The Person-Centered Journal

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This paper presents a critical examination from a person-centered perspective of an approach to counseling influenced by the social constructionist thought of Kenneth Gergen. The general postmodernist character of such social constructionism is considered and critiqued, as are certain implications for counselor training and practice. The position is taken that any attempt to introduce social constructionist ideas into the framework of person-centered counseling should be done in a way that does not compromise the fundamental vision of Carl Rogers, its main architect.

Our client-centered counseling practice with couples and families is described. The nondirective attitude is our bedrock value. Our empathic understanding follows each person’s expressed thoughts and feelings. With more people in the room, the situation is ripe for misunderstandings. Wanting to allow for correction from anyone present, we clarify our understanding of individual experiences and tend to share out loud the way we are following and understanding. In individual counseling, misunderstandings do not occur as often and this degree of explicit transparency seems less called for. Whether with an individual or with a couple or family, we are responsive to questions and requests.

I present reflections on a person-centered encounter with a client while a graduate student, including a discussion of my spirituality, personal understanding of good, and choice of the Person-Centered Approach as a professional foundation. I had read, talked with my professors and colleagues, and examined my own experiences in order to understand the Person Centered Approach (PCA). This seems now to have been a prelude to an encounter that stays in my heart, demanding my attention—an encounter that integrated my spiritual and person-centered self.

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Barbara Temaner Brodley describes her practice of client-centered therapy. She gives attention to the nondirective attitude, responding to a client’s questions, spontaneous and therapist-frame-of-reference responses, and the empathic understanding process. Excerpts from two therapy transcripts are included

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This study assessed the differences between the ways that counseling students in two different countries, Taiwan and the United States, perceived counseling. The evaluative and potency scales of a semantic differential were used to compare the attitudes of these students related to counseling and certain counseling related variables. One finding of this study was that the Chinese students evaluated counseling, group counseling and counselors more positively than the American students while the American students rated the potency of all of these concepts higher than the Chinese students.

Transference or the “transference neurosis” is reexamined. This analysis suggests that transference is a defense mechanism used to deny or disguise the reality and natural consequences of the therapist’s behavior. Two of these behaviors, understanding and misunderstanding, are featured as archetypical causes of love and hate, unnecessarily called “positive” and “negative”transference. The analysis starts with the uneasy origin of the concept illustrated in the case o fAnna O. It continues through variations in definition and use ol transference, and observations on the self-concept of the therapist. The repetition-logic of psychoanalysis is disputed, and a countertheory is proposed, based on clinical experience and phenomenal evidence of the normal human response to understanding. The act of understanding is described not only as the firs( cause of “transference” but also as the essential healing factor, the main contribution and the proper objective of all psychotherapies.

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This article explores psychiatric diagnosis as it meets person-centered psychotherapeutic practice. Three short case vignettes are presented from the author’s practice that inspect how clients’ identification with a diagnosis played out in person-centered therapeutic work. Drawing on Rogers’ articulation of process in person-centered therapy and other discourses regarding psychiatric diagnosis, themes arising from these case vignettes are then examined. In particular, this discussion acknowledges competing tensions that clients identifying with psychiatric diagnosis can present in terms of congruence, self- responsibility, and understanding from others. The author ultimately concludes that such an identification with diagnosis can yield growth in clients as well as inhibit it, and must be worked with empathically in the psychotherapeutic relationship even if it may not align with person-centered conceptualizations of self and experiencing.
person-centered approach; psychiatric diagnosis; congruence; theory; ADHD; bipolar disorder

The paper begins with an examination of the logical premises on which Gregory Bateson and his associates based their “Double Bind” hypothesis of the etiology of schizophrenia. It goes on to demonstrate that in the specification of the hypothesis, the authors failed to adhere strictly to these premises with the result that confusion arose as to what was meant by a “double bind.” Having located the source of confusion the paper then takes up Ackerman’s point that the classical paradoxes, in which an incongruity in messages at different levels is buried in a single statement, is not an appropriate model for understanding interactional sequences. His alternative showing how classificatory type messages buried in interactional sequences can result in entangled communication is developed both to indicate the core of value in the “double bind” approach and to outline the wider implications of the issues involved. These wider implications are then brought out in an analysis of a logical defect in Carl Rogers’s paper on “The Necessary and Sufficient Conditions for Therapeutic Personality Change.” Finally it is shown that the “Reflection of Feeling Response” developed by Rogers and his students utilizes different levels of communication in achieving its effects.

The author provides an orientation to person-centered education for use by educators with their students. The orientation is informed by reviews of both theory and research on person-centered education and is relevant to secondary, undergraduate, and especially graduate programs. A brief review of the effectiveness of person-centered education and its primary goals is followed by a one-page handout. The handout is intended to provide a basis for discussion and informed consent to facilitated learning.

Research has demonstrated that individual play therapy, group play therapy, and filial therapy are effective when working with children; however most research is focused on European American samples and worldviews. Children play out themes to express their worldview and may have distinctive themes in various cultures, but all children may struggle to feel acceptance and freedom to express themselves if they don’t identify with the helper, the toys, and/or techniques being usedin the intervention. This critical literature review examines the results of previous research on the effectiveness of play-based interventions in multicultural settings. Interventions with children of diverse backgrounds reviewed include: group play therapy, especially with African Americans; school based play therapy, especially with Latinos, and filial therapy, especially with Asian American samples. The paper also looks at the sparse research on the training of play therapists in multicultural issues. The results examined are generally positive, indicating that play-based interventions are an effective method of treatment with diverse children, but research is limited. There is a continued need for extensive research of multicultural play- based interventions with children.

Keywords: play therapy, multicultural, filial therapy .

In this paper the usual idea that our psychological problems are caused by unknown feelings and experiencing is questioned and an alternative understanding of the reason for our problems is proposed. More specifically, Rogers’s explanation that the success of his methods occurs because of increased awareness of unknown experience is questioned. Instead, it is proposed that our problems are due to the nature of our internal framework, rather than to feelings of which we are not aware. Our problems are seen as arising when our framework incorporates the more objective standards of the world and fails to develop the more subjective aspects. How having a more subjective or objective internal world affects our experience is discussed and how the “necessary and sufficient” conditions and the “mini-culture” of client-centered therapy develops these subjective aspects is described.

Literature examining the treatment of test anxiety over the last few decades focuses primarily on the efficacy of cognitive and behavioral interventions (e.g., Allen, 1972; Meichenbaum, 1972, 1977). Over time, interventions have become even more symptom-specific (e.g., Broota & Sanghvi, 1994; Gosselin & Matthews, 1995). However, some researchers suggest that anxiety-focused approaches nay not improve performance, and skills acquisition and training nay not reduce anxiety (e.g., Klinger, I984; Paulman & Kennelley, I984). While some studies suggest that person-centered variables enhance therapeutic outcomes in the treatment of test anxiety, almost no literature exists comparing the efficacy of these different approaches (e.g., Ryan & Moses, 1979; Payne, 1985). A case summary describes a person-centered application to the treatment of test anxiety as a nondirective, individualized alternative to symptom-specific modalities.

The Person-Centered Approach (PCA) has been effectively used with clients experiencing a wide variety of severe psychiatric symptoms and is appropriate for those experiencing depression and anxiety. The authors outline a study, which investigated the effectiveness of the Person-Centered Approach (PCA) with individuals experiencing depression and anxiety. Participants were pre- and post-tested with the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI). Results are mixed regarding the effectiveness of the PCA and support the high co-morbidity rates of depression and anxiety symptoms reported in the literature.

Counselor education has been focused on learning new techniques and strategies to improve teaching with content centered on meeting CACREP standards. The combination of these two components ofmaster’s programs has led to a reductionist view of counselor education. A person-centered approach to education is presented,culminating in a proposed design for a master’s program with anunderlying person-centered philosophy within the CACREP standards. Having an educational philosophy within a program can help strengthen student learning and give educators direction and intention behind their teaching, ultimately producing well-rounded learners.

Can the very process of creating stories about pictures and discussing the emergent themes with a trained psychotherapist be helpful in facilitating self-understanding and fostering psychological growth? If so, what are the necessary and sufficient conditions for this process to occur? Following a brief discussion of the fundamental principles surrounding the theoretical construct of apperception, I will explain and advocate for a client-centered approach in the use of projectives to facilitate client self-understanding in a collaborative therapeutic relationship.

Graduate students of Jerold Bozarth experience their first person-centered community meeting in Warm Springs, Ga. Their observations are recorded.

A reflection on the life and death of psychologist Armin Klein is writtenbyDr.GraceHarlowKlein. Astatementofexperiencefrom several of his clients who helped in his care at the end of his life is included. One of his clients wrote extensively of her experience, “In Therapy with Armin.”

Openness to another’s experience is fostered by broad knowledge, not by ignorance. Diagnostic information can obscure a client’s experiences if it is taken as definitive, but it can enlarge a therapist’s repertoire of understandings if it is used tentatively. Knowledge of experiences that occur frequently among people who share a diagnosis can sensitize a therapist to experiences that a particular client may try to convey. Four women previously treated for depression were interviewed intensively in search for common experiences. Within their different personalities, backgrounds, and personal circumstances, these particular women seemed to share a constellation of emotional experiences that could be organized around their history of sexual and physical or emotional abuse.

The work of Carl Rogers and Ruth Sanford in South Africa during the 1980’s was continued in the form of person-centered diversity awareness workshops. This article describes action and qualitative research on participants’ experiences during and after these workshops. Post workshop interviews indicated that organizational change agents and consultants were exposed to new ways of facilitating learning opportunities which are not based on using classroom techniques and methods, but on their own realness, respect for and ability to put themselves in their client group’s frame of reference. The results highlighted South Africa’s never-ending journey of healing and the showed the need for South Africans’ to integrate race and gender splits, subgroup and individual identities, and denigrated and idealized parts of the self.

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Because the literature regarding non-European, international, cross-cultural, transcultural,
leaderless large group workshops from the person-centered approach is so sparse, it is hoped that
this report may provide both valuable information on this phenomenon and encouragement for
future studies.

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Book Review of The Human Being Fully Alive: Writings in Celebration of Brian Thorne – Sometimes This Atheist Calls it Courage

Edited by Jeff Leonardi

Book review of Therapist Limits in Person-Centred Therapy by LIsbeth Sommerbeck

The structured exercise in empathic listening is designed to provide counselor trainees with an intensive and deliberate focus on the person-centered empathic process. By far the single most curative factor identified in counseling process and outcome research, empathy deserves lo be a key focus of counselor research and training. Current psychotherapy outcome research estimates of empathy’s variance in effecting client positive change occur in the 40% range. This learning exercise is decidedly a highly effective tool for enhancing counselor’s capacities to practice empathy; with minimal, if any observable adverse effect on student-selected participants. Qualitative findings from more than 200 counselor trainees over a ten year period, along with a sub-sample of 23 trainees’ quantitative results point to the value of the empathy exercise as an especially useful method in counselor empathy training. Experience with the large number of exercises being conducted by trainees suggests that rare instances of a need for one-on-one supervision do occur; and that therefore, the trainer-supervisor must be mindful of the progress, process, and outcome of each case. In-class periodic assessments of general progress, along with individual student meetings and initiation of follow-up as needed are recommended.

In this paper, Unconditional Positive Regard is presented as the primary condition of therapeutic personality change. Genuineness and Empathic Understanding are viewed as two contextual attitudes. The concept of the necessary and sufficient conditions for therapeutic personality change is reconceptualized in a way consistent with this view. The reconceptualization entails (a) genuineness being viewed as a therapist state of readiness that enables the therapist to better experience the client with empathic understanding of the client’s internal frame of reference and to experience unconditional positive regard towards the client; (b) empathic understanding being viewed as the action state of the therapist in which the client is accepted as he or she is at any given moment. The understanding of the client’s internal frame of reference by the therapist is viewed as the most optimal way for the client to experience unconditional positive regard; and (c) unconditional positive regard being viewed as the primary change agent in which the client’s needs for positive regard and positive self regard are met and the actualizing tendency of the individual is promoted.

Currently it is generally accepted that existing theories and approaches to psychotherapy developed in Western cultures, are not applicable to other cultures. A model is proposed that, while based on certain theoretical and research foundations in Western culture, also recognizes and derives from universal drives, motivations and goals of all human beings, indeed of all living organisms. It is therefore neither time nor culture bound.

The model is developed in terms of three levels of goals: (1) the ultimate goal, common to all clients; (2) mediate goals, that allow for cultural and individual differences; and (3) the immediate goal, involving the therapy relationship. The therapist conditions necessary, and possibly sufficient, for the development of a relationship leading to the achievement of the achievement of the mediate and ultimate goals are defined.

