A TOUR TO:

CARL ROGERS'
PERSON-CENTERED
THERAPY

Reporters:
Franzys Kaylie Yu
Shema Matalines
In a piece of paper write three things of who
you think you are and three things of who
you wish to be.

My Self-Concept My Ideal Self

CARL ROGERS
PERSON-CENTERED
THEORY
PERSON-CENTERED
THEORY
The person-centered approach was
developed from the concepts of
humanistic psychology.

The humanistic approach “views people

as capable and autonomous, with the
ability to resolve their difficulties,
realize their potential, and change their
lives in positive ways” (Seligman, 2006).
PERSON-CENTERED
THEORY
Carl Rogers originated a popular
approach to psychotherapy known
initially as nondirective or client-centered
therapy and later as person-centered
therapy.
 PERSON-CENTERED
THEORY
The person-centered approach was originally
focused on the client being in charge of the
therapy which led to the client developing a
greater understanding of self, self-exploration,
and improved self-concepts.

Currently, the person-centered approach focuses

on the client being able to develop a greater
understanding of self in an environment that
allows the client to resolve his or her own
problems without direct intervention by the
therapist.
The Quiet Revolutionary
CARL ROGERS
January 8, 1902 - February 4, 1987

The fourth child in a family of six, Rogers was

born in 1902 in Oak Park, Illinois, a suburb of
Chicago.

Often called the “father of psychotherapy

research,” Rogers was the first to study the
counseling process in depth by analyzing the
transcripts of actual therapy sessions.
The Quiet Revolutionary
CARL ROGERS
January 8, 1902 - February 4, 1987

Unlike Freud, who was primarily a theorist and

secondarily a therapist, Rogers was a
consummate therapist but only a reluctant
theorist (Rogers, 1959).

He was more concerned with helping people

than with discovering why they behaved as
they did.
Nature of Human Being
Rogers firmly maintained that people
are trustworthy, resourceful, capable of
self-understanding and self-direction,
able to make constructive changes, and
able to live effective and productive
lives.
 FORMATIVE
TENDENCY
Rogers (1978, 1980) believed that
there is a tendency for all matter,
both organic and inorganic, to
evolve from simpler to more
complex forms.
 ACTUALIZING
TENDENCY
A directional process of striving
toward realization, fulfillment,
autonomy, and self-determination.

Tendency within all humans (and

other animals and plants) to move
toward completion or fulfillment
of potentials (Rogers, 1959, 1980).
 ACTUALIZING
TENDENCY
Maintenance - It includes such basic
needs as food, air, and safety; but it
also includes the tendency to resist
change and to seek the status quo.

Enhancement - need to become more,

to develop, and to achieve growth.
 Three Therapist Attributes:

03
Congruence Unconditional Accurate Empathic
01 (genuineness, or realness), 02 positive regard Understanding
CONDITIONS OF WORTH
Conditions of worth influence the way
in which a person’s self-concept is
shaped from important people in his or
her life.

Conditions of worth refer to

judgemental and critical messages from
important people that influence the way
the individual acts and reacts to certain
situations.
The Self and Self-Actualization
is a subset of the actualization tendency
and is therefore not synonymous with it.

is the tendency to actualize the self as

perceived in awareness.
 The Self-Concept The Ideal Self
includes all those aspects of defined as one’s view of self
one’s being and one’s as one wishes to be. The
experiences that are ideal self contains all those
perceived in awareness attributes, usually positive,
(though not always that people aspire to
accurately) by the individual possess.
A wide gap between the ideal
self and the self-concept
indicates incongruence and an
unhealthy personality.
Psychologically healthy
individuals perceive little
discrepancy between their self-
concept and what they ideally
would like to be.
Barriers to Psychological Health
Not everyone becomes a psychologically healthy person. Rather, most people experience
conditions of worth, incongruence, defensiveness, and disorganization.

1. Conditions of Worth
2. Incongruence
a. Vulnerability
b. Anxiety and Threat
3. Defensiveness
a. Distortion and Denial
4. Disorganization
PERSON-CENTERED
THERAPY
 PERSON-CENTERED
THERAPY
Therapy
Techniques

Application and
Therapeutic
Process

Therapist
Characteristics
and
Competencies

Advantages and
Limitation
Person - Centered Therapy
Techniques
Rogers did not believe that the goal of Person-Centered Therapy
was merely to solve problems. Rather, the goal is to assist clients in
achieving a greater degree of independence and integration so they
can better cope with problems as they identify them.

The techniques employed in person-centered therapy are different

from those employed in other therapies.

