PERSON-CENTERED THERAPY

CARL ROGERS

REPORTER: PATRICIA MICAH S. MANIEGO “PAMY”

What comes to your
mind when you
hear the words
“Person-Centered
Therapy?
Client-Centered Therapy Person-Centered Therapy Rogerian Therapy
Who is Carl Rogers?
 CARL ROGERS
He was intelligent An altar boy and
Thus, he became a
well and could read follows an
Born: January 8, 1902 rather isolated,
on kindergarten so education in a strict
Died: February 4, 1987 independent and
he started school at and religious
disciplined person
Grade 2. environment

He provided
Studied Agriculture, Married Helen Elliot Among the founders
therapy, gave
Religion, Theology, (against his parents’ of the humanistic
speeches,
and Clinical wishes), childhood approach to
and wrote, until his
Psychology. sweetheart psychology.
death in 1987.
 CARL ROGERS
A humanist thinker that believed that all people are fundamentally good.

Believed that people are capable of self-healing and personal growth, which
leads to self-actualization.

He was more concerned with helping people than with discovering

why they behaved as they did.
Rogers to Freud

 Particularly rich and mature theory – well thought-out and logically tight, with broad
application.
 Sees people as basically good or healthy – or at very least, not bad or ill.
 Also not in common with Freud, his theory is a relatively simple one.
 His entire theory is built on a single “for of life” he calls the actualizing tendency.
 Believes that all creatures strive to make the very best of their existence.
 Rogers to Maslow
Like Maslow, Rogers also have the concept of needs but not in a hierarchical arrangement.
1. Maintenance
2. Enhancement
3. Positive Regard
4. Self-Regard (Positive Self-Regard)
 ROGER’S MASLOW’S
NEEDS
Fully functioning Person
HIERARCHY
AchievingOF
one’s full potential
NEEDS
Positive Self-Regard Feeling of Accomplishment

Enhancement & Positive Regard Intimate Relationships, Friends

Security/Safety
Maintenance
Food, Water, Rest
What is Person-Centered Therapy?

 This therapy uses a non-authoritative approach that allows clients to

take more of a lead in discussions so that, in the process, they will
discover their own solutions.
 The therapist acts as a compassionate facilitator, listening without
judgment and acknowledging the client’s experience without
moving the conversation in another direction.
 The therapist is there to encourage and support the client and to
guide the therapeutic process without interrupting or interfering
with the client’s process of self-discovery
PRIMARY OBJECTIVE

Resolve the incongruence of the clients to help

them able to accept and be themselves.
PRIMARY PURPOSE

1. Foster a closer agreement between the client’s idealized

and actual selves; better understanding
2. Lower levels of defensiveness, guilt, and insecurity
3. Foster more positive and comfortable relationship with
others and increase capacity to experience and express
feelings as they occur
Basic Assumptions

The formative tendency Humans and other

states that all matter, animals possess an
FORMATIVE
both organic and
inorganic,
ACTUALIZING
actualization tendency:
that is, the
TENDENCY
tends to evolve from TENDENCY
predisposition to move
simple to more complex toward completion or
forms. fulfillment.
 SELF-ACTUALIZATION
develops after people evolve a self-system and refers to the tendency to move toward becoming a
fully functional person

FULLY FUNCTIONING PERSON

Individuals who are utilizing their potentials to the maximum degree.

They are They live richer

They are open to They trust their
characterized by They are creative. lives than do
experience. organisms.
existential living. other people.
 CONCEPT ON “SELF”

It includes all those aspects

of one’s being and one’s
experiences that are
Ideal Self One’s view of self as one
perceived in awareness Self-Image
wishes to be.
(though not always
accurately) by the
individual.

• Self-Image is identical to Ideal Self.

• The person can self-actualize.
CONCEPT ON “SELF”

Self-Image Ideal Self

• Self-Image is different to Ideal Self.

• Self-actualization may be difficult.
 State of harmony that
exists when there is no
discrepancy

THERAPEUTIC
Congruence
between the person’s
experiencing and his
or her self-concept.
A total caring or
prizing of the person

PROCESS
The ability to feel for
Empathy Unconditional Positive
what the client feels. what he or she is,
Regard
without any
reservations or
conditions of worth.

MAIN
COMPONENTS
 6 CONDITIONS REQUIRED FOR THERAPEUTIC CHANGE

Therapist Unconditional Therapist Empathetic

Therapist Congruence
Positive Regard Understanding

Therapist Client
Client Congruence Client Perception
Psychological Contact
 7 STAGES OF THERAPEUTIC PROCESS
Client’s unwillingness to communicate anything about oneself

Client becomes slightly rigid

Client talks about self more freely, although still as an object

Client begins to talk of deep feelings but not ones presently felt

Client have begun to undergo significant change and growth

They experience dramatic growth and an irreversible movement toward becoming fully functioning

They become fully functioning “persons of tomorrow”

 Listen

Understand Respond

THERAPY
TECHNIQUES

Accept Respect