Person centered therapy

1. Person-centered therapy Anil Kumar Master of Social Work

2. Person-Centered Therapy

3. Born the fourth of six children Mother was a devout Christian (Protestant) and was very strict on Carl and his siblings, although he has described his family relationships as “warm and close” Carl was socially introverted as he was discouraged from playing He developed an active imagination and focused on academics. Because his family lived on a farm, Carl had many chores, therefore becoming very independent and self-disciplined As a college student, he was selected to go to Beijing for the “World Student Christian Federation Conference.” There, he was exposed to different religious philosophies and began to question his own religious beliefs. This experienced shaped his views on human behavior Rogers joined the staff at the Western Behavioral Sc0iences Institute in La Jolla, California in 1964 His theory became widely known during the 60’s and 70’s as the progression of psychotherapy into the humanistic movement The Life of Carl Rogers (1902-1987)

4. Based on concepts from humanistic psychology, many of which were articulated by Carl Rogers in the early 1940s. Humanistic Therapy based on the ideas of self-empowerment, self-actualization, freedom, choices, values, purpose, meaning. A humanistic theory—each of us has a natural potential that we can actualize and through which we can find meaning Shares with existentialism a focus on respect and trust for the client Introduction

5. People are honest, smart, and have ability to understand themselves People have the ability to solve their own problems People are capable of self-directed growth if they are involved in a specific kind of therapeutic relationship. Theory

6. Rogers did not present the person-centered theory as a fixed and complete approach to therapy. He was open and receptive to change.

7. Zimring and Raskin (1992) & Bazarth and colleagues (2002- First phase during the 1940s, Rogers developed what was known as nondirective counseling. He was published (1942) counseling and psychotherapy: Newer concepts in practice, It emphasized the counselor’s creation of a permissive and nondirective climate. He also challenged the validity of commonly accepted therapeutic procedures such as advice, suggestion, direction, persuasion, teaching, diagnosis, and interpretation. Four periods of development of the approach

8. Focused mainly on reflecting and clarifying the client’s verbal and nonverbal communications with the aim of helping clients become aware of and gain insights into their feelings.

9. Second period, during 1950, he wrote Client-centered Therapy and renamed his approach client-centered therapy. Focused more explicitly on the actualizing tendency as the basic motivational force that leads to client change. Third period, which began in the late 1950s and extended into the 1970s, addressed the necessary and sufficient conditions of therapy. Significant publication was “on becoming a person, 1961. characterized by an openness to experience, a trust in one’s experience, an internal locus of evaluation, and the willingness to be in process.

10. The fourth phase, during the 1980s and the 1990s, was marked by considerable expansion to education, industry, groups, conflict resolution, and the search for world peace.

11. View of Human nature: At their core, humans are trustworthy and positive Humans are capable of making changes and living productive, effective lives Humans innately gravitate toward self-actualization Actualizing tendency Given the right growth-fostering conditions, individuals strive to move forward and fulfill their creative nature Key concepts

12. 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

13. Therapeutic goals: Help client grow Focus on person, not problem People become more actualized open to experiences Trust themselves Self-evaluation Continue growing The therapist does not choose specific goals for the client. The therapeutic process

14. GOAL OF COUNSELING: Set clients free to engage in self exploration Positive view of human nature Focus on what is right about someone Look at positive side of people Clients work on moving forward, positively, in their world Person-Centered Therapy

15. Client deals with obstacles that are blocking growth Therapist is real and empathetic; facilitates change in client Work in ‘here and now’ Person-Centered Therapy

16. THERAPIST ROLE AND FUNCTION Create a climate conducive to self-exploration Create a relationship that lets clients explore freely denied or distorted areas of life Be real, genuine, honest…. Don’t see client in diagnostic categories Person-Centered Therapy

17. THERAPIST ROLE AND FUNCTION Enter clients world Defenses are let down because therapist is real, genuine, caring Show unconditional positive regard Accept client Empathetic understanding of client Person-Centered Therapy

