1. Client-Centered Therapy
Developed by Carl Rogers
Also termed Client-Centered Therapy, Humanistic Therapy or Phenomenological Therapy
A congruent therapist who provides unconditional positive regard and empathy can stimulate change in a vulnerable person to become a creative, responsible, developing individual
By providing a therapeutic atmosphere which is real, caring, and nonjudgmental the person can develop to their full potential

2. Rogers’ Theory of Personality - Highlights
Behavior is best understood through the individual’s reality (perception of experiences)
Personal growth occurs through decreased defensiveness
Self actualization is the organism’s one, basic tendency
Experiences inconsistent with self concept are threats leading to increased rigidity
Therapy allows the individual to accept and integrate all of their experiences

3. Client-Centered Therapy is Radically Different than Other Models
Medical model of therapy views person as “patients” with problematic “parts”
Other forms of treatment are directed by “experts”
Client-centered approaches focus on the client’s inborn capacity for “self healing”
Difference for the therapist is between “using” the self and “being” oneself

4. Person-Centered Therapy (A reaction against the directive and psychoanalytic approaches)
Challenges:
The assumption that “the counselor knows best”
The validity of advice, suggestion, persuasion, teaching, diagnosis, and interpretation
The belief that clients cannot understand and resolve their own problems without direct help
The focus on problems over persons

5. 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

6. Bottom Line
Congruence = psychological adjustment
Incongruence = psychological maladjustment

7. Person-Centered Therapy
Emphasizes:
Therapy as a journey shared by two fallible 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

8. Distinctive Components of Client-Centered Therapy
Therapist’s attitudes can be necessary and sufficient conditions for change
Therapist needs to be immediately present and accessible to clients
Intensive, continuous focus on client’s phenomenological world
Process marked by client’s ability to live fully in the moment
Focus on personality change, not structure of personality

9. Distinctive Components of Client-Centered Therapy (continued)
Need for continuing research on psychotherapy
Same principles of psychotherapy apply to all people regardless of problem
Psychotherapy is a specialized example of a constructive interpersonal relationships
Theoretical formulations built on experience
Concern with the philosophical issues derived from psychotherapy

10. Client-Centered Therapy vs. Psychoanalysis
Rogers
Psychoanalysis
View of Human Nature
People can be good or bad
People are bad
Role of Therapist
Facilitate patient’s self discovery
Interpretation for the patient
View of Transference
Not central to the patient’s ability to change
Inevitable, fundamental to the change process
Presentation of the Therapist
A caring person who is willing to listen
Authority, teacher

11. Behavior changes through internal factors behavior changes
Client-Centered Therapy vs Behavioral Therapy
Client-Centered
Behavior changes
through internal
factors
Behavioral
behavior changes
through external
factors

12. 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)

13. Therapeutic Relationship
Genuineness/congruence
Positive regard
Accurate empathy

14. 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

15. Rogers’ Core Conditions for the Therapeutic Environment (Therapist)

16. Rogers’ Core Conditions for the Therapeutic Environment (Client)
- Low at beginning T R U S
Rigid
What others think

17. The Therapist Focuses on the quality of the therapeutic relationship
Provides a supportive therapeutic environment in which the client is the agent of change and healing
Serves as a model of a human being struggling toward greater realness
Is genuine, integrated, and authentic, without a false front
Can openly express feelings and attitudes that are present in the relationship with the client
Is invested in developing his or her own life experiences to deepen self- knowledge and move toward self-actualization

18. Practicalities of Person-Centered Therapy
Psych testing rarely conducted
Efforts to enhance trainee’s empathy confused with mindless parroting or sterile technique
Modest effects of such training on empathy

19. 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 found
PCT was clearly superior to no treatment
But barely better than placebo
When compared to CBT, person-centered was slightly less effective

20. Limitations of the Person-Centered Approach
Cultural considerations
Some clients may prefer a more directive, structured treatment
Individuals accustomed to indirect communication may not be comfortable with direct expression of empathy or creativity
Individuals from collectivistic cultures may disagree with the emphasis on internal locus of control
Does not focus on the use of specific techniques, making this treatment difficult to standardize
Beginning therapists may find it difficult to provide both support and challenges to clients
Limits of the therapist as a person may interfere with developing a genuine therapeutic relationship

21. Future Directions of PCT
Methods assimilated by mainstream therapies
Slowly declining in popularity in USA
Empathy making a comeback
Needs to maintain
openness to integration with other psychotherapy systems
active and eclectic methods in era of short-term treatments
Motivational Interviewing is on the rise

22. Sample Question
Which of the following is not a characteristic of the person-centered approach?
The focus is on the subjective world of the client
It is supported by evidence from ongoing research
Importance is placed on the attitudes and beliefs of the therapist
Emphasis is given to a contract for therapy
Attention is directed toward the professional relationship between the client and the therapist