The Person-Centred Approach to Counselling

The person-centred approach to
counselling belongs to the humanistic school of
therapy, and was devised by Carl Rogers, an
American psychologist.
In the 1950s, Rogers proposed a form of therapy
that focused on the clients' experience of
themselves, as opposed to the counsellor being an
expert and telling them what to do, or what was
wrong with them.
• Carl Rogers (1902-1987) was an American psychologist
known for his influential psychotherapy method
known as client-centered therapy. Rogers was one of
the founding figures of humanistic psychology and
widely regarded as one of the most eminent thinkers
in psychology. In one survey of professional
psychologists, Rogers was ranked as the sixth most
eminent psychologist of the 20th-century
Client-centered theory operates according to three basic principles that
reflect the attitude of the therapist to the client:
 Client-centered theory operates according to three basic principles that
reflect the attitude of the therapist to the client:

Unconditional Positive Regard: unconditional positive regard is an important-1  •

practice for the client-centered therapist. The therapist needs to accept the client for
.who they are and provide support and care no matter what they are going through

•2-Genuineness: a client-centered therapist needs to feel comfortable sharing his or

her feelings with the client. Not only will this contribute to a healthy and open
relationship between the therapist and client, but it also provides the client with a
model of good communication and shows the client that it’s okay to be vulnerable.

•3-Empathetic Understanding: This refers to the therapist 's ability to understand

sensitively and accurately the client's experience in the here-and-now. The client-
centered therapist must extend empathy to the client, both to form a positive
therapeutic relationship and to act as a sort of mirror, reflecting the client’s thoughts
and feelings back to them; this will allow the client to better understand themselves.
 Rogers identified six conditions that are
required for success in client-centered therapy:
1. The client and counselor are in psychological contact (a relationship).
2. The client is emotionally upset, in a state of incongruence.
3. The counselor is genuine and aware of their own feelings.
4. The counselor has unconditional positive regard for the client.
5. The counselor has an empathic understanding of the client and their internal frame of reference and
looks to communicate this experience with the client.
6. The client recognizes that the counselor has unconditional positive regard for them and an
understanding of the difficulties they are facing

When these six conditions are met, there is great potential for positive change.
 Client-Centered Therapy Method and Techniques

1) Set clear boundaries

Boundaries are vital for any relationship, but they are especially important for
therapeutic relationships. Both the therapist and the client need healthy boundaries to
avoid the relationship becoming inappropriate or ineffective, such as ruling out certain
topics of discussion.
There are also more practical boundaries that must be set, for example, how long the
session will last.
 Client-Centered Therapy Method and Techniques

2) Remember – the client knows best

As mentioned earlier, this therapy is founded on the idea that clients know themselves,
and are the best sources of knowledge and insight about their problems and potential
solutions. Do not lead the client or tell them what is wrong, instead let them tell you
what is wrong.
 Client-Centered Therapy Method and Techniques

3) Act as a sounding board

Active listening is key, but it’s also useful to reflect what the client is saying back to
them. Try to put what they are telling you into your own words. This can help the
client clarify their own thoughts and understand their feelings better.
 Client-Centered Therapy Method and Techniques

4) Don’t be judgmental
Another vital component of client-centered therapy is to refrain from judgment.
Clients are often already struggling with feelings of guilt, low self-worth, and the
belief that they are simply not good enough. Let them know you accept them for who
they are and that you will not reject them.
 Client-Centered Therapy Method and Techniques

5) Don’t make decisions for your clients

Giving advice can be useful, but it can also be risky. In client-centered therapy, it is
not seen as helpful or appropriate to give advice to clients. Only the client should be
able to make decisions for themselves, and they have full responsibility in that respect.
The therapist’s job is to help clients explore the outcomes of their decisions rather than
guide them to any particular decisions.
 Client-Centered Therapy Method and Techniques

6) Concentrate on what they are really saying

This is where active listening can be put to use. Sometimes a client will feel
uncomfortable opening up at first, or they will have trouble seeing something just
below the surface. In these situations, be sure to listen carefully and keep an open
mind – the problem they come in with may not be the real problem.
 Client-Centered Therapy Method and Techniques