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Evidence increasingly points to a global paradigm shift that is rapidly unfolding among us and causing grief, fear and confusion. The shift involves an entire reordering of the prevailing egocentric way of seeing and minding, and has enormous consequences for social, political, behavioral, environmental norms underlying our culture’s construction. This paper considers the difficulties of moving from a reductionistic view of the world to a more unitary view. The writer looks at the qualities of persons identified by spiritual leaders and social theorists as having the vision and courage to lead us forward. She reflects on attitudes of the person-centered approach as one clearly defined technology that can facilitate global dialogue and a shift in worldview.

This paper presents a rationale for offering Client-Centered Therapy to a female medical clinic patient with symptoms of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), who was not seeking psychotherapy. Her therapy is on-going, and her progress during the first three years is presented. It is thought that many, if not most, people with PTSD do not seek treatment. It is hoped that this paper will provide a useful model for reaching out to them. Client-Centered Therapy can help clients feel safe to live authentically and/or feel safe enough to pursue other treatments designed specifically for PTSD.

This article describes an experience that evolved from discussions with counseling practicum students, a survey of their perceptions about their program of studies. and a sixty-hour experimental workshop. The feedback from the students on program strengths and weaknesses aided in the design of a person-oriented learning process that is experience based. The learning process is based on student input and is especially designed to help students become aware of counseling concepts and principles, learn basic human relations counseling skills, review program and professional expectations and opportunities, assess their potential and motivation for different career directions in the helping professions, and examine their career objectives. Graduate students who have participated in the experience have given much positive feedback about the content and process.

This paper discusses the utilization of play therapy as an appropriate therapeutic method in the counseling of children. It identifies the theoretical basis of child-centered therapy, the attitudes necessary for the therapist, and the therapeutic conditions necessary for growth. It also outlines the limits which should be set in regards to child-centered therapy.

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Jeanne P. Stubbs and Jerold D. Bozarth review Seligman’s article (APCA, December, 1995) on The Consumer Report Study of the effectiveness of psychotherapy (APA, November, 1995).

The authors provide a historical and descriptive explanation of Asperger’s Syndrome. They assert that Client-Centered Therapy is appropriate with clients who lack the affective emotional relatedness between people. Also, they present a case study involving the application of Client- Centered Therapy with a client suffering from Asperger’s Syndrome.

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Jules Seeman reviews the books Celebrating the Other by E.E. Sampson and Women’s Growth in Connection by J.V. Jordan, et al. and the article The Person-Centered Approach: From Theory to Practice by Peggy Natiello.

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A book review by Jeanne Stubbs of Jeffrey Masson’s book Against Therapy.

This file also includes conference and program announcements.

Book review of Louis Cozolino’s The Making of a Therapist: A Practical Guide for the Inner Journey.

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Review of Basics of Clinical Practice: A Guidebook for Trainees in the Helping Professions; by Martin, D. G. & Moore, A. D.

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Review of Politicizing the Person-Centered Approach: An Agenda for Social Change; Edited by Gillian Proctor, Mick Cooper, Pete Sanders, and Beryl Malcolm

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Review of Regarding Empathy by Shelia Haugh and Tony Merry

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This is fundamentally a book on a spiritual approach to psychotherapy and will be of particular interest to those who have a transpersonal bent. The book consists of two sections. In the first section, Santos reports on a series of interviews with famous therapists: Carl Rogers, Eugene Gendlin, Erving Polster, Virginia Satir, John Grinder, Robert Nemiroff, and Robert Stein. The rest of the book consists of Santos’ explication of his views of the nature of psychopathology and of therapy. His core idea about therapy is that change occurs through the occurrence of “miracle moments”—moments of fundamental and deep meeting…

Book Review of Person-Centred Practice: Case Studies in Positive Psychology edited by Richard Worsley and Stephen Joseph.

In my experience supervising graduate students in internships, I have observed that students who are humanistically-oriented, particularly those who are Person-Centered, struggle to integrate their theoretical approach into their internship work. They struggle with the predominance of the medical model in the field, the prevalence of cognitivebehavioral approaches in the research literature, and the dominance of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder-IV Text Revision. They struggle with the idea that for each disorder there is a prescribed approach that is most effective. They struggle with how to interface with professionals with other orientations and within a system that seems biased away from their approach. They struggle with being taken seriously. And as the students struggle, so do professors, supervisors, fellow interns, staff, and other mental health

Book Review by Joseph Hulgus of The Handbook of Person-Centered

Psychotherapy and Counselling (Edited by Mick Cooper, Maureen O’Hara, Peter F. Schmid, and Gill Wyatt)

Review of Talking to Alzheimer’s by Claudia Strauss

Review of Richard C. Page and Daniel N. Berkows’ Unstructured Group Therapy: Creating Contact, Choosing Relationship

Patterns of Change: Intensive Analysis of Psychotherapy Process, Laura N. Rice & Leslie S. Greenberg (Eds.). The Guilford Press, NY, 1984, 308 pp., S30.00 (hardback).

Let Your Body Interpret Your Dreams, by Eugene Gendlin, Chiron Publications, 1986, 197 pp. $9.95 (softcover).

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ln their 1957 dialogue Rogers stressed total mutuality between therapist and client in opposition to Buber, who stressed the “normative limitations of mutuality”in therapy: The therapist can practice “‘inclusion,” imagine the real, whereas the client cannot be expected to experience the therapist side of the relationship. Rogers saw what is deepest in the individual as something that can be trusted so that when it is released the forward moving processes of life would take over, Buber saw man as polar-to be trusted and not to be trusted-and in need of that “confirmation” that will strengthen the force of direction in him, something that can be discovered by the therapist accepting love. Rogers sometimes uses empathy as Buber uses inclusion by stressing that he remains himself in the dialogue, but sometimes uses it in the narrower sense of losing one’s own ground. Unconditional positive regard and congruence too can be understood dialogically. If dialogue were seen as goal and self-actualization as by-product, it would strengthen the consistency of Rogerian therapy.

This paper will explore the thinking of Carl Rogers and Martin Buber as related to confirmation, acceptance and dialogue. The work of these seminal thinkers seems more closely connected than at first glance. Each valued authentic relationship and expressed their views to each other in a 1957 conversation or dialogue. I have also brought myself into the paper in a personal way, sharing my experience with dialogue and of being accepted and confirmed in relationship.

The claims that Carl Rogers was what is presently understood as a “transpersonal psychologist ” or that he had converted to a “transpersonal movement” by virtue of various late-in-life experiences are shown to be unwarranted.

To understand his complex relationship with these subjects, it is noted that Rogers did not conform with much of the behavior with which they are associated. Nevertheless, he did have, from the beginning of his work in client-centered therapy, experiences which must be considered congenial with the essence of the “transpersonal.”

The purpose of this article is to recognize the distinction between outward appearance and one’s legitimate inner experience and to encourage a deeper exploration of this difference.

The authors invite the reader to a closer look at the person-centered approach within the increasing trend toward transpersonal approaches to therapy. The article addresses values in contrast to dogma and emphasizes the client’s freedom to self- determination in the context of spirituality.

Carl Rogers was renowned for his work as a psychotherapist and facilitator. During his life, he engaged in a series of fascinating public dialogues with a number of other noted intellectuals (see Kirschenbaum & Henderson, 1989). In this essay, we summarize our studies of one of these remarkable conversations-an instance of what Michael Oakeshott (1975) aptly termed an “unrehearsed intellectual adventure” (p. 75)-between Carl Rogers and the philosopher of dialogue Martin Buber.

This 1957 public conversation was significant because through Rogers’s writings, especially following this meeting, many thousands of readers in the United States were introduced to Buber’s thought. In addition, the dialogue was a critical incident in the careers of both Buber and Rogers. Although it has been cited often to distinguish their approaches to dialogue, all previous commentators have assumed that Buber and Rogers were on equal footing and ignore the communicative process of the meeting in favor of analyzing its content.

It is a new venture for me to have regular space available for the expression of my feelings and opinions on topics of current interest to me. I hope to use it in various ways. I will welcome feedback on what I write, and suggestions of topics for future columns. This time I am going to comment briefly on one important issue.

The principal purpose of this paper is to illumine the extent to which Carl Rogers’ characterization of the central person-centered concept of congruence is couched in terms of a Cartesian-Newtonian, paradigmatic world-view mediated by the theoretical formulations of Sigmund Freud. Crucial problems in such a quasi-Freudian characterization of congruence are delineated demonstrative of a critical flaw in person-centered theory as a whole: its being a mix of concepts deriving from the discrepant Cartesian-Newtonian and organismic scientific paradigms. The re-formulation of congruence in organismic terms is envisaged as part of a general need to conceptualize all key person-centered concepts in such a fashion.

This paper is the first of a series of publications which seek to stimulate dialogue on the issues involved in offering a professional level of training for client-centered therapists in a fashion which is both consistent with the person-centered approach as well as accountable to the professional world of therapists and clients. Rather then withdrawing from the world of mainstream education on the grounds that it is incompatible with person-centered philosophy, the writer prefers to use the person-centered approach to inform higher education. The present paper explores four training dynamics around “responsibility,” “self-acceptance,” the “individualizing of the curriculum” and the “individualization of assessment” as central to the relationship between trainees and Faculty.

In the ecosystemic approach, if something changes in the interpersonal system, the problem behavior will change. The importance of using the core conditions in implementing the ecosystemic approach was demonstrated for two types of interventions, the first based on “positive attribution;” the second based on empathic response. Ecosystemics incorporated with the person-centered approach offers a range of techniques for addressing problem behaviors in schools.

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Chronological Bibliography of the Works of Carl R. Rogers
1930-1985 Inclusive

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In a study of client-centered/experiential therapy 325 sessions involving 41 clients and 25 therapists- were evaluated by both client and therapist using open-ended questions. In this study an analysis is made of the responses to the question: “Did things happen in this session which you feel were really helpful?” A content analysis system was constructed, containing 33 categories falling into I broad classes of helping processes: (l) relational climate, (2) specific therapist interventions, and (3) client processes. The findings support, to a great extent, the theoretical position of client-centered therapy on change producing factors: experiential insight through selfexploration within a climate of acceptance where empathy is perceived as central. The specific therapist interventions, however, are only partially in line with client-centered therapy in its “classic”form; some new interventions seem to emerge, such as: the use of techniques, confrontation and interpretation, advice and reinforcement.

The authors propose that Client Empathic Understanding (CEU) is a facilitative factor in individual and group therapy- A review of Mente and Spittler’s ( l980) study of groups suggests that client empathic understanding is strongly related to therapy outcome for the individual client. This relationship appears io be stronger than that between Self_ Exploration (SE) and outcome. Further, a summary of clinical experience with CEU in individual therapy is presented- It is suggested that the integration of CEU leads to an increase in the efficiency of therapy. Finally, a concrete method of integrating CEU into individual or group therapy is presented (CEU-training).

The client-centered approach began as a one-to-one method of counseling and psychotherapy in the early l940s. By the end of thai decade, it was being applied to group situations in ways that symbolised its broader meanings and implications for group therapy, classroom teaching, affective-cognitive learning in workshop settings, and organisational development and leadership. The development of intensive groups added new dimensions to the theory and practice of client-centered group methods The approach was used with some success with groups numbering hundreds of people, often with a diversity of languages and cultures. Such experiences are providing data for understanding how cross0cultural and international differences may be resolved in the process of developing a person-to-person kind of empathy and understanding making for a caring community,

Rogers’s formulation of individual client-centered therapy was extended to group therapy as early as I945. Research on the group process followed that paralleled that o! individual therapy. Verbatim typescripts replaced impressionistic notes, therapist and client behavior were measured, client-centered group therapists were found to respond differently from direcetive ones, and there was confirmation of the therapeutic effectiveness of conditions such as empathy, congruence, and warmth, even with very disturbed populations. The emergence of interest in intensive groups was accompanied by some research, but it is noted that with this development, there was a decline in research activity and in the general impact of the client-centered school on psychotherapy research. This is related to Rogers’s departure from a major university setting, to a heightened interest in the concept of experiencing and in the therapist’s own experiencing, and to the difficulties of implementing, up to now, the alternative model of science and of psychological research that Rogers espouses.

