Explain person-centred therapy in terms of the role of counselor and the techniques used in it.

 Person-centred therapy uses a phenomenological approach, that is, focusing on the experiences of the person, how does the person experience herself and the world around. This direct personal experience or organismic experiences related to one’s self are crucial for one’s learning, enhancement and self-growth.

Role of the Counselor: In PCT the role of a counsellor is to be without a role. This is reason why PCT is also known as non-directive counselling. The counsellor’s function in the client’s life nor a teacher. The counsellor’s role therefore is not like a mother bird who pushes a baby bird off a cliff to help it fly, but that of a steady nest, where the bird can continue to nurture itself before it flies away.

When to make the flight, how to make the flight – the counsellor puts these decisions to the client. As the therapist’s attitude holds primacy, we must explore the kind of attitude that is suitable for PCT.  The counsellor shows care, respect, acceptance and understanding towards the client, while being genuine or authentic. She aims to facilitate and not direct a client. PCT is also open to a client’s explorations. The client can shift the focus on therapy from the “primary concern” to other areas which have been denied in the past. The counsellor must provide such an avenue whereby the client can feel free to explore any facet of her life.

Techniques/ Strategies: As the outcomes of PCT rely solely upon the counsellor-client relationship, Rogers gave six conditions which had to be met in order for a therapeutic intervention to work.

Therapist’s Congruence or Genuineness: This condition requires the therapist to honest and genuine with the client. This means that the counsellor must be her real self during a session. The counsellor’s genuineness or authenticity helps her share her personal experiences, respond to the client with her real thoughts on the matter and not put on a facade. This is a condition that PCT therapists must strive towards.

It must aisan be noted that therapists are also on their journey towards actualisation and reducing the incongruence between their own real and ideal selves, so the aim to be as genuine as possible (not to be perfect) and constantly aim to be more genuine with the client.

Unconditional Positive Regard: As mentioned in the paragliding example above, attaching conditions of worth harms a person.  In this light, a PCT therapist provides the client with unconditional positive regard.

The therapist accepts the clients and their experiences as they are. This does not mean that the therapist approves everything that the client does, nonetheless, the counsellor accepts that this is how it is in this present moment. As a PCT counsellor believes that each human being is capable of goodness,even if the counsellor doesn’t condone the client’s present behaviour, she would still consider the client as a whole, a valuable being.

Empathic understanding: The last condition for a counsellor to fulfill is to provide the client with empathic understanding. This is experiencing the client’s feelings as if they were your own, but without losing the “as if” quality. A PCT counsellor must strive to see a client’s feelings from the client’s perspective but not get carried away with those feelings.

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