Person-centered Therapists Research Articles

Diversity, oppression, and society: Implications for person-centered therapists

This introductory article for this special edition of the journal dedicated to “Diversity” sets out to map several arenas of consideration and concern related to the delivery of person-centered and experiential counseling and psychotherapy in the context of working with clients of diverse cultural backgrounds. In addition, this article explores the complex life challenges experienced by those who originate from and live in minority groups or experience “‘non-dominant” positions in societies around the world. It also attempts to identify particular therapeutic phenomena that are frequently not taken into account by therapists. The article argues that, in addition to working therapeutically in a manner consistent with everyday practice, the person-centered therapist who is working with clients deemed as “different” and “diverse” also needs to be sensitive to a multiplicity of factors that are socially constructed and determined.

The Buddha as a fully functioning person: toward a person-centered perspective on mindfulness

The paper explores links between the person-centered approach (PCA) and meditation. It is divided into two parts. The first part begins with a description of the author's own experience of meditation. It is followed by a brief discussion of other approaches which similarly attempt the integration of meditation and psychotherapy: mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, transpersonal and psychodynamic models, and by what might constitute an alternative paradigm, one based on phenomenological principles which are central to the PCA. The second part outlines interviews and findings of a small-scale heuristic and phenomenological research (originally part of a dissertation) conducted among person-centered therapists who regularly practice meditation. Meditation is tentatively realized as a way of increasing organismic and phenomenological awareness, of cultivating and refining a way of being, of fostering a re-sacralization of the everyday and a greater appreciation of the existential dilemma of being human.

The Person-Centered Approach in Scotland: A Report / Der Personzentrierte Ansatz in Schottland: ein Bericht / El enfoque centrado en la persona en Escocia: Un informe / L'approche centrée sur la personne en Ecosse: Un rapport / A bordagem centrada na pessoa na Escócia: Relatório /

The purpose of this report is to offer our international colleagues insight into the current status of the person-centered approach (PCA) in Scotland. The report outlines the growth of the PCA in this country from the seeds sown thirty years ago by the Facilitator Development Institute (Britain), an offshoot of the Center for Cross-Cultural Communication. It describes the current successes of the approach in Scotland, including its strong position as a core model for training in counseling and psychotherapy within academic institutions, its lively counseling research community and its well-established system of supervision training and practice. The authors also present a picture of the scope and activities of person-centered and experiential (PCE) therapists in this part of the UK today, based on the main findings of a survey carried out in October 2006 in which a majority (60%) of the membership of the Association for Person-Centred Therapy Scotland participated.

Gender Dynamics in Person-Centered Therapy: Does gender matter? / Gender-Dynamik in der Personzentrierten Therapie: Ist das Geschlecht von Bedeutung? / Dinámicas de género en la terapia centrada en la persona: ¿El género, importa? / Le Genre dans l'ACP: quelles dynamiques? / Dinâmica de género na Terapia Centrada na Pessoa: o género é importante? /

In this paper I begin to consider the impact of gender role socialization on attitudes, expectations and the dynamics of power in person-centered therapy. It is argued in Proctor (2004) that part of gender role socialization could also be construed as gendered conditions of worth in person-centered theory. Both person-centered and feminist theories suggest that gender role socialization or gendered conditions of worth limit and restrict the potential of both women and men in our society. In what ways can person-centered therapy perpetuate or challenge gender role socialization? I consider each possible gender pairing in therapy and discuss the potential dynamics that may arise to try to help person-centered therapists consider how gender dynamics may be relevant in therapy relationships.

A Collaborative Inquiry between a Person-Centered Therapist and a Client: Working with an emerging dissociated “self” Part Two: The Therapist's Perspective / Eine gemeinsame Untersuchung eines personzentrierten Therapeuten und einer Klientin: Arbeit an einem auftauchenden dissoziierten “Selbst” Teil 2: Die Perspektive des Therapeuten / Una investigación colaborativa entre un terapeuta centrado en la persona y un consultante: trabajando con un

This paper comes from my therapeutic relationship with Mary (pseudonym), a woman of great courage, determination and spirit; whose personal account of the period she was in therapy with me is also printed in this Issue of Person-Centered and Experiential Psychotherapies. I recommend that her account be read first. This paper records my perception and understanding, as a person-centered therapist, of her experiences, including the phenomenon of Mary's emerging dissociated process. It is also a description of my experience, including some acute difficulties and the ways in which I adapted my approach to work with her. I discuss the extent to which the responsibility for therapeutic process rested with Mary or with myself, particularly at points when Mary was very vulnerable due to her experiencing of dissociated process or an altered state of mind preceding it.

