Person-Centered Therapy PDF

Person-centered therapy Person-Centered Therapy The Life of Carl Rogers (1902-1987)  Born the fourth of six children  Mother was a devout Christian (Protestant) and was very strict on Carl and his siblings, although he has described his family relationships as “warm...

Person-centered therapy Person-Centered Therapy The Life of Carl Rogers (1902-1987)  Born the fourth of six children  Mother was a devout Christian (Protestant) and was very strict on Carl and his siblings, although he has described his family relationships as “warm and close”  Carl was socially introverted as he was discouraged from playing  He developed an active imagination and focused on academics.  Because his family lived on a farm, Carl had many chores, therefore becoming very independent and self-disciplined  As a college student, he was selected to go to Beijing for the “World Student Christian Federation Conference.” There, he was exposed to different religious philosophies and began to question his own religious beliefs. This experienced shaped his views on human behavior  Rogers joined the staff at the Western Behavioral Sc0iences Institute in La Jolla, California in 1964  His theory became widely known during the 60’s and 70’s as the progression of psychotherapy into the humanistic movement Introduction  Based on concepts from humanistic psychology, many of which were articulated by Carl Rogers in the early 1940s.  Humanistic Therapy based on the ideas of self- empowerment, self-actualization, freedom, choices, values, purpose, meaning.  A humanistic theory—each of us has a natural potential that we can actualize and through which we can find meaning  Shares with existentialism a focus on respect and trust for the client Theory  People are honest, smart, and have ability to understand themselves  People have the ability to solve their own problems  People are capable of self-directed growth if they are involved in a specific kind of therapeutic relationship.  Rogers did not present the person-centered theory as a fixed and complete approach to therapy.  He was open and receptive to change. Four periods of development of the approach  Zimring and Raskin (1992) &Bazarth and colleagues (2002)  First phase during the 1940s, Rogers developed what was known as nondirective counseling.  He was published (1942) counseling and psychotherapy: Newer concepts in practice  It emphasized the counselor’s creation of a permissive and nondirective climate.  He also challenged the validity of commonly accepted therapeutic procedures such as advice, suggestion, direction, persuasion, teaching, diagnosis, and interpretation.  Focused mainly on reflecting and clarifying the client’s verbal and nonverbal communications with the aim of helping clients become aware of and gain insights into their feelings.  Second period, during 1950, he wrote Client-centered Therapy and renamed his approach client-centered therapy.  Focused more explicitly on the actualizing tendency as the basic motivational force that leads to client change.  Third period, which began in the late 1950s and extended into the 1970s, addressed the necessary and sufficient conditions of therapy.  Significant publication was “on becoming a person, 1961. characterized by an openness to experience, a trust in one’s experience, an internal locus of evaluation, and the willingness to be in process.  The fourth phase, during the 1980s and the 1990s, was marked by considerable expansion to education, industry, groups, conflict resolution, and the search for world peace. Key concepts View of Human nature:  At their core, humans are trustworthy and positive  Humans are capable of making changes and living productive, effective lives  Humans innately gravitate toward self-actualization ◦ Actualizing tendency  Given the right growth-fostering conditions, individuals strive to move forward and fulfill their creative nature Therapy is a Growth-Promoting Climate  Congruence ◦ Genuineness or realness in the therapy session ◦ Therapist’s behaviors match his or her words  Unconditional positive regard ◦ Acceptance and genuine caring about the client as a valuable person ◦ Accepting clients as they presently are ◦ Therapist need not approve of all client behavior  Accurate empathic understanding ◦ The ability to deeply grasp the client’s subjective world ◦ Helper attitudes are more important than knowledge  The therapist need not experience the situation to develop an understanding of it from the client’s perspective  The therapeutic process Therapeutic goals:  Help client grow  Focus