Person-centered therapy

The Study of Behavior Perspective:

“A Group of Individuals, who shares common assumptions, work on common problems and use common methods.”

 

Humanistic Approach:

Humanistic psychology emerged as a third force during the late 1950s in the United States as an alternative to the deterministic orientations of behaviorism and psychoanalysis

 

Emphasizes On:

It emphasizes on personal Worth of Individual, creative and active nature of Human Beings, self Awareness, free will, ability to reach full potentials if given opportunities, self-actualization

The humanistic perspective is not applied universally, perhaps because of its emphasis on the individual and its optimistic view of human potential.

Significant Figures:

These are the two most significant figures in Humanistic approach.

·         Carl Rogers (1902-1987)

 Person Centered Therapy

·         Abraham Maslow (1908-1970)

 Hierarchy of needs

 Self Actualization                                             

      Here we are only concerned with Carl Rogers’ Person centered Therapy.

 

Humanistic Emerged As An Alternative To…

Humanistic emerged as an alternative to Determinism, Psychoanalysis, Behaviorism. According to determinism view, behavior is caused and determined by things beyond a person’s control.

On the other side humanistic viewpoint is that man is responsible for his actions and his inner will forces him to behave in a certain manner. Psychoanalysis perspective tells much about emotionally disturbed people. It prefers unconscious forces and emphasized more on Past Experiences Where as humanistic perspective talks about healthy normal people, self-actualized people. It focuses on Conscious and here n now principle.

A behaviorist focuses on learning and environment. It focuses on external factors. Whereas humanist focuses on Inner Will of an individual and it emphasizes on Internal Motives.

 

Many other theorists contributed for the development and progress of humanism. There are many significant theorists in this area including;

• Ludwig Binswanger
(1881-1966)

• Rollo May
(1909-1994)

• George Kelly
(1905-1967)

Carl Rogers:

Biography of Rogers:

Rogers was born on January 8, 1902.He grew up in the Midwest on a farm with very strict, religious parents. He was deeply religious. (Rogers, 1961).

 

Rogers Contribution:

Carl Rogers was not only one of the founders of the Humanistic Approach, but also arguably the most influential therapist in the 20th century: a number of surveys, including several done after his death, found that more therapists cited Rogers as a major influence on their thinking and clinical practice than any other person in psychology.

Rogers Contribution:

In terms of his theory, there are two fundamental ideas, which are particularly worth noting. Rogers talked about healthy development in terms of how the individual perceived their own being. A healthy individual will tend to see congruence between their sense of who they are (self) and who they feel they should be (ideal self). While no one tends to experience perfect congruence at all times, the relative degree of congruence is an indicator of health. The second fundamental idea is Rogers's concept of the conditions for healthy growth, and the role of a therapist in fostering healthy growth. Through a process Rogers called person-centered therapy, the therapist seeks to provide empathy, openness, and unconditional positive regard.

 

Person-Centered Therapy:

Person-centered therapy, which is also known as client-centered, non-directive, or Rogerian therapy, is an approach to counseling and psychotherapy that places much of the responsibility for the treatment process on the client, with the therapist taking a nondirective role.

 

Purpose:

Two primary goals of person-centered therapy are increased self-esteem and greater openness to experience. Some of the related changes that this form of therapy seeks to foster in clients include closer agreement between the client's idealized and actual selves; better self-understanding; lower levels of defensiveness, guilt, and insecurity; more positive and comfortable relationships with others; and an increased capacity to experience and express feelings at the moment they occur.

The person-centered approach is based on concepts from humanistic psychology and is shares many concepts and values with existential perspective. In tracing the major turning points in Rogers approach, Zimring and Raskin (1992) have identified four Periods of development.

During 1940s-Non-directive counseling.

During 1950s renamed his approach as client-centered therapy.(Rogers, 1951).

During 1960s he began with the publication of Becoming a man-Its focus was on the nature of “Becoming the self that one truly is”. (Rogers, 1961).

During 1970s-1980s-his theory became known as the Person centered approach.

 

KEY CONCEPTS
View of Human Nature

According to Roger’s early writing he concludes …

• To trust in client’s ability that they can move forward in a constructive manner if the appropriate conditions fostering growth are present. (Rogers, 1987c).

• He firmly maintains that people are trustworthy, resourceful, and capable of self-understanding and self-direction. (Cain, 1987b).

• They are able to make constructive changes, and able to live effective and productive lives. (Cain, 1987b).

