What is Person-Centred Therapy (PCT)?

In a nutshelll, Person-centred therapy is a counseling approach that focuses on the individual's unique needs and experiences. It emphasizes empathy, understanding, and unconditional positive regard. It's a great way to support clients in their personal growth and self-discovery. 

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Person Centred Therapy (PCT) is a Humanistic Approach to therapy. It was developed by Carl Rogers (1902-1987) who believed that every person had the ability to develop and grow, given the right conditions. He called these Conditions Of Growth and found that when people were treated with Unconditional Positive Regard, they were able to find the answers within themselves on how to reach their true potential. Rogers had a religious and strict upbringing, being taught what was morally acceptable by his parent according to their religious beliefs. He later became disillusioned by his religious background and realised the importance of the scientific method when conducting studies (the effects of nurturing plants and animals) on the farm he grew up on. He was a student of Psychology at Teachers College, Columbia when he started to develop his ideas that would later have the foundations of PCT. Much of his initial work in the 1930’s was with children, where he gained insight into the development and conditions needed. He found that a Counsellors role would help with client’s progression if they were seen as a co-worker, rather than an expert who had all the answers and would tell the client what to do. Rogers developed his theory in the 1940’s and 1950’s, publishing the book “Client-Centred Therapy” in 1951. He continued and developed his work throughout his lifetime, opening the ‘Center For The Study Of Person’s’ in the 1960’s and regularly publishing books until his death in 1987.

The views of Rogers and the philosophy that gives the basis of PCT is that “People are essentially good”. This phrase, coined by Rogers in 1961, meant that each of us has the drive and will within us to have a positive outlook on life, be able to move forward in our lives towards our goals, to be creative and constructive, to have a realistic view on life and our abilities, and that we are worthy of the trust of other people and ourselves. Rogers believed that these characteristics are with us from birth and that it is possible, with the right conditions, for each person to attain self-actualisation by trusting our own intuition and working towards our goals. These goals can be anything that we want for ourselves. Whether to be successful in our jobs or to lead a happier lifestyle, each of us knows what we can achieve and make us feel more fulfilled. A goal doesn’t necessarily have to be achieved, it is the working and striving towards it that gives us purpose.

Rogers’ religious upbringing may have contributed towards his theory that people are inherently good. Although he seems to have rejected Christianity as he got older, the idea that people have an essence with in them (which could be interpreted as a soul) that has inherent knowledge and goodness shares similarities with religious teachings. The inquisitive nature of Rogers and his passion for proving theories through rigorous research can be seen in his early life with the studies he carried out on his farm. Rogers’ work with children can be looked at as him appreciating that the early stages of our lives are the most important when it comes to our development and how this affects us in later life.

The early development of PCT is seen as three periods. The Non-directive Period (1940 – 1950), which gave clients an environment that they could speak freely in without judgement or direction. The Reflective Period (1950 – 1957), where the relationship between client and counsellor was seen as two co-workers rather than the counsellor being an expert. Rogers emphasised the use of less academic language to make the client feel that they were not being treated as someone that was less knowledgeable. This gave the client the opportunity to talk more about their own thoughts and feelings, and less of the counsellor being in an instructive role. The Experiential Period saw Rogers releasing a statement where he gave the necessary conditions that he had found needed to be present so that a client could progress. These conditions had to be provided by the counsellor and included empathy, unconditional positive regard, and congruence.  These three periods show that PCT is a ongoing theory and, in resonating with the theory itself, it changes and grows. This progression means that it is open to new ideas that can help it become more helpful to people.

The work of other psychologists, such as Abraham Maslow, Rollo May, Otto Rank and Jessie Taft contributed towards PCT. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (1970) states that people need certain conditions for them to grow and reach self-actualisation. These include the need for warmth, shelter, food, water, and oxygen on the first level, the next level includes a person’s need for safety and security in their environment and society. The third level shows that a person need to be accepted as a valued member of society by other people and to feel that they are loved. The fourth level is a person’s self-confidence, self-esteem, self-respect, and the need to be respected by others. The fifth level states a person needs to be able to learn and explore their environment. The last level is the need to be creative. These needs form a basis of PCT, it is the counsellor that needs to provide the conditions (or help the client to provide the conditions) so that they can grow.  

Jessie Taft (1882 – 1960) believed that a person is the only one that knows what is best for them and that certain conditions need to be in place for them to realise this and work on the self-growth. Rollo May’s (1909 – 1994) work looked at how a therapist will only be able to help a client when they feel true empathy for them, so that they can appreciate their point of view and experiences without bringing the therapist’s own beliefs and experiences into the therapy. Otto Rank (1884 – 1939) understood that the relationship between a therapist and client needs to be that of them being co-workers rather than the therapist being seen as an expert. The combination of these ideas, brought together by Rogers, help to provide a theory of practice that takes the best of other ideas and bring them together in one place.

As the world has changed since Rogers initially developed PCT, so has the approach to PCT. In 2013, Dave Mearns and Brain Thorne published “Person-Centred Counselling In Action”. Although this had foundations in the work carried out by Rogers and his findings, it looked to reach a wider and more modern audience so that PCT was more relevant today. Other publications that have taken a more concise and up to date look at PCT and it’s applications and relevancy in more recent times are Roger Casemore’s “Person Centred Counselling In A Nutshell” (2011) and “The Handbook Of Person Centred Psychotherapy and Counselling” (2013) by Mick Cooper, Maureen O’Hara, Peter F Schmid and Arthur C Bohart. Since Rogers, society has changed so concepts such as ethics, morals, values, discrimination, prejudices and stereotyping need to be re-evaluated and dealt with by counsellors on an ongoing basis.

Motivational Interviewing (MI), developed by Dr Stephen Rollnick and William R Miller (Motivational Interviewing: Helping People Change 1995), carries on the work done by Rogers and looks at congruence, UPR and empathy. However, it takes a much more structured and directive approach to the theory and uses a strategy to help a client to examine which parts of themselves and their life they need to work on, understand why they are the way they are (their thought processes and actions) and to help them to stop resisting or take an active role in their personal development. MI works on many of the same assumptions detailed by Rogers but looks at helping the client to focus a lot more on certain aspects, under the guidance of a therapist. The use of focussing is discussed in Focusing-oriented psychotherapy: A manual of the experiential method 1996, by E.T Gendlin. It involves somebody experiencing the felt sense and follows six steps. These are clearing a space, felt sense, handle, resonating, asking and receiving. This focussing helps a client to be aware of what happening to them in the present, the reasons for it, the emotions and bodily feelings they are going through and be more aware of how they are going to react.

The growth and expansion of PCT since the work done by Rogers means that therapists and counsellors can keep their practice up to date and relevant. This means that they are able to provide the best possible service to their clients and this, in turn, means that clients will continue to be helped, which validates the profession. If clients were not to receive relevant and helpful treatment, then counselling and psychotherapy on the whole will suffer. People will not seek the help that they need, and the mental health of the population will deteriorate.