A 26 year old single parent by the name Mary came to see me as a therapist. My observation was that she looked and sounded frustrated and upset with her life. Consequently, I applied the Person Centered Therapy (PCT) model in a bid to evaluate her psychological status.
The Person Centered Therapy intervention model was originated by psychologist Carl Rogers in the decades of 1940s and 1950s and involves talk-form psychotherapy. The goals of this therapy method include providing or availing clients with an opportunity to develop a sense of self where they are able to realize their attitudes, feelings and behavior. In this way they are able to identify the feelings, behavior and attitudes which are negatively affected and thus enable them make an effort towards achieving and recognizing their true potential. The approach adopted by the therapists in this particular form of psychotherapy involves the creation of an environment that is comfortable and non-judgmental which demonstrates empathy. Further, the environment created by the therapist conducting this form of therapy demonstrates genuineness and a positive regard towards the clients which is not conditional on any factors. In this way, the clients are able to identify their own solutions to the problems that beset them. The PCT model of therapy affirms the individual experience of a specific person who comes for therapy and uses this as the basis and standard for therapeutic effect. Several conditions are critical in enabling changes of personality on the part of clients or patients who attend PCT therapy. These conditions were formulated by the developer of this PCT model, Carl Rogers. They include the relationship of the client, the genuineness of the client as well as the vulnerability of the client to anxiety. Genuineness in this sense refers to the fact that the client believes that the therapist is himself and also incorporates some level of self-disclosure. Other conditions include the perception of the client as to the genuineness of the client, the positive regard for the client which is not dependent on any factor and the empathy on the part of the therapist towards the client. As is evident, the approach of PCT model which emphasizes on the grounds outlined above is essentially distinct from other extreme behavioral therapies. This is in contradistinction to the dispassionate position which is usually the intention of other therapy models other than the PCT intervention model.
Carl Rogers further asserted that the single most significant factor in ensuring a successful conduct of the therapy is the climate of relationship that is cultivated between the therapist and the client. He emphasized three crucial conditions that are necessary to give effect to this model. One of the core conditions cited by Rogers is congruence which mainly encompasses the willingness to be able to relate with clients in a transparent manner without hiding behind a professional façade as is usually the case in several instances among clinicians. The other condition enunciated by Rogers includes empathy where the therapist must communicate their desire to understand the client. More so, the therapist must demonstrate the ability to appreciate the perspective of the client. Essentially, it means that the therapist needs to place himself in the shoes of the client and gain such a perspective. The third essential condition is unconditional positive regard of the therapist towards the client. As such, I conducted the person-centered therapy by accepting and prizing my client without showing a disapproval of the feelings, actions and features of the client. Further, I demonstrated a willingness to listen to my client without interrupting them or judging them for their state of mind or actions. The listening to the client must also be done without the giving of advice to allow them ample time to express themselves so as to enable the therapist understand their clients. Without doubt, a therapist who is armed with the three essential conditions outlined above will be able to liberate or release their clients who are then able to express themselves confidently without the fear of judgment. It must be recognized and noted that the clear, unambiguous expression of the client’s true feelings about several things is significant to the therapy model, without which the therapist cannot make valid conclusions. It, therefore, means that in order to achieve such a feat, the therapist must eschew challenging direct communication from the client as they express themselves. This is critical as it enables the client to explore a deeper exploration of the pertinent issues which are most intimate to the client and also to rid them from external referencing. The apparent emphasis on a patient centered approach as opposed to other models of therapy is in recognition that most of the answers about the client’s psychiatric condition lie with the patient and not the therapist. Rogers did not merely attempt to instruct the therapists on what to do but rather exemplified the approach to be followed so as to obtain the most desired and accurate results. It can, therefore, be said that the role of the therapist, as it was in my case, was and is to create a facilitative and empathetic environment where the patient will be able to discover their true self and speak candidly about their feelings.