• When therapists are able to experience and communicate their realness, caring and non-judgmental understanding, significant changes in the client are most likely to occur.

Rogers had opposed the directive approaches and expresses little sympathy for approaches based on the assumption that the individual cannot be trusted and instead needs to be directed, motivated, instructed, punished, rewarded, controlled and managed by others who are in a superior and “expert” position. He said that the client must be in a relationship with a therapist who is congruent or genuine, and who demonstrates empathy and unconditional positive regard. (Combs, 1989).

 Rogers believed that when congruence, unconditional positive regard, and empathy are present in a relationship, psychological growth will invariably occur.

According to Rogers the goal of counseling are to set free clients free and to create those conditions that will enable them to engage in meaningful self-exploration. (Combs, 1989).

 

 When people are free, they will be able to find their own way. (Combs, 1989).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While person-centered therapy is considered one of the major therapeutic approaches, along with psychoanalytic and cognitive-behavioral therapy, Rogers's influence is felt in schools of therapy other than his own. The concepts and methods he developed are used in an eclectic fashion by many different types of counselors and therapists.

The Therapeutic process:

The person-centered approach aims toward a greater degree of independence and integration of individual. It focus is on person not on person’s presenting problem.

Rogers’s view (1977):

In Rogers view the aim of therapy is not merely to solve problem. Rather, it is to assist clients in their growth process, so that they can better cope with problems they are now facing and with future problems. Rogers writes that people who enter psychotherapy often ask:

   “How can I discover my real self?”

   “How can I become what I deeply wish to     become?”

The underlying aim of the therapy is to provide a climate conducive to helping the individual become a fully functioning person.

Therapeutic goal:

Rogers describes people who are becoming increasingly actualized as having:

•Openness to experience.

•A trust in themselves.

•An internal source of evaluation.

•A willingness to continue growing.

      Encouraging these characteristics is the basic goal of PCT. The cornerstone of person-centered theory is the view that clients in a relationship with facilitating therapist have the capacity to define and clarify their own goals.

Therapist’s function and role:

The role of person-centered therapists is rooted in their ways of being and attitude, not in techniques designed to get the client to “do something.” The attitude of the therapists, rather their knowledge, theories, or techniques, facilitate personality change in the client.

Therapist’s function is to establish a therapeutic climate that helps the client grows. The person-centered therapist thus creates a helping relationship. Clients become less defensive and more open to possibilities within themselves and in the world. The therapist must be willing to be real in the relationship with clients. Through the therapist’s attitude of genuine caring, respect, acceptance, and understanding, clients are able to loosen their defenses and move to a higher level of personal functioning.

Client’s experience in the therapy:

Clients come to the counselor in a state of incongruence; that I a discrepancy exist between their self perception and their experience in reality. For example, Leon, a college student, may see himself as a future physician, yet his below average grades might exclude him from medical school. The discrepancy between how Leon sees himself ( self concept) or how he would like to view himself (ideal self concept) and the reality of his poor academic performance may result in anxiety and personal vulnerability, which can provide the necessary motivation to enter therapy. As counseling progresses, clients become more realistic, perceive others with greater accuracy, and become better able to understand and accept others. They come to appreciate themselves more as they are, and their behavior shows more flexibility and creativity. They become less oriented to meeting others’ expectations, and thus they begin to behave in ways that are truer to themselves. Client’s experience in the therapy is like throwing off the self-imposed shackles that had kept them in a psychological prison. With increased freedom they tend to become more mature psychologically and more actualized.

Relationship between therapist and client:

The basic hypothesis of person-centered therapy is summarized in this sentence: “If I can provide a certain type of relationship, the other person will discover within himself or herself the capacity to use that relationship for growth and change, and personal development will occur.”

Characteristics of the therapeutic relationship:

1. Two people are in psychological contact.
2. The first, whom we shall term the client, is experiencing incongruency or is anxious.
3. The second person, whom we shall term the therapist, is congruent or integrated in the relationship.
4. The therapist experiences unconditional positive regard and acceptance for the client.
5. The therapist experiences an empathic understanding of the client’s internal frame of reference and strives to communicate this experience to the client.
6. The communication to the client of the therapist’s empathic understanding and acceptance is to a minimal degree achieved.