The basic assumption of the actualisation drive and the hypothesis of therapist attitudinal conditions in client-centered psychotherapy are emphasised. The importance of the fundamental belief in the capacity of individuals to generate their own directions in life is discussed in relation to three major misunderstandings of the aPproach- The authors urge that more attention be given to the basic hypothesis that the client is the only proper authority about his or her life and lo the development of therapist attitudes, rather than lo therapist technique and expertise

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Regarding the treatment of mentally handicapped persons, three approaches toward treatment are possible. The first approach involves influencing the relationship between ward personnel and mentally handicapped persons. The second approach is the therapeutic treatment of mentally handicapped persons by means of mediation therapy, which means that the therapist is responsible for starting up, administering, revising and supervising treatment, but that the treatment itself is administered by ward personnel, parents and/or other persons. This implicitly means that, in imitation of Rogers, I consider empathic understanding and empathic responding as an attitude as well as a skill that can be learned. The third approach is treatment of the mentally handicapped person administered by the psychotherapist. In the following, I wish to elaborate on these three approaches. My work with mentally handicapped clients follows in a client-centered, as well as, a behavior-therapeutic frame of reference, and I am an advocate of a combination of methods (see e.g.., Peters, 1984, 1991, 1992 and 1999), I will hereby limit myself to the administration of client centered practice in the treatment of these persons.

From the realization that there is a great gap between the theory of client-centered therapy and its practice, the authors aim to investigate the difficulties and the challenges which arise in the client-centered therapists clinical practice. The therapist’s trust in the client’s actualizing tendency, indispensable to the success of the therapeutic process, is not attained only through a theoretical knowledge of client-centered therapy. Indeed, it is necessary that the therapist has herself experienced the process of therapeutic change promoted by this approach. The authors analyze the elements of change that need to be experienced by the therapist of a successful client-centered practice. Stages in the therapist’s development are also considered.

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This article discusses, within a person-centered framework, the process of therapy and those events or moments within the process that clients consider helpful or “good.” One instrument which attempts to assess such events is discussed. Implications for counselors are also briefly delineated.

In the words of the late Pat Patterson himself, “He will be missed, they say, when a well-known figure dies. But the world goes on—even the most important people die. We come, we stay awhile, we go” (Patterson, n.d.). Such a pragmatic and even-handed attitude characterizes the sayings of this respected teacher, author, and therapist. Patterson’s oft-repeated phrases cover topics from religion and spirituality to psychotherapy to human interactions and the meaning of life. He challenged thinking by shining light on obvious but unacknowledged truths that seem to lurk in popular thought, such as: “By definition, half the population is below average in ability or intelligence. Yet we persist in expecting all students to achieve at or above the average” (Patterson, n.d.). No subject seemed to miss his contemplative gaze. The reader may bounce between nodding agreement and disquietude, but rarely would one experience his words with indifference. Perhaps this response from others is what earned the venerable professor his title, “The Sage of Asheville.” So many of his insights are moving and leave lasting impressions, making it difficult to compile a top 10 list from among his pithy quotes, but I hope you enjoy this brief glimpse.

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There are striking similarities between the way Carl Rogers (1957, 1959, 1961) conceived of the counselor-provided conditions in client-centered therapy leading to client change, and how Christian theological writers such as Edward Schillebeeckx (1968/2005, 1979, 1980, 1987, 1991) and spiritual writers like Anthony DeMello (1990) describe the divine–human relationship and how this leads to change for human beings. Given these similarities, the author posits that Christian spiritual counseling should proceed in the same manner as client-centered therapy. Doing so allows the spiritual counseling relationship to mirror the God–human relationship as it empowers personal and spiritual growth for humanity.

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Introduction note from J.S.:I wrote the paper in 1951 (my first venture into stating my understanding of client-centered therapy) because I had just taken the post of Research Coordinator at the University of Chicago Counseling Center and felt the need to articulate my current view of CCT. I hope that it may be of some interest as an early view of CCT as I understood it.

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It took a long time of tireless searching to realize that freeing painful repressed memories would also free me from my fear of the stage. I began therapy in 2003 with Armin Klein and continued with his wife Grace in 2011, after Armin passed away. Armin and Grace Klein aretherapists who embody Carl Rogers’ person-centered values (Rogers,1995). When I combined psychotherapeutic tools with Bach’s “Goldberg Variations,” I found my own strategies to uncovertraumatic memories of my earliest years. How I have remembered what I felt as an unborn child, infant, and child is difficult to explain logically. My stage-fright disappeared when I realized that when I stepped on stage I re-experienced exactly how terrified I felt of being born to my mother. At that very instant I also lost forever my terror of every person I met. Before therapy, I was a person who stumbled frightened and blindly through life. By remembering extremely early trauma, I am now a person who feels within a huge radiant sun that sheds warm brilliant light even on the darkest corners of existence.

Keywords: Stage fright, child abuse, Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Goldberg Variations,” Person Centered Therapy, Spina Bifida.

The Client Evaluation of Counselor Scale (CECS) was developed by the author and used to obtain 135 client’s evaluations of their counselor’s in-session altitudes and behaviors, along with client’s reported satisfaction with their counseling experience. Practicum/internship counselors (n : 35) participating in the study represented themselves as preferring a variety of theoretical orientations. For purposes of the present report, clients’ evaluations of the core conditions (as defined by specific CECS items) were appraised with regard lo the variables with which they were most highly correlated. Global profiles of an understanding/empathic, an accepting/unconditionally positively regarding, and a genuine counselor were derived from statistical data on face valid and content valid items as revealed by clients’ reports. These core condition profiles compare well with traditional conceptualizations of the core conditions. Twelve empirically-factored counselor styles/dimensions were identified; most included both theory specific and non-specific variables (survey items); and all correlated significantly with counseling outcome. Results are compared and contrasted with current research on counseling process and outcome, with person-centered concepts in particular addressed. The present research provides support for the views that multifarious therapist approaches are correlated with positive client outcomes; that person-centered characteristics appear to be especially strong correlates of client positive outcome; and that perhaps the most significant component of both counselor embodiment of the core conditions and client positive outcome is the client’s perception of the therapist as a well-adjusted person.

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The following materials are corrections from the last issue by the publisher.

These corrections consist of the identification and correction of several pages from the Barth & Sanford article,

Human Science and the Person-Centered Approach: An Inquiry into the Inner Process of Significant Change within Individuals. The printing skipped several pages of the final diskette copy and incorrect insertions of those pages may have distracted from the meaning and clarity of the article. Readers will be able to substitute these corrections in the original article.

John K. Wood’s article, The Person-Centered Approach’s Greatest Weakness: Not Using its Strength, is repeated in its entirety. One page was left out and other pages substituted during the printing. This resulted in considerable confusion to some readers.

Several other articles also had their content distracted from when quotes were not indented and several other format problems occurred.

The editors and publisher apologize for these problems. Final galley proofing by authors and closer attention to the technology should eliminate such errors in the future.

The following materials are corrections from the last issue by the publisher.

These corrections consist of the identification and correction of several pages from the Barth & Sanford article,

Human Science and the Person-Centered Approach: An Inquiry into the Inner Process of Significant Change within Individuals. The printing skipped several pages of the final diskette copy and incorrect insertions of those pages may have distracted from the meaning and clarity of the article. Readers will be able to substitute these corrections in the original article.

John K. Wood’s article, The Person-Centered Approach’s Greatest Weakness: Not Using its Strength, is repeated in its entirety. One page was left out and other pages substituted during the printing. This resulted in considerable confusion to some readers.

Several other articles also had their content distracted from when quotes were not indented and several other format problems occurred.

The editors and publisher apologize for these problems. Final galley proofing by authors and closer attention to the technology should eliminate such errors in the future.

This paper examines the roles of “being” and “doing” in person-centered therapy. The examination consists of (1) reconsideration of the basic principles of the person-centered approach espoused by the late Carl R. Rogers, (2) examination of Rogers’ responses to his clients, and (3) consideration of some of the reported research findings concerning the function of the person-centered therapist.

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This article describes the development of a new graduate program in nursing based on a person-centered philosophy. The article presents the context in which the program was developed, the program design, and strategies used to create a person-entered environment. The process of implementing the program is described in terms of its impact on faculty and students. Outcomes are presented descriptively and in terms of he relevant evaluation data that have been collected from the first four graduating classes

The criteria for communicating empathic understanding described in this paper are based on my work as a client-centered therapist. As my therapy evolved, I only gradually identified these criteria and recognized that they express the nondirective attitude that informs my practice. An early version of the paper was prepared for the First International Forum on the Person-Centered Approach in Mexico in 1982. An excerpt was published in the ADPCA newsletter, Renaissance, in 1984. In 1986 Carl Rogers published his article on “reflection of feelings” which gave support to my thesis that the client-centered therapist’s intention in responding empathically is to verify understanding, not to manipulate the client’s process nor to foster any therapist goal for the client. The fundamental nondirectiveness in client-centered work seems to be difficult for some students to understand or, perhaps, to believe. My hope that this paper will help to clarify the meaning of the nondirective attitude in empathic interaction process as well as clarify the criteria for overt empathic responding in client-centered therapy.

Drawing on the relevant literature and the authors’ own experience and work, this article discusses therapy in the context of culture. Culture is defined and distinguished from race and the implications of cultural variables discussed in relation to the practice of therapy as well as the training of therapists. Rogers’s (1957/1990b, 1959) six conditions of therapeutic personality change are developed from a cultural perspective.

Cultural Influences vs. Actualizing Tendency: Is the person-centered approach a universal paradigm?

In this paper, I explore empathic understanding vis-à-vis the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation. I present scenes from an episode of The Next Generation as case studies and analyze them to reveal the external and internal nature of language, as well as the “delusion” of a shared language. I also use these scenes to highlight the difference between understanding and empathic understanding, errors in empathic understanding found in the Wisconsin Project, and the usefulness of pre-therapy in expanding therapist awareness and appreciation of empathic understanding. I also delve into the roles played by psychological contact, congruence, and unconditional positive regard in supporting empathic understanding, as illustrated by the pop-culture vignettes I provide.

Here, I bring attention to some of the ways psychotherapists operate within a neuronormative frame — how they unknowingly and perhaps knowingly use power structures and relational instrumentality to subjugate and oppress those of differing neurological backgrounds, marginalizing rather than elevating such neurodivergent individuals. I call on humanistic and particularly person-centered therapists to consciously decenter neuronormativity within and outside the therapy space, through heightened psychotherapeutic relationality, knowing-about, and introspection. I intend to counter the long history of oppressive psychological “treatments” offered to those of differing neurological backgrounds and lay a foundation for a person-centered approach implicitly informed by neurodiversity perspectives.

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This manuscript compares Dialogical therapy which is based on Buber’s philosophy, with Person-centered approach (PCA) to therapy which is based on Rogers’s theory of therapeutic relationships. From the comparison between them, I suppose that Dialogical psychotherapy and PCA represent two separate branches with differences mainly in their theoretical framework but with similarities in their therapeutic practice. Finally discussed are their relation to postmodern thought and constructivist principles and the possibilities for their complementary implementation.

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Carl Rogers’ theory of the actualizing tendency (Goldstein,1939; Rogers, 1959, 1980) involves the view that human nature is inherently constructive and prosocial. Critics (e.g., May, 1982) of client-centered therapy (CCT) have argued that it avoided negative antisocial feelings and impulses, exhibiting a bias toward the positive.Bradburn (1996) conducted a study on Rogers’ therapy to evaluate the charge of positive bias. She utilized 25 transcripts of Rogers’interviews to examine his responses to client expressions of positive, negative, mixed or neutral affective valence. Her aim was to determine (a) whether Rogers favored positive versus negative client expressions in general, as measured by his own affective valence and also measured by its intensity relative to the client’s and (b) whether client anger, reputed to be a troublesome emotion for Rogers, increased positive bias.

Results failed to substantiate any positive bias. (1) Analysis showed a strong positive association between the valence of client statements and the valence of Rogers’ statements (p < .005). (2) Except after positive client statements, Rogers gave fewer positive and more negative responses than expected (p < .005). (3) He diminished all client affective intensity more than he intensified it (p < .005), tending to do so relatively more often for positive than for negative client affect. This finding suggested that CCT responds not only to feelings but rather to the client’s whole meaning, including cognitive and information processing elements (e.g., Zimring, 1990a.b.). (4) Rogers tended to express negative valence or intensifyaffect in response to clients’ anger at a higher rate than for other negative effects. Keywords: Carl R. Rogers, client-centered, person-centered, humanistic psychotherapy, empathic understanding responses, bias in psychotherapy, Rollo May, self-actualization, problem of evil, actualizing tendency, nature of man.

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Editorial comments by Jerold D. Bozarth and Fred M. Zimring.