on person, not problem  People become more actualized 1. open to experiences 2. Trust themselves 3. Self-evaluation 4. Continue growing The therapist does not choose specific goals for the client. Person-Centered Therapy GOAL OF COUNSELING:  Set clients free to engage in self exploration  Positive view of human nature  Focus on what is right about someone  Look at positive side of people  Clients work on moving forward, positively, in their world Person-Centered Therapy  Client deals with obstacles that are blocking growth  Therapist is real and empathetic; facilitates change in client  Work in ‘here and now’ Person-Centered Therapy THERAPIST ROLE AND FUNCTION  Create a climate conducive to self- exploration  Create a relationship that lets clients explore freely denied or distorted areas of life  Be real, genuine, honest….  Don’t see client in diagnostic categories Person-Centered Therapy THERAPIST ROLE AND FUNCTION  Enter client’s world  Defenses are let down because therapist is real, genuine, caring  Show unconditional positive regard  Accept client  Empathetic understanding of client Person-Centered Therapy CLIENTS EXPERIENCE  Use relationship to gain self-understanding  Explore feelings, thoughts, beliefs  Discover hidden aspect of self  Become less defensive over time  Explore self  Empower self to lead own life  Experience life in ‘here and now’ not past or future Person-Centered Therapy 3 ATTITUDES THERAPIST MUST CONVEY  Genuineness: open, real, honest  Unconditional positive regard and acceptance: value and accept client as they are  Empathetic understanding Person-Centered Therapy EMPATHY: experiencing other’s feelings and thoughts while remaining objective  Communicate to someone your understanding of his/her thoughts and feelings  Helps clients understand themselves  Understand clients world as they see and feel it SIX CONDITIONS NECESSARY AND SUFFICIENT FOR PERSONALITY CHANGES TO OCCUR  Two persons are in psychological contact  The first, the client, is experiencing incongruency  The second person, the therapist, is congruent or integrated in the relationship  The therapist experiences unconditional positive regard or real caring for the client SIX CONDITIONS, CONT...  The therapist experiences empathy for the client’s internal frame of reference and endeavors to communicate this to the client  The communication to the client is, to a minimal degree, achieved Congruence or Genuineness  It implies that therapists are real, that is they are genuine, integrated, and authentic during the therapy hour. Unconditional positive regard and acceptance  Is deep and genuine caring for t client as a person or a condition of unconditional positive regard. Accurate empathic understanding  Understand client’s experience and feelings sensitively and accurately as they are revealed in the moment to moment interaction during the therapy session. Relationship Between Therapist and Client  Emphasizes the attitudes and personal characteristics of the therapist and the quality of therapeutic relationship.  Therapist listening in an accepting way to their clients, they learn how to listen acceptingly to themselves. Relationship Between Therapist and Client  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 From a multicultural perspective  Contributions ◦ Has reached more than 30 counties and has been translated to 12 languages ◦ Reduction of racial and political tensions…  Limitations ◦ Some people need more structure, coping skills, directedness ◦ Some may focus on family or societal expectations instead of internal evaluation ◦ May be unfamiliar with people in different cultures Summary and Evaluation  Contributions ◦ Active role of responsibility of client ◦ Inner and subjective experience ◦ Relationship-centered ◦ Focus on therapist’s attitudes ◦ Focus on empathy, being present, and respecting the clients’ values ◦ Value multicultural context Summary and Evaluation  Limitations ◦Discount the significance of the past ◦Misunderstanding the basic concept: e.g., reflection feelings. Person-Centered Therapy STRENGTHS  Empathy  Phenomenological approach  Reflection  Increase self-understanding  Genuine  Unconditional positive regard and acceptance Person-Centered Therapy WEAKNESSES  Client is not challenged  Too simplistic  No interventions/techniques  Undirected  Not all clients are able to find their own answers Person-Centered Therapy WEAKNESSES  Not much research on theory and practice  Theory has not evolved since the 1960’s Snippet: Interview with Rogers… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0neRQz udzw