Person Centred Counselling

The first thing would be alarms bells ringing with regard to child safety with the possibility of having to break client confidentiality with regard to potential Child Protection issues. That part, in my view, is not the real dilemma because I am bound by law to do ‘something’. For me, the dilemma is how to handle the situation to achieve the best outcome for my client, myself (professionally and morally), the family concerned and the organization that Sue works for.

Humanistic conceptions of personality focus on our own natural progression towards achieving one’s full potential, having a holistic approach. Abraham Maslow (1908-1970) believes that growth and behaviour is motivated by a number of needs ranging from basic to psychological needs. He uses a hierarchy, commonly depicted as a five-tier pyramid in which the bottom 4 levels represent our deficit needs, shown in figure 1 below. Once the individual’s physiological needs are met, they may move to the next and so on. After all deficit needs have been met, an individual is capable of achieving self-actualisation. According to Maslow, fulfilling this need means reaching one’s highest potential and truly understanding one’s self.

A long-debated argument in the field of Psychology has been which theory or explanation of human behavior is the most important and the most viable. Is B. F. Skinner’s theory that behavior is the result of man’s response to external stimuli or is Carl Rogers’ theory that man’s behavior is the result of his determination to achieve self-actualization the best explanation? After much research and thought, I will argue in favor of Carl Rogers’ Humanistic Theory that “emphasizes the unique qualities of humans, especially their freedom and their potential for personal growth” (Weiten, 2016, p. 9).

Another strong influence of Rogers' model was Maslow's theory of self- actualisation. Maslow (1943) believed people are motivated to achieve certain needs that are not related to rewards. He developed a theory that people strive to ‘self-actualise’, to become the best they can be.

The skills used in counselling, vary from model to model, here are definitions of the skills used in person centred counselling,

existentialist – to be that self which one truly is – I feel expresses the idea of self-actualisation very

The essay will evaluate the necessity and importance of the development of the core conditions in the counselling process and critically analyse the strengths and weaknesses of the person-centred approach on the counselling process.

Before looking at the latter 3 in more detail, it is important to understand Carl Rogers’s view of the person and perhaps what is ultimately bringing the client to therapy. Carl Rogers believed that there is incongruence between the self that is the actualisation part, that has a desire to grow, is open to experiencing in the moment and ultimately psychological well being and the actual experience of the self. He believed this effect was caused

In conclusion, a person must go through a series of step/stages to reach “self-actualization.” They must achieve his/his “safety” and “physiological” needs “(basic needs).” “Esteem” and “belongingness and love” needs “(psychological needs)” to reach the stage of “self-actualization.” Psychological theories helps us better understand why a character does what he/she did. Using the psychological theory can help people reach the stage of self-actualization. Although, some may not reach this stage due to natural or un-natural

Rogers seems therefore to be describing an emotional consequence resulting from what the behaviourist BF Skinner called positive and negative conditioning. He conceptualised Conditions of Worth as the limited ways in which a person could see him- or herself as being valued. The formulation was also influenced by psychoanalyst Erik Erikson and his ideas of the early stages of development. Rogers asserted that the child who learns trust and a sense of personal control are more likely to have a sense of self agency and robustness in the face of later difficulties. This comes about when conflicts find a successful resolution leaving both parties emotionally respected and intact. Thus Rogers’ more developed model of how a child is socially instructed can encompass concepts such as shame (Psychoanalysis), Modelling (Albert Bandura) and ideas of Internalization, amongst many others, and as such is more of a meta- model of growth of the personality.

For instance, an individual’s reaction to a circumstance could be different at different times, depending on how the individual perceived the specific circumstance. Rogers felt that the best understanding of behavior was one developed by the organism itself. A core basis of Rogers’ developed therapy was that the organism was the best judge of which direction to move in therapy and the organism was best suited to develop solutions to current issues. A key component of Rogers’ therapy was that of directly relating to the patient in an open and direct way. Rogers’ theory outlines personality development in principles, rather than in stages, as many other personality theories outline. According to Rogers, the main concept of development was for an organism to develop a self concept and to progress from undifferentiated to fully differentiated self. Rogers felt that circumstances were either internalized, and affected development as the organism placed merit on the circumstance, or was ignored because the organism placed no value of the circumstance on their own self. According to Rogers, there was one driving force behind development, self-actualization. According to Hergenhahn and Olson (2007), self-actualization can be defined as “the organism has one basic tendency and striving—to actualize, maintain, and enhance the experiencing organism. Rogers further postulated that there is one central source of energy in the human organism;

Person-centered counseling (PCC) is one of the key models of understanding for the dynamic force that lies behind the therapist/client relationship. This particular model focuses on the three core elements of unconditional positive regard, empathic understanding and congruence, all of which related to the establishment of a level of trust, understanding, respect and honesty between the two players. But what happens when the domain of "person-centered counseling" gets usurped by a "computer-centered reality"?

Maslow and Rogers maintain that beliefs and how people perceive themselves influences their personality. They therefore agree with each other that individuals have a freedom of will that directs their behaviour accordingly. The satisfaction of people’s basic needs offer them motivation to move towards self-actualisation.

Importantly, the fully functioning person is completely congruent and integrated. Such a person, Rogers believes, is able to embrace empirical living. By this he means they are able to live fully in the here and now with personal inner freedom, with all its accompanying exciting, creative, but also challenging, aspects. “Such a person experiences in the present, with immediacy. He is able to live in his feelings and reactions of the moment. He is not bound by the structure of his past learnings, but these are a present resource for him insofar as they relate to

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