Person Centred Theory: Rogerian Approach To Counseling
Contents
Introduction 2
Person Centred Therapy 2
Unconditional Positive Regard (UPR) 3
Empathy 4
Congruence 5
Conclusion 5
REFERENCES 6
Bibliography 6
“Person Centred Theory/Values, my understanding”
Introduction
Person Centred Theory is also known as Rogerian Therapy and is based on the theories of Carl Rogers. Rogers theorized that each person is motivated by an actualizing tendency, a force that drives us to reach our maximum potential physically, spiritually and emotionally (Noel, 2013).
Rogers strongly believed that in order for a client’s condition to improve, therapists should be warm, genuine and understanding. The starting point of the Rogerian approach to counselling and psychotherapy is best stated by Rogers himself: …show more content…
“It is that the individual has within himself or herself vast resources for self-understanding, for altering his or her self-concept, attitudes and self-directed behaviour – and that these resources can be tapped if only a definable climate of facilitative psychological attitude can be provided.” (Rogers, 1986)
The person-centred approach views the client as their own best authority on their own experience, and it views the client as being fully capable of fulfilling their own potential for growth.
It recognizes that achieving potential requires favourable conditions and that under adverse conditions; individuals may well not grow and develop in the ways that they otherwise could (Mulhauser, 2011).
In my own understanding, Rogers believed in the power of each of us to heal ourselves; by discovering our own capabilities and so doing, we are able to find solutions to problems that plague us.
In this essay, I shall discuss the meaning of Person Centred Therapy and the three basic principles of Carl Roger’s humanistic therapy, which
are:
Unconditional Positive Regard (UPR)
Emphatic understanding congruence The person-centred approach maintains that these three core conditions provide a climate conducive to growth and therapeutic change.
Person Centred Therapy
Rogerian therapy involves the therapist’s entry into the client’s unique phenomenological world. In mirroring this world, the therapist does not disagree or points out contradictions (Shaffer, 1978). Neither does him/her attempts to delve into unconscious. The focus is on immediate conscious experience. Rogers describes therapy as a process of freeing a person and removing obstacles so that the normal growth and development can proceed and the client can become independent and self-directed. During the course of therapy the client moves from rigidly of self-perception to fluidity (Rogers, 1977).
The theory person-centred therapy suggests any client, no matter what the problem, can improve without been taught anything specific by the therapist, once he/she accepts and respects themselves (Shaffer, 1978).
One major difference between humanistic counsellors and other therapists is that they refer to those in therapy as “clients”, not “patient”. This is because they see the therapist and client as equal partners rather than as an expert treating a patient (McLeod, 2008).
Unlike other therapies, the client is responsible for improving his or her life, not the therapist. This is a deliberate change from both psychoanalysis and behavioural therapies where the patient is diagnosed and treated by a doctor. Instead, the client consciously and rationally decides for themselves what is wrong and what should be done about it. The therapist is more of a friend or counsellor who listens and encourages on an equal level.
One reason why Rogers ejected interpretation was that he believe that, although symptoms did arise from past experience, it was more useful for the client to focus on the present and future than on the past (Rogers, 1951). Rather than just liberating clients from their past, as psychodynamic therapists aim to do, Rogerians hope to help their clients to achieve personal growth and eventually to self-actualize.
There is an almost total absence of techniques in Rogerian psychotherapy due to the unique character of each counselling relationship. However, the most important is the quality of the relationship between client and therapist. “The therapeutic relationship is the critical variable, not what the therapist says or does” (Rogers, 1951).
A person enters person centred therapy in a state of incongruence. It is the role of the therapists to reverse this situation. Certain conditions are necessary for this process. A “growth promoting climate” requires the therapist to be congruent, have unconditional positive regard for the client, as well as show emphatic understanding (Rogers, 1961).
Unconditional Positive Regard (UPR)
This is one of Rogers core conditions. Rogers believed that for people to grow and fulfil their potential, it is important that they are valued as themselves (McLeod, 2008). The therapist may not approve of some of the client’s actions but the therapist does approve of the client. In short, the therapist needs an attitude of “I’ll accept you as you are”. The person-centred counsellor is thus careful to always maintain a positive attitude to the client, even when disgusted by the client’s actions.
UPR also means that the counsellor listens in a non-judgemental warm way to the client. There no conditions put upon the relationship. UPR is one of the bits of magic in the relationship that makes listening and healing possible. Initially, when I first came across this concept; I wonder if I could hold UPR with all persons. I thought of an extreme case of an abuser, I thought about this and I discovered that it is possible to separate the person from their behaviour. I have put UPR into practice in my relationship with my younger half sibling who I try to avoid most times because of his unthankful attitude amongst other bad behaviours and I have able to talk to him regardless of his attitude and my relationship with him have since improved.
