What is Person Centred therapy?

Person centred theory was developed by Carl Rogers in the 1940’s. Carl Rogers defined person centred counselling. Carl Rogers was an American psychologist. As a child he was an altar boy, but later left his Christian beliefs in search of a psychology passions, he became the president of the American Psychology Association in 1945. And is most known for his work in person-centred counselling.  

Person-centred theory is a non-directive theory in which the client is the expert in room, and therefore the counsellor is not leading the client. The relationship is of paramount importance, in other types of counselling it is not as fundamental. Client centred counselling is about how you are with people and not what you bring, i.e., it’s not about the qualifications you have as a counsellor. It’s about modelling the core conditions. It is different from other therapeutic models that were popular at the time because Rogers’ approach was something called, non-directive. Non-directive means that the counsellor does not try to steer the therapy session in any way and lets the client lead on what they would like to talk about. This empathic approach empowers and motivates the client in the therapy session.

Alongside his students Victor Raimy, Donald Snygg and Arthur Combs Rogers developed a self-theory of psychology that is still used today. This theory details the ways in which a person’s concept of self is revealed or discovered, and how socialisation and society cause individuals to distrust their feelings and that very sense of self. 

Later, in 1957 Rogers wrote an essay depicting that when a counsellor communicates through congruence, unconditional positive regard and empathic understanding the client than has the “necessary and sufficient conditions for therapeutic personality change”.  He stated in order for a person to grow the core conditions must be offered.  The first core condition is unconditional positive regard. Full acceptance of a person, no matter who they are, where they are from, what they have done. Holding them in unconditional positive regard is to offer them a clean sheet void of any judgement. Secondly there is congruence.  One way to think about congruence is to consider the closer who you are and who you want to be is the more congruent you are. To get to full congruence who you are and who you want to be should be the same. It is a lack of congruence which leads one to therapy in the first place. And finally, empathy is trying to understand the client where they are. It is attempting to walk in another person’s shoes to try and understand it from their perspective and not how you would feel in the situation but genuinely what it is like for them. 

Rogers left academia in the 1960’s. Since, for many practitioners and scholars, the person-centred approach, as described by Rogers, remains the person-centred approach. However, for others, the term person centred has been expanded. Many practitioners believe that it is possible to introduce certain techniques to further client self-exploration while still being largely described by the term person-centred.  For example, Natalie Rogers, Carl Roger’s daughter developed “person centred expressive therapy” in 1993. This approach engages clients in art therapy and employs empathetic listening to help them explore the meaning of their creative expression and the implication this has on their lives. 

More recently, in the early 2000’s, the person-centred approach fell out of favour with counsellors, and views as insufficient for the “real” work of therapy. However, now, it has become more popular, with the release of many books, online courses and social media campaigns. The person-centred approach has been reawakened.