What is person-centred therapy?
Person-centred, psychodynamic, gestalt, existential… there are a lot of different types of therapy out there and that’s before we get to the acronyms: CBT, EFT, EMDR and more. I describe myself as an integrative counsellor with a strong person-centred foundation – but what on earth does that mean? Person-centred therapy is a rich and evolving approach with decades of theory and research behind it, so it’s hard to sum up briefly. Here, I give a short introduction to some of its aspects that I hope might be useful to a potential client.
Origin and key elements
Person-centred counselling developed in response to the psychotherapy that was practised as the norm in the mid 20th century. Its founding figure, Carl Rogers, emphasised active listening, empathy and being non-judgmental. He moved away from the idea of the therapist as some kind of expert who would interpret the client’s thoughts, feelings and behaviours for them and tell them what was really going on for them. Instead the counsellor seeks to fully understand the client’s world and provide a space in which the client can learn about themselves and find their own ways forward.
Rogers believed that we all have a drive to ‘self-actualise’: to grow and develop and fulfil our potentials. But he could also see that this drive could be thwarted or distorted by what happens to us in life. We can come to doubt our worth, or to think that we only have value if we act in certain ways. Or our growth can become stunted or distorted by the circumstances we find ourselves in, the experiences we have. Rogers actually used the example of a potato he found sprouting in a cellar, its long, spindly shoots desperately seeking light and nutrients, but unable to do so there.
What the therapist does
As a person-centred counsellor, I see it as my role to provide a space of acceptance and safety in which a client can feel fully heard and understood. Just as they are. A space in which all aspects of a client are welcome and seen. It’s a space in which a person can begin to explore why they might feel and behave in certain ways. A space in which understanding and answers come from within themselves.
“When someone really hears you without passing judgment on you, without trying to take responsibility for you, without trying to mold you, it feels damn good.”
This means I won’t tell you what to do, or interpret what’s ‘really’ going on behind your feelings and actions. And that can be frustrating. It’s understandable that when we’re in distress, we want answers, we want a way out, we want something to explain what’s going on. In the person-centred approach, these answers are found within ourselves, not provided by another person.
But in the dialogue between the two of us, a client is able to explore and discover things they would be unable to reach alone. In the space of being accepted without judgment, they are able to reach greater self-awareness and self-acceptance. They are able to get in touch with their own capabilities and empowerment.
“The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change.”
Why I practise this way
I realise I’ve already written more than I’d planned – and have only just scratched the surface of this approach. I’ll have to come back to the ‘integrative’ part another time.
Fundamentally, the person-centred approach makes sense to me. It has its critics and it has debates within the approach about how it’s done and how it works. But it fits with my values about who we are as humans on this planet and how I want to relate to others. When I read the theory, it feels right and I realise it’s how I’ve often tried to act towards others before I ever started to learn about therapeutic approaches. And I’ve experienced for myself, as a client, just how powerful being heard - really heard - and understood in a non-judgmental way can be.
Find out more
To read more about it, you could take a look at:
This page at the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy
This one at the Person Centred Association
Or watch a video - I like this one from Counselling Directory’s channel at YouTube.