7) Be genuine
As mentioned earlier, the client-centered therapy must be genuine. If the client does
not feel their therapist is authentic and genuine, the client will not trust you. In order
for the client to share personal details about their own thoughts and feelings, they must
feel safe and comfortable with you.
Present yourself as you really are, and share both facts and feelings with the client. Of
course, you don’t have to share anything you don’t feel comfortable sharing, but
appropriate sharing can help build a healthy therapeutic relationship.
 Client-Centered Therapy Method and Techniques

8) Accept negative emotions

This is an important technique for any therapist. To help the client work through their
issues and heal, it is vital to let them express their emotions – whether positive or
negative. The client may even express anger, disappointment, or irritation with you at
one point or another.
Learn to accept their negative emotions and practice not taking it personally. They
may need to wrestle with some difficult emotions, and as long as they are not abusing
you, it is beneficial to just help them through it.
 Client-Centered Therapy Method and Techniques

9) How you speak can be more important than what you say
Your tone of voice can have a huge impact on what the client hears, understands, and
applies. Make sure your tone is measured, and make sure it matches your non-
judgmental and empathetic approach.
You can also use your voice to highlight opportunities for clients to think, reflect, and
improve their understanding; for example, you can use your tone to slow down the
conversation at key points, allowing the client to think about where the discussion has
led and where s/he would like it to go next.
 Client-Centered Therapy Method and Techniques

10) I may not be the best person to help

It is vital that you know yourself as a therapist and are able to recognize your own
limits. No therapist is perfect, and no mental health professional can give every single
client exactly what they need.
Remember, there is no shame in recognizing that the scope of a specific problem or
the type of personality you are working with is out of your wheelhouse. In those cases,
don’t beat yourself up about it – just be honest and provide any resources you can to
help further the client’s healing and development.
DO NOT
• ask questions
• make diagnoses
• conduct psychological tests
• provide interpretations, evaluations, and advice
• use reassurance, persuasion, praise, blame
• agree or disagree with clients or express opinions of their own point out contradictions
• uncover unconscious wishes
• offering interpretations
• making criticism
• explore the client’s feelings about the therapist
Rogers’ theory is based on the postulate that the client possesses within himself or herself the
capacity to understand the factors in his or her life that are causing unhappiness. The client
also has the capacity for self-direction and constructive personal change. Personal change
will occur if a congruent therapist is able to establish with the client a relationship
characterized by warmth, acceptance, and accurate empathic understanding. Therapeutic
counseling is based on an I-thou, or person-to-person, relationship in the safety and
acceptance of which the client drops his or her rigid defenses and comes to accept and
integrate into his or her self-system aspects that he or she formerly denied or distorted
(Rogers, 1980).
Client-centered therapy places the primary responsibility for the direction of therapy
on the client. The general goals are: becoming more open to experience, trusting in
one’s organism, developing an internal locus of evaluation and a willingness to
become a process, and in other ways moving toward higher levels of self-actualization.
The therapist does not impose specific goals and values on the client; the client
decides on his or her own specific values and life goals.
The client-centered model is not a fixed theory.
Rogers intended to develop a set of working principles that could be stated in the form
of tentative hypotheses regarding the conditions facilitating personal growth. This is
an open system, one that, after 30 years, is still in evolution. Formulations continue to
be revised in light of new research findings (Purton, 2004).
The client-centered approach emphasizes the personal relationship between client and
therapist;
the therapist’s attitudes are more critical than techniques, knowledge, or theory.
If the therapist demonstrates and communicates to the client that the therapist is
(1) a congruent person,
(2) warmly and unconditionally accepting of the feelings and personhood of the client,
and
(3) able to sensitively and accurately perceive the internal world as the client perceives
it, then the client will use this relationship to unleash his or her growth potential and
become more of the person he or she chooses to become (Rogers, 1977).
The client-centered approach contributes in other ways to both individual and group counseling
situations.
It offers a humanistic base from which to understand the subjective world of clients.
It provides clients the rare opportunity to be really listened to and heard.
Further, if clients feel that they are heard, they most likely will express their feelings in their own
ways.
They can be themselves, since they know that they will not be evaluated or judged.
They can feel free to experiment with new behavior.
They are expected to take responsibility for themselves, and it is they who set the pace in counseling.
They decide what areas they wish to explore, on the basis of their own goals for change.
The client-centered approach provides the client with immediate and specific feedback of what he or
she has just communicated.
The counselor acts as a mirror, reflecting the deeper feelings of a client.
Person-Centered Therapy
• Emphasizes:
• Therapy as a journey shared by two 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
Therapeutic Goals
• helping a person become a fully functioning person
• Clients have the capacity to define their goals
• an openness to experience
• A trust in themselves
• An internal source of evaluation
• A willingness to continue growing
Therapist’s function and Role
• Function: to be present and accessible to clients, to focus on
immediate experience, to be real in the relationship with clients
• Through the therapist’s attitude of genuine caring, respect,
acceptance, and understanding, clients become less defensive and
more open to their experience and facilitate the personal growth
Therapist’s Function and Role
• Role: Therapist’s attitude and belief in the inner resources of the client, not in
techniques, facilitate personal change in the client
• Use of self as an instrument of change
• 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
• Can openly express feelings and attitudes that are present in the relationship with
the client
 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.
Areas of Application

