ROGER’S CLIENT CENTRED THERAPY

Views of Human Nature

- Goodness and Desire for Fulfillment:
- Human beings, according to Rogers, inherently possess goodness
and a desire to become fully functioning.
- The goal is to live as effectively as possible, and individuals can
flourish and become positive achievers when allowed to develop freely.
Humanistic Approach:
- Rogers’ theory is considered a humanistic approach to counseling,
expressing faith in human nature.
Self-Theory Basis:
- Client-centered therapy is based on self-theory, emphasizing that an
individual’s view of self within their environment influences actions and
personal satisfaction.
Nurturing Environment Impact:
- A nurturing environment fosters confidence and growth toward self-
actualization.
- Lack of love and support may lead individuals to perceive
themselves as unworthy, resulting in defensive behavior and hindering
growth.
Principle of Self-Theory:
- Self-theory holds the belief that a person’s perceptions of self and
environment are their reality.
 - Personal reality, such as viewing oneself as incompetent, can be
changed through counseling without direct intervention, respecting the
client’s judgment.
Client-Centered Therapist’s Key Beliefs:
- People are trustworthy.
- Individuals naturally move toward self-actualization and health.
- People have inner resources for positive directions.
- People respond to their uniquely perceived world.
Goals of Client-Centered Therapy
Person-Centered Therapy Overview:
- Person-centered therapy, also known as client-centered, non-directive,
or Rogerian therapy, places responsibility on the client.
- The therapist takes a nondirective role in facilitating the treatment
process.
Therapy Goals:
1. Safe Environment:
- Goal: Provide a safe, caring environment.
- Objective: Help clients connect with positive aspects of themselves
hidden or distorted.
2. Reduced Distortion, Increased Congruence:
- Objective: Less distortion and more congruence lead to increased
trust in the client’s organism for effective reactions.
3. Primary Goals:
- Increased self-esteem and greater openness to experience.
4. Related Changes Sought:
- i) Closer agreement between idealized and actual selves.
- ii) Better self-understanding.
- iii) Lower defensiveness, guilt, and insecurity.
- iv) More positive relationships with others.
- v) Increased capacity to experience and express feelings in the
moment.
5. Beliefs of Rogers:
- Trustworthiness of people.
- Vast potential for self-understanding and problem resolution.
- Capability of self-directed growth in a respectful and trusting
therapeutic relationship.
6. Communication Attitudes:
- If the helper communicates trust, openness, and empathy, clients
become less defensive and more open to self-exploration.
7. Focus of Therapy:
- Person-centered therapy focuses on the person, aiming to assist
clients in their growth to cope with present and future problems.
8. Drive to Fulfillment:
- The basic drive to fulfillment implies that people move toward health
when the way is open.
9. Overall Goals of Counseling:
- Set clients free and create conditions for meaningful self-exploratio
10. Client-Centered Therapist’s Role:
- Concerned mainly with the client’s perception of self and the world.
- Clients have a rare opportunity to be truly listened to without
evaluation or judgment.

