This week, we’re looking into a form of therapy that many people haven’t heard of called Person Centered Therapy, or Rogerian Therapy. We’ve been covering various therapeutic modalities over the past few weeks, with some being common modalities most people have heard of, like CBT or DBT.
What is Person Centered Therapy?
Developed by Carl Rogers, person centered therapy focuses on putting the client in the leading role during session. Clients take a more active role in their own therapy, guiding sessions and coming to their own conclusions and solutions throughout the course of therapy.
The clinician’s role is focused on giving the client a space in which they can be open and vulnerable, discussing their needs as openly as they need to. Through this method, clients are able to work on their own self-growth and empower themselves to make positive changes in their lives.
Isn’t this just talking to a friend?
It can seem similar, of course! Good friends give us space in which we can be vulnerable and open. Some friends are good at not giving advice and letting us come to our own conclusions. The reality is, though, that many friends want to input their opinions into a conversation. Either through wanting to help or through disagreeing.
While it can be good to have a vent session with a friend, therapy has a different aim. The clinician doesn’t impose their own opinions during therapy and allows the client’s world view and perspective to be the driving force behind their solutions. Clinicians use reflective skills in order to help clients understand themselves better. Sometimes when we hear our own words reflected to us, we can see them in a different light than we did previously. Maybe it can be validating to hear them or maybe it can show us another side that we hadn’t considered. Without the clinician’s interpretation, we’re able to really look at our own words and beliefs more clearly.
Person centered therapy also has core concepts that form it and how clinicians approach therapy with their clients. It’s not quite as simple as just letting people talk aimlessly. Carl Rogers believed that most people are very able to become the best versions of themselves, they just needed an opportunity to do so. The opportunity he was talking about wasn’t just the right circumstances, but having a space in which someone could experience what he called “unconditional positive regard”, along with empathy and a genuine liking of the person. These are the concepts that drive this format of therapy and we’ll discuss them in more detail in another post.
The big difference between this form of therapy being done correctly and just a vent session with a friend relies heavily on the therapist being skilled. Not only must the clinician be familiar with this form of therapy they must also have good insight into themselves and excellent self-awareness. The clinician uses these skills to help assess what the client is saying and present it back to them in a non-judgemental way, allowing for the client to make their own judgements. Often, we don’t see this type of thing with a friend!
Who is this for?
Person centered therapy can be used for many, many different problems and across multiple cultures and populations. One of the benefits of it having been around for so long is that it’s also been studied heavily. It’s been shown to be effective in a lot of situations for many people.
Person centered therapy is often used for depression, substance use, anxiety, grief, family discord, and marriage/relationship difficulties.