The birth ofthe Person-Centered Revlew has now taken place. As for any new infant, the proud father has great hopes for what his child might become.
At this point I would like to share with you some of my hopes for this new journal. It is my desire that the journal reflect the values of the person-centered approach and many of Carl Rogers’s personal qualities. Yet I also hope that the Person-Centered Review will develop its own identity and character.

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Relational dynamic education and counseling is a developing approach that views education as (1) a process that targets the emergence and establishment in the individual of a unique identity and (2) an act, not static but dynamic and fluid, greatly influenced by the quality of the relationships. The fruits of this pedagogy depend heavily on the transformation of the educational relationship into a genuine, person- centered one. It has application in every field of human endeavor where the healthy psychological and spiritual growth of the individual is a goal. In this article, the basic concepts and tenets of this approach are presented. A new teaching model is put forward, based on the quality of person-centered relationships between the student and the teacher.

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This paper describes a study that evaluated person-centered psychological assistance in reducing the stress ofworkers in stressful jobs. Randomly-assigned experimental group participants received written information on basic person-centered counseling. Participants were asked to implement these methods while talking with an
as signed co-worker for 10 minutes a day for one week about the co-worker’s stresses or emotions relating to the workplace. Participants in the experimental group completed a distress measure before and after the intervention. Post-intervention distress levels of the experimental group significantly decreased compared to the control group which received no intervention. The findings suggest that providingworkers in stressful jobs opportunities to receive person-centered psychological assistance from co-workers informed about basic person-centered counseling may be helpful in reducing distress.

At the Annual Conference of the Association for the Development of the Person-Centered Approach in 1994, I asked Jules if I might interview him. As a member of a panel earlier in the day in which participants talked about client-centered theory early in its development, Jules spoke of a “lost piece” of his history early in development of client-centered theory. Jules also talked about his theory, a human system model of positive health. Moreover, he described the basic methodology which therapists from this theoretical perspective might enter a client’s “system” by making connection, and facilitating therapeutic growth through communication. My purpose in interviewing Jules is threefold. I would like others to hear Jules tell his story – that is, to tell how his ideas emerged, found a home in Rogerian theory, and continue to unfold. I would like to acknowledge the “lost piece” in Jules’s history. And I hope to provide others with a narrative account of the development of client-centered (now person-centered) theory and how complimentary person-centered theory is to human systems theory, for which Jules has not only a conceptual definition, but a methodology.

This article presents an empathy-focused approach to conflict resolution among children that is applicable in schools and other settings. The authors illustrate the approach with a case example and with role definitions for speakers, listeners, and facilitators. The authors assert that complete communication (having children in conflict listen to one another and then empathically respond to one another without judgment or bias) is a highly effective and powerful means to conflict resolution. Important interpersonal and intrapersonal benefits include: increased self-efficacy and self-reliance, increased respect for self and others, increased empathy and emotional maturity, and increased skills in developing meaningful friendships. Further, this model may help prevent school violence resulting from children feeling ostracized and unheard. Additional applications are also discussed.

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A new framework will be offered to answer questions about: 1) Why psychotherapeutic change occurs and why empathy has the effect it does; and 2) What are the targets of empathic understanding?

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Evaluating one’s own person-centeredness can be facilitated by asking the question, “What is the client’s perception of the therapist’s intent” The present paper asserts that from a person-centered approach, the client’s perceptual stance is the context for relationship development, and a context within which the therapist’s response must be evaluated. Empathy with the client’s phenomenal world of the therapists’ intent can be a guide for evaluating therapeutic person-centeredness. To assure that the therapist manifests a trust in the client’s self-actualization tendency, it is critical to assess the client’s perception that this is so.

This paper reviews the client-centered approach to empathy with a view toward uncovering relational themes in Rogers’ original conceptualization. Challenging traditional versions of empathy which reduced the concept to a special quality of the therapist or to a precise communication skill, this paper argues that empathy is an interactional variable, not well suited to theoretical definition. A model emerges for understanding empathy as on aspect of the interactional relationship which develops between counselor and client.

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Abstract. Rogerian attributes of congruence, unconditional positive regard, and empathic understanding are at the core of person-centered counseling. The author presents a training model for undergraduates based on these seminal ideals. Included are how to create an emotionally safe environment for acquiring clinical skills, the importance of developing in-class community, how to facilitate choosing co-counselors, and the impact of supervision and feedback. The use of didactic exercises, required papers and reading, co-counseling triads, discussions, relevant self-disclosure, and high student and instructor engagement promotes an interactive, inclusive, clinically challenging course. Teachers and students report high satisfaction with this classroom experience.

This paper compares Rogers’ early formulation of the theory of personality and behavior (Rogers, 1951), which has become known as “The Nineteen Propositions,” with his main statement of personality theory (Rogers, 1959). The theoretical developments which took place during those few intervening years, particularly in relation to unconditional positive regard, throw some light on, and support, Jerold Bozarth’s reconceplualization of unconditional positive regard as “The primary condition of therapeutic personality change” (Bozarth, 1996, p.44). In this paper I want to describe those changes and demonstrate their importance to the development of person-centered theory.

Specific transcript material is presented to help therapists recognise clients’ immediately sensed, but implicit experience. The observational markers of High Experiencing (EXP) process defined in the research instrument, the ExP Scale, are shown to specify clinical interventions and training procedures for therapists..One kind oftherapist response that points toward the implicit is explained and the difference such a tesponse makes to the client’s subsequent responses is illustrated. The therapist’s capacity to respond toward the implicit is a kind of empathy, different from either an accurate grasp of content or emotion.

Carl Rogers explicitly described children’s urges to inflict pain, a male organism directing a sexual assault on young girls, and a mother’s organic need to aggress against her child. In light of these recognitions of human destructiveness by Rogers, Quinn (1993) has recently challenged the commitment of person-centered psychologists to the wholly constructive actualizing tendency. Quinn (1993) has argued for destructiveness being equally “at core” with constructive organismic capacities. He has also asserted that this possibility was acknowledged, although inadvertently so, by Rogers himself, through various descriptions (admissions to?) human destructiveness. If person-centered psychology is equivocal about the inherentness of human destructiveness, then many person-centered deductions and applications become clouded. Quinn (1993) focused on client-centered therapy, arguing that the client’s organismic valuing process, which may well include destructive features, has limited adaptive benefit. Although I do not find that Rogers recognized destructiveness as an inherent directionality, it is true that person-centered theory has not dealt with negative human behaviors in conceptually satisfying ways. This paper is a start toward changing that. Four explicit “cases” of human destructiveness are taken from prominent works and are explained by person-centered constructs and specific processes which Rogers saw as relevant to the actualization of destructiveness. The paper concludes with critical reflection on Quinn’s (1993) developmental-interactional approach to psychotherapy, an alterative to the client-centered approach.

Despite knowledge of empathy’s important role in the counseling relationship, literature regarding nurturing counseling students’ empathic abilities is limited. In particular, literature lacks focus on enhancing one’s ability to convey empathy. In the following we discuss ideas about fostering empathic abilities and the importance of further research on enhancing empathy conveyance.

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The concept of being nondirective in person-centered therapy is presented and followed by a discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of being nondirective. The purpose for doing so is to examine the principle of being nondirective in order to offer a proposal of the concept of being nonpredictive. The authors assert that the concept of being nonpredictive may be even more fundamental to not being an expert on the client than the concept of being nondirective. Being nonpredictive allows for the different

perspectives of the two authors, particularly with respect to the question of offering, or not offering advice and suggestions to clients. The authors conclude with appreciating, that the idea of being nonpredictive is potentially more inclusive, or flexible than the idea of being nondirective.

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The status of research on the person-centered hypothesis of necessary and sufficient conditions was reviewed in an attempt to suSg€st directions for future research on the effects of psychotherapy. Past research has suggested the importance of the therapeutic conditions for outcome, but the need for new directions in research on the therapeutic relationship is clear if the centered school is to continue to be influential. The most pressing need was considcred to be a modification of parson-centered theory, especially a modification that emphasises the client’s contribution to outcome. Theory-directed research may b€ most productive if it leads investigators into less general ways of analysing the therapeutic relationship. Some suggestions for this specificity and for methodological improvements were made.

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The dialogical process of client-centered therapy is viewed as a joint study of the nature and meaning of human experience as seen from the client point of view. It is proposed that one way to understand the “healing process” in dialogical therapy is to view grow(h and expansion of consciousness as natural consequences of successful moments in this inquiry, when the client achieves deeper contact wi1h, and makes a commitment to. some larger truth. AIso described is the syntactical nature of such discoveries and, by use of examples from therapy transcripts, how this is experienced by the client. The role of the therapist is seen as one of service to the client’s inquiry. issues of power and authority as they impinge upon the collaborative enterprise are discussed.

Child-centered play therapy (CCPT) is the developmentally responsive application of Carl Rogers’ person-centered theory in helping children by incorporating selected play materials within a safe, therapeutic environment. A look at the differing views on the application of empathic listening in CCPT is explored. Some mental health professionals criticize CCPT as being limited in its application; however, research supports the effectiveness of CCPT in meeting a wide range of presenting concerns in contrast to the personal beliefs of some mental health professionals. The application of CCPT provides children a caring, accepting relationship that frees their inner ability to grow and heal through honoring the person within the child.

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This paper depicts the therapist’s share of possible ruptures in the client-counselor relationship. It presents an attitude toward these ruptures which can facilitate the therapeutic and the client’s process. It distinguishes two kinds of rupture: unspoken rupture which can be discovered by the therapist without the client’s explicit pointing at it; and explicit rupture which is expressed by the client. The most important feature of the paper is the presentation of a specific therapist altitude–that of humility–which when held onto by the therapist can facilitate using ruptures for therapeutic goals. The attitude of humility towards ones own imperfections as a therapist, and towards the client’s view of the therapeutic relationship and therapy is developed through description and exemplification.

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With the information provided by the Association for the Development of Person-Centered Counseling Approach conference, in addition to lectures and teachings of psychotherapists researchers using Carl Rogers perspectives; I will identify the overlapping person-centered themes, approaches and application necessary to successfully work with the LBGTQ population. As a member of the LBGTQ community, I will share my own opinion and experiences with this therapeutic approach to exemplify its impact on my view of the therapeutic community’s use of Affirmative Therapy, as well as explain the benefits for future use serving the LBGTQ population.

This article explores and discusses the experiences of individuals of minority status in person-centered encounter groups. Although encounter groups are inherently person-centered and open to expression ofhuman experience, the authors ofthis paper have witnessed an emotional “shutting down” in some individuals of minority status who attempt to speak of their experiences as individuals of minority status. Although we contend the core conditions are sufficient for these individuals to have a meaningful experience in an encounter group, we believe not all members experience the core conditions and thus the conditions are not always being met; in particular the condition of empathy. We explore why empathy may not be communicated or received by both individuals ofmajority and minority statuses, respectively. We examine and discuss the concept oftopical groups, as well as the potential of implementing person-centered facilitators who could aid in maintaining the core conditions during especially vulnerable exchanges where members in the group are having difficulty experiencing and communicating the core conditions.

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During my attendance at ADPCA, I could not help but reflect on the benefits that the person-centered approach offers special education. In my professional experience as a teacher and therapeutic staff support, I have often found myself wondering the best way to reach children, and how to help them truly learn. Turning to a collection of essays, papers, and talks given by Carl Rogers gave me a great deal of philosophical direction, and creative inspiration. Looking at research on inclusion, especially by those who advocate and assess the effectiveness of a learner-centered approach to education, the efficacy of the approach became clear to me. Coming away from the conference I felt excited to incorporate the person-centered approach into my future work as a therapist. I now feel prepared to incorporate this approach in my current education profession, and into my own personal life. This paper presents reactions to the 24th Annual Association for the Development of the Person Centered Approach (ADPCA) Conference held at Kutztown University in June, 2009. This paper shares my experiences and reflections on how education and inclusion have been influenced by the Person-Centered Approach, as well as how the Person-Centered Approach can continue to enrich and infill special education practices with life and energy. Case Illustrations.

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This study is a qualitative case study of heuristic methodology whose focus was to investigate the individual experiencing of participants of person-centered community workshops. Data was gathered through open-ended interviews with fifteen participants of these workshops from a cross-cultural sample representing nine countries. The findings supported the construct of the actualizing tendency. Other theoretical findings pertaining to the application of the person-centered approach to community groups suggest differential emphasis of the core conditions of unconditional positive regard, genuineness and empathy, non-specificity of facilitator characteristics, and support of the theoretical premise of non-directiveness. Implications of the findings of the study suggest empathy as a less important condition in the person-centered community group, first experiences in those workshops as having the most impact, and a need for further research in person-centered community workshops as related to “the forming of community.”