It is only when unconditional positive regards is in present that is when the client will trust the therapist enough to be open and honest about their inner world.
Empathy
Empathy is the ability to understand what the client is feeling. In other words, it is the therapist trying to understand the client’s life/feeling and entering into their world without the therapist putting himself in the client’s shoes. This refers to the therapist’s ability to understand sensitively and accurately (but not sympathetically) the client’s experience and feelings in the here-and-now.
According to Rogers 1975, accurate emphatic understanding is as follows: “If am truly open to way life is experienced by another person...if I can take his or her world into mine, then I risk seeing life in his or her way...and of being changed myself, and we all resist change. Since we all resist change, we tend to view the other person’s world only in our terms, not in his or hers. Then we analyse and evaluate it. We do not understand their world. But when the therapist does understand how it truly feels to be in another person’s world , without wanting or trying to analyse or judge it, then the therapist and the client can truly blossom and grow in the climate” (McLeod, 2008).
There is an expression that I like to illustrate emphatic understanding to; the term is “Grok”. It means “to drink” but it is taken to mean understanding. To “Grok” means to become one with, understand and empathise with someone to the extent that the person becomes part of one’s sense self (Heinlein, 1961) I think that empathy in the person centred world is a “Groking” of the other person without getting so caught up in the experience that you react and become lost in it. Also, empathy refers to understanding the client’s feelings and personal meanings as they are experienced and communicating this back to the client.
Congruence
Congruence is also called genuineness. Congruence is the most important attribute in counselling according to Rogers (McLeod, 2008). This means that, unlike the psychodynamic therapist who generally maintains a ‘blank screen’ and reveals little of their own personality in therapy, the Rogerian is keen to allow the client to experience them as they really are. The therapist does not have facade (psychoanalysis), that is, the therapist’s internal and external experiences are one in the same (McLeod, 2008). In short, the therapist is authentic. While it is necessary during therapy, the therapist is not expected to be a completely congruent person all the time; as such perfection is impossible (Rogers, 1959).
The more the therapist is himself or herself is the relationship, putting up no professional front or personal facade, the greater the likelihood that the client will change and grow in a constructive manner.
I think that Rogers was also saying that we should be ‘real’ with who we are as a therapist. If we are only putting on the counsellor mask it will be picked up upon, much like when we visit a show room and get greeted by an over-zealous sales person, we can easily sense that they are not genuine or that they are only giving us attention because they are after a sale.
Conclusion
Because a person-centred counsellor places so much emphasis on genuineness and on being led by the client, they do not place the same emphasis on boundaries of time and techniques as would a psychodynamic therapist. If they judged it appropriate, a person-centred counsellor might diverge considerably from orthodox counselling techniques (McLeod, 2008).
As Mearns and Thorne points out, we cannot understand person-centred counselling by its technique alone. The person-centred counsellor has a very positive and optimistic view of human nature (Mearns & Thorne, 1988). The philosophy that people are essentially good, and that ultimately the individual knows what is right for them, is the essential ingredient of successful person-centred therapy as “all about loving”.
REFERENCES
Bibliography
Heinlein, R. A., 1961. Stranger in a strange land. s.l.:Berkeleypublishing group.
McLeod, S., 2008. Simply Psychology. [Online]
Available at: http://www.simplypsychology.org/client-centred-therapy.html
[Accessed 15 December 2013].
Mearns, P. & Thorne, B., 1988. Person-Centred Counselling in Action. London: SAGE Publications Ltd.
Mulhauser, G., 2011. Counselling Resource. [Online]
Available at: http://www.counsellingresource.com/types/person-centred
[Accessed 26 December 2013].
Noel, S., 2013. Good Therapy. [Online]
Available at: http://www.goodtherapy.org/person_centered.html
[Accessed 15 December 2013].
Rogers, C., 1951. Client-Centered Therapy: Its Current Practice, Implications and Theory. s.l.:London Constable.
Rogers, c., 1959. A Theory of Therapy,Personality and Interpersonal Relationships as Developed inthe Client-centred Framework. Psychology: A Study of Science, Volume 3, pp. 184-256.
Rogers, C., 1961. On becoming a person. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Rogers, C., 1977. Carl Rogers on personal power. N Y: Delacorte Press.
Rogers, C., 1986. Carl Rogers on the development of the Person-Centred Approach. Person-Centred Review, 1(3), pp. 257-259.
Shaffer, J. B., 1978. Humanistic Psychology. N J: Prentice-Hall Inc.
