Unit 3 Person- Centered

or Rogerian Counseling
Dr Jamayah Saili

The most basic and powerful way to connect to another person is to listen.
Just listen.
Perhaps the most important thing we ever give each other is our attention...A
loving silence often has far more power to heal and to connect than the most well-
intentioned words. - Rachel Naomi Remen jamsaili/feb2017
 Non-Directive (1940’s)
 Client-Centered Therapy
 Person-Centered Therapy

Founder : Carl Rogers (1902 – 1987)

jamsaili/feb2017
Learning Objectives
 Understand the basic principles and concepts of Person
Centered Therapy
 Explain the PCT therapeutic process and roles of PCT
counsellor
 Discuss the core conditions of therapeutic relationship

jamsaili/feb2017
Basic Premise

The client is the best authority on her / his own experience, and it asserts that the client is
.
However, the client – like all of us - needs favorable conditions in which to blossom and
bloom.

If I can provide a certain type of relationship, the other person will discover
within himself, the capacity to use that relationship for growth and change, and
personal development will occur. – Carl Rogers

jamsaili/feb2017
PCT which is also known as therapy
is an approach to counseling and psychotherapy that
, with the therapist taking a
non-directive role

jamsaili/feb2017
View of Human Nature

 Rogers viewed human nature as basically good

, not therapist. Roger’s challenged the basic
assumption that “the counselor knows best”
 He believed that if given the appropriate
, the individual would move toward self--actualization
is the motivation that makes the individual move
toward growth, meaning, and purpose
 Person--centered is considered a whereby the
individual’s perception of reality is accepted as reality for the individual .

jamsaili/feb2017
 PCT is often referred to , because of Rogers’s emphasis on the self being a
result of the person’s life experiences and the person’s awareness of comparisons to
others as the same or different

 Rogers believed that most people were provided conditional acceptance

as children, which lead them to behave in ways that would assure their
acceptance. However, in their need for acceptance, the individual often
behaved in ways that were incongruent with the real self. Thus,
this , the
greater isolated and maladjusted the person became.

jamsaili/feb2017
The client as a common factor
 In the US, university counselling centre only cover 5% of the
total populations, where is the 95%? How many only see
counsellors?
 In Individualism society reaches the peak, so busy to help others
 Cultures- in eastern cultures, how many really see counsellors?
People who come from extended family, a lot of support from the
family, problem solve right there and then
 So…there is SELF HEALING PROCESS

jamsaili/feb2017
 What do you think?
How much percentage for each therapeutic factor?

1. Client factors
2. Relationship Factors
3. Hope & Expectancy
4. Model/ Technique Factors

jamsaili/feb2017
 The Big Four –
Four Therapeutic Factors (Lambert, 1992)

1. Client/Extra therapeutic factors – 40%

2. Relationship Factors – 30%
3. Hope & Expectancy – 15%
4. Model/ Technique Factors – 15%

jamsaili/feb2017
 as
 not the therapists or technique, that makes therapy work
 are
 are
 are
 the
 Client factor + relationship factor + hope & expectancy factors (client help
healing through hope and belief)= more than 70%, client is responsible

It is who is the primary change agent, who takes what is

offered (a therapist, a self-help book, a computer program) invests it
with life, and makes it work!
jamsaili/feb2017
 Goals
 In person--centered theory are directly concerned .
 The counselor facilitates the client toward :
i. Realistic self--perception
ii. Greater confidence and self--direction
iii. Sense of positive worth
iv. Greater maturity, social skill, and adaptive behavior
v. Better stress coping
vi. More fully functioning in all aspects of their lives.

jamsaili/feb2017
Role of the counsellor
 The counsellor's job is to facilitate the exploration through a special I--Thou
relationship of unconditional positive regard, empathy and warmth .
 The counselor sets up a environment where the client is safe to explore
any aspects of the self.

jamsaili/feb2017
 A good image of Rogerian counseling is of a –
the counselor provides the growth-promoting climate
and the client is then free and able to discover and
grow as she / he wants and needs to.
 In a , the
following characteristics will prevail:
1. • Empathy
2. • Acceptance or Unconditional Positive Regard
3. • Genuineness
 These are necessary and sufficient conditions
for personality change to occur!

