PERSON-CENTERED

THERAPY APPROACH
ERIN CARDIN
GRAND CANYON UNIVERSITY: CNL_500
04/22/2020
FOUNDING THEORIST: CARL ROGERS

• Carl Rogers (1902 – 1987) created Person-Centered Therapy.

• Rogers began development of Person-Centered therapy

while working as a staff psychologist in New York.

• The approach is known by three different names:

1. Nondirective Therapy

2. Client-centered Therapy

3. Person-centered Therapy
 CENTRAL CONSTRUCTS

Experience: Actualizing Tendency : Organismic valuing Self:

• What is going on around the • Growth within the individual to process: • Experiences labeled and
individual – sensory develop all capacities • The process of evaluating recognized as as Self-concepts
• What is going on in the experiences and events • Ideal self – who the individual
individual - emotions would like to be

Self-actualizing tendency: Need for positive regard Conditions of worth

• The ability for the self to and self-regard • Initially an external reaction of
maximize and grow • Individuals value love from others and their love
others and from self • Eventually becomes internalized
as a part of the self
 Therapeutic Atmosphere:
Counselors promote client’s autonomy and
freedom

Client/Counselor Roles:

MAJOR Clients and counselors are considered equals

CONCEPTS
Goals:
Enable clients to reach full potential

Conditions of therapy:
Congruence, unconditional positive regard, and
empathy
 NO
STANDARD THERE ARE NO SPECIFIC
TECHNIQUES OR
INTERVENTIONS ASSOCIATED

INTERVENTIO
WITH PERSON-CENTERED
THERAPY

NS
 Stage 1 Change is not being considered by client

Client discusses external topics that are not related to self and takes no
Stage 2 responsibility

STAGES OF Stage 3 Client begins to discuss feelings and self related experiences

THE
Client becomes conscious incongruence between the self and the

THERAPEUTI Stage 4 experience

C PROCESS Stage 5 Clients express feelings freely as they experience them

Client accepts stuck feelings and begin transforming incongruence to

Stage 6 congruence

Client experience congruence within and outside counseling

Stage 7 environment
PERSONAL IDENTIFICATION

•Humans have a tendency to be good

•Congruence

•Empathy

•Unconditional Positive Regard

STUDENT GROWTH

HONESTY ACCEPTANCE ETHICS

 DIVERSE CLIENT POPULATIONS

Strengths Limitations
• Trust individuals to know what they need • Lack of attention to familial factors within
cultures
• Client driven
• Lack of attention to oppression
COUNSELOR DISPOSITIONS

Acceptance Empathy Genuineness

REFERENCES:
• ACA Code of Ethics. (2014). ACA Code of Ethics. Retrieved from
https://www.counseling.org/Resources/aca-code-of-ethics.pdf
• Bozarth, J. (2012). “Nondirectivity” in the theory of Carl R. Rogers:
An unprecedented premise. Person-Centered & Experiential
Psychotherapies, 11(4), 262–276. https://doi-
org.lopes.idm.oclc.org/10.1080/14779757.2012.740317
• Cherry, K. (2019). How Client-Centered Therapy Works. Verywell
mind: Dotdash. Retrieved from
https://www.verywellmind.com/client-centered-therapy-2795999
• Cooper, M., & McLeod, J. (2011). Person-centered therapy: A
pluralistic perspective. Person-Centered & Experiential
Psychotherapies, 10(3), 210–223.
https://doi-org.lopes.idm.oclc.org/10.1080/14779757.2011.59951
7
REFERENCES:
• Corey, G., Corey, M. S., Corey, C., & Callanan, P. (2014). Issues and ethics in
the helping Professions (9th ed.). Independence, KY: Brooks/Cole Cengage
Learning. ISBN-13: 9781285464671.
• Kocet, M. M., & Herlihy, B. J. (n.d.). Addressing Value-Based Conflicts
Within the Counseling Relationship: A Decision-Making Model. JOURNAL
OF COUNSELING AND DEVELOPMENT, 92(2), 180–186.
https://doi-org.lopes.idm.oclc.org/10.1002/j.1556-6676.2014.00146.x
• Murdock, N. L. (2017). Theories of counseling and psychotherapy: A case
approach (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education. ISBN-13:
9780134240220.
• Stellar, J. E., Anderson, C. L., & Gatchpazian, A. (2019). Profiles in
empathy: Different empathic responses to emotional and physical
suffering. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. https://doi-
org.lopes.idm.oclc.org/10.1037/xge0000718.supp (Supplemental)
• Walz, G. R., & Bleuer, J. C. (2010). Counselor dispositions: An added
dimension for admission decisions. Vistas Online publication, 1, 11-11.