Person-Centred Therapy Essay

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Evaluate the claim that Person-Centred Therapy offers the therapist all that he/she will need to treat clients. When offering therapy to clients, there are a number of different models of practise that a therapist can adopt. The way in which a therapist chooses to proceed may be dependent upon their own skills and beliefs, and also the needs of the client that they are working with. Person Centred therapy is an approach developed over a number of years by Carl Rogers. In this technique, the therapist creates a comfortable, non-judgmental environment by demonstrating congruence, empathy, and unconditional positive regard toward their patients while using a non-directive approach. Through using this method it is intended that patients demonstrate self-actualisation, and thus discover their own solutions to problems. Person Centred therapy is a key approach with many advocates, however, the claim that it offers all that a therapist needs to treat a client is an assertion which requires some degree of evaluation. In order to assess the effectiveness of person-centred counselling as a method of treating clients, it is first necessary to consider its background and basic prepositions. Rogers was an American psychologist, who through his work developed his own distinctive approach guided by his sense of what seemed to help his clients (McLeod 2000). The approach is informed by phenomenological thinking, and emphasizes the self-concept of the person, and the possibility for growth and self fulfilment (McLeod 2000). Central to the approach, is notion that there are six key conditions which are ‘necessary and sufficient’ before therapeutic change can take place (Sanders 2006, p.9). Rogers believed that the client and the counsellor must make psychological contact, the client must believe that they require help, the counsellor should be in a position to be genuine and

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