Learning and Being in Person-Centred Counselling (third edition)

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Two primary sources that influence our self-concept are childhood experiences and evaluation by others. Carl Ransom Rogers(January 8, 1902 – February 4, 1987) was an influential Americanpsychologistand among the founders of thehumanistic approachtopsychology. Rogers is widely considered to be one of the founding fathers of psychotherapy research and was honored for his pioneering research with the Award for Distinguished Scientific Contributions by theAmerican Psychological Associationin 1956. Rogers believed that by using the core conditions of empathy, congruence and unconditional positive regard, the client would feel safe enough to access their own potential.

According to Rogers, conditional positive regard in childhood can lead to conditions of worth in adulthood, where a person’s self-esteem and self-worth may depend heavily on meeting certain standards or expectations. Psychological adjustment exists when the concept of the self is such that all the sensory and visceral experiences of the organism are, or may be, assimilated on a symbolic level into a consistent relationship with the concept of the self. We feel relaxed and in control when the things we do and the experiences we have all fit in with the picture we have of ourselves. Learning and Being in Person-Centred Counselling is an important book for any student of counselling and psychotherapy. Each chapter provides the reader with clear explanations of fundamental person centred concepts. Despite being first published more than 20 years ago, this book remains relevant to contemporary person-centred counselling practice. It is highly accessible to students at any level of study and contains numerous practical exercises to help the reader gain a deeper understanding of person-centred theory. I would highly recommend it to counselling and psychotherapy students and to any readers who wish to acquire a comprehensive understanding of person-centred counselling. Carl Rogers (1902-1987) was a humanistic psychologist best known for his views on the therapeutic relationship and his theories of personality and self-actualization.Important limitations exist as NDST is not a popular focus of most researchers in the field. It is often only included as a control for nonspecific therapeutic conditions, and therapists may not have administered optimal treatments. Consequently, the researcher's allegiance to a specific therapy could skew results. [7] [8]Additionally, given the inherent vagueness of this type of therapy, there could be differences in how NDST/SC/ST was defined and implemented. Person-centered therapy doesn’t use specific techniques like other therapeutic approaches. Instead, it relies on three core principles: unconditional positive regard, empathy, and congruence. Self-worth may be seen as a continuum from very high to very low. To Carl Rogers (1959), a person with high self-worth, that is, has confidence and positive feelings about him or herself, faces challenges in life, accepts failure and unhappiness at times, and is open with people. Consequently, the self-concept is a central component of our total experience and influences both our perception of the world and our perception of ourselves. For instance, a woman who perceives herself as strong may behave with confidence and see her actions as actions performed by someone who is confident. A growing openness to experience – they move away from defensiveness and have no need for subception (a perceptual defense that involves unconsciously applying strategies to prevent a troubling stimulus from entering consciousness).

Mearns, D. (1999). Person-centred therapy with configurations of self. Counselling, 10(2), 125±130. Incongruence is “a discrepancy between the actual experience of the organism and the self-picture of the individual insofar as it represents that experience. Underlying needs and experiences that I deny or distort – or have not managed to make sense of – will tend to leak through in my behaviour. This behaviour may be less consistent with how I see myself. I am not likely to own this behaviour.

Rogers noticed that people tend to describe their current experiences by referring to themselves in some way, for example, “I don’t understand what’s happening” or “I feel different to how I used to feel.”

The therapist transparently conveys their feelings and thoughts to genuinely relate to the client. Within the client-therapist relationship, the therapist is genuinely himself. The therapist does not hide behind a professional façade or deceive the client. Therapists may share their emotional reactions with their clients but should not share their personal problems with clients or shift the focus to themselves in any way. As experiences occur in the life of an individual, they are either a) symbolized, perceived and organized into some relationship to the self, b) ignored because there is no relationship to the self-structure, c) denied symbolization or given a distorted symbolization because the experience is inconsistent with the structure of the self. There are several things we can do with our everyday experience: we can see that it is relevant to ourselves or we can ignore it because it is irrelevant; or if we experience something that doesn’t fit with our picture of ourselves we can either pretend it didn’t happen or change our picture of it, so that it does fit.

My sense of reality is unique, formed out of what I experience, and out of how I process and understand my experience. If there are any techniques, they are listening, accepting, understanding, and sharing, which seem more attitude-orientated than skills-orientated. In Corey’s (1991) view, “a preoccupation with using techniques is seen [from the Rogerian standpoint] as depersonalizing the relationship.” The Rogerian client-centered approach emphasizes the person coming to form an appropriate understanding of their world and themselves. One major difference between humanistic counselors and other therapists is that they refer to those in therapy as “clients,” not “patients.” This is because they see the therapist and client as equal partners rather than as an expert treating a patient.

Critics also argue that it may not allow for the challenging of unhelpful behaviors or attitudes, which can be useful in some therapeutic approaches. The organism reacts to the field as it is experienced and perceived. This perceptual field is “reality” for the individual. Rogers, C. (1951). Client-centered therapy: Its current practice, implications and theory. London: Constable. Behavior is basically the goal-directed attempt of the organism to satisfy its needs as experienced, in the field as perceived. Congruence is also called genuineness. Congruence is the most important attribute in counseling, according to Rogers. This means that, unlike the psychodynamic therapist who generally maintains a “blank screen” and reveals little of their own personality in therapy, the Rogerian is keen to allow the client to experience them as they really are.In some instances, behavior may be brought about by organic experiences and needs which have not been symbolized. Importantly, the authors mention that researcher bias may have played a role in the superiority of the other psychotherapies. After controlling for researcher allegiance, the differences in efficacy between non-directive therapy and other psychotherapies disappeared. This was true for all three meta-analyses. One study also notes no significant difference in effect sizes of non-directive supportive therapy versus full person-centered therapy. However, this was only based on two studies. [7]