PersonCentered HumanisticTherapy

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Person-Centered (Humanistic)Therapy

• C6436 Individual Counseling Theory and Practice
• James J. Messina, Ph.D.

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Carl Rogers 1902-1987

• Born Oak Park, Illinois
• Fourth of six children
• Fundamental religious practices, little social
  mixing, belief virtue Hard Work
• Solitary boy, outstanding student
• Studied in Seminary, became child psychologist
  influenced by Adlers concepts of work with
  children and families
• Emphasized taking personal responsibility for
  ones own life
• In his life questioning stance, deep openness to
  change, courage to go into unknown places

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Humanism

• Philosophical movement that emphasizes worth of
  the individual and the centrality of human values
• Attends to matters of ethics personal worth
• Gives credit to the human spirit
• Emphasis on creative, spontaneous active nature
  of humans-optimistic
• Human capacity to overcome hardship despair

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Nondeterministic

• Rogers like the Existentialists would argue that
  it is an oversimplification to view people as
  controlled by fixed physical laws
• People cannot be viewed simply as cogs in a vast
  machine
• Encouragement of therapy that considers
  individual initiative, creativity,
  self-fulfillment
• Focus on active, positive aspects of human growth
  and achievement

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Self-Actualization

• Innate process by which a person tends to grow
  spiritually and realize potential
• Through self-exploration person could live in
  harmony with nature and all of humanity by
  integrating various psychic forces to become
  whole person
• Selfish drives could be explored, understood
  integrated with the spiritual aspects of human

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The Experiencing Person

• Important issues must be defined by
  individual-special concern are discrepancies
  between what a person thinks of himself total
  range of things he experiences
• People tend to develop in a positive direction,
  that unless thwarted, they achieve their
  potential
• Belief in natural goodness of people-Rousseau
• Inner self-control is better than forced,
  external control

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Human Potential Movement

• Begun in 1960s-Rogers ended his life in this
  movement-His special focus Peace Racial Harmony
• Use small group meetings, self-disclosure,
  introspection
• People realize their inner potentials
• Encounter groups, massage, meditation,
  consciousness raising, communing with nature,
  organic food
• E.g. Environmental concerns, Quality Circles,
  Team self-management

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Person-Centered Therapy

• A reaction against the directive and
  psychoanalytic approaches
• A reaction against Medical Model called clients
  rather than patients
• People are essentially trustworthy, vast
  potential for understanding selves, resolving
  their own problems without direct intervention by
  therapist are capable of self-directed growth
  if involved in therapeutic relationship

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Rogers Challenged Traditional Models of Therapy

• He questioned assumption that the counselor
  knows best
• He questioned validity of advice, suggestion,
  persuasion, teaching, diagnosis interpretation
• He challenged belief that clients cannot
  understand resolve their own problems with
  direct help from experts
• He questioned focus on problems rather than on
  people in therapy

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Person-Centered Therapys Emphasis

• Therapy as a journey shared by two fallible
  people
• The persons innate striving for
  self-actualization
• The personal characteristics of the therapist and
  the quality of the therapeutic relationship
• The counselors creation of a permissive, growth
  promoting climate
• People are capable of self-directed growth if
  involved in a therapeutic relationship

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Necessary Conditions from Therapist to Client
Attitudes more important than knowledge

• Congruence - genuineness or realness, in
  relations between therapist client -being
  oneself in the therapeutic relationship with
  client
• Unconditional positive regard- acceptance and
  caring, but not approval of all behavior
• Accurate empathic understanding understanding
  of clients frame of references, ability to
  deeply grasp the clients subjective world
  communicate this to the client

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Six Conditions(necessary and sufficient for
personality changes to occur)

• Two persons are in psychological contact
• The first, the client, is experiencing
  incongruency
• The second person, the therapist, is congruent or
  integrated in the relationship
• The therapist experiences unconditional positive
  regard or real caring for the client
• The therapist experiences empathy for the
  clients internal frame of reference and
  endeavors to communicate this to the client
• The communication to the client is, to a minimal
  degree, achieved

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Congruence Genuineness

• Therapist is real, genuine, integrated
  authentic during therapy-model human being
  struggling for realness
• Therapist has no false front, match of inner
  outer expression of experience
• Therapist can openly express feelings, thoughts,
  reactions attitudes present in relationships
  with client

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Unconditional Positive Regard

• Therapist communicates deep genuine caring for
  client as a person
• Caring is unconditional-no evaluation or judgment
  of clients feelings, thoughts or behaviors
• Caring does not come from need of reciprocal
  caring of therapist by client
• Acceptance recognition of clients right to
  have own beliefs feelings

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Accurate Empathic Understanding

• Therapist understands clients experience
  feelings as revealed in interaction
• Therapist tries to sense clients subjective
  experience in here and now
• Sense the others feelings as if my own
• Capable of reflecting the experience of client
  back to client-encourages client to be more
  reflective
• Encourages clients own understanding
  clarification of beliefs and worldviews

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Process of Therapy

• Clients communications about externals not
  self
• Client describes feelings but not recognize or
  own them personally
• Client talks about self as an object in terms of
  past experiences
• Client experiences feelings in present-just
  describes them with distrust fear
• Client experiences expresses feelings freely in
  present-feelings bubble up
• Client accepts own feelings in immediacy
  richness
• Client trusts new experiences relates to others
  openly freely

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The Therapist

• 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, without a
  false front
• Can openly express feelings and attitudes that
  are present in the relationship with the client

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Techniques used in Person Centered Therapy

• Listening
• Accepting
• Respecting
• Understanding
• Responding