1. Systems of Psychotherapy: A Transtheoretical Analysis
Chapter 5.
Person-
Centered
Therapies
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2. Copyright © 2014 Cengage Learning, Inc.
A Sketch of Carl Rogers
Restricted, inexpressive family life.
Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Columbia.
Founder of psychotherapy research.
Evolved from nondirective to client-centered to person-centered.
Applied his system to education, politics, and international conflicts.
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Theory of Personality
Basic motivating force is actualization.
We are born with:
actualizing forces that motivate us.
valuing processes that regulate us.
We create our subjective world.
Acquire conditions of worth.
Need for unconditional positive regard.
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4. Theory of Psychopathology
More conditional the parents’ love, the more likely pathology.
Incongruence between what is experienced and what is person's self-concept.
Psychopathology reflects a divided personality due to lack of wholeness.
Defensive reactions prevent threatening experiences from coming into awareness.
Defenses cause inaccurate perceptions due to distortions and selective omission of information.
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5. Therapeutic Relationship
Necessary and sufficient conditions for personality change
Genuineness/congruence
Positive regard
Accurate empathy
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6. Therapeutic Processes
Goal: Increase congruence between self and experience.
Combination of consciousness raising and corrective emotional experience.
Therapists control the process of therapy, but not the content.
Use facilitative conditions (genuineness, positive regard, empathy).
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Therapeutic Content
Intrapersonal Conflicts
Anxieties and defenses
Self-esteem
Responsibility
Interpersonal Conflicts
Intimacy and sexuality
Communication
Hostility
Control
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8. Therapeutic Content (cont.)
Indivduo-Social Conflicts
Adjustment versus transcendence
Impulse control
Beyond Conflict to Fulfillment
Meaning of life
Ideal individual
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9. Practicalities of Person-Centered Therapy (PCT)
Psychological testing is rare.
Efforts to enhance trainee’s empathy often result in sterile technique.
Brief PCT is not common; possibly hundreds of sessions.
Typically, sessions are once/week for multiple months.
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10. A Major Alternative & Extension: Motivational Interviewing (MI)
William R. Miller (1947-present)
Combines elements of person-centered style and technique.
Found therapist empathy (not treatment method) predicted success of therapy for problem drinkers.
Research supports MI’s effectiveness.
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Four Principles of MI
Express empathy
Develop discrepancy
Roll with resistance
Support self-efficacy
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Four Skills of MI: OARS
Open questions
Affirmation
Reflective listening
Summaries
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13. Effectiveness of Person-Centered Therapies
Research on empathy, genuineness and positive regard show:
They are valuable contributors to outcome.
But are neither necessary nor sufficient.
Meta-analyses
PCT superior to no treatment and placebo.
Allegiance effect in comparing PCT to others systems.
Similar treatment outcomes when controlling for investigator allegiance.
Smaller effects for children and adolescents.
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Effectiveness of MI
More than 200 RCTs.
Project MATCH
Strongest support in treatment of substance abuse.
Particularly effective with ethnic minority and resistant clients.
May need to be combined with another evidence-based treatment.
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15. Criticisms of Person-Centered Therapies
From a cognitive-behavioral perspective
From a psychoanalytic perspective
From a cultural perspective
From an integrative perspective
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16. Future Directions of PCT
Methods assimilated by mainstream therapies.
Slowly declining in popularity in U.S.
Empathy making a comeback.
Needs to maintain:
Openness to integration with other psychotherapies
Active and eclectic methods in era of short-term treatments.
Motivational interviewing is on the rise.
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Key Terms
actualization
actualizing tendency
autonomy v. heteronomy
allegiance effect
client markers
conditions of worth
counterresistance
dissemination and implementation
empathy
existential living
fully functioning person
genuineness/congruence
incongruence
motivational discrepancy
motivational interviewing (MI)
necessary and sufficient conditions
nondirective therapy
organismic valuing
positive regard/unconditional positive regard
process research
Project MATCH
reflection (of feelings)
roll with resistance
self-authority
self-concept
self-regard
subception
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Recommended Websites
Association for Humanistic Psychology:
Association for the Development of the Person-Centered Approach:
Center for Studies of the Person:
World Association for Person-Centered Psychotherapy:
Motivational Interviewing:
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