Carl Rogers minimized the importance or the use of techniques. And

he was more concerned with the relationship established between
the client and the therapist.
 Therapy Relationship: Three
Conditions
Congruence

Unconditional Positive
Regard

Empathy
Congruence
Congruence
Congruence is whether or not therapists are
genuine and authentic in what they say and do.

Agreement between the feelings and attitudes

a therapist is experiencing and his or her
professional demeanor

Example: a therapist may say “I understand where you are coming

from” to a client but have a confused look on his or her face. The
client can see this confusion and feels uncomfortable with
expressing feelings from this point forward.
Unconditional Positive
Regard
Unconditional Positive Regard

Unconditional positive regard refers to the therapist

accepting, respecting and caring about clients.

This entailed acceptance of the client by the

therapist without judgment.
Empathy
Empathy
Empathy is a skill used by person-centered therapists
to show understanding of the client’s emotions.

Empathy is different to sympathy in that sympathy is often

seen as feeling sorry for the client whereas empathy shows
understanding and allows the client to further open up.

Example:
Client: I feel as though no one cares about me.
Sympathy Response: I’m sorry that you feel that way.
Empathy Response: So you are feeling alone at the moment
as if no one cares
Non-directive
Non-directive
Non-directiveness refers to allowing clients to be focus of the therapy
session without the therapist giving advice or implementing strategies or
activities

Examples:
Reflection
Client: I didn’t know what to do, I was so confused and
angry.
Therapist: So you are feeling confused and angry.

Open Questions
Client: I had a car accident the other day and the other person got out and
started abusing me.
Therapist: And how did that make you feel?

Paraphrasing
Client: I have been feeling depressed for the past 2 months since I broke up
with my partner. I am having trouble sleeping and can’t concentrate at work.
Therapist: So the feeling of depression is impacting on your everyday life.
 APPLICATONAND
THERAPEUTIC
PROCESS/
COUNSELINGSTEPS
APPLICATION AND
THERAPEUTIC PROCESS
Person-centered approach, alone or in
combination with other types of therapy, can
help those dealing with anxiety and
depression as well as grief or other
difficult circumstances, such as abuse,
breakups, professional anxiety, or family
stressors.

Person-centered therapists work with individuals or groups, and both

adults and adolescents; the therapy can be long-term or short-term.

The approach can benefit people who seek to gain more self-
confidence, a stronger sense of identity or authenticity, greater
success in establishing interpersonal relationships, and more trust
in their own decisions.
 THERAPEUTIC PROCESS/COUNSELING STEPS

01 02 03 04 05

The individual The helping Free expression The therapist Development

comes for situation is of feelings. accepts, of insight.
help. defined. recognizes and
clarifies the
feelings
expressed by
the client.
 THERAPEUTIC PROCESS/COUNSELING STEPS

06 07 08 09 10

Classification Minute but Increasing Individual feels Termination of

of positive highly integrated the decrease the therapist
and negative significant positive need for help and client
feelings. actions are action on the and recognizes relationship.
initiated. part of the that the
client relationship
emerges. must end.
C ounselor / T herapist
Characteristics and Competencies
Listening Skills

Genuine Acceptance

Unconditional positive self-regard

Nonjudgmental attitude

Non-possessive warmth

Accurate empathy

Concreteness

Congruence and authenticity

Ability to refrain from: advice-

giving, evaluating, criticizing,
judging, questioning/probing,
moralizing/preaching, imposition
of values
Advantages
and
Limitation
 one two

Advantages
Offers a Has provided a
perspective basis for many
that is up-to- other therapies
date and such as the
emphasis on the
optimistic client-therapist
relationship

three four five

Clients have a Clients feel they Clients feel
positive can express empowered from
experience in themselves more person-centered
therapy as the
therapy when the fully when they are responsibility is
focus is on them being listened to on them to make
and their and not judged. decisions.
problems.
 one two

limitations
Therapy goals The approach may
are unclear, lead therapists to
creating just be supportive
ambiguity in of clients without
challenging them
the counseling (Corey, 2005).
process.

three four five six

Usher (1989) notes Simplistic and Fails to prepare Lacks
that person- unrealistically clients for the techniques to
centered approach real world due to help clients
could be open to optimistic the unconditional
solve problems
(Seligman, positive regard of
cross-cultural the therapist. (Seligman,
bias because of 2006). 2006).
its emphasis on
independence and
individualism.
 CARLROGERS’VERSION

SEAT
13
“It is the client who knows
what hurts,
what directions to go,

ROW
13
what problems are crucial,
what experiences have been
deeply buried.”

SECTION
13
DATE TIME VENUE
9.9.2023 13:13 USLS, BACOLOD

A D M I T O N E