Evaluate the claim that Person-centred Therapy offers the therapist all that he/she will need to treat clients.
In this essay I am going to look at whether person-centred therapy offers the therapist all they will need to treat a client. I am firstly going to focus on a brief history of person-centred therapy, then look at the characteristics and key elements of person-centred therapy. Once I have done this I shall look at criticisms of person-centred therapy from other writers and then go on to form a personal evaluation to whether it is effective or not.
In the field of counselling and psychotherapy there are many different theories which are used to help in the treatment of the client, one of these being person-centred therapy (PCT). There are many thoughts on PCT on whether it is affective or not and a lot of people find it a flawed therapy. Many others though believe it is an effective treatment and is a popular treatment for today.
A brief history of PCT
Dr Carl Roger’s (1902 - 1987) was an influential American psychologist, who was born in Illinois, Chicago. He was the founder of person-centred therapy (PCT), also known as Rogerian psychotherapy amongst other things. Rogers’ interest in the subject came about as a result of working as a psychotherapist for most of his life’. (Chrysalis handout - 2012)
He developed this type of therapy in the 1940s and 1950s and was strongly influenced by an Austrian psychoanalyst called Otto Rank (1884-1939). Rogers invited Rank over to do some lectures and from then on was influenced by his post-Freudian models of experimental and relational therapy. This strongly influenced Rogers’ way of thinking and helped to evolve PCT.
Firstly Rogers developed a non-directive therapy which put focus on the client’s thoughts and feelings and meant the therapist was not to direct the client in any way. He then changed the name to person-centred therapy and he realised that the therapist would