This report is a heuristic case study of individual experiencing at a Person-Centered Community Workshop in Pezinok, Czechoslovakia during the week of April 13-20, 1991. The purpose of my study is to recreate the phenomenon of each participant’s ‘symbolic growth experience’ (Frick, 1983) defined as “a conscious perception of the symbolic-metaphorical dimension of immediate experience leading to heightened awareness. The creation of meaning, and personal growth’ (p. 68). The creation of each unique experience emerged from heuristic analysis of interviews of five of the participants in the workshop and immersion of the researcher in the workshop as a participant. The emergent depictions, portraits, and a synthesized integration of the data produced a dynamic flowing between three categories: (1) the individual factors of personal influencing and societal influencing; (2) the group factors of influencing of training and group interacting: and (3) group processing depicted as “struggling,,” “organizing,” and “dividing.” These three categories are interactive with each category flowing into the core category of “freeing.” The findings of this study are reminiscent of a previous finding of a qualitative study by Frick (1983). Emerging from his study was a symbolic growth experience defined as a “freeing power” of experiencing ‘self acceptance,’ ‘self-affirmation,’ ‘congruence’, and ‘increasing trust’. The re-creation the individual experiences of the researcher and the co-researchers resulted in a synthesized creation of the phenomenon of individual ‘freeing’ as experienced in the person-centered community workshop.

Introduction to Charlotte Ellinwood’s “Some observations from work with parents in a child therapy program”

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A form of Japanese linked poetry style, renku, is composed by two or more people as a group. In this paper the authors illuminate the therapeutic aspect of the renku-composing process. Renku allows participants to demonstrate their distinctiveness while maintaining the sense of togetherness, or “vacuum” Personality changes take place in the “vacuum. ” The significance of the renku setting and vacuum is discussed from the viewpoint of Taoistic philosophy. A renku group offers us a unique setting in which individuals can free their intuition and engage in dialogue among their whole personalities. Authors then compare a renku group with an intensive group and with Focusing. Renku is a metaphor and circumlocution of our experiencing relationships with other persons and with nature.

This paper presents for client-centered therapists, unfamiliar with recent developments in psychoanalysis, an overview of three contemporary psychoanalytic approaches: self psychology, intersubjectivity theory, and the relational approach. Despite very important differences, there is some overlap between client-centered therapy and the three psychoanalytic approaches summarized. For example, for both client-centered therapy and self psychology the emphasis is exclusively on the therapist’s empathic understanding, with minimal expression of the therapist’s idiosyncratic subjectivity in the relationship. Although relational psychoanalysts are much more likely to express their idiosyncratic subjectivity in the therapeutic relationship, through self-disclosures, enactments, confrontations, etc., they do so with a respect for the patient’s autonomy and freedom to take or leave what is offered. In contrast to orthodox Freudian psychoanalysis, this attitude of not imposing a therapist’s (or anyone’s) authority has always been a key value of the non-directive client centered approach. Some theoretical ideas of psychoanalysis (e.g. being aware of both the therapist’s and client’s organizing principles/transferences) have interested this author. Another purpose of this paper is a personal description of the author’s development as a psychotherapist. Keywords: relational psychoanalysis, self psychology, intersubjectivity theory, client-centered therapy.

This article addresses a way to facilitate significant experiential learning environments. Humanistic principles elucidated by Carl Rogers, combined with the author’s thirty years of personal classroom experience, serve as a template for creating powerful and rewarding classroom events. The fundamental importance ofthese environments is to inspire and encourage students to use education as a building block to become fully functioning beings.

Client-centered therapists prior to 1957 did not offer self- disclosures or their views of the client’s narrative even when requested to do so. The client-centered therapist did not interpret, advise or offer personal opinions or judgments. The self that engaged in ordinary conversation was not present. In this way the therapy bore no resemblance to any other helping relationship. In stark contrast, person-centered therapists are encouraged to offer their reactions to the client when appropriate. Indeed, person-centered therapists view themselves as more authentic “real persons” only if they are willing on occasion to disclose their thoughts and feelings. The self who engages in ordinary conversation is present. Despite these differences person-centered therapists claim that they have not restored the authority of the therapist. Indeed they insist they meet the client more on a person to person basis than the client-centered therapist. Brodley, more than perhaps Rogers himself, deeply appreciated that the autonomy of the client’s narrative could be seriously undermined by any personal disclosures of the therapist. However even she justified the inclusion of the therapist’s expression of feelings in certain contexts. This paper challenges Brodley’s justifications and shows that therapist framed responses do indeed run the risk of undermining the client’s autonomy. The paper further proposes that the distinction between personal and therapeutic self-disclosures is a category mistake. Therefore, client-centered and person-centered therapies are not viewed as two tribes belonging to the same nation but two distinct nations.

Keywords: client-centered therapy, person-centered therapy, category mistake, self-disclosures, empathic reflections, empathic understanding responses.

Many people relish the chance to try to be free of visiting their dangerous and shameful places. After years of suffering the agonies of their lives, they have had enough. In the context of a counselling relationship, they can have the chance to step outside of the critical and negative judgements with which they are familiar. They can begin to value and appreciate themselves. On occasion, being too keen to move on from their past, they can get into difficulties creating a new life within the context of their current world. I have sometimes seen that clients have wanted to block out a part of their world they have not wanted and hoped that they would then be OK. I was intrigued to find that Marcel Proust (1996) had written: “But the absence of one part from a whole is not only that, it is not simply a partial lack, it is a derangement of all the other parts, a new state which it was impossible to foresee in the old” (p. 368). I often see that it is that derangement, or a new state, that can be troublesome.

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This paper suggests that, contrary to popular opinion, it is possible to have a “high-tech/high-touch” society. Some of the qualities of a highly technological society are discussed. An attempt is then made to demonstrate a number of compatibilities between person-centered values and the values of a highly technological society. It is suggested, we need not fear that the individual will be depersonalized or demeaned in a continually advancing technological society, but that the individual will find greater freedom of expression and individuality in this rapidly advancing technological society – perhaps greater than in any previous historical era.

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Memories of Fred Zimring by The Client-Centered Therapy Person-Centered Approach Network

Research indicates that client-centered therapy is effective. Its application, however, has often been handicapped by the assessment and diagnostic procedures typically utilised in a mental health facility. These procedures influence the therapy relationship into being therapist-centered, with the client perceiving the therapist as expert. Such a perception is in conllict with the theory and practice of client-centercd therapy. This article addresses the problems inherent in assessment and diagnosis and makes suggestions designed to stimulate a dialogue that can lead to client-centered therapists applying their skills while living with the reality of mental health procedures.

Keywords: Encounter group, unstructured group, Person-Centered group, power, multiple relationships, group dynamics.

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My task is to try to sift out the principles of therapeutic work that I am actually using in my daily work with individuals, couples, business leaders, and groups. I am allowing myself this privilege after some 50 years of dedicated person-centered activities as a clinician, academic teacher, and researcher. I have found certain principles that to me seem necessary for a truly positive person-centered outcome. Some examples are: “You Must Love People, Including Yourself,” “Offer the Client a Relationship Between Two Persons,” and “Bring to the Session Your Honest, Genuine Self.”

Master’s candidates in counseling psychology, along with their seminar supervisor discuss, debate, and summarize their reactions to Natalie Rogers’ therapy demonstration video. Responses are candid and cover a broad range of perspectives. The reviewers address various philosophical and practice issues that converge on two central themes: that is person-centered therapy, and what is good therapy. Following the dialogue, reactions to the video and to the critique process are presented

Writings by Nathaniel J. Raskin are annotated with mention of his views on person-centered supervision, education, and his relationship with Carl Rogers. The author reviews his 1974 client-centered therapy demonstration. Experiences of Raskin in person-centered groups are described. The reference list updates an earlier bibliography (Raskin, 1989).

Core underlying principles and concepts that are shared by the group process in twelve-step recovery meetings and the person-centered approach to therapy are examined. Although developed independently, both twelve-step recovery and person-centered therapy encourage change in adults and promote psychological development. Sharing from direct, personal experience is important in both practices, as is developing an awareness of feelings and needs.

As an example of sharing in a twelve-step meeting, an extended share on the topic of recovering sexual intimacy is included in an appendix. This example is intended to illustrate how sharing personal feelings and experiences with others, in a nonjudgmental and empathic setting, fosters self-acceptance and change.

Although the person-centered approach and twelve-step recovery have distinct features, both benefit from a felt quality of non-judgmental acceptance that is achieved by sharing feelings and personal experiences. Acceptance, which is the common ground in both models, helps individuals grow and differentiate while developing stronger connections with others.

The core conditions stated by Carl Rogers as necessary and sufficient for constructive personality change are vulnerable to misuse even by therapists whose original purpose is of studied and pure intent. Kornfield’s elucidation of the Buddhist concept of The Near Enemies is used as a perspective to understand the core conditions. Greater self-awareness of the experience of empathy and unconditional positive regard allows an opportunity for therapists to be personally congruent with the purpose of the core conditions. Attachment, pity and indifference are discussed as traps to intended outcomes in psychotherapy.

Two case examples demonstrate how formal assessment of cognitive functioning can enhance and clarify empathizing with the emotions and verbal expressions of brain-injured clients. Neuropsychological Assessment, broadly defined to include information gathered from others, behavioral and systematic observation, careful listening to the patient and standardized tests, can explain how brain-injured people think. This can enhance our ability to know and reflect on what it is like to be them (empathy).

This paper describes how the nondirective altitude, client-centered theory and the three attitudinal conditions inform and become evident in this therapist’s psychotherapy work with children. It is asserted that the Rogerian attitudinal conditions are sufficient regardless of whether or not the client articulates and understands his or her feelings. Two of Virginia Axline’s principles for child therapy are described as being somewhat in contrast with nondirective client-centered theory.

The authors reconsider the rationale for the exclusive use of empathic reflections to ensure a nondirective psychotherapeutic relationship. This model of nondirective therapy is contrasted with the view that the nondirective therapist can be defined in terms of a state of mind rather than by way of specific behaviors. The authors argue that in viewing nondirectivity as an attitude it becomes difficult to exclude any kind of therapeutic exchange since all may be said to emanate from a nondirective attitude. The result is that Rogers’ nondirective therapy turns into Person-Centered Anything (Merry, 1990) and can consequently be insidiously directive.

I see the process of Nonviolent Communication (NVC) as being a set of tools to aid one in practicing the Person-Centered Approach (PCA) within interpersonal relationships. The great value of NVC as I see it is that it enables one to take the PCA, which is usually looked at in a very theoretical way, and make it into a very practical thing that anyone can do. I see great potential for Nonviolent Communication being used to assist in the real-life applicability of the Person-Centered Approach in more and more diverse situations.

I will briefly examine here some of the key points of the Person-Centered Approach, with a particular emphasis on Carl Rogers’ 1956 document entitled “The Necessary and Sufficient Conditions of Therapeutic Personality Change”, and relate each to their complementary practices that exist within Nonviolent Communication.

Human beings often inflict pain on one another for the flimsiest of reasons, including “trying to do good. ” Under such pretenses, we continue to destroy others and even ourselves. But, we can also care for (even love) one another. We can create beauty, better ourselves and life in general. Were this not so, we would have no thoughts to consider today. These notes pose questions and observations that, at best, might lead to informing our constructive side and lead to improving our understanding of ourselves, our relationships, our groups.

Notes on the relationship between person-centered theory and the emerging field of health psychology: Indications and suggestions for theory, research, and practice given at the annual meeting of The Association for Development of the Person-Centered Approach, May 27-31, 1993, Maryville College, Maryville, TN.

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The article makes the point that methods are complex, instantaneous expressions of the counselor’s belief system. The argument is supported and illustrated with reference to four areas of belief having critical importance for counselor techniques. These are: (l) The counselor’s beliefs about tbe counseling process; (2) beliefs about goals and self- actualization; (l) beliefs about human nature and the growth principle; and (4) the Deed for counselor authenticity. The article concludes with the suggestion that similar applications of perceptually oriented thinking to broader aspects of counseling theory, pactice, research, and education may provide fruitful avenues for exploration.

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A graduate student reflects on her experience of an independent study of the Person- Centered Approach (PCA). She recounts her initial difficulties with the approach as practiced by one of her professors. She describes a subsequent episode with the professor and considers the episode in terms of her personal growth, the goals of her independent study, and implications for her professional counseling work.

