“Person-centred theorists often use the analogy of a plant to describe our concept for growth and change. No one can make a plant grow. But if someone provides the right conditions […] it will become the best plant it can be” (Tolan 2017: p. 9). Person-centred theory understands human development as tending towards wholeness and growth, driven by the actualising tendency – the drive to growth present in every organism that will take full advantage of the situation it is in. There are obstacles to this tendency and the organism adapts in the best way it can to its experience. Over time the situation may change, and the adaptations no longer suit the organism’s environment, leading to conflict with the environment and resulting distress.
The obstacles are conditions of worth and introjected values. We are subject to conditions of worth during our formative years and they send the message that we must be a certain way in order to win approval and be ‘good enough’. These become introjected values within our self-structure, which is the system of beliefs about ourselves and the world that help us make sense of experiences and inform us how to act. These values are from external others and the conditions of worth presented to us. In this way the self-structure forms and adapts to our environment, resulting in a continuing ‘looking outside’ for approval, to make sure we are ‘getting it right’. The introjects remain within us as contribute to how we perceive others, ourselves, and the world around us.
This ‘looking outside’ is attention turned away from the organismic valuing process – a person’s “ability to trust their own thoughts and feelings and to make decisions in accordance with their own perceptions and desires” (Mearns and Thorne 2013: p. 9) – and is referred to as an external locus of evaluation – “reliance on external authorities for guidance […] that may result in […] incongruent behaviour (Mearns and Thorne 2013: p.12). This incongruence between how we act and how we would like to act (informed by our organismic self, our own thoughts, feelings and values) leads to anxiety and other forms of distress.
Our self-structure informs us how to act and what to expect from our environment and others, but it becomes rigid as we grow and is not adaptive beyond formative years, and needs certain core conditions to help it loosen. This struggle for change can lead people to counselling.
It is the role of the person-centred counsellor to provide corrective core conditions that enable a loosening of the client’s self-structure so that they can begin to integrate information from their current experiences, rather than being stuck with the rigid self-structure of the past. This is to “…achieve harmony between experiencing and self-structure so that we can both be ourselves and live in the world (Tolan 2017: p. 9).
Person-centred counselling
“… the task of the person-centred therapist is to provide an environment characterised by a lack of threat to the self-structure” (Tolan 2017: p. 8). Lack of threat can be characterised by the PC core conditions of empathy (entering the experience of the other to experience their feelings and frame of reference), unconditional positive regard (feelings of appreciating and accepting the client no matter what they present), and congruence (being aware and open to whatever feelings may arise about the client). While there is threat, the client will feel distress and cling in to the familiar self-structure for a sense of safety and security. But the actualising tendency is always at work, and all that is needed are the six necessary and sufficient conditions for therapeutic change to occur, as presented by Rogers in 1959 (cited in Tolan 2017: p. 9). These conditions are:
- Two persons in psychological contact – aware of and interacting with each other
- The client in a state of incongruence – anxious, turbulent, unsure of themselves.
- The counsellor is congruent in the relationship – self-aware and aware of the incongruence of the client.
- The counsellor experiences unconditional positive regard for the client.
- The counsellor experiences empathic understanding of the client and their frame of reference.
- The client perceives at least minimally the impact of the preceding two conditions (empathy and unconditional positive regard).
Within a relationship providing these six conditions, the client can begin to express aspects that may be at odds with their self-structure, increasing awareness of their introjected values and questioning their validity. Through the relationship the client broadens their experiences beyond their self-concept, becoming more congruent and therefore at ease in the process, which continues outside the counselling room.
To provide the core conditions the PC counsellor uses a variety of skills, tailored to the stage of the work (which is the stage at which the client is progressing, being a client-led approach). These skills include responding to the client in the moment (immediacy), and reflecting and mirroring the client’s thoughts and feelings, so that the client can hear them back and reflect further. The work is collaborative with regular reviewing of progress and boundaries so that the client is always at the centre of the work.
As I continue to learn about person-centred theory via groupwork, skills practice, and reflective journaling, I observe myself through the theory’s concepts during my everyday interactions and training, to better understand my self-concept (my view of myself and the world), how it formed, its impact, and how it is changing.
References
Mearns, D., Thorne, B. and McLeod, J. (2013). Person-Centred Counselling in Action. 4th edition. London, UK: SAGE Publications Ltd.
Tolan, J. (2017). Skills in person-centred counselling & psychotherapy. 3rd edition. London, UK: SAGE Publications Ltd.
Rogers, C.R. (2004) On Becoming A Person. New Ed edition. London, UK: Constable.
