Understanding Person-Centered Therapy Approach

Person- Centered Therapy ( Phenomenological Approach) M.A. Fourth Semester Psycho-diagnostics and therapeutics Professor Dhananjay Kumar Department of Psychology D. D. U. Gorakhpur University, Gorakhpur

INTRODUCTION The most prominent of the Phenomenological approaches is the person-centered psychotherapy. It was developed by Carl Rogers. Rogers initially called this approach client-centered therapy but later he changed the name as he expanded his theory of personality. He argued that therapy is a process, not a set of techniques. Rogers self- theory assumes that people spoil their growth by judgements imposed on them by others. These conditions of worth motivate people to distort their real feelings and a state of denial about it. when this happens symptoms appears. He believed that people hold an innate motive toward growth, which he called the actualizing tendency: the urge to expand, extend, develop, mature the tendency to express and activate all the capacities of the organism (Rogers, 1961). Rogers saw all human behavior from satisfying basic need to artistic creativity, from normal conversation to intellectual arguments or narcissism as a manifestation of the individual s efforts to self-actualization in a uniquely experienced world. The process of the therapy in Rogers work in an if ..then proposition: If correct circumstances can be created the client will spontaneously begin to change & grow. The therapeutic process will take place on its own, driven by the clients growth potential, when therapist provides the proper atmosphere.

CONTI. to generate a growth- enhancing relationship therapists have to experience & express three interrelated attitudes namely: 1. Unconditional Positive Regard 2. Empathy, and 3. Congruence Unconditional Positive Regard: It conveys three message: The therapist - i. Cares about the client as a person ii. Accepts her or him iii. Trusts the client s ability to change 1. The ideal of unconditional positive regard is non- possessive caring, genuine positive feelings are expressed in a way that makes clients feel valued but, not obligated to try to please the therapist. The therapist s willingness to listen is the most important manifestation of unconditional positive regard.

CONTI.. The unconditional aspect of unconditional positive regard is manifested in the therapist s willingness to accept clients as they are, without judging them. Specifically, the therapists try not to: a. give advice b. take responsibility for clients, and c. make decisions for clients. The ideal of regard in Rogers concept of unconditional positive regard is that of non-possessive caring in which genuine positive feelings are expressed. The positive component of it is the therapist s implicit trust in the client s potential for growth & problem solving.

CONTI. 2. Empathy: To understand a client s behavior & to provide help the client to understand it well, the therapist must try to see the world as the client sees it through his or her unique perspective. this involves effort for accurate empathy, or empathic understanding. Empathy requires that the therapist be immersed in an effort to perceive the client s feelings, but it does not dictate that the therapist actually experience those feelings ( Rogers, 1951). It is important in the sense that, if the therapist actually felt the client s fear or anger, the therapy session could become nothing but a place for two people to be frightened or angry together. A comment like I m really sorry that you feel so depressed reflects kindness and sympathy, but not empathy. To communicate an empathic attitude to their clients, Rogerian therapists employ the active listening methods.

CONTI. Reflection is one of the most useful technique of person-centered therapy where therapist appears to be stating the obvious or merely repeating what the client has said. but, Reflection is more than repetition or paraphrasing, it involves distilling and playing back the client s feelings. 3. Congruence: Rogers also believed that the more genuine the therapist is in relating to clients, the more helpful the therapy will be. The therapist s feelings & actions, should be congruent, or consistent, witth one another. This means that I need to be aware of my own feelings my behavior, the various feelings and ...[and willing] to express, in my words and attitudes which exist in me (Rogers, 1961). According to Rogers, when the therapist is congruent, a true and genuine human relationship occurs in therapy.

STAGES IN THE PROCESS OF THERAPEUTIC CHANGE Stage- 1: Communication take place about external events and there is an unwillingness to communicate self. patients are unwilling to recognized or owned their feelings & personal meanings Constructs of patient are extremely rigid. Close relationships are perceived as dangerous. Stage- 2: Clients start to talk about their feelings as they are non- self objects. Problems are looked upon as external to the self. show a lack of personal responsibility in problems. Feelings expressed doesn't be owned. Stage- 3: There will be more description of feelings & personal meanings which are generally not present at the time. These distanced feelings are often depicted as unacceptable or bad. There will be a recognition that problems that exist are inside the individual rather than external. Stage- 4: Client begins to describe more intense feelings of the past. The client now shows the ability to overcome his defenses occasionally. Acceptance, understanding & empathy help the client to move smoothly in the direction of change. realization about contradictions & incongruence between experience and self now bigins.

Conti.. Stage- 5: feelings are expressed as they occurre & are now experienced in the immediate present. Patient begin to own & accept their feelings person take definite responsibility for the problems exists in him. The client is now able to accept inconsistencies & incongruence in their experiences. free dialogue within the self increased & improvements shown in reducing blockage of internal communication. Stage- 6: The client is now able to experience the inhibiting feelings with immediacy & without any difficulty. Feelings are now freely accepted & expressed. Incongruence between experience & awareness disappears slowly and becomes congruent. Stage- 7: The individual lives comfortably. New feelings are welcomed with richness.

NATURE OF CHANGE IN PERSON- CENTERED THERAPY According to Roger s, the change and growth takes place are: 1. Increased Awareness: Therapy aims to bring clients in the contact with their own feelings, many of them have been previously denied . Focus of awareness are on the shift from the past or the future to immediate present. 2. Increased self- acceptance: the client now becomes less self- critical & start to accept themselves. Persons are more likely to take responsibility for their feelings & behavior and less likely to blame external circumstances or others. 3. Increased Interpersonal Conflicts: As therapy proceeds, client feels comfortable in human relations. Defensive interpersonal games & similar other strategies used to keep other people at a distance are abandoned. 4. Increased Cognitive Flexibility: the client is able to perceive the countless variability which exists and abandoned limited (and limiting) views of the world. The cognitions which result are likely to promote less problematic behavior. 5. Increased Self- Reliance: The client is likely to more confident about personal resources and abilities and consciously inhibit feeling less dependent upon others. This includes greater self- reliance about decision making, problem solving, & stress management.

SHORTCOMINGS OF PERSON- CENTERED THERAPY The major shortcomings of person- centered therapy are: 1. it ignores the importance of intellectual, cognitive & rational aspects of human nature and heavily rely on the affective determinants of behavior, . 2. It also discount the usefulness of providing information which can be otherwise of value to the client. 3. It works with a single goal ,making clients self- actualizing individuals. This general goal fails to recognize the individual needs of the clients. 4. In this approach, the therapist is expected to be objective & to keep refrain from imposing his own values to the client, but it is too difficult to develop value free neutral relationship.

POSITIVE CONTRIBUTIONS OF PERSON- CENTERED THERAPY The positive contributions of this approach are: 1. The client rather than the therapist is the center or focus of the therapeutic process, that is, it is for the client to take the initiative & overcome his problems. 2. It emphasizes the importance of the therapeutic relationship in facilitating personality change. 3. It stresses the importance of the therapist s attitudes rather than his techniques in effecting the counselling relationships. 4. It emphasis the importance of the effective domain in the therapeutic process and holds that therapy should concern itself with emotions and feelings.

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