Rogers hypothesizes that no other conditions are necessary. If the six conditions exist over some period of time, constructive personality change will occur. From Rogers’ perspective the client/therapist relationship is characterized by quality. Three personal attitudes of the therapist form a central part of the therapeutic relationship;

1. Congruence or genuineness.
2. Unconditional positive regard and acceptance.
3. Accurate empathic understanding.

Of the three characteristics, congruence is the most important. Congruence implies that therapists are real: that is, they are genuine, integrates, and authentic during the therapy hour. Person-centered therapy stresses that counseling will be inhibited if the counselor feels one way about the client but acts in a different way.

Unconditional positive regard and acceptance:

The second attitude therapists need to communicate is a deep and genuine caring for the client as a person. The caring is unconditional; it is not contaminated by evaluation or judgment of the client’s feelings thoughts, and behavior as good or bad. It is important that therapists’ caring be non-possessive. Therapists value and warmly accept clients without placing conditions on their acceptance. It is not an attitude of “I’ll accept you when………..”; rather, it is one of “ I’ll accept you as you are.” Therapists communicate through their behavior that they value their clients as they are and that clients are free to have feelings and experiences without risking the loss of their therapists'’ acceptance. Acceptance is the recognition of clients’ rights to have their own beliefs and feelings. According to Rogers’ (1977) research, the greater the degree of caring, prizing, accepting, and valuing of the client in a non-possessive way, the greater the chance that therapy will be successful.

Accurate Empathic Understanding:

One of the main tasks of the therapist is to understand clients’ experience and feelings sensitively and accurately as they are revealed in the moment-to-moment interaction during the therapy session. The therapist strives to sense clients’ subjective experience particularly in the here and now. Empathic understanding implies that the therapist will sense clients’ feeling “as if” they were his or her own without becoming lost in those feelings. Empathy is not an artificial technique that therapists routinely use; rather, empathy is a deep and subjective understanding of the client with the client.

APPLICATION.

Evolution of Person – Centered Methods:-

Contemporary  person – centered  therapy  is best  considered  as  the result  of  an  evolutionary  process that  continues  to remain  open  to  change  and refinement. Rogers’s original emphasis was on methods of reflecting feelings. His  focused  shifted  away  from  therapeutic  techniques  and toward  the therapist’s  personal  qualities,  beliefs,  and attitudes  and toward  the  relationship  with  the client. Thorne (1992)  points  out that  Rogers  was  committed  to  “the task  of  demystifying  therapeutic  relationships  so that they  could  be studied  and  experienced  as  vibrant  interactions  between  real  human  beings  rather  than  as  private,  hermetic  and essentially  mysterious  treatment  processes between  distressed  patients  and  omniscient  professionals” (pp.46-47).

One  of  Rogers’s  main  contributions  to  the counseling  field  is  the  notion  that  the  quality  of  the  therapeutic  relationship,  as  opposed  to  administering  techniques, is  the primary  agent  of  growth  in  the  client.  The therapeutic relationship is the critical variable.

 In  the  person- centered  framework  the  “techniques”  are  listening, accepting,  respecting, understanding  and  responding.  A   preoccupation with using techniques will depersonalize the relationship.  The techniques must be an honest expression of the therapist.  As  this  approach  has  developed, counselors  have  been  allowed  greater  freedom  in  participating   more  actively  in  the  relationship.

The Role of Assessment:-

Assessment  is  frequently  viewed  as  a  requirement  of  the  treatment  process.  Many  mental  health  agencies  utilize  a  variety  of  assessment  procedures,  including  diagnostic  screening,  identification  of  clients’  strengths  and  liabilities,  and various  tests.  From  a  person- centered  perspective,  the  best  source  of  knowledge  about  the  client  is  the  individual  client.  For  example,  some  clients  may  request  certain  tests  as  a  part  of  the  counseling  process.  It  is  important  for   the  counselor  to  follow  the  client’s  lead  in  the  therapeutic  dance (Ward,  1994).

Areas of Application:-

The  person- centered  approach  is  used  extensively  in  training  professionals  and  paraprofessionals  who  work  with  people  in a  variety  of  settings.  This  approach  emphasizes  staying  with  clients  as  opposed  to  getting  ahead  of  them  with  interpretations.  It is applicable in crisis intervention.  Many  people  in  the  helping  professions  (nursing,  medicine,  education, the ministry)  are  the  first  on  the  scene  in  a  variety  of  crisis.   Some life  events  that  can  lead  to  crises,  such  as  an  unwanted  pregnancy, an  illness,  or  the  loss  of  a  loved  one.  When  people  are  in  crisis,  one  of  the  first  steps  is  to  give  them  an  opportunity  to  fully  express  themselves.  Sensitive listening, hearing and understanding are essential at this point.  Although  a  person’s  crisis  is  not  likely  to  be  resolved  by  one  or two  contacts  with  a  helper,  such  contacts  can  pave  the  way  for  an  openness  to  receiving  help  later.  If  the  person  in  crisis  does  not  feel  understood  and  accepted,  the  situation  will  probably  become  aggravated,  so  that  the  person  may  lose  hope  of  “returning  to  normal”  and  may  not  seek  help  in  the  future.  Genuine  support,  caring  and  non-possessive  warmth  can  go  a  long  way  in  building  bridges  that  can  motivate  people  to  do  something  to  work  through  an  resolve  a  crisis.