THE COUNSELLING PROCESS

1. Conditions for Self-Discovery:
- Counselors should provide conditions for self-discovery, encouraging
clients’ natural tendency toward personal growth.
2. Core Conditions of Counseling:
- Described by Rogers as empathy, unconditional positive regard, and
congruence.
- These are considered necessary and sufficient for therapeutic
personality change.
3. Popular Form of Counseling:
- Person-centered counseling remains one of the most popular forms,
emphasizing the reciprocal nature of the helping relationship.
4. Competent Practitioners:
- Defined by self-awareness and the capacity to engage in a
meaningful helping relationship rather than technical knowledge.
5. Evolution of Core Conditions:
- The concept of core conditions remains fundamentally unchanged,
with later versions acknowledging broader requirements.
6. Expanded Core Conditions:
 - Includes unconditional positive regard, empathic understanding,
genuineness, transparency, self-disclosure, concreteness, and cultural
awareness.
7. Trust in the Relationship:
- Creating trust is fundamental; both client and counselor must trust
each other for goal setting and accessing resources.
8. Active Listening:
- The counselor actively listens, engaging the mind to compare
disclosures and help clients make sense of their experiences.
9. Empathy Distinctions:
- Primary empathy depends on attending and understanding, while
advanced empathy incorporates self-disclosure, directiveness, and
interpretations.
10. Relearning Emotional Experiences:
- Advanced emotional empathy allows clients to cautiously re-
experience feelings, leading to self-awareness and problem resolution.
11. Therapeutic Change Process:
- Represents a movement from cerebral to feeling states, marking a
change to an internal locus of control.
- Involves osmotic (slow developing change) and seismic (sudden
shift) experiences of the self.
12. Confrontation and Reframing:
- Confrontation and reframing can challenge clients to construct new
responses to long-held perceptions, fostering possibilities for change.
13. Rediscovering Denied Experiences:
 - The counseling process aims to help clients rediscover denied
experiences, putting them in touch with themselves.
14. Power Dynamics:
- Counsellors must get the power dynamic right, helping clients
realize their own power.
15. Person-Centered Counseling as a Radical Approach:
- Person-centered counseling is seen as a radical approach,
emphasizing the celebration of selfhood and the tension between
independent and relational definitions of a person.
16.Evolution of the Self:
- The concept of self has evolved to include interpersonal, systemic,
and socio-cultural aspects, understanding psychological difficulties from
various subjective meanings and contexts.
KEY CONCEPTS
Conditions of Person-Centered Therapy
Empathy
- Definition: Understanding the client at a deep level.
- Internal Frame of Reference: Client’s unique experience of personal
problems.
- Counselor’s Role: Listen carefully to verbal and nonverbal cues to stay
within the client’s internal frame.
- Outcome:Facilitates clear communication and understanding for
effective counseling.
Unconditional Positive Regard
- Needs Addressed: Love, acceptance, respect, and warmth.
- Rogers’ Belief:Convey unconditional positive regard regardless of
clients’ self-perceptions.
- Impact: Clients value themselves without conditions, fostering
confidence in their coping abilities.
Genuineness and Congruence
- Essence of Relationship:Honesty and authenticity in the therapist.
- Requirement: Therapist must embody genuineness and empathetic
understanding.
- Promotion of Actualizing Tendency: Client perceives therapist’s
authenticity, promoting the client’s self-actualization.
Transparency
- Definition: Expressing even negative feelings about the client.
- Demonstration: Therapist shows non-possessive love, strives to
understand the client’s perspective.
- Outcome:Encourages a metaphorical walk in the client’s shoes.
Concreteness
- Skill: Focusing client discussion on specific events, thoughts, and
feelings.
- Purpose:Discourages intellectualized storytelling, ensuring attention to
identifying client’s themes.
- Precaution:Guards against rambling when other conditions are applied
without identifying client’s themes.
Self Disclosure
- Controversial Issue: Degree to which therapists express and disclose
themselves.
- Different from Congruency:Therapist responds from their frame of
reference.
- Usefulness: Can be helpful when relevant, a response to client’s
experience, or as a reaction to persistent client behavior.
Cultural Awareness in Client-Centered Counseling
- Importance:Recognizing cultural differences to augment therapy.
- Components:Acquiring knowledge and skills to move beyond cultural
assumptions.
- Examples:Varied cultural norms in communication, such as eye
contact, spatial distance, and response rates.
-Tips: Use common words, follow basic grammar, avoid slang, repeat
important points, paraphrase, and check for understanding in cross-
cultural communication.
Person-Centered Therapy: Intervention Strategies
1.6 Intervention Strategies
Components:
- Therapist’s attitude as necessary and sufficient for change.
- Immediate presence and accessibility to clients.
- Intensive focus on the client’s phenomenological world.
- Emphasis on the client’s ability to live fully in the moment.
- Focus on personality change, not the structure of personality.
Rogerian View of Psychotherapy
Implied Therapeutic Conditions:
- Psychological contact between client and therapist.
- Client experiencing distress.
- Client willing to receive conditions offered by therapist.
Process of Person-Centered Therapy
Initial Contact:
- Therapy begins at the first interview.
- Therapist follows the client’s lead.
- Requirements: Empathy, unconditional positive regard, and
congruence.
Outcome:
- Successful therapy defined by client evaluation of benefits.
- Emphasis on the present, not the past.
Therapist’s Role and Functions
Role:
- Facilitator, not technique-oriented.
- Uses self as an instrument of change.
- Focuses on the quality of the therapeutic relationship.
Functions:
- Presence and accessibility to clients.
- Focuses on immediate experience.
- Demonstrates genuine caring, respect, acceptance, and
understanding.
Therapy/ Intervention Goals
Goals:
- Helping clients become fully functioning individuals.
- Clients define their goals.
- Openness to experience, trust in themselves, internal source of
evaluation, and willingness to continue growing.
Client’s Experience in Therapy
Incongruence:
- Discrepancy between self-perception and reality leads to anxiety and
motivation for change.
- Therapeutic relationship activates clients’ self-healing capacities.
Relationship between Therapist and Client
Central Variable:
- Relationship is crucial for progress in therapy.
- Therapist is a facilitator, not technique-oriented.
- Therapeutic relationship is the primary agent of growth.
- Emphasis on the therapist’s presence and being completely engaged.
Contribution of Person-Centered Therapy
Key Aspects:
- Active role of client responsibility.
- Focus on inner and subjective experience.
- Relationship-centered approach.
- Emphasis on therapist’s attitudes.
- Values multicultural context.
Summary and Evaluation
- Discounting the significance of the past.
- Misunderstanding basic concepts.
- Crisis situations may require more directive intervention.
- Clients may expect a more structured approach.
Being Genuine
Requirements:
- Therapists must be knowledgeable about themselves.
- Being genuine involves being helpful, attentive, caring, and truly
interested.
Active Listening
Technique:
- Emphasis on active listening and reflection of content and feelings.
- Demonstrates empathy, requires attentive and interactive listening
skills.
Reflection of Content and Feelings
Empathy Exploration Process:
- Recognition and reflection of actual words and obvious feelings.
- Effective therapists delve deeper to reflect hidden feelings not
recognized by clients.
Appropriate Self-Disclosure
Role in Relationship:
- Enables clients to see relevant parts of the therapist’s world.
- Allows clients to compare their views, fostering trust and valuable
insights.
Immediacy
Here-and-Now Approach:
- Focuses on the immediate examination of feelings.
- The therapist-client relationship is the most important therapeutic
factor.
- Emphasis on the therapeutic value of current experiences.