1. Person-Centered Therapy

2. P-C Therapy Challenges…
Directive & Psychoanalytic Approaches
An approach of offering advice, suggestion, diagnosis, and interpretation
A belief that clients need direct help in order to resolve their own problems
A focus on problems instead of persons

3. P-C Therapy Emphasizes…
Therapy is shared by C. and T.
The client’s striving for self-actualization & capacity for growth
The therapist’s personal characteristics
The counselor’s creation of a “growth promoting” climate
The quality of the therapeutic relationship

4. Views of Human Nature Striving toward becoming fully functioning
Having the inner resources
Having self-healing capacities
Being a primary change agent
Actualizing self-potential

5. Core concepts Empathy Congruence/genuineness
Accurate understanding
Congruence/genuineness
Therapist is his actual self in his encounter with his client
Unconditional positive regard
Warmth, acceptance, nonjudgmental attitude

6. Therapeutic Goals Goals are from the client, not the therapist
an openness to experience
A trust in themselves
Acceptance of others
Being less concerned about pleasing others
Becoming a fully functioning person

7. Therapist’s 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 genuine caring, respect, acceptance, and understanding, change becomes possible for clients

8. Therapist’s Role
Believe in the inner resources of the client (not in techniques) facilitating personal change
Use of self
Express feelings at the moment with the client
Value the quality of the therapeutic relationship
Is genuine, integrated, and authentic
Serve as a model of a human being’s struggling

9. Client’s Experience in Therapy
Incongruence
discrepancy between self-perception and experience in realityanxietymotivation to help
As clients feel understood and accepted
Less defensiveness
more open to their experiences
Therapeutic relationship activate clients’ self-healing capacities

10. Relationship Between T and C
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.

11. Relationship Between T and C
Congruence
genuineness or realness
Unconditional positive regards
acceptance and caring, but not approval of all behavior
Accurate empathic understanding
an ability to deeply grasp the client’s subjective world

12. Therapeutic techniques & procedures
No techniques
Not simply to restate what the client just said or the technique of reflection of feelings
The therapeutic relationship is a key factor for growth
Therapist’s presence
being completely engaged in the relationship with clients.
The best source of knowledge about the client is the client

13. Two Types of Research on P-C
A. The importance of the Core Conditions (Genuineness, acceptance, and empathy) for Change
1. Barkhan & Shapiro (1986)
2. Bachelor (1988): four different client perceptions of empathy
Cognitive, affective, sharing, nurturant empathy
3. Client Evaluation of Counselor Scale (Hamilton, 2000): an instrument for clients’ perception of core conditions

14. Two Types of Research on P-C
B. Comparing the effectiveness of Person-Center Therapy with other theories
: most P-C research in US; most recent research on P-C in Belgium and Germany
2. P-C Therapy is effective (Greenberg, Elliott, & Litaer, 1994)
3. But, CBT is more effective than P-C therapy for adults
4. Relaxation is more effective than P-C for anxiety
***Who benefits best from which types of therapy***

15. From a multicultural perspective
Contributions
reached more than 30 counties and translated to 12 languages
Similarity b/w P-C and Eastern thoughts
Limitations
Some may like structure, coping skills, directedness
Some may focus on family or societal expectations instead of internal evaluation
May be unfamiliar with people in different cultures

16. 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

17. Summary and Evaluation
Limitations
Discount the significance of the past
Misunderstanding the basic concept: e.g., reflection feelings.