Person- Centered Therapy from A Multicultural Perspective:-

                     

Person- centered  therapy  has  made  significant  contributions  to  the  field  of  human  relations  with  diverse  cultural  groups.  Rogers has a global impact.  Person- centered  philosophy  and  practice  can  now  be  studied  in  several  European  countries,  South  America  and  Japan.  Here  are  some examples  of  ways  in  which  this  approach  has  been  incorporated  in  various  cultures:

·         In  several  European countries  person- centered  concepts  have  had  a  significant  impact  on  the  practice  of  counseling  as  well  as  on education,  cross-  cultural  communication  and  reduction  of  racial  and  political  tensions. 

·         In  the  1970s  Rogers  and  his  associates  began  conducting  workshops  promoting  cross-cultural  communication.

·         Japan,  Australia,  South  America  and  Mexico  have  all  been  receptive  to  person-centered  concepts  and  have  adapted  these  practices  to  fit  their  cultures.

Limitation and Criticism:-

The  limitation  of the  approach  is  that,  the  way  some  practitioners  become  “client-  centered”  to  the  extent  that  they  diminish  the  value  of  their  own  power  as  a  person  and  thus  lose  the  impact  of  their  personality  on  their  client.

        More  than  any  other  quality,  the  therapist’s  genuineness  determines  the  power  of  the  therapeutic  relationship.  If  therapists  submerge  their  unique  identity  and  style  in  a  passive  and  nondirective  way,  the  may  not  be  harming  many  clients,  but  they  may  not  be  powerfully  affection  clients.  Therapist authenticity and congruence are so vital  to  this  approach  that  those  who  practice  within  this  framework  must  feel  natural  in  doing  so  and  must  find  a  way  to  express their  own  reactions  to  clients.

         According  to  Cain(1988)  organized  a  “roundtable”  discussion  on  the  issue  and  get  these  responses :

·         Person- centered therapy is too simple.

·         It is limited to techniques of attending and reflecting.

·         The  approach  is  ineffective and  leads  to  undirected  rambling  by  the  client.

·         Rather  than  emphasizing  the  counselor as  a  person,  it  would  be  better  to  focus  on  developing  a  variety  of  techniques  that  can  be  applied  to  solving  specific  problems.

·         More  emphasis  should  be  placed  on  systematic  training  of  counseling  skills  and  less  on  the  attitudes  of  the  counselor.

·         It  is  not  necessarily  true  that  individuals  have  within  them  a  growth  potentials,  or  actualizing  tendency.

·         Not  all  clients  have  the  capacity  to trust  their  own  inner  direction  and  fill  their  own  answers.

According  to  Combs (1988), the person- centered  approach  has  been  somewhat  resistant  of  the  idea  that  the  counselor  should  function  as  a  teacher.  Comb ,in contrast, describes  counseling as  a  process  to  help  clients  learn  better  and  more  satisfying  ways  of  being  in  the world  and encourage  clients  to  move  toward  independence.      

           According  to  Cain (1993), the  major  reason  person- centered  counseling is  not  now  thriving  is  this  lack  of  evolution. He  said  that  potential  of this  approach  is  severely  limited  and  clients  will not  receive  optimal  help  from  traditional  therapists  who  are  practicing  in  limited  and  constricted  ways.

     The  limitation  in  multicultural  counseling  in  person- cantered  approach  is  that  it  is  difficult  to  translate  the core  conditions  into  actual  practice  in  certain  cultures.  Communication  of  these  core  conditions  must  be  consistent  with  the  client’s  cultural  framework.

      This  approach  extols  the  value  of  an  internal  locus  of  evaluation.  Yet some ethnic groups value an external locus of evolution.  In  these  cultures,  clients  are  likely  to be  highly  influenced  by  societal  expectations  and  not  simply  motivated  by  their  own  personal  preference.