Client centred therapy focuses on creating:
A. Unconditional positive regard in the client
B. Unconditional positive regard in the therapist
C. Conditional positive regard in the client
D. Conditional positive regard in the therapist
Please scroll down to see the correct answer and solution guide.
Right Answer is: A
SOLUTION
Person centered therapy is also called client centered therapy. A person enters person centered therapy in a state of incongruence. It is the role of the therapists to reverse this situation. Rogers (1959) called his therapeutic approach client-centered or person-centered therapy because of the focus on the person’s subjective view of the world.
Client-centered therapy operates according to three basic principles that reflect the attitude of the therapist to the client:
- The therapist is congruent with the client.
- The therapist provides the client with unconditional positive regard.
- The therapist shows an empathetic understanding to the client.
1) Congruence in Counseling
- Congruence is also called genuineness.
- Congruence is the most important attribute in counseling, according to Rogers. This means that he is keen to allow the client to experience them as they really are.
- The therapist is authentic.
2) Unconditional Positive Regard
- The next Rogerian core condition is unconditional positive regard. Rogers believed that for people to grow and fulfill their potential it is important that they are valued as themselves.
- This refers to the therapist's deep and genuine caring for the client. The therapist may not approve of some of the client's actions, but the therapist does approve of the client. In short, the therapist needs an attitude of "I'll accept you as you are."
- The person-centered counselor is thus careful to always maintain a positive attitude to the client, even when disgusted by the client's actions.
3) Empathy
- Empathy is the ability to understand what the client is feeling.
- This refers to the therapist's ability to understand sensitively and accurately [but not sympathetically] the client's experience and feelings in the here-and-now.
- An important part of the task of the person-centered counselor is to follow precisely what the client is feeling and to communicate to them that the therapist understands what they are feeling.