Person Centered Therapy

Person Centered Therapy

Theoretical Foundations

■ Focus is on the person and not the presenting problem

Humanism

o Philosophical movement that emphasizes worth of the individual and the centrality of human values
o Attends to matters of ethics and personal worth
o Gives credit to the human spirit
o Emphasis on creative, spontaneous, and active nature of humans
o Optimistic
o Human capacity to overcome hardship and despair

Non-Deterministic

o Beliefs that it is oversimplification to view people as controlled by fixed physical laws.
o Encouragement of therapy that considers individual initiative, creativity, and self fulfillment

Self Actualization

 o Innate process by which a person tends to grow spiritually and realize potential

The Experiencing Person

o Important issues must be defined by the client
o Special concerns are discrepancies between what a person thinks of himself and the total range of things he experiences

Techniques

■ Listening
■ Accepting
■ Respecting
■ Understanding
■ Empathic Responding