The reflections of an assistant professor facilitating a graduate student Person- Centered Approach (PCA) independent study experience are presented. A brief introduction to the assistant professor’s approach to learning and the events leading up to the independent study are discussed. The assistant professor’s journal entries of the person-centered experience, including dates, reflections, related letters, and e-mails are provided.

Personality Integration: Studies and Reflections, by Julius Seeman, Human Sciences Press, Inc., NY, 1983,248 pp., $26.95 (hardcover)

Freedom to learn for the 80’s, by Carl R. Rogers, Charles E. Merrill Publishing Co., Columbus, OH, 1986,312 pp., $16.95 (paperback).

The aim of this paper is the review of the content of the conversation—and not of the “dialogue” as I think—held in 1965 between Paul Tillich, the German existential theologian and philosopher, and Carl Rogers, the American psychologist and creator of the person-centered approach1. By using qualitative methodology and presenting their views, I would like to explore six topics all pursued by Rogers with Tillich: (1) the importance of self-affirmation, (2) the nature of man, (3) the basic alienation and estrangement of man, (4) Tillich’s theological language and terminology, (5) the acceptance in interpersonal relations, and (6) what constitutes the optimal person. Finally, I conclude with a commentary regarding their discussion, and I trace the similarities and differences between them.

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Jane–Flotte Editorial
Hauser–A Devil’s Bargain: Meeting Psychiatric Diagnosis in Person-Centred Therapy
Bolton–Decentering Neuronormativity in Humanistic Psychotherapy: Towards
a Neurodiversity-Informed, Person- Centered Approach

The journal reflects on the changes since its inception in summer 2020, highlighting the impact of the pandemic and imbalances of power in various aspects of life. The theme is “power,” and the editors appreciate all submissions. They encourage the community to engage with shared values and generate new ideas, particularly related to the person-centered approach.

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This paper looks at the possibility of applying a person-centered approach to medical care within an HMO. It discusses the difficulties and rewards of such a practice. The author presents a further challenge to all interested in PCA to continue to influence behavior and policy within the managed care model.

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The Authors would like to express our gratitude to Natalie Rogers, who died on October 17, 2015. Many students, clients, clinicians, and friends alike mourn her passing and celebrate the contributions that will live on in our hearts. We dedicate this modest review to her and those influenced by her. We encourage readers to see http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/pressdemocrat/obituary.aspx?pid=1 76173816 for a formal obituary and information to contribute to a scholarship fund to more easily allow people to participate in expressive arts.

It is suggested that person-centered thinking about counseling requires reexamination of assumptions for counselor training programs. From a background of perceptual psychology, a series of studies of the belief systems of good helpers, and experience gained in several innovative programs, seven assumptions are proposed, discussed, and illustrated with adaptations from sample programs.

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The core tenets of a person-centered counseling perspective are similar to the guiding principles of a complementary approach to research. The Community-Based Participatory Research model (CBPR) is outlined to provide counselors with an approach to research that will resonate with a person-centered theoretical framework. In order to improve health outcomes, Minkler and Wallerstein (2008) contended CBPR equitably draws upon the strengths of community members, organizational representatives, and researchers through a collaborative approach. Counselors, working from a community perspective identifying with a person- centered orientation, may find a new avenue to address prevention and research. Specifically, for counselors working in communities where prevention and research are aimed at reducing health disparities, counselors can work within a CBPR framework to form equitable and sustainable partnerships that complement the person- centered counseling perspective.

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There are many organizations that share the philosophical underpinnings proposed by Carl Rogers, namely the conditions and attitudes conducive for constructive growth and commitment to relationships based on the concept of the actualizing and formative tendencies. Each organization has specific aims and functions that may differ. If one symbolizes the person-centered approach as an organism, the different organizations, functioning at different levels, contribute to the whole. This article aims to describe four English-language organizations and presents a case for individual and institutional memberships that support the advancement of the person-centered approach within political and institutional arenas. It also highlights ways in which readers could choose to support the person-centered “organism,” halting a current climate of decline.

Analysis of a Transcript: Claudia’s Session with Suzanna

This paper highlights the major points in Rogers’ 1967 article Graduate Education in Psychology: A Passionate Statement and demonstrates how the article is still relevant to current graduate programs. Rogers’ (1967) implicit assumptions are explored in-depth and his alternative assumptions are presented. As graduate students, we provide specific examples from our own personal experiences to illustrate Rogers’ comments. Student-centered learning, self-determination theory, and Montessori-type programs will be discussed in relation to the implementation of Rogers’ alternative assumptions. This paper presents a personal view of the current state of graduate education, discusses how educational programs could be shifted to be more focused on student-directed learning, and proposes creating training programs that would yield independent, open, and curious psychologists.

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This paper explores the application, by teachers, of the person-centered counseling approach, within an ethnically diverse educational population, to investigate how students may feel heard, express their concerns and become empowered in their learning. The central focus of this paper, revolves around the application of the Advocacy model, a school-based, person-centered system, designed to support disengaged adolescent students. The case-study o f an individual student, illustrates how the person-centered approach, may contribute to addressing the complex experiences of adolescent

students, who are attempting to negotiate the space between their traditional culture and the alien and confusing culture of the school. The terms advocacy and culture-broker will be addressed in this paper.

The therapist’s contribution is crucial to therapeutic progress in person-centered therapy. Although Carl Rogers (1951) established the personhood of the therapist as a central element in client change, there is a paucity of research in how person-centered therapists describe and experience the self they bring to therapy. In the research described here, person-centered therapists were interviewed and asked to describe the self they bring to therapy and how they might use this self in therapeutic work. Therapists described the self that they bring to therapy as a central entity that plays an important role in the therapeutic alliance. Rogers’view that the personhood of the therapist is a key part of the therapeutic endeavour is confirmed in this study. The various ways that therapists might use their self, particularly when building relationships and connecting with clients, is also described in the present study.

The authors invite the reader to a closer look at the person-centered approach within the increasing trend toward transpersonal approaches to therapy. The article addresses values in contrast to dogma and emphasizes the client’s freedom to self- determination in the context of spirituality.

This article aims to explore the changing process of a bereaved father who lost his daughter out of the 1999 Taiwan Earthquake. Initially, this father, whom I will call John, greeted me formally and politely, though with implicit distrust. However, in a period of 16 months in which I continually paid visits to the family some long conversations also took place, and John gradually’ was willing to trust me. Beyond a recorded in-depth interview with John, I sensed his intense emotions over the loss, and thus invited him for therapy. John finally agreed, and there were seven therapy sessions.
I worked as a person-centered therapist. In counseling, John chose the topic, issue, and speed, and I followed. I kept field notes for the encounter within 24 hours after each session. The descriptions in this paper came out of the field notes. Two themes – a deeper understanding of John and three major changes in John – emerged from the notes. The three changes were autonomy, flexible views, and feat of retirement. They seem unrelated to each other; however, they are all induced from his grief experience. The application of the person-centered therapy appeared to open a new possibility for the field of grief therapy.

When it comes to best practices in therapy, there is no one-size fits all, but the person-centered approach can apply to many. The current paper examines the applications of the person-centered core conditions to working with client issues of masculinity and violence.

This paper focuses on several misunderstandings of the person-centered approach which criticize Rogers’s conceptualization of the necessary and sufficient conditions for therapeutic personality change (Fay & Lazarus, 1992; Norcross, 1992) and Rogers’s theory in general (Cain, 1993; Quinn, 1993). Several of their points are examined and their positions of inquiry challenged from the context of Rogers’s theory. The misunderstandings of client-centered theory and practice as interpreted from the framework of other theoretical positions raise an issue of the paradigmatic difference of person-centered therapy from other theories of therapy.

Although Rogers is a significant influence on current counseling and psychotherapy practice, person-centered therapy is in danger of extinction in the United States. One way to help it grow is by providing quality supervision to students who wish to become person-centered counselors and therapists. This paper introduces a five-factor model of PC training and supervision that is true to Rogers’ theory and consistent with current counseling standards.

Factor 1, communicating the core conditions, is grounded in nondirective communication and the self-actualization principle. A direct application of Rogers’ theory of therapy, Factor 1 can be called “counselor-centered supervision.” The remaining four factors communicate trainer/supervisor-centered attitudes.
Factor 2, training in the core conditions, introduces exercises for enhancing core-condition learning.
Factor 3, evaluation, encompasses instruction in self-evaluation, supervisor feedback, and complying with external requirements for evaluation.
Factor 4, supervising theoretical diversity, facilitates congruence in trainees’ self-directed theoretical propensities, and
Factor 5, supervision ethics, asserts PC commitments to the American Counseling Association’s (2005) humanistic ethical guidelines and standards of practice.

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This paper presents two conceptions of “presence” found in Rogers’ writings about client-centered therapy. The first conception is a naturalistic one emphasizing the openness and immediacy of the therapist in the relationship. The second builds on the first, adding an element of spirituality or mysticism. Expressing my rejection of Rogers’ second conception, I discuss the phenomena of presence and compare Rogers’ spiritual or mystical interpretations to my own naturalistic interpretations of similar experiences. Finally, I describe a small pilot study of presence that shows the concept can be meaningful to clients.

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Two types of person-centered supervision are considered; one emphasizes the preservation of “pure forms,” the other a basic philosophy of life. The philosophy-of-life-oriented supervision is characterized by taking individual differences into account, and by emphasizing the development of the supervisee’s internal locus of evaluation through self-awareness and trust in the supervisee’s own intuition. Some approaches to developing self-awareness are discussed. Two kinds of empathic responses are hypothesized: supportive responses and integrative impressions. It is postulated that intuition is manifested through integrative impressions of which four kinds are described. It is recommended that the supervisee’s preferred mode of expressing integrative impressions be honored, even when different from the supervisor’s. Thus the same principles that guide therapy are also present in supervision: the trust of the supervisee’s inner resources, and capacity for self-determinaion and self-direction

I argue a two-part thesis: that the Person-Centered Approach to therapy has roots as far back as the Greeks and that the Person-Centered Approach resonates with basic themes found in the history of Western thought. To support this thesis, I survey relevant events in the history of Western thought, focusing on the Modem Period movements of Rationalism and Romanticism that appear to have most influenced the Person-Centered Approach.

Physical therapists treat many acute and chronic conditions that create personal, social, psychological and economic burdens. When physical therapy students begin engaging with clients during clinical rotations, the development of a compassionate bond between student and client is crucial (Bohart & Rosenbaum, 1995; Cornelius-White, 2006; Bayliss & Strunk, 2015). A strictly biomedical model cannot fully address the complex clinical nature of pain and disability, nor can it fully address the psychological distress that clients suffer (Fuentes, et al., 2014). A strictly biomedical approach tends to place less value on life factors such as family support, motivation, internal locus of control, personality styles, and daily obstacles that might interfere with the processes leading to rehabilitation (Josephson, Woodward-Kron, Delany & Hiller, 2015). Brodley (2019) described the need for a growth-promoting climate. This point is at the heart of the profession’s shift from the Nagi Model of Disablement (biomedical) to the International Classification of Functioning (ICF) (a more biopsychosocial model) paradigm.

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This paper presents Pre-Therapy as an evolution of Client-Centered therapy, while Pre-Symbolic Experiencing is seen as an evolution of Experiential therapy. Rogers considered Pre-Therapy to be of significance for the Client-Centered approach. Pre-Therapy emphasizes empathic contact, and is a theory of psychological contact. Pre-Therapy is not process-directive as is the case with Process-Experiential therapy, but surrenders to and follows the pre-expressive attempts of the client.

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Review of Presentation: A Family Approach to Treating Troubled Adolescents; Couples on the Fault Line: Contemporary Couples; by Peggy Papp.

Treatment plans with so-called “contracts” are either theoretically irrelevant or antithetical to the Client-Centered approach. However, in the mental health field, they are fairly ubiquitous, especially for Medicaid work. Because of this, I surveyed mental health professionals in one state to see how they used treatment plans with contracts and what they thought of them. I intended to: (a) discover whether these were, indeed, a professionally accepted standard of care (b) compare and contrast Client-Centered respondents with professionals of other orientations. Overall, belief that two of the contract requirements (specifying what goals would be accomplished and how this would be done) were helpful fell between “neutral” and “agree somewhat” on a five-point Likert scale. A third (specifying the time when a goal would be accomplished) fell between “neutral” and “disagree somewhat.” Thus the contract did not appear to be an accepted standard of care. Nor did the plan as a whole: Fifty-one percent of the Medicaid providers said it was related to what they did only “marginally” or “not at all” and 75% said they used it because of legal or clinic regulations. There weren’t enough Client-Centered professionals to allow them to be examined separately, so respondents were combined in two groups, those whose approaches were supposed friendly to the plans and those that were skeptical of them. Statistically, the skeptical and friendly groups differed on how helpful they thought the contract requirements were, although the Friendly group’s means for each of the three requirements still only fell between “Neutral” and Agree Somewhat.” The groups did not differ, however, on how much the plan affected their behavior or why they used it. The results suggest that to make clinical requirements more conducive to Client-Centered practice it would be more helpful to focus on what professionals actually do and what they believe about what they do rather than on theoretical issues.