• individual counseling, group counseling, education, human relations

training…..
• A variety of problems: anxiety, crisis intervention, interpersonal
difficulties, depression, personality disorder…..
 Caveats of Client Centered Therapy
• A vulnerability of the client-centered approach lies in the manner in which some
practitioners misinterpret or simplify the central attitudes of the client-centered
position.
• Not all counselors can practice client-centered therapy for some do not really
believe in the underlying philosophy Many of Rogers’ followers have attempted to
be carbon copies of Rogers himself and have misunderstood some of Rogers’ basic
concepts.
• They limit their own range of responses and counseling styles to reflections and
empathic listening. Surely there is value in listening to and really hearing a client
and in reflecting and communicating understanding to the client.
• But psychotherapy is, one hopes more than this. Perhaps listening and reflecting
constitute a requisite for establishing a therapeutic relationship, but they should
not be confused with therapy itself (Sanders, 2000).
 Limitations of Client Centered Therapy
• Client-centered therapy do not care about diagnosis which made it actively
criticized.
• Client-centered therapy can also work less well with people who find it
difficult to talk about themselves or have a mental issued which influence
their perceptions of reality.
• The process of change in client-centered therapy is predictable only in very
general terms, because it based on individuality of every client (McLean and
al, 2015)
 Strength of Client Centered Therapy
• Despite the fact that client-centered therapy do not care about diagnosis,
“Rogers admitted that his ideas left a great deal of room for interpretation”
(Harvard mental health letter, 2006)
• Stimulation of client to be more open, self-aware and pro-active
• Reduce client’s dependance from a therapist
• Self-disclosure has become more acceptable in psychotherapy among
therapists
 Conclusion
• Client-centered therapy was much needed alternative to traditional
approach. Besides criticism, Roger’s ideas changed modern psychotherapy,
stimulated appearance of new methods and directions. It helped therapists
become more openminded, creative, and be more client-oriented.
 Conclusion
• Rogers made a huge impact on modern psychology. Despite the fact that
not many therapists call themselves client-centered, his ideas about
personality we can find in textbooks, articles. Huge variety researches,
scientific works etc was created based on this approach. Harvard mental
health letter (2006) states “recent survey found 50 journals and 200
organizations all over the world devoted to some variant of client-centered
or person-centered therapy”.
• Present finding have shown strong evidence that client-centered approach
can be as effective as traditional psychotherapy, and moreover it has shown
to be effective when previous treatment didn’t worked. This principles have
influenced the practice of many other therapists.