PPT # 6 Person-Centered Therapy

Question 1

Who is the most cited/revered American Psychologist?

Answer 1

Carl Rogers (1902 - 1987)

Question 2

Carl Rogers was the first to use ________ ________ as a guide to model development

Answer 2

Process Research

Question 3

What did Roger’s ideas challenge?

Answer 3

1. The assumption that “the counselor knows best”
2. The validity of advice, suggestion, persuasion, teaching, diagnosis, and interpretation
3. The belief that clients cannot understand and resolve their own problems without direct help
4. The focus on problems over persons

Question 4

List what Roger’s approach emphasizes.

Answer 4

1. Therapy as a journey shared by two fallible people
2. The person’s innate striving for self-actualization
3. The personal characteristics of the therapist and the quality of the therapeutic relationship
4. The counselor’s creation of a “growth-promoting” climate
5. People are capable of self-directed growth if involved in a therapeutic relationship

Question 5

What is the main principle of Roger’s assumptions?

Answer 5

respect for clients’ autonomy and the subjective sense of a right to self-determination

Question 6

What does Roger’s assumptions highlight?

Answer 6

1. The Actualizing Tendency
2. Trustworthiness
3. Self-Concept and Conditional Regard
4. Process of Change

Question 7

T/F: Roger’s feels as though people are not born “Tabula Rosa”.

Answer 7

True

Question 8

What’s Roger’s view on actualizing tendency?

Answer 8

• Basic biological principle

- Organic systems tend to move toward complex organization

Question 9

Who does Roger’s feel should be trusted to steer therapy in the direction it needs to go?

Answer 9

Client

Question 10

T/F: Roger’s believes the client’s subjective reality is the pertinent reality

Answer 10

True

Question 11

Who said, “…unless I need to demonstrate my own cleverness and learning I would do better to rely upon the client for the direction of movement in the process.”

Answer 11

Carl Roger’s

Question 12

How is Rogers’ self-concept different from Freuds?

Answer 12

Frued = “psyche”

Roger’s = “Lifestyle”

Question 13

Define Self-concept

Answer 13

the organized, consistent set of perceptions and beliefs about oneself

Question 14

List the several elements of Self-concept.

Answer 14

1. Self worth– what we think about ourselves.
2. Conditions of worth – or rules about one’s value
3. Self-image – How we see ourselves at this point in time. Influenced by our conditional worth
4. Ideal self– Who we want to be/become. Dynamic

Question 15

What leads to positive regard?

Answer 15

Self-concept

Question 16

Describe Unconditional positive regard.

Answer 16

1. When other people love, accept, and value us without condition.
2. Positive regard is not withdrawn if the person does something wrong or makes a mistake.
3. The consequences of unconditional positive regard are that the person feels free to try things out

Question 17

Describe Conditional positive regard

Answer 17

1. When positive regard depends upon the behavior of the individual.
2. The person is not loved for the person he or she is, but on condition that he or she behaves only in ways approved by other.
3. At the extreme, a person who constantly seeks approval from other people is likely only to have experienced conditional positive regard as a child.

Question 18

Define Congruence

Answer 18

A state in which our ideal-self and life experience coexist

Question 19

What two things must match to result in congruence?

Answer 19

Ideal-self needs to mat self-image

Question 20

What is incongruence?

Answer 20

a discrepancy between the actual experience of the organism and the self-picture of the individual insofar as it represents that experience

Question 21

Roger’ (1961) described fully functioning people as having what?

Answer 21

1. A growing openness to experience – which includes negative feelings
2. An increasingly existential lifestyle - in touch with different experiences as they occur in life, avoiding prejudging and preconceptions.
3. Increasing organismic trust – feelings and instincts are valued and trusted, little second guessing
4. Creativity – a person can “think outside the box” and take risks, not just do things to please others.
5. A rich full life – a general satisfaction that one is living mostly up to potential

Question 22

What are the 6 conditions that are necessary in the process of therapy?

Answer 22

1. Two persons are in psychological contact.
2. The first, termed the client, is in a state of incongruence, being vulnerable or anxious.
3. The second person, termed the therapist, is congruent or integrated in the relationship.
4. The therapist experiences unconditional positive regard for the client.
5. The therapist experiences an empathic understanding of the client’s internal frame of reference and endeavors to communicate this experience to the client.
6. The communication to the client of the therapist’s empathic understanding and unconditional positive regard is, to a minimal degree, achieved.

Question 23

What is the foundation of the therapists role?

Answer 23

Radical empathy!!

Question 24

What is the overall goal for the person-centered therapist?

Answer 24

1. to create a therapeutic climate in which the client can grow.
   
   • The therapist strives to be genuine, integrated, and authentic, without a false front

Question 25

As a therapist, what are three main “techniques” used?

Answer 25

• Congruence
• Unconditional positive regard
• Accurate empathic understanding

Question 26

What is the 1st stage of change?

Answer 26

A person’s personality seems fixed, personal problems are not acknowledged

Question 27

What is the 2nd stage of change?

Answer 27

He or she begins to loosen up and is more open to seeing problems
Third stage

Question 28

What is the 3rd stage of change?

Answer 28

Express past feelings and personal meanings

Question 29

What is the 4th stage of change?

Answer 29

Become more open to reconsidering their constructs about self and others; increasingly able to verbalize deep emotions

Question 30

What is the 5th stage of change?

Answer 30

They are increasingly able to verbalize in-the-moment emotions and experiences

Question 31

What is the 6th stage of change?

Answer 31

Is now able to experience difficult emotions as they arise with acceptance

Question 32

What is the 7th stage of change?

Answer 32

This stage generally occurs outside the counseling relationship.

Question 33

List the evidence that encourages person-centered therapy.

Answer 33

• Hard to deny as almost every contemporary therapy contains Rogerian elements.
• Thousands of research studies have focused on either the process or the outcome of person-centered psychotherapy.
• Meta-analysis – Person-Centered as effective as CBT for many issues (Elliot et al., 2012)
• Process Research – not just “does it work” but “how/why”
• Person-Centered elements as “Common Factors” in therapy
• Emphasis on the Therapuetic Alliance as mechanism of change

Question 34

List the limitations of person-centered therapy

Answer 34

1. No specific techniques or manuals
   - difficult to standardize
   - Criticism that it is a good start, but “not enough”
2. Challenging to provide both support and challenges to clients
3. Limits of the therapist as a person may interfere with developing a genuine therapeutic relationship
4. Over-emphasis on the “self” – Western ideal, doesn’t leave room for the “communal”.