Person Centred Therapy
Therapy can involve seeing a professional, responding to questions that will help them figure out what's wrong, and taking another person's advice on how to deal with their difficulties. However, a more humanistic approach to therapy is also possible, in which your therapist just supports you as you embark on a journey of self-discovery and helps you find the solutions you've been looking for. You are, after all, the authority on your own life.
Person-centred counselling is one of the humanistic modalities or approaches. It was founded in the 1940s by the American psychologist Carl Rogers who believed that, given the right conditions, a person can reach their full potential and become their true self, which he termed ‘self-actualisation’. This actualisation process is innate and accessible to everyone.
To help you achieve self-actualisation, the person-centred therapist will offer:
Unconditional positive regard (UPR) – accepting and valuing you
Congruence - being honest and transparent in how they experience you and your world
Empathic understanding – seeing your viewpoint as if they were you
When you’re attending counselling sessions with a person-centred counsellor, you’ll be encouraged to bring your own issues to the session – the counselling is led by you and not directed by the counsellor.
Many people, with no prior knowledge of counselling, believe that the counsellor will sort their problems out for them. A person-centred counsellor will help you to explore your own issues, feelings, beliefs, behaviour, and worldview, so you can become more self-aware and achieve greater independence.
Discover your own abilities
Your therapist will help you to realise what resources and support are available to you that you can use to work through your own issues, build your self-confidence and appreciate that you always have options. They will treat you as the expert on yourself, as no-one else knows exactly what it’s like to be you.
Your therapist will not judge you, no matter what you bring to the session. This helps build a trustworthy relationship in which you can feel free and supported to disclose whatever is troubling you. Eventually it will lead you to discover your own abilities and autonomy, so that you can cope with current and future problems.
The goal of person-centered therapy, is to give the you as much assistance as necessary to enable them to come up with their own answers. This kind of person-centered strategy is a great place to start if you're seeking for an efficient humanistic therapy technique to support your mental health.