jamsaili/feb2017
1. Empathy
 The counselor accurately understands the client's thoughts and feelings from the client's
own perspective. When the counselor is willing and able to experience the world from
the client's point of view, it shows the client that her/his perspective has value and
she/he is accepted.

jamsaili/feb2017
2. Unconditional Positive Regard or Acceptance
or Warmth
 The counselor accepts the client without conditions, without judgment. This frees the
client to explore her/his thoughts and feelings, positive or negative, without danger of
rejection or condemnation.

jamsaili/feb2017
3. Genuineness or congruence or Tulen
 The counselor is authentic and does not put on a professional “I know best”
façade. The counselor is “there” for the client and is “real”. In this way the
client does not have to worry about what the counselor is really like or truly
thinks.

jamsaili/feb2017
 SIX CONDITIONS
(necessary and sufficient for personality changes to
occur)
1. Two persons are in
2. The first, the , is experiencing
3. The second person, the , is or integrated in the relationship
4. The therapist experiences or real caring for the client
5. The therapist experience for the clients’s internal frame of reference and
endeavors to communicate this to the client
6. The to the client is, to minimal degree,

jamsaili/feb2017
jamsaili/feb2017
Techniques
In this period of theory
development, the counselor
The counselor

During this period of time,

counselors emphasized , while

jamsaili/feb2017
 This is the period of the EWG:
. is the ability of the
counselor to understand the emotions of the client and correctly
communicate this understanding. is also referred to as
acceptance and positive regard in person--centered literature.
Warmth is the ability of the counselor to convey a unconditional acceptance of the
client’s personhood.
Genuineness or congruence is the ability to be who one really is without assuming
roles or facades

jamsaili/feb2017
 The counselor
, and
. The counselor
to help the clients gain insight into experiences and necessary
changes in their lives

jamsaili/feb2017
Techniques
 Client Centered counselors would not say they use techniques – rather they have
an approach of being empathetic, accepting and truly “there” for the client.
Having said that the following skills are central:

jamsaili/feb2017
Self-Disclosure
 Self-Disclosure falls under the notion of genuineness in Client Centered
counseling, and can be a bit of a tricky area. and the
client may ; and

jamsaili/feb2017
Some good general guidelines about self
disclosure
1. First impressions are lasting impressions. What you wear and what your office looks
like speak volumes about you. Try to find a balance. If you are eccentric, tone it down;
if you are a minimalist, soften things with a plant and a picture.
2. Generally speaking, in the first session it is best not to reveal personal information
about yourself. You don’t want the client to dislike you because of a non-essential
disclosure.
3. Less is best. The session is about the client. She or he is not there to hear about you and
your challenges, or to discuss the things you’d like to talk about.
4. If you do share an incident in your own life, make sure it’s one that had a positive
resolution.

jamsaili/feb2017
Explanations on PCT- weaknesses

 Clients are

clients are able to find their own answers

jamsaili/feb2017
Summary
 Developed by
 Goal is
 Therapist expresses
 Therapist strives
 Therapy is
 Therapist

jamsaili/feb2017
jamsaili/feb2017
jamsaili/feb2017
 ACTIVITY---Reflecting Client’s Feeling

 The PCT emphasized understanding clients from an internal frame of reference. To do that, the
therapist must be able to discriminate clients’ feelings, hear accurately what messages they are
sending, and reflect the deeper meanings that they are attempting to communicate. A common
mistake that counselors make is to give a superficial most the same words the client used.

 The following exercises are designed to help you learn to grasp the more subtle messages of
clients and to reflect feelings as well as content. Of course important nonverbal cues such as tone
of voice and facial expressions are not captured in this exercise. Such nonverbal aspects would be
most useful in understanding a client’s message.
 First, write down a few key words or phrases that describe what the client
is experiencing.
 Second, write down what your response would be if you were to reflect to
the client what you heard.

jamsaili/feb2017
jamsaili/feb2017