6 Conditions of Person-Centered Therapy
Perhaps you’ve found yourself online looking for a therapist in your area and have come across a number of clinicians that identify as “person-centered”. What does it mean for a therapist to be person-centered? Is it right for your needs? What does the therapeutic relationship look like? Hopefully, this brief overview can answer a few of those lingering questions.
According to Carl Rogers, the founder of person-centered therapy, there are six core conditions deemed to be both necessary and sufficient for therapeutic personality change (Rogers, 2007). Before going any further, it’s important not to get too hung up on the phrase “personality change”. Afterall, most people are probably not seeking therapy hoping to grow in that kind of way. Instead, it refers to a general evolution that results in improved daily functioning with respect to an individual’s intra- and interpersonal relationships as well as behaviors (Rogers, 2007).
Psychological Contact
“Two persons are in psychological contact” (Rogers, 2007, p. 241).
Rogers hypothesized that positive personality change is only possible within relationships (Rogers, 2007). Person-centered theory, as well as many others, requires the client and therapist to participate in a bi-directional relationship where both are present, fully engaged, and capable of influencing one another (Sharf, 2016).
Incongruence
“The first, whom we shall term the client, is in a state of incongruence, being vulnerable or anxious” (Rogers, 2007, p. 241).
Another way to think about this concept, is that the client must be in a state of psychological distress, which can manifest in a variety of unique and nuanced ways. If you continue to research person-centered theory, you’ll come to find that it is highly collaborative. That being said, incongruence is the only core condition that the client must bear completely by themselves (Ellis, 2013). In other words, the therapist has no influence on the level of distress the client enters therapy with.
Congruence & Genuineness
“The second person, whom we shall term the therapist, is congruent or integrated in the relationship” (Rogers, 2007, p. 241).
Congruence may be the trickiest condition of them all given that it is inherently subjective at its core (Frankel et al., 2016). Congruence has a lot do with the way in which the therapist relates their experiencing of the client back to them (Von Glahn, 2018). Moreover, it’s the medium through which therapists deliver Roger’s conditions of empathy and unconditional positive regard (Von Glahn, 2018). In order for person-centered therapists to conduct themselves in a genuine and authentic manner, they must possess a well-developed self-awareness in terms of their body language, communication style, spontaneity, and degree of openness in relationships with others, namely clients (Sharf, 2016).
Unconditional Positive Regard
“The therapist experiences unconditional positive regard for the client” (Rogers, 2007, p. 241).
A central claim of this theoretical orientation is that individuals have a need for what is referred to as positive regard within the person-centered community. That is to say that people experience satisfaction in meeting the needs of others (Sharf, 2016). Unfortunately, many relationships in our lives are built upon conditions of worth placed on one another.
Such relationships can lead an individual to a state of incongruence as their need for positive regard has not been properly met. Take for example the infamous conditional caregiver relationship. Research suggests that internalized caregiver conditionality can lead to poor self-esteem (Elliott, 2013).
Person-centered therapy aims to cultivate an unconditional relationship where clients are fully accepted, appreciated, and cared for without judgement on behalf of the therapist (Sharf, 2016). Rogers believed that this type of acceptance was imperative to client healing (Rogers, 2007).
Empathy
“The therapist experiences an empathic understanding of the client’s internal frame of reference and endeavors to communicate this experience to the client” (Rogers, 2007, p. 241).
In addition to unconditional acceptance, person-centered theory prioritizes empathy, which is very different from sympathy. Empathy, with respect to this therapeutic approach, can be thought of as the therapist’s ability to enter the personal perceptual world of the client without being influenced by their own views or values (Sharf, 2016).
Rogers (2007) writes, “To sense the client’s private world as if it were your own, but without ever losing the “as if” quality—this is empathy, and this seems essential to therapy,” (p. 243). The person-centered approach sees empathy as a prerequisite to both explicit and implicit understanding of the client as well as any insight-oriented communication aimed at making the unconscious conscious (Rogers, 2007; Von Glahn, 2018).
Perception of Empathy and Acceptance
“The communication to the client of the therapist’s empathic understanding and unconditional positive regard is to a minimal degree achieved” (Rogers, 2007, p. 241).
The idea here is that the client must perceive the therapist’s acceptance and empathy (Rogers, 2007). Only when the client truly feels empathically cared for can substantive therapy take place. This condition relates back to the person-centered assumption of people’s need for positive regard. Moreover, it acknowledges the fact that the client’s perception of any and all unconditional aspects of the therapeutic relationship is integral to change and healing.
Additional Articles on Person-Centered Therapy:
1. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/therapy-types/person-centered-therapy
References
Elliott, R. (2013). Person-centered/experiential psychotherapy for anxiety difficulties: Theory, research and practice. Person-Centered and Experiential Psychotherapies, 12(1), 16–32, DOI: 10.1080/14779757.2013.767750
Ellis, L. (2013). Incongruence as a doorway to deeper self-awareness using experiential focusing-oriented dreamwork. Person-Centered and Experiential Psychotherapies, 12(3), 274–287, DOI: 10.1080/14779757.2013.836130
Marvin Frankel, Mary M. Johnson & Roxane Polak (2016) Congruence: the social contract between a client and therapist, Person-Centered & Experiential Psychotherapies, 15:2, 156-174, DOI: 10.1080/14779757.2016.1182061
Rogers, C. R. (1957). The necessary and sufficient conditions of therapeutic personality change. Journal of Consulting Psychology, 21(2), 95–103, DOI: 10.1037/h0045357
Sharf, R. S. (2016). Theories of psychotherapy and counseling: Concepts and cases (6th ed). Boston: Cengage.
Von Glahn, J. (2018). Operationalizing the actualizing tendency. Person-Centered and Experiential Psychotherapies, 17(1), 37–53, DOI: 10.1080/14779757.2017.1397050