The Challenge of the Other: Towards dialogical person-centered psychotherapy and counseling / Die Herausforderung durch den Anderen: Auf dem Weg zu einer dialogischen Personzentrierten Psychotherapie und Beratung / El desafío del Otro: Hacia una psicoterapia dialógica centrada en la persona / Le défi de l'Autre: Vers une approche dialogique de la psychothérapie et du counselling centrés sur la personne

How can we understand an other person? If we try to understand the other person from one's own perspective we finally end up at something we know already (this is termed “epistemology of the same”). The opposite way is to be receptive to what the other shows and wants to be understood (constituting a Thou?I relationship and an “epistemology of transcendence”). This is possible only when acknowledging both the fundamental commonality (“We”) and the fundamental alterity (“Other”). For the person-centered therapist this means facing the challenge of the otherness of the Other, to be called to respond existentially to the existential disclosure of a person in the very moment of meeting. A phenomenological exploration of intersubjectivity in therapy leads to a “pro-vocative” understanding of dialogue as primary occurrence. Dialogue is not a consequence but an—essentially asymmetric—precondition of a person to person or encounter relationship. The task is to realize the dialogical quality in the relationship to each client as the constitutive basis for psychotherapy.

Understanding Person-Centered Therapy A review of Paul Wilkins' Person-Centred Therapy in Focus / Personzentrierte Therapie verstehen Comprendiendo a la terapia centrada en la persona

Person-Centred Therapy in Focus by Paul Wilkins addresses common criticisms of person-centered therapy. These include criticisms having to do with issues of culture and difference; that person-centered theory has no theory of development; that the core relationship conditions are not ‘necessary and sufficient’ for therapeutic change—more is needed, such as techniques and interventions; that non-directivity is a fiction; that there is no theory of psychopathology; and that person-centered therapists are sloppy about boundaries. Wilkins fairly reviews and evaluates the controversies. He usually does not provide closure on any issue; rather, he writes to invite thought on the part of the reader.

Differential Response, Diagnosis, and the Philosophy of the Implicit / Differenzielles Reagieren, Diagnose und die Philosophie des Impliziten / Respuesta diferencial, diagnóstico y la filosofía de lo implícito

The question of whether person-centered therapists should respond in different ways to different kinds of client problems was a central theme of the PCE 2003 Conference on Client-Centered and Experiential Psychotherapy. It can seem that classical client-centered therapy and the process-experiential approach should take opposite positions in this debate, but I suggest in this paper that both sides can agree on the need for differential response, so long as such response is grounded in the kind of implicit knowledge which is a central theme of Gendlin's focusing-oriented psychotherapy.

Assessment in Person-Centered Therapy / Indikation und Beurteilung in der Personzentrierten Therapie / Evaluación en la Terapia Centrada en la Persona

The paper considers the literature on the assessment of clients in regard to their suitability for person-centered therapy and the relationship between assessment and diagnosis. It goes on to describe a small, qualitative study comparing the thinking of person-centered therapists and psychodynamic therapists on assessment, and offers a formative person-centered theory on client assessment.

Nondirectivity in the Person-Centered Approach: Critique of Kahn’s Critique

This article responds to a critique of nondirectivity in the person-centered approach by Edwin Kahn. Kahn contended (a) that it is impossible for a therapist to be consistently nondirective because theoretical and personal biases are unavoidable, (b) that the focus on the “psychology of the client” in person-centered therapy implies “a one-person rather than a two-person psychology,” and (c) that “fallible directivity may be useful.” The author considers Kahn’s arguments to be specious and a rehash of typical misunderstandings of the person-centered approach. Nondirectivity is not only a viable stance for the person-centered therapist but is also a direct result of adhering to the principles of the approach.