About Person-Centred Counselling
Definition
Person-centered therapy, which is also known as client-centered, 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 nondirective facilitative role.
Purpose
Two primary goals of person-centered therapy are increased self-esteem and greater openness to experience. Some of the related changes that this form of therapy seeks to foster in clients include closer agreement between the client’s idealized and actual selves; better self-understanding; lower levels of defensiveness, guilt, and insecurity; more positive and comfortable relationships with others; and an increased capacity to experience and express feelings at the moment they occur. The therapy aims to raise personal awareness and help the client look at their issues from a different perspective.