draft 6.docx - 1 Person-centered therapy(PCT was...

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Person-centered therapy (PCT) was established by Carl Rogers after almost forty years of
research. The approach began as a nondirective, client-centered therapy in opposition to
analytical theories. However, Rogers’s approach based on empathy, congruence, and
unconditional positive regard was eventually dismissed due to lack of evidence and technique.
With increased interest in the person-centered approach more therapists have accepted Rogers’s
core conditions as necessary if not also sufficient for change. Therefore, while Rogers’s original
hypothesis stated no technique was necessary, many person-centered practitioners have
implemented techniques and methods into the therapeutic process. Numerous articles have
stressed the importance of the core conditions of empathy, congruence, and unconditional
positive regard as being the only factors needed to facilitate change within the therapeutic
process. Yet pluralistic methods have been used with counselors claiming that not all clients will
respond to the original intended method of person-centered therapy.
Formation
The formation of person-centered therapy has been identified by four distinct periods in
history beginning in the 1940s and continuing thru the 1980s (Corey, 2013). Before Carl Rogers
began developing the person-centered approach, psychoanalysis was the most accepted
therapeutic technique (Farber, 2007). Psychoanalysis, as Rogers believed, was less concerned
with the patient’s growth, but rather with interpretation and diagnosis during the therapeutic
process (Farber, 2007; Lee, 2011). The analytical approach placed too much emphasis on the
role of the therapist as an expert asking directive questions to produce a specific outcome from
the client (Anderson, 2001). Critical of therapies that were “directive”, Rogers sought to develop
an environment that did not depend upon the therapist’s advice or interpretations (Lee, 2011).

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Breaking away from Freudian psychoanalysis, Rogers began forming the humanistic movement
which focused on the relationship of the client and counselor to facilitate change (Corey, 2013).
According to Quinn (2015) in 1942, Rogers began hypothesizing a therapeutic approach
called “nondirective therapy.” The new approach was rooted in humanistic philosophy where the
counselor would focus on the client rather than the problem (Elliott & Freire, 2007). Rogers’s
departure from traditional psychoanalysis became revolutionary as he moved away from a
medical model. The innovative nondirective approach challenged previously accepted ideas and
methods such as the theory of the counselor knowing best (Corey, 2013). Nondirective therapy
emerged upon Rogers’s hypothesis that the client understood himself and could be his own agent
for change with the trust of the counselor (Quinn, 2015).