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This paper aims to transfer central, influential concepts and ideas from person-centered education into the context of technology-enhanced learning. We systematically review promotive activities and humanistic educational concepts and share our experiences in introducing and actually living these activities and interpersonal attitudes in technology-enhanced environments. Students’ reactions confirm the validity of our approach, which proposes to complement personal resourcefulness with Web- supported activities. Our primary goal is to make learning in today’s knowledge society a growthful experience for learners as well as facilitators.

This study investigated the effect on psychological well-being and intrapersonal congruence for women incest survivors, engaged in ongoing group psychotherapy, who participated in an Expressive Arts Workshop. The Expressive Arts Workshop utilized a person-centered approach. This approach invited each participant to explain what her art, music, and movement experience was like without interpretation from others. After a participant finished explaining what seemed important to her, group members were encouraged to focus on internal feelings related to what they had witnessed and were invited to share those internal reflections. The results of this study demonstrate that using person-centered expressive arts increases psychological well-being and intrapersonal congruence of adult women incest survivors. Thus, person-centered expressive arts used in conjunction with group psychotherapy can be effective in enhancing psychotherapeutic outcome.

This paper presents an interdisciplinary, person-centered perspective on the need for, and resources to enable, meteorological learning among humanistic and other psychotherapists.

Introductory note from F. Z.: This paper contains the first public discussion of experiencing. It was presented in a “Crazy Ideas” seminar talk by Carl in which Gene and I were graduate students, and then appeared in the Counseling Center Discussion Papers(Vol 1 no. 3) in 1955. What follows is the paper as originally written except for a few spelling corrections, completion of incomplete sentences and the occasional remark added to help the reader understand terms that were current in the 1950s.

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This project involved a transcription of a 2-hour community meeting with Carl Rogers and more than 100 participants at the summer 1975 workshop titled “A Person-Centered Approach: The Process of Individual Growth and its Social Implications.” During this meeting, Rogers candidly answered questions on a wide range of topics including planning for the workshop, the evolution of the person- centered approach and its meaning to him, partners and “satellite” relationships, encounter groups, therapy issues, how he made personal decisions, and his garden.

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This paper focuses on the intersection of technology and the challenges that contemporary students face in managing their anxiety and forming social connections. College counseling centers across the country have seen a marked increase in students struggling with anxiety (Center for Collegiate Mental Health, 2017). We propose that this trend is intricately linked with technology: the bombardment of information from social media and news outlets can be overwhelming. While other generations certainly share in some of this experience, it is the current generation of college students that are affected most pointedly, having never lived in a world without texting, Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat. Broad suggestions for helping students navigate the unique challenges they face, drawing primarily on tenets of the person-centered theory developed by Carl Rogers are offered. The paradoxical remedy to the modern anxiety may be a return to a simpler, rather than a more complex strategy for intervention.

Yhis paper focuses on the intersection of technology and the challenges that contemporary students face in managing their anxiety and forming social connections. College counseling centers across the country have seen a marked increase in students struggling with anxiety (Center for Collegiate Mental Health, 2017). We propose that this trend is intricately linked with technology: the bombardment of information from social media and news outlets can be overwhelming. While other generations certainly share in some of this experience, it is the current generation of college students that are affected most pointedly, having never lived in a world without texting, Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat. Broad suggestions for helping students navigate the unique challenges they face, drawing primarily on tenets of the person-centered theory developed by Carl Rogers are offered. The paradoxical remedy to the modern anxiety may be a return to a simpler, rather than a more complex strategy for intervention.

This paper proposes reasons client-centered therapists occasionally may make responses from their own frame of reference. Thirteen reasons are described. The risks involved in therapist-frame responses to the client’s sense of safety, freedom, and perception of the therapeutic attitudes, are discussed and emphasized.

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The aim of this paper is to show the evolution of myself as a humanistic psychologist and how the influence o f Carl Rogers, Abraham Maslow and Rollo May were a central part of my learning process. The core values of each theorist have retained potency over more than thirty years of my professional service. As part of this paper, I will endeavor to give a brief overview of humanistic psychology and the person-centered approach as part of the larger impact on more reductive approaches that were dominant at the time.

his qualitative study affirms the role of self-awareness in promoting personal growth. Experiences of sixteen graduate students enrolled in a counselor education program that intentionally requires self-reflection, introspection, and interaction were explored. Through written narratives, participants reported that engaging in activities designed to enhance self-awareness served to promote their personal and professional development. Being engaged in an on-going process of introspection allowed participants to effectively follow a path somewhat parallel to that of clients in therapy. Themes emerging from their narratives included heightened awareness of self, recognition of personal potential, enhanced empathy for self and others, and improved interpersonal relationships. Emerging from their focused efforts in self-reflection, participants reported an expanded sense of self and a confidence in their capacity to become successful counselors.

Enhanced self-awareness, long the hallmark of psychological health across insight-oriented therapies, offers promising direction for counselor education.

In dialogue format, the authors revisit the issues of scientific and humanistic approaches to human knowing raised by Carl Rogers and Michael Polanyi in their 1966 dialogue. Moorman posits an unreduced and unexplained view of persons and phenomena. Stillwell offers that the use of language necessarily introduces some reductionism. Both value an acceptance of experience. The dialogue concludes with expressions of trust in the making meaning from the ambiguity of existence using concepts like the “tacit,” the “self,” and “indefinitude.”

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A methodology of cooperative inquiry in which all those involved work together as coresearchers is described. The epistemological and ontological issues underlying this methodology are briefly discussed, and the argument made that the inquiry rests on an attitude of critical subjectivity within an epistcmological heterogeneity. Issues of validity within the paradigm are discussed, and practical steps for exploring threats to validity are outlined.

This research aims to teach culturally-relevant pedagogy to the preservice teachers by respecting the dignity of each learner. By comparing and contrasting the data collected from (Person-centered Learning Assessment) PCLA I and PCLA II (Freiberg, 2009), the researcher analyzed two lessons centered on culturally-relevant pedagogy. The research finds that person-centered learning approach can effectively transform the students from “tourists” into “citizens” inthe classroom, whereby their dignity and freedom to learn are respected. Additionally, the researcher can work as a resource person by engaging the students in stimulating learning environments. Last, the preservice teachers in the research were encouraged to locate their challenges and opportunities over the course of learning the concept of culturally-relevant pedagogy. Thus, the preservice teachers demonstrated active involvements in the various learning activities.

Keywords: culturally-relevant pedagogy, person-centered learning, resource person, dignity of learner.

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The authors reassert their position that the Carl Rogers who was infamous and indeed famous for presenting a non-directive therapy then authored a much more conventional directive therapy based on the category error that the “person” of the therapist is someone other than the therapist.

In the article: “Non-Directivity: An Attitude or a Practice?” behaviorism once again becomes the representation of client-centered therapy in an extension of a paper presented by Frankel in 1988 and further outlined in a more recent article by Frankel and Sommerbeck (2005). The fundamental premise of the authors’ argument is that client-centered therapy consists of “rules of engagement” that are adhered to by the therapist without deviation. These rules of engagement are embedded in therapist response repertoire and referred to as unwavering “empathic reflections.” Any deviation from this response style is considered to be a “prod,” which is defined as “any comment made from an external frame of reference (unempathic) that is made to enable the client to either gain insight or give psychological support” (p. 48). With this bit of behavioral sophistry, the authors become the definers and evaluators as well as the dictators of what constitutes the nondirective approach of client-centered therapy.

Book review of A Person-Centered Approach and the Rogerian Tradition: A Handbook

by Adam Quinn

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Review of Nancy H. Cochran, William J. Nording, and Jeff L. Cochran’s Child-Centered Play Therapy: A Practical Guide to Developing Therapeutic Relationships with Children.

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Review of Marius Romme, Sandra Escher, Jacqui Dillon, Dirk Corstens, and Mervyn Morris’ Living With Voices: 50 Stories of Recovery

On Becoming an Effective Teacher: Person-centered teaching, psychology, philosophy, and dialogues with Carl R. Rogers and Harold Lyon

Reviewed by Bill Miller

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Book review of The Relationship Inventory: A Complete Resource and Guide

by Godfrey T. Barrett-Lennard

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Book review of Therapy and the Counter-tradition: The edge of philosophy,

Edited by Manu Bazzano and Julie Webb

Book Review of Understanding Person-Centered Counselling: A Personal Journey

by Christine Brown

Book review of J. Michael Tyler and Russell Sabella’s Using Technology to Improve Counseling Practice: A Primer for the 21st Century.

Book review Otis Doesn’t Scratch

By Clare Shaw and Tasmin Walker (Illustrator)

This article examines the similarities and differences between the theories of Carl Rogers and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi regarding creativity and creative transformation. Both theorists emphasize the importance of the relationship between the individual and the environment, Rogers focusing on the therapeutic relationship and the role of creativity in personal transformation and self- actualization, and Csikszentmihalyi examining the role of the community system in supporting novel and transformational ideas. Both see creativity as a quality that can emerge given the right circumstances, and this invites us to consider the role we play as therapists in bringing about the creativity of our clients and community members.

The article hast wo purposes. The first is to present some misunderstood major aspects of client-centered therapy: the view of human nature, the actualising tendency, the nature of empathy, the place of intuition, the therapeutic relationship, the reorganisation of self, and the place given to theory. The second purpose is to relate each of these to the comparable aspects of the thinking of Kohut and Erickson, pointing to agreements and disagreements. One point of sharp differences is in the application of therapeutic principles in other fields. Neither Erickson nor Kohut was involved in this area, so only my work is described.

In the last decade of his life, Rogers’ conceptualization of the fully functioning individual, first fully described in 1961, was broadened to encompass new discoveries about the nature of human physical potentialities and of the physical universe. Rogers (1980) endeavored to describe the “person of tomorrow” who would live in an era when inner exploration of psychological capacities would commonly include meditative and other means of altering states of consciousness for purposes of enhanced self-understanding and physical well-being. He pointed out some correspondences between his then-nascent conceptions of new dimensions in psychic potential and models from Eastern traditions, and reprinted earlier, explicit references to Buddhist and Taoist principles as resonant with his views. Correspondences and contrasts between person-centered and traditional Buddhist psychological theories and the respective phenomenological realities they describe are explored here in greater detail. Finally, methodo- logical approaches to becoming a more fully functioning individual through person-centered therapeutic and meditative practices are compared.

Periodically, the Person-Centered Review will publish the responses of its Editorial Board to “Roundtable” Discussion questions. It is my hope that the responses will lead lo renewed interest in and continued dialogue about the issues addressed. The editor welcomes your reactions to the Roundtable Discussions. The responses of the Editorial Board members are generally reproduced verbatim although some minor editing was done for purposes of clarity or brevity of expression.

IN YOUR OPINION, WHAT IS MOST ESSENTIAL TO THE CONTINUED DEVELOPMENT
OF THE THEORY AND APPLICATION OF THE PERSON-CENTERED APPROACH?

This is a complete and corrected version of Dr. Kahn’s article.

This is a complete and corrected version of Dr. Kahn’s article.

Empathy, by A. P. Goldstein & G. Y. Michaels. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hillsgate, NJ, I985, 281 pp.,$29.95 (hardcover).

lnviting School Success: A Self-Concept Approach to Teaching and barning (2nd Ed.), by William W. Purkey & John M. Novak. Wadsworth Publishing, Belmont, CA, 1984, 159 pp., $14.25 (softcover).

“Heinz Kohut and Carl Rogers, A Timely Comparison,” by Edwln Kahn, in American Psychologist, 1985, 40, 893-904, 1985.

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In his second discourse, Jean Jacques Rousseau claims that human beings were most happy and free in their instinctive natural state and that social institutions are responsible for the corruption of humankind. For counselors and their clients, the goal is to maximize this original human nature through person-centered psychotherapy, that encourages the concepts of self-actualization, autonomy, and empathy.

This brief article discusses the author’s perceptions of the meaningful parallels between Taoism and Person-Centered Therapy.

