Person Centered Therapy Flashcards
Actualizing tendency
Actualizing or formative tendency is the tendency to move towards greater order, complexity and interrelatedness. (comparable to Adler’s striving for superiority and Freud’s voice of reason)
Conditions of worth
The standards that children and adults believe they must meet to be acceptable and worthy of love. These conditions lead individuals toward an external locus of evaluation.
Conditional v. unconditional positive regard
Unconditional positive regard includes acceptance and respect. Through acceptance, therapists lead clients to self acceptance. Need for positive regard: the need to be prized and loved
Congruence v. incongruence
Congruence is authenticity or genuineness. There can be incongruence within oneself when there is conflict between the ideal self and the real self. Incongruence is when an individual’s self is inconsistent with its overall psychological experience.
Empathic understanding
- subjective empathy: identifying with clients in the here and now through intuition, and imagining your clients’ experiences.
- interpersonal empathy: communication back and forth about clients’ phenomenological experiences
- objective empathy: using theoretical knowledge and resources to better understand clients.
Ideal self v. real self
- The real self is the total organismic self- the self linked to actualization.
- The ideal self has unattainable should derived from dysfunctional societal and familial conditions of worth.
Person-centered therapy
a humanistic or existential-humanistic approach.
- The therapist trusts the client.
- Therapists hold attitudes toward clients of congruence, unconditional regard, and empathic understanding.
- The therapeutic relationship is the mechanism of change.
- Therapists don’t educate clients, interpret their conflicts, or identify faulty thoughts or behaviors; instead, they establish relational conditions that allow clients to engage in natural self-discovery and personal growth.
Simple v. complex reflections
- Simple reflections: stick very closely to what the client said
- Complex reflections: add meaning, focus or particular emphasis to what the client said.
Who did Rogers credit with the formulation of his theories?
His clients- he learned what worked and what didn’t from them.
How does psychopathology develop, according to Rogerians?
A failure to learn from experiences. It continues when clients accept introjected parental conditions of worth, instead of modifying their self concept based on moment by moment experiences.
What are the “big three” relational conditions between a Rogerian therapist and client?
- congruence
- unconditional positive regard
- empathic understanding
Motivational interviewing listening skills
open questions, affirming, reflecting, summarizing (OARS)
Motivational interviewing listening skills
open questions, affirming, reflecting, summarizing
Walking within
Entering and becoming at home in the client’s world through listening and empathic understanding.
What are the strengths and limitations of PCT?
Strengths:
- For introspective clients who want to go deep, it can be very effective.
- Promotes self acceptance and uses a lens of curiosity rather than problem solving.
Limitations:
- The focus on self actualization may not fit with all cultures
- Some clients may want expert advice or guidance
- Doesn’t fit well with the medical model because it can be very time intensive and difficult to measure outcomes.
