Person Centered Therapy 01

[Dr. Linton Hutchinson]

Theoretical Foundations

■ Focus is on the person and not the presenting problem


■ Humanism
o Philosophical movement that emphasizes worth of the individual and the centrality of human values
o Attends to matters of ethics and personal worth
o Gives credit to the human spirit
o Emphasis on creative, spontaneous, and active nature of humans
o Optimistic
o Human capacity to overcome hardship and despair


■ Non-Deterministic
o Beliefs that it is oversimplification to view people as controlled by fixed physical laws.
o Encouragement of therapy that considers individual initiative, creativity, and self fulfillment


■ Self Actualization
o Innate process by which a person tends to grow spiritually and realize potential


■ The Experiencing Person
o Important issues must be defined by the client
o Special concerns are discrepancies between what a person thinks of himself and the total range of things he experiences



Techniques

■ Listening
■ Accepting
■ Respecting
■ Understanding
■ Empathic Responding