The person-centred approach to Counselling was founded by Carl Rogers in the 1940s. It still remains one of the most taught approaches to Counselling in the UK and is one of the most popular therapeutic approaches to Counselling. In this post, I will be giving a brief outline of ‘what is the person-centred approach to counselling?’ (or if you prefer a video, then click the image below)
If you’re completely new to the idea of counselling itself, it might be worth starting with What is Counselling? first — this page assumes you already have a general sense of what counselling involves.
Non-directive
Person-centred Counselling is a non-directive approach to Counselling. This means that the therapist is not in control of what you talk about, what you should do or how you use the time in counselling sessions. The reason for this is because, in the person-centred approach, the therapist believes that you are the expert on yourself, not the therapist.
Although this might seem strange, and counter to many counselling theorists such as Freud (and the fact that the therapist is the professional and you are paying them!), it comes from a belief that you are the person that knows what hurts, you know yourself better than anyone else and you are the only person that lives with you 24/7!
The Actualising Tendency
It is also rooted in one of the foundational beliefs of the person-centred approach – The Actualising Tendency. The actualising tendency is the belief that human beings have an innate tendency to move towards fulfilment, development or at the very least, maintenance (you could say that even the fact of going to therapy is an example of this actualising tendency). You can read more about this here.
It’s also worth noting that this is a different thing from the term ‘self-actualisation,’ which is often misunderstood — I’ve written a separate piece on what self-actualisation actually means in person-centred terms if you want to untangle the two.
The Six Necessary & Sufficient Conditions
With the actualising tendency being held at the core of the approach and the belief that people can ultimately be trusted and are the best guides for themselves, Rogers then came up with the best way to facilitate this exploration in therapy. These were what is known as the Six Necessary and Sufficient Conditions of Therapeutic Personality Change.
Here are the conditions outlined:
1. Two persons are in psychological contact.
2. The first, whom we shall term the client, is in a state of incongruence, being vulnerable or anxious.
3. The second person, whom we shall term the therapist, is congruent or integrated in the relationship.
4. The therapist experiences unconditional positive regard for the client.
5. The therapist experiences an empathic understanding of the client’s internal frame of reference and endeavors to communicate this experience to the client.
6. The communication to the client of the therapist’s empathic understanding and unconditional positive regard is to a minimal degree achieved.
Rogers believed that not only were these conditions necessary, but also sufficient, in that nothing more is needed:
“No other conditions are necessary. If these six conditions exist, and continue over a period of time, this is sufficient. The process of constructive personality change will follow” (p.95–96).
You can read Rogers’ article on the subject here and see a video of me explaining them here
The Core Conditions
You may be thinking – I recognise those conditions, but not quite as I remember!
That’s because over time, other people have extracted what they term the core conditions (even though this was never a phrase that Rogers used himself). These conditions were:
- Congruence – The therapist is Genuine / Real
- Unconditional Positive Regard – Aka Acceptance / Non-judgemental
- Empathy – Understanding the client
Whilst these are the most common formulation of the conditions in the present day, it is important to remember that the real crux of the approach are the six conditions and all have vital importance in the delivery of Person-centred Therapy.
Carl Rogers’ 19 Propositions
Alongside the six conditions, Rogers also set out a much more detailed theory of personality and behaviour, known as his 19 Propositions. These go into real depth about how we form our sense of self, why we sometimes act in ways that feel out of step with who we think we are, and what this means for psychological wellbeing.
It’s one of the most important (and most technical) pieces of Rogers’ writing, so I’ve broken each proposition down and explored it in much more depth over on my Carl Rogers’ 19 Propositions Explained & Simplified page, if you’d like to go deeper.
In Summary…
Person-centred Counselling continues to be one of the most widely taught and used approaches in Counselling and has been adopted by many other professions.
It can often split opinion on its worthiness as a stand-alone approach in Counselling, but having been the first approach to use research in counselling and still standing the test of time in today’s research, it looks favourable!!
This is a very brief introduction to person-centred counselling. If you would like to read more articles on the approach or learn at a greater depth, please view the rest of my posts on the person-centred approach or my video explaining this (brief) introduction.
You could even check out my videos on the Key Concepts in Person-centred Counselling or work through the Person-centred Counselling 101 Playlist
And finally, don’t forget to check my recommended reading page for my top books on the Person-centred Approach.
