‘’Evaluate the Claim That Person-Centred Therapy Offers the Therapist All That He/She Will Need to Treat Clients‘’.
Indisputably, in recent years there has been an influx in people seeking therapy for a multitude of reasons relating to personal growth, marital or family conflict and work dissatisfaction to name a few. One of the recognized theories of counselling today was developed by the humanistic psychologist Carl Rogers in the 1940s and although this new approach to psychotherapy ran contrary to the theories dominant at the time, person-centred therapy is considered one of the major therapeutic approaches nowadays, whose concepts and methods have influenced and inspired the practice of many therapists. Different types of counsellors and therapists use in an eclectic way the Rogerian approach, in order to help individuals achieve personal development and growth or come to terms with specific psychological problems. In this essay, I will initially attempt to explain the person-centred approach with its therapeutic methodologies and how they can bring positive changes in an individual’s life, as well as its fundamental concepts like self-actualisation, self-concept, conditions of worth and organismic self. Further, I will discuss the advantages and disadvantages, the strengths and weaknesses within the person-centred therapy and eventually, I will look at the critics that have been made on Carl Rogers’s approach.
Specifically, person-centred therapy is a permissive, indirect approach to counselling and psychotherapy, which focuses on the ‘here and now’ principle and encourages the individual to create a positive change for himself by exploring his thoughts, feelings and emotions. The main goal of this approach is to create the conditions that will encourage self-actualisation and an environment that will help the client to narrow the gap between his current way of thinking and functioning and the nature of his original, real self; simply, to release him from any emotional distress, mental confusion and limiting beliefs about the world and himself and arm
Specifically, person-centred therapy is a permissive, indirect approach to counselling and psychotherapy, which focuses on the ‘here and now’ principle and encourages the individual to create a positive change for himself by exploring his thoughts, feelings and emotions. The main goal of this approach is to create the conditions that will encourage self-actualisation and an environment that will help the client to narrow the gap between his current way of thinking and functioning and the nature of his original, real self; simply, to release him from any emotional distress, mental confusion and limiting beliefs about the world and himself and arm
References: • Frankland, A.F. and Sanders, P.S. (1995) Next Steps in counselling, PCCS Books Ltd • Rogers, C.R.R. (1951) Client-Centered Therapy, Constable & Robinson Ltd • www.newworldencyclopedia.org (31/05/2011) • www.minddisorders.com (31/05/2011)