Person Centered Therapy model is one of the humanistic therapies that came into being in the 1950s. Rogers, while expounding on this model explained that the right approach is where the therapist creates a warm understanding of the client. It simply brought about a new approach that was more optimistic than the subsisting therapies at the time which had been carried out by behavioral psychologists. This approach differs in a fundamental way from other behavioral therapies such as the psychodynamic and behavioral approaches in that the clients would be better catered for, if the focus is on their subjective understanding as opposed to interpretation of a psychologist. It is believed in this model that in order to gain an insight into the condition of the client, it is crucial that the therapists forge a warm and genuine understanding of the client. The approach of this PCT model was best captured by Rogers himself in his works in the year 1986. He stated that it is that the individual has within himself or herself vast resources for self-understanding, altering their self-concept, attitudes and self-directed behavior and that these resources can only be tapped if only a definable climate of facilitative psychological attitudes can be provided.
In his definition, Rogers rejected the determinism notion of the psychoanalysis theory of Sigmund Freud and instead made the case that persons behave as they do because of the perception of the people about the situation they find themselves in. The goal of the PCT model is to achieve self- healing and personal growth which finally contributes to self-actualization and which is within the capacity of each individual. Rogers argued for such an approach after noticing that people usually describe their experiences of life having reference to themselves in a certain way. Another central concept to this model as already set out in this paper is that of self-concept. Self-concept basically entails the organized and consistent set of perceptions that people have about themselves. It, therefore, encompasses all the values and ideas that characterize the usual “I’ and “Me” which features prominently in every day talk by people. For instance, a man who perceives himself as weak may well behave with a lack of confidence and thereby come and see his actions as those done by a weak individual.
However, there are limitations with this PCT model in its preoccupation with the idea of self-concept. This is because self -concept does not always, and rarely does it, conform to reality. At times, and these times are many, people see or perceive themselves in a certain manner which may differ in a very significant way from the manner in which others see them. An example of this is where a person may appear interesting among people yet they perceive themselves as boring persons. Consequently, the man who deems himself as weak has the effect of weighing down on his self-esteem in the belief that being weak is an undesirable feature. Similarly, a person who thinks that they are boring yet others find him interesting may suffer from a low self-esteem in consideration that being boring is a bad attribute. As such, the client who is in such a state may not give their true feelings despite the facilitative environment afforded by the therapist thus enabling the therapists to make a valid conclusion.
It must also be noted that in the PCT model, the persons in therapy are referred to as clients rather than patients as is the norm in other types of therapies. This again points to the belief in this model that both the therapist and the client are equal partners. The therapist is usually more of a friend or a counselor who listens and encourages rather than the traditional role of the doctor who is usually overbearing. Carl Rogers, in his PCT therapy model rejected the interpretation that is used by other psychologists in therapies because the client needs to look at the present and into the future as opposed to the past. This is despite the clear knowledge that symptoms do arise from past experience of the client. The strength of this model also lies in the fact that the theory places the patient or client at the kernel of the process of change without identifying him as a victim of circumstance. In addition, there is no other therapy that avails a stable environment for empathy and understanding. The limitation of this model may lie in its overly optimistic view of human potential and their ability to change. Further, the model demands too much from the therapist in the sense that it behooves them to adopt a genuine humanistic approach even where there is none or may not be endowed with.
References
Cooper, M., O'Hara, M., Schmid, P., & Wyatt, G. (2007). The Handbook of person-centered psychotherapy and counseling. London: Palgrave MacMillan.
Poyrazli, S. (2008). Validity of Rogerian Therapy in Turkish Culture: A Cross-Cultural Perspective. Journal of Humanistic Counseling, Education & Development , 107-115.
Rogers, C. (2009). A Theory of Therapy, Personality and Interpersonal Relationships as Developed in the Client-centered Framework. In K. S, Psychology: A Study of a Science. Vol. 3: Formulations of the Person and the Social Context (pp. 95-104). New York: McGraw Hill.
Rogers, C. R. (2006). Carl Rogers on the Development of the Person-Centered Approach. Person-Centered Review , 257-259.
Rogers, C. (2007). The necessary and sufficient conditions of therapeutic personality change. Journal of Consulting Psychology , 95-103.
