“Evaluate the claim that Person-Centred Therapy offers the therapist all that he/she will need to treat clients.”
In this essay I will define what Person-Centred Therapy (PCT) is and I will look at the origins of this therapy with particular reference to Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers and examine the fundamental elements necessary for the therapy to be seen as patient centred.
I will compare the benefits and disadvantages of Person-Centred Therapy and try to establish whether a therapist can treat all clients effectively using just the one approach or whether it is more beneficial to the client for the therapist to use a more multi-disciplinary approach.
To be able to discuss this subject, it is important to describe first what we mean when discussing PCT. Person-Centred Therapy, also known as client-centred, non-directive, or Rogerian therapy, is an approach to counselling and psychotherapy that places much of the responsibility for the treatment process on the client, with the therapist taking a non-directive role. PCT emphasises person to person relationship between the therapist and client and focuses on the client’s point of view; through active listening the therapist tries to understand the client’s present issues and emotions. In PCT the client determines the direction, course, speed and length of the treatment and the therapist helps increase the client’s insight and self-understanding.
Carl Ransom Rogers was an influential American psychologist, who, along with Abraham Maslow, was the founder of the humanist approach to clinical psychology. Human potential movement, dating back to the beginning of the 1900s, reflected an altered perspective of human nature. Previous psychological theories viewed human beings as inherently selfish and corrupt. For example, Freud's theory focused on sexual and aggressive tendencies as the primary forces driving human behaviour. The human potential movement, by contrast, defined human nature as...