Introduction 2
Person Centred Therapy 2
Unconditional Positive Regard (UPR) 3
Empathy 4
Congruence 5
Conclusion 5
REFERENCES 6
Bibliography 6
“Person Centred Theory/Values, my understanding”
Introduction
Person Centred Theory is also known as Rogerian Therapy and is based on the theories of Carl Rogers. Rogers theorized that each person is motivated by an actualizing tendency, a force that drives us to reach our maximum potential physically, spiritually and emotionally (Noel, 2013).
Rogers strongly believed that in order for a client’s condition to improve, therapists should be warm, genuine and understanding. The starting point of the Rogerian approach to counselling and psychotherapy is best stated by Rogers himself: …show more content…
“It is that the individual has within himself or herself vast resources for self-understanding, for altering his or her self-concept, attitudes and self-directed behaviour – and that these resources can be tapped if only a definable climate of facilitative psychological attitude can be provided.” (Rogers, 1986)
The person-centred approach views the client as their own best authority on their own experience, and it views the client as being fully capable of fulfilling their own potential for growth.
It recognizes that achieving potential requires favourable conditions and that under adverse conditions; individuals may well not grow and develop in the ways that they otherwise could (Mulhauser, 2011).
In my own understanding, Rogers believed in the power of each of us to heal ourselves; by discovering our own capabilities and so doing, we are able to find solutions to problems that plague us.
In this essay, I shall discuss the meaning of Person Centred Therapy and the three basic principles of Carl Roger’s humanistic therapy, which
are:
Unconditional Positive Regard (UPR)
Emphatic understanding congruence The person-centred approach maintains that these three core conditions provide a climate conducive to growth and therapeutic change.
Person Centred Therapy
Rogerian therapy involves the therapist’s entry into the client’s unique phenomenological world. In mirroring this world, the therapist does not disagree or points out contradictions (Shaffer, 1978). Neither does him/her attempts to delve into unconscious. The focus is on immediate conscious experience. Rogers describes therapy as a process of freeing a person and removing obstacles so that the normal growth and development can proceed and the client can become independent and self-directed. During the course of therapy the client moves from rigidly of self-perception to fluidity (Rogers, 1977).
The theory person-centred therapy suggests any client, no matter what the problem, can improve without been taught anything specific by the therapist, once he/she accepts and respects themselves (Shaffer, 1978).
One major difference between humanistic counsellors and other therapists is that they refer to those in therapy as “clients”, not “patient”. This is because they see the therapist and client as equal partners rather than as an expert treating a patient (McLeod, 2008).
Unlike other therapies, the client is responsible for improving his or her life, not the therapist. This is a deliberate change from both psychoanalysis and behavioural therapies where the patient is diagnosed and treated by a doctor. Instead, the client consciously and rationally decides for themselves what is wrong and what should be done about it. The therapist is more of a friend or counsellor who listens and encourages on an equal level.
One reason why Rogers ejected interpretation was that he believe that, although symptoms did arise from past experience, it was more useful for the client to focus on the present and future than on the past (Rogers, 1951). Rather than just liberating clients from their past, as psychodynamic therapists aim to do, Rogerians hope to help their clients to achieve personal growth and eventually to self-actualize.
There is an almost total absence of techniques in Rogerian psychotherapy due to the unique character of each counselling relationship. However, the most important is the quality of the relationship between client and therapist. “The therapeutic relationship is the critical variable, not what the therapist says or does” (Rogers, 1951).
A person enters person centred therapy in a state of incongruence. It is the role of the therapists to reverse this situation. Certain conditions are necessary for this process. A “growth promoting climate” requires the therapist to be congruent, have unconditional positive regard for the client, as well as show emphatic understanding (Rogers, 1961).
Unconditional Positive Regard (UPR)
This is one of Rogers core conditions. Rogers believed that for people to grow and fulfil their potential, it is important that they are valued as themselves (McLeod, 2008). The therapist may not approve of some of the client’s actions but the therapist does approve of the client. In short, the therapist needs an attitude of “I’ll accept you as you are”. The person-centred counsellor is thus careful to always maintain a positive attitude to the client, even when disgusted by the client’s actions.
UPR also means that the counsellor listens in a non-judgemental warm way to the client. There no conditions put upon the relationship. UPR is one of the bits of magic in the relationship that makes listening and healing possible. Initially, when I first came across this concept; I wonder if I could hold UPR with all persons. I thought of an extreme case of an abuser, I thought about this and I discovered that it is possible to separate the person from their behaviour. I have put UPR into practice in my relationship with my younger half sibling who I try to avoid most times because of his unthankful attitude amongst other bad behaviours and I have able to talk to him regardless of his attitude and my relationship with him have since improved.