18. CLIENTS EXPERIENCE Use relationship to gain self-understanding Explore feelings, thoughts, beliefs Discover hidden aspect of self Become less defensive over time Explore self Empower self to lead own life Experience life in ‘here and now’ not past or future Person-Centered Therapy

19. 3 ATTITUDES THERAPIST MUST CONVEY Genuineness: open, real, honest Unconditional positive regard and acceptance: value and accept client as they are Empathetic understanding Person-Centered Therapy

20. EMPATHY: experiencing others feelings and thoughts while remaining objective Communicate to someone your understanding of his/her thoughts and feelings Helps clients understand themselves Understand clients world as they see and feel it Person-Centered Therapy

21. 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 SIX CONDITIONS NECESSARY AND SUFFICIENT FOR PERSONALITY CHANGES TO OCCUR

22. The therapist experiences empathy for the client’s internal frame of reference and endeavors to communicate this to the client The communication to the client is, to a minimal degree, achieved SIX CONDITIONS, CONT...

23. It implies that therapists are real, that is they are genuine, integrated, and authentic during the therapy hour. Congruence or Genuineness

24. Is deep and genuine caring for t client as a person or a condition of unconditional positive regard. Unconditional positive regard and acceptance

25. Understand client’s experience and feelings sensitively and accurately as they are revealed in the moment to moment interaction during the therapy session. Accurate empathic understanding

26. 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 . Relationship Between Therapist and Client

27. Congruence - genuineness or realness Unconditional positive regard - acceptance and caring, but not approval of all behavior Accurate empathic understanding – an ability to deeply grasp the client’s subjective world Helper attitudes are more important than knowledge Relationship Between Therapist and Client

28. It is not technique-oriented A misunderstanding ---this approach is simply to restate what the client just said or the technique of reflection of feelings (It is incorrect). The therapeutic relationship is the primary agent of growth in the client Therapist’s presence : being completely engaged in the relationship with clients. The best source of knowledge about the client is the individual client Therapeutic techniques and procedures

29. Therapist takes on the role of facilitator Creates therapeutic environment Techniques are not stressed Exhibits deep trust of the group members Provides support for members Group members set the goals for the group Group setting fosters an open and accepting community where members can work on self-acceptance Individuals learn that they do not have to experience the process of change alone and grow from the support of group members application to Group Counseling

30. individual counseling, group counseling, education, human relations training….. A variety of problems: anxiety, crisis intervention, interpersonal difficulties, depression, personality disorder….. Areas of Application

31. Contributions Has reached more than 30 counties and has been translated to 12 languages Reduction of racial and political tensions… Limitations Some people need more structure, coping skills, directedness Some may focus on family or societal expectations instead of internal evaluation May be unfamiliar with people in different cultures From a multicultural perspective

32. 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 Summary and Evaluation

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

34. Reflection Q sort technique Therapeutic techniques

35. The mirroring of emotional communication In order to understand what the client is telling her, she sometimes restates and summarizes what the client has said but in other words. Summary should include perception of content and feelings. Client: And everything is just terrible right now. My boyfriend has just left me and even though it is good in a way because we always argued I also feel very sad because I still love him. Therapist: Your boyfriend has just left you and you have mixed feelings about this? Reflection

36. A way of assessing the self-concept and the ideal self It is used before, under and after therapy An individual is presented with deck of 100 cards, each of which contains a personal statement (e.g., “I’m a friendly person”; “I’m tense most of the time”) The individual decides which statements best describe his or her own self, which statements are the next best, and so on, right down to those statements that are the least descriptive The same procedure is followed with respect to the ideal self The therapist statistically works out the size of the gap between the statements selected as descriptive of the self and the ideal self by use of correlation Q sort technique

37. STRENGTHS Empathy Phenomenological approach Reflection Increase self-understanding Genuine Unconditional positive regard and acceptance Person-Centered Therapy

38. WEAKNESSES Client is not challenged Too simplistic No interventions/techniques Undirected Not all clients are able to find their own answers Person-Centered Therapy

39. WEAKNESSES Not much research on theory and practice Theory has not evolved since the 1960’s Person-Centered Therapy