the clients to move in their own time on finding their own self-actualization. This allows the client to gain and learn their own independence and integration in the world that they live in. The therapist not leading the client into any direction but being empathic to what they are going through to help the client’s growth process does this. It is not about the therapist having the client do anything or the therapists do anything but to be open and have a good attitude towards the client (Corey, 2013).