It is only when unconditional positive regards is in present that is when the client will trust the therapist enough to be open and honest about their inner world.
Empathy
Empathy is the ability to understand what the client is feeling. In other words, it is the therapist trying to understand the client’s life/feeling and entering into their world without the therapist putting himself in the client’s shoes. This refers to the therapist’s ability to understand sensitively and accurately (but not sympathetically) the client’s experience and feelings in the here-and-now.
According to Rogers 1975, accurate emphatic understanding is as follows: “If am truly open to way life is experienced by another person...if I can take his or her world into mine, then I risk seeing life in his or her way...and of being changed myself, and we all resist change. Since we all resist change, we tend to view the other person’s world only in our terms, not in his or hers. Then we analyse and evaluate it. We do not understand their world. But when the therapist does understand how it truly feels to be in another person’s world , without wanting or trying to analyse or judge it, then the therapist and the client can truly blossom and grow in the climate” (McLeod, 2008).
There is an expression that I like to illustrate emphatic understanding to; the term is “Grok”. It means “to drink” but it is taken to mean understanding. To “Grok” means to become one with, understand and empathise with someone to the extent that the person becomes part of one’s sense self (Heinlein, 1961) I think that empathy in the person centred world is a “Groking” of the other person without getting so caught up in the experience that you react and become lost in it. Also, empathy refers to understanding the client’s feelings and personal meanings as they are experienced and communicating this back to the client.
Congruence
Congruence is also called genuineness. Congruence is the most important attribute in counselling according to Rogers (McLeod, 2008). This means that, unlike the psychodynamic therapist who generally maintains a ‘blank screen’ and reveals little of their own personality in therapy, the Rogerian is keen to allow the client to experience them as they really are. The therapist does not have facade (psychoanalysis), that is, the therapist’s internal and external experiences are one in the same (McLeod, 2008). In short, the therapist is authentic. While it is necessary during therapy, the therapist is not expected to be a completely congruent person all the time; as such perfection is impossible (Rogers, 1959).
The more the therapist is himself or herself is the relationship, putting up no professional front or personal facade, the greater the likelihood that the client will change and grow in a constructive manner.
I think that Rogers was also saying that we should be ‘real’ with who we are as a therapist. If we are only putting on the counsellor mask it will be picked up upon, much like when we visit a show room and get greeted by an over-zealous sales person, we can easily sense that they are not genuine or that they are only giving us attention because they are after a sale.
Conclusion
Because a person-centred counsellor places so much emphasis on genuineness and on being led by the client, they do not place the same emphasis on boundaries of time and techniques as would a psychodynamic therapist. If they judged it appropriate, a person-centred counsellor might diverge considerably from orthodox counselling techniques (McLeod, 2008).
As Mearns and Thorne points out, we cannot understand person-centred counselling by its technique alone. The person-centred counsellor has a very positive and optimistic view of human nature (Mearns & Thorne, 1988). The philosophy that people are essentially good, and that ultimately the individual knows what is right for them, is the essential ingredient of successful person-centred therapy as “all about loving”.
REFERENCES
Bibliography
Heinlein, R. A., 1961. Stranger in a strange land. s.l.:Berkeleypublishing group.
McLeod, S., 2008. Simply Psychology. [Online]
Available at: http://www.simplypsychology.org/client-centred-therapy.html
[Accessed 15 December 2013].
Mearns, P. & Thorne, B., 1988. Person-Centred Counselling in Action. London: SAGE Publications Ltd.
Mulhauser, G., 2011. Counselling Resource. [Online]
Available at: http://www.counsellingresource.com/types/person-centred
[Accessed 26 December 2013].
Noel, S., 2013. Good Therapy. [Online]
Available at: http://www.goodtherapy.org/person_centered.html
[Accessed 15 December 2013].
Rogers, C., 1951. Client-Centered Therapy: Its Current Practice, Implications and Theory. s.l.:London Constable.
Rogers, c., 1959. A Theory of Therapy,Personality and Interpersonal Relationships as Developed inthe Client-centred Framework. Psychology: A Study of Science, Volume 3, pp. 184-256.
Rogers, C., 1961. On becoming a person. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Rogers, C., 1977. Carl Rogers on personal power. N Y: Delacorte Press.
Rogers, C., 1986. Carl Rogers on the development of the Person-Centred Approach. Person-Centred Review, 1(3), pp. 257-259.
Shaffer, J. B., 1978. Humanistic Psychology. N J: Prentice-Hall Inc.