This paper will present and discuss some of the results from Claudia Kemp’s Doctoral Dissertation research on Carl Rogers’ responses to his clients’ questions. It focuses on the part of Claudia’s study that compares Mr. Bryan’s questions and Rogers’ responses (to those questions) with clients’ questions and Rogers’ responses in a large sample of transcripts made from his later therapy sessions. It reveals some of the ways Rogers was in transition towards becoming a clientcentered therapist when conducting the Bryan sessions, and discusses behavioral differences in the two stages of his development – Bryan and post-Bryan.

This paper will present and discuss some of the results from Claudia Kemp’s Doctoral Dissertation research on Carl Rogers’ responses to his clients’ questions. It focuses on the part of Claudia’s study that compares Mr. Bryan’s questions and Rogers’ responses (to those questions) with clients’ questions and Rogers’ responses in a large sample of transcripts made from his later therapy sessions. It reveals some of the ways Rogers was in transition towards becoming a client-centered therapist when conducting the Bryan sessions, and discusses behavioral differences in the two stages of his development – Bryan and post-Bryan.

This paper represents the first step in an examination of experience with parents of children brought to the Counseling Center and seen by members of the Child Therapy Group. These experiences are considered in relation to client-centered theory and to experiences with other adult clients. Special emphasis is placed upon the establishment of the conditions necessary for therapy and the implications of our experience in this area for work with difficulty (“failure zone”) clients.

Carl Rogers’ psychotherapy behavior, recorded on film, video, audiotape and in verbatim transcripts, is a rich source for learning about psychotherapy in general and specifically about the client/person-centered approach that Rogers developed (Rogers, 1957;1959;1980;1986a).My interest in Rogers’ own therapy behavior — how it relates to his theory and development as a therapist — has led me to examine, thus far, 34 sessions, consisting of 1,930 responses Rogers made in reaction to his clients, conducted over a 46 year time span — from 1940 through 1986.

This report is primarily based on a system for rating client/person-centered therapy sessions which I developed with Anne Brody (Brodley & Brody, 1990; Brody, 1991; Brodley & Brody,1993). I shall summarize the findings from the total sample of 1,930 responses, show comparisons between Rogers’ behavior in the frames of three consecutive time spans over the 46 year period of the 34 sessions, and relate the findings to Rogers’ theoretical writings.

“A Plea for Understanding” by Thair R. Dieffenbach;

“Pretense” by Nicholas Mazza, Ph.D., Florida State University

“Haiku Poems” by Joe Utay, Eastern Kentucky University

This article begins with an introduction to trauma responses and a brief comparison of Client-Centered Therapy (CCT.) and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) It then presents three stories written by a former client who had experienced persistent trauma both as a child within her family and as a young adult living under a repressive regime The first two stories describe events from her past and the third offers an example of the lasting effects of her experiences. The article concludes with Stella’s and my reflections on the therapeutic process. Stella chose the pseudonyms to protect confidentiality and has given written permission for her material to be published.

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The following interview, transcribed from videotape, is the first meeting of Lucinda, a writer and journalist who lives in Mexico, and Susan Pildes, a client––centered therapist of 22 years. It was recorded in Chicago in October, 1993. The setting was Dr. Marjorie Witty’s Advanced Client- Centered Therapy class at the Illinois School of Professional Psychology. The tape was produced by Carl Aniel and transcribed by Tim Tribiano and Barbara Bogosian.

During his lifetime C. H. Patterson contributed significantly to the growth and enhancement of the person-centered, rehabilitation, and generic counseling, psychology and education movements in the United States and abroad. His work spans several decades. We consider C. H. Patterson to be one of the true disciples of Carl Rogers who made it his mission in life to promote the wonders and effectiveness of the person-centered approach. We were honored and humbled at the opportunity to have interviewed one of the great minds and contributors to theperson-centered counseling movement. This article merges separate interviews of C. H. Patterson conducted in 1999 by Dr. Morris L. Jackson and Dr. Sylvia Nassar- McMillan. For a complete reading of the individual interviews of C. H. Patterson, consult Eric Document Reproduction Service No. ED 435 879 and Counseling Today, July 1999, Volume 42, No. 1.

Teachers are involved in the personal transformation of their students whether or not they are comfortable with the idea of “changing” their students. In this paper, the image of an onion is utilized in the discussion of a model of multilayered learning, noting that learning does not take place only at the surface layer of skills and behavior, but also at the deeper layers of perspectives, values and basic assumptions, with different kinds of teaching likely to impact at each level.

This pilot study analyzed the empathic responses recorded on verbatim transcripts of client-centered therapy sessions submitted by graduate clinical psychology students for classes in client-centered therapy. For two groups of transcripts (initial and final), the researcher compared percentages of empathic responses to non-empathic responses as well as assessed empathic response quality. It was found that students delivered fewer non-empathic responses on final transcripts than on initial transcripts. They demonstrated a consistently high percentage of empathic responses on both groups of transcripts. In general, however, the quality of the delivery of these empathic responses remained relatively low.

Rogerian attributes of congruence, unconditional positive regard, and empathic understanding are at the core of person-centered counseling. The author presents a training model for undergraduates based on these seminal ideals. Included are how to create an emotionally safe environment for acquiring clinical skills, the importance of developing in-class community, how to facilitate choosing co-counselors, and the impact of supervision and feedback. The use of didactic exercises, required papers and reading, co- counseling triads, discussions, relevant self-disclosure, and high student and instructor engagement promotes an interactive, inclusive, clinically challenging course. Teachers and students report high satisfaction with this classroom experience.

[This download is not the original print version of the article but instead the errata version that was published in the Journal in a subsequent issue.]

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This article discusses how cultural changes in the United States led to an emergence of a number of mandated treatments intended to address the specific concerns of substance abuse, sexual abuse, and domestic violence. A brief history of interventions for each of the respective fields is described and a trend toward more humanistic treatment methods is noted. The similarities between the Person-Centered Approach and current trends in these fields are explained.

The paper discusses the actualizing tendency as a biological concept. It aims to clarify the meaning of constructive in AT theory and resolve the apparent contradiction between human pro-social nature and anti-social behavior from the perspective of AT theory.

A brief person-centered therapy practice is described in terms of the frequency and categorization of nondirective and directive verbal behaviors using 22 clients and 101 taped sessions during a nine-month period. Empathic following responses (91%) followed by nondirective therapist comments (4%) were the most frequently observed behaviors. The therapist spoke about 4 sentences a minute, comprising approximately 28% of the spoken words during therapy sessions. While person-centered nondirectiveness was found to co-exist with therapeutic effectiveness, a pattern was not found between slight differences in nondirectiveness and outcome measures

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Client-centered therapy and ecopsychology start from very different ways of imagining the place of individuals in the world. However, in the tension between these two perspectives there is the potential for enriching both of them.

There is a considerable difference between the values that underlie the practice of a psychotherapy that is based on collaboration between client and therapist and one that depends on the expertise and authority of the therapist. This paper explores the collaborative therapeutic relationship within client-centered therapy and focuses particularly on the values and principles that inform the practice of collaborative psychotherapy. Examples from a client-centered practice are introduced to illuminate the informing values and principles that are described.

An integrative model of psychotherapy is presented in which the therapist can use techniques and “interventions,” but from a fundamentally person-centered stance. It is argued that ultimately all therapy is self-help and that it is clients who heal themselves. However the therapeutic relationship is a particularly useful “self-help space” in which clients can grow. Therapy is therefore fundamentally relational, with technology second. In a relational model of therapy, empathy is important and conceived of as resonance. Appreciation of the client becomes a major modality of relating. Techniques can be offered as ways of appreciating, empathizing with, and relating to clients. Empathy and experiencing are conceived of in fundamentally aesthetic terms.

This paper discusses the actualising tendency in order to clarify meaning within Rogers’ original presentation of the concept, and outline additional propositions to advance contemporary thinking regarding theory. The paper aims to discuss the research which led to the development of the new propositions and recount the fundamental theoretical underpinnings for each proposition. Possible applications for practice are then discussed alongside opportunities to further this research. The additional propositions are consistent with the guiding principles of person-centred theory and demonstrate the potential for contemporary reinterpretations of Rogers’ original work for person-centred therapists.

Non-directiveness is an attitude of the client-centered therapist. It is the valuational matrix within which the core conditions of acceptance, empathic understanding, and congruence coalesce. The paper explores how departing from this attitude makes a difference in clients’ experiences of psychotherapy. An excerpt from focusing-oriented therapy suggests effects of directivity that re-inscribe the authority of the therapist and undermine clients’ “power to refuse.” It is argued that non-directive client-centered therapy trusts clients as the proper architect of the therapy process and that process directive and experiential therapies do not.

This article begins with a 30-minute demonstration interview with a man who is a civil servant in the South African government. All this is transcribed from the recording. There follows his and my immediate reactions to the interview. Next follows a presentation of the themes of the interview, which illustrate the confusions, the deep divisions within himself, the fears, the sense of alienation, the ambivalence, the doubt that he is on the right side, his feelings about his responsibilities and his fate. Throughout, there are comments on my responses, some effective, some erroneous. Finally, there are three follow-up statements from the client. One comes sixteen months after the interview, one three years following the interview. The article illuminates the almost unbearable internal conflict of the sensitive white South African. It also indicates the powerful impact that can come from a brief, but intense, half-hour relationship.

Dream material is a vital area that continues 1o be neglected in the person-centered approach. Yet there is tremendous potential for incorporating dreams in person-centered psychotherapy, clinical and personality theory, and personal growth programs. The article describes a person-centered method of dream analysis. It provides conceptual guidelines and simple techniques that the therapist can use to help clients discover for themselves the valuable meaning in their dreams. A transcript of an actual therapy session illustrating this method of person-centered dream analysis is included.

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This study serves as a replication of earlier findings on the effectiveness of client-centered therapy and a refutation of the need for specificity and directiveness in brief, efficacious treatment. lt also provides a quality low cost model for individual therapists to address the single most stressful aspect of their work, the perception of lack of therapeutic success (Farber & Heifetz, 1982). Using four global indexes, results showed consistent improvement across clients in a college counseling center throughout the weeks of brief therapy, with the most dramatic gains seen within the first four weeks of therapy with virtually every client (97%). The average effect size across outcome measures was 0.97. The research found significant correlations between the various measures, adding to its validity.

Compared to other parts of the world, research on Person-Centered interventions in the United States has waned in the last 20 years (Kirschenbaum, 2007). Although there is vast evidence regarding the efficacy ofthe Person-Centered approach (Gurman, 1977), there have been few experiments in the last 20 years that test the Person- Centered approach as a complete intervention rather than independent core conditions such as empathy or unconditional positive regard. To address that need, a quasi-experimental study is shared to examine the effects of Person-Centered counseling groups on teachers’ stress levels. Research on stress, teacher stress and Person-Centered counseling groups are presented and analysis of data suggests that Person-Centered counseling groups were effective in lowering teacher stress after only six weeks of treatment. Limitations are presented and arguments are made for Person- Centered group counseling to be utilized in schools to assist with teacher stress.

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The aim of this paper is to highlight the holistic nature of congruence. An overview of previous literature on congruence is offered. The metaphor of a diamond is used to symbolize the complex and multifaceted nature of congruence, where the brilliance of the diamond comes from its entirety as well as the integrity of each facet. Each facet is examined individually. The significance of looking at congruence as a whole is emphasized in relation to accessing, via the actualizing tendency, a greater healing potential and beyond – to something greater – an interconnectedness with the universe.

Nondirective therapists have for some time been aware of the fact that the attitude of the therapist is the important thing to consider in the evaluation of counselor participation in the therapeutic process. The “recognition of feeling’ response, first described in Rogers’ (1942) Counseling and Psychotherapy, is the primary technique of the nondirective counselor, and for many people, has become the symbol of nondirective therapy. Too often, however, the appreciation of this school of therapy has been dulled, and its philosophy distorted, by an uncritical evaluation of the “recognition of feeling” technique on a purely intellectual level, in strict separation from the counselor’s attitude toward the client, which is the only thing that can give meaning to the technique.

Revision of a paper presented at the Ninth Annual Meeting of the Association for the Development of the Person-Centered Approach (ADPCA), Kendall College, Evanston, Illinois, May, 1994.

I interviewed Nat Raskin via email in the fall of 2005. I have known Nat since I was a student of his at Northwestern in the 1980s, and I was pleased and honored to have the opportunity to probe his memory and thoughts about his classic unpublished article, the circumstances in which he wrote it, and his life and developments in person-centered therapy since then. The interviews were edited for publication.