Client-centered psychotherapyClient-centered psychotherapy, also called experiential or person-centered psychotherapy (previously also known as 'non-directive'), was developed by the American psychologist Carl Rogers (1902-1987).This school assumes that people are able to solve their own problems, i.e. the client-centered psychotherapist has faith in the client’s abilities for growth and development. The client learns to experience his own, unique thoughts and feelings and to relate with himself. If someone can experience and accept himself, the person will be able to deal with difficult situations in life. The aim of therapy is not so much to solve a particular problem, but rather to help the client to get a view on the impediments that seem to have banned satisfactory solutions to his problem. The way in which the therapist tunes himself to the experiences of the client is characteristic for client-centered psychotherapy. The therapist tries to form a precise image of the client’s experiences and reflect this back to the client. He tries to initiate a process of self-exploration, self-acceptance and self-confrontation in the client. The attention is mainly directed on the present and the future, not so much on the past. An exploration of the past is only considered useful when that past is tangibly present in the here and now. Finally the client-centered therapist endeavors an equivalent relation with the client. He will get along with the client in a respectful, congruent and empathic manner, to enhance the process of self-exploration for the client. The client is seen as the expert for his or her own psychic functioning; the therapist is the 'process-expert'. This text is a translation of a text of the Vereniging voor Cliëntgerichte Psychotherapie; http://www.vcgp.nl |