What is Client-Centered Therapy?
The formal study of human behavior dates back more than 2000 years to the Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle. Plato conceived that the brain was the means of the mental process, where Aristotle believed that the heart was at the center of the psyche. In the late 1700’s through the early 1900’s the study of human behavior took hold and was developed by many philosophers, academics and researchers including: Franz Mesmer (who’s form of hypnotism led to the term “being mesmerized”), Phillippe Pinel (who championed humane treatment for those with mental illness), and Sigmund Freud (who created the concept of modern clinical practice).
Throughout its history, psychology has principally been devoted to the study of human cognitive functioning and behavior. Freud’s idea of clinical practice – working in the medical model with an expert, one on one, to solve mental and behavioral problems – has evolved into the practice of psychotherapy. From the 1700’s, and in many forms of psychotherapy still active today, the primary focus of the work is on the “patient” as someone who needs help and the clinician/expert who provides it.
In the past 50 years, the field of understanding human behavior has undergone a transformation. Clinical research and experience have revealed important findings. Most importantly, analyzing “patients” and teaching them psychological theory does not reliably help people make meaningful or lasting change in their feelings of depression, anxiety, shame, anger, addiction, low self esteem, and meaning of life or spiritual issues.
In the 1950’s, Carl Rogers developed a school of therapy he called Client-Centered or Person-Centered Psychotherapy. In his clinic, working with clients, and tapping into his own and other colleagues’ natural instincts and experience, he came to understand that people feel safe, connected and open when they are with someone who is sincere in their understanding of them and who expresses genuine unconditional positive regard toward them. At the time Rogers’ thinking was considered truly radical. Today more and more studies show that the quality of the relationship between client and therapist is the most important factor in creating successful outcomes in therapy.
Rogers discovered that all people have a pretty darn good radar system for detecting when others are not being genuine and unconditionally caring. When people aren’t genuine and unconditionally caring towards us, we don’t trust in them. And if there isn’t trust, then it makes sense that receptivity, learning new things and initiating change will be difficult or impossible.
Rogers went on to recognize that all people have problems in their lives, and at the same time, all people have an innate and natural intuition that reveals to them what they need and how they need to proceed in order to move towards healing (even though our view can be a bit clouded at times, and we may not always do, what we know we need to).
Rogers’ appreciation for human, inner wisdom was a dramatic departure from the teacher student model that dominates much of psychotherapeutic thought, even today. Patients in the hierarchical model of Freud became “clients” in Rogers’ model of deep respect for people and their natural intuition.
From these basic foundations, Rogers developed an approach to psychotherapy, which involves the therapist “participating with” or “being with” the client in their life journey, through listening, seeing and sensing. Therapists use their knowledge and expertise to understand the client, more and more fully. And, it is in the reflecting back of that understanding that the client hones their awareness and intuition of themselves and their own process of healing. This non-directive type of relationship enables the client to fully experience and express themselves and to move within their process, authentically, according to how they feel. The therapist’s role is one of experienced facilitator or guide, helping clients to clarify and connect with their natural intuition of what feels right, and offering clients a safe space to discover a path that will take them towards where they need to go.
Client-Centered or Person-Centered work is a co-creative process of self-discovery, self-empowerment, and personal fulfillment.
