Evaluate the Claim That Person-Centred Therapy offers the Therapist All That He/she Will Need to Treat Clients

This essay will evaluate the claim that Person- Centred therapy offers the therapist all that he/she will need to treat clients. In order to evaluate the above claim, I will discuss the key features behind person centred therapy which was developed by the American psychologist Carl Rogers. Exploration of Rogers main theoretical constructs including the three core conditions will be included as well as criticisms of his viewpoint. In looking at Rogers humanistic viewpoint both strengths and weaknesses are apparent. Nevertheless Rogers person centred therapy is undisputedly a valuable contribution to the study of people as it acknowledges the importance of the self and free will.

Rogers was a humanistic therapist who was born in Illinois in 1902. His theory of personality evolved out of his work as a clinical psychologist and developed as a result of his theory of client-centred which was later named person-centred therapy. Person-centred therapy is a non directive form of therapy which allows the client to remain in control of the content of the sessions by relaxing and expressing their inner feelings. Within this type of therapy the psychotherapist withholds from giving advice or making suggestions and must remain completely non judgemental. As a result it is thought that the clients self-actualisation will develop promoting healing on a much deeper level by directing them to find the answers to their own problems as oppose to relying on the expertise of others which is commonly practiced in other therapies

Rogers originally developed person-centred therapy in a children's clinic however it was not intended for a specific age group or subpopulation. Later in his career Rogers worked extensively with people with schizophrenia. His therapy has also been applied to people suffering from depression, anxiety, alcohol disorders, cognitive dysfunction, and personality disorders. This type of therapy can be highly beneficial and good alternative to medication is as it not only treats the condition but addressees the negative effects of how it manifests itself.

Rogers put forward the view that each individual has within himself a strong tendency to grow, to develop and to reach the maximum potential of which he is capable in life. This is referred to as the 'actualising tendency'. The concept of actualising tendency is crucial in person-centred therapy because it places a firm emphasis on the innate ability of people to improve and to regulate their lives, if external forces allow them to do so. Often a person's actualising tendency is inhibited or obscured because of adverse circumstances such as emotional deprivation or traumatic experiences in childhood. Actualising tendency is also important as this concerns the idea that if we, as counsellors, believe that people possess a drive towards growth and wholeness, then we must accept them as being intrinsically 'good' and therefore worthy of our deepest respect.

Rogers concept of "self" is a central construct in this theory. It develops through interactions with others and involves awareness of being and functioning. The self-concept is "the organized set of characteristics that the individual perceives as peculiar to himself/herself" (Ryckman, 1993).An understanding of the self-concept is important in person-centred therapy as it relates to the individuals perception or image of himself which is based on his life experience and the way he sees himself reflected in the attitudes expressed by his family and friends. People acquire their self-concept very early in childhood and it is continually reinforced by ongoing interactions with other people throughout life. For example when an infant begins to interact with his environment, he simultaneously starts to build a picture of himself in relation to it, and if early experiences are bad or negative, then the subsequent development of the self-concept will also be negative. Thus, an individual who has received very little love and a great deal of criticism from parents in early life will, in all probability, grow into adulthood with a poor self-concept.

According to Rogers, when significant others in the person's world (usually parents) provide positive regard that is conditional, rather than unconditional, the person interjects the desired values, making them his/her own, and acquires "conditions of worth" (Rogers, 1959). As a result the self-concept then becomes based on these standards of value rather than on organismic evaluation. As well as the self-concept, each individual also possesses, according to Rogers, an 'organismic self' which is essentially the real inner life of the person. This organismic self is present from birth and consists of the basic force, which regulates each person's physiological and psychological growth.

The desire for deeper awareness of self is very strong, according to Rogers. This is one of the reasons it is important for person-centred therapy to receive personal counselling to achieve continuous self-development and to be able to demonstrate they have worked on themselves and therefore are prepared to work with clients. Rogers also believed that exploration and clarification of a person's current life situation would invariably lead towards growth and healing.

In Rogers eyes a truly therapeutic relationship between client and counsellor depended on the existence, within the counsellor, of three important or 'core' conditions, which he referred to as congruence, empathy and unconditional positive regard . Most practitioners, using various models of counselling, would probably claim to value each individual in the way described by Rogers yet very often this is not reflected in the kind of work they do.

The 'core 'conditions are Rogers key concepts and principles in person-centred therapy and an important part of the practice model. The word 'congruence' refers to the counsellor's ability to be a real or genuine person in the counselling situation, a person who has no need to act as an expert, to feel superior or to pretend in any way. Because of this lack of pretence or superiority, a counsellor who is congruent or genuine will encourage the client to seek the truth within him, and go on to identify the very core of his problem more effectively. Rogers used the word 'transparent' to describe the truly congruent or genuine counsellor, and by this he meant that the counsellors openness should be such that the client is able to see right through to the real person beneath. This means, for example, that even when a client behaves in a difficult or inconsistent fashion, the person-centred therapist is willing to bring his perception of the client's behaviour into the open and to discuss it supportively with him. When this true sharing of perceptions takes

...