Client-Centered Therapy

Humanistic Worldview

People are basically good and will actualize in the absence of interference Society, rather than restraining negative forces, leads people astray. Society does this by providing conditional positive regard. People are experts about themselves. As a result, therapy is generally insight-oriented and nondirective

Basic Concepts

Humans are active self-regulating organisms. The therapist needs to meet the client as a person. Instead of using techniques you are being yourself (On becoming a person). The therapeutic relationship accounts for a significant percentage of the variance in positive outcome in all theoretical orientations. You create an environment of freedom and safety.

The Necessary & Sufficient Conditions of Therapy

Unconditional Positive Regard. Genuineness/ Congruence. Accurate communication of empathy.

The Necessary & Sufficient Conditions of Therapy

Seen as necessary for positive outcomes in therapy Seen as all that is necessary for positive outcomes in therapy The foundation for all (or most) therapies

May be emphasized to greater or lesser degrees Other therapies build on theses ideas or add other techniques

Unconditional Positive Regard

Unconditional acceptance of a person, regardless of their behavior

Carl Rogers: when you criticize me, I intuitively dig in to defend myself. However, when you accept me like I am, I suddenly am willing to change

Unconditional Positive Regard

What might this mean for work with a person who had done the unforgivable? How would you see unconditional positive regard in therapy? Many people believe that they have done something shameful and will not be forgiven..

Unconditional Positive Regard

Egan (1975) described it as:

Communicating a non-evaluative attitude Giving quality attention to persons concerns and feelings Cultivating the persons resources, believing in the persons potential and capability for action Self-concept, Locus of evaluation, Experiencing

Genuineness/Congruency

The ability to be real, unfake and unforced The therapists attitude:

Why is this important in therapy? How would you see genuineness in therapy?

Genuineness

Not hiding behind a role Spontaneous, yet tactful Not rule or technique bound Not impulsive or inhibited Nondefensive Shares facial expressions rather than hiding Consistency in thought, feeling and behavior Consistency in value statements and behavior Shares self: both verbally and nonverbally

Empathy

Understanding, an ability to walk in client's shoes. Acceptance Hopefulness about clients future Communication of this experience

Empathy

How is empathy different from sympathy? How is empathy different from caretaking? How is it different than simply agreeing with a client?

Rogers Six Conditions Necessary for Effective Therapy

1. Client and therapist must make a difference in the phenomenological field of the other. 2. Client is in a state of incongruence, therefore anxious 3. Therapist is in a state of congruence in relation to the client 4. Therapist provides unconditional positive regard 5. Therapist must empathize with clients phenomenology 6. Client must perceive what the therapist is doing

If these six conditions are met, the following changes will occur:

1. Feelings are expressed 2. Perceptions are made more clear and accurate 3. Incongruence is recognized between self and experiences 4. Anxiety and threat increase as a result of the incongruity, but UPR does not necessitate the use of defenses 5. Self-concept is reorganized and experiences are more congruent 6. UPR is more comfortable and more easily accepted 7. Therapy is successful when the client is living according to their own organismic valuing process and not in terms of conditions of worth or introjected values

Therapeutic Technique

Reflective listening as mirroring, amplifying Reflection vs. Interpretation Content, Affect Trust in the person Clarifying the PF Validation of experience Accepting and prizing experience vs. accepting behavior Principled nondirectiveness

Relationship Therapeutic Conditions

The client and therapist must be in psychological contact The client must be experiencing some anxiety, vulnerability, or incongruence The client must perceive the conditions offered by the therapist.

Moment of Movement

It is something hat occurs in this existential moment. It experiencing not thinking of something, in the relationship. It is an experiencing that is without barriers or holding back The past experience is never completely experienced The present experience has the quality of being acceptable and integrated with the self-concept.