Explanation of Person Centered Approach

Even if you think you can figure out what the term means from looking at the words, reading an explanation of person centered approach will help you to fully understand and appreciate what the counseling theory is all about.

A Counseling Approach

Speaking casually, we could really say that a person centered approach could be used in a variety of situations. However, it is a term that generally comes from the field of counseling. Of course, in counseling, there are going to be different approaches since there are so many different types of counselors. Today, we are going to investigate this approach that puts the person at the heart of the matter.

Person Is the Best Authority on Their Life

In a person centered approach, the counselor views the client as being the best authority on his or her own experience. For example, think about the familiar scene of a patient lying on a couch, while a professional frantically scribbles down notes and tells the patient everything about him or herself. Well, in a person centered approach, you would not have the counselor acting as an authority of the patient's life. Rather, you would have two individuals both acting as interpreters of an event. They would work together to reach some sort of conclusion, where the input from the patient, regarding his or her life, is considered crucial.

Furthermore, a lot of emphasis is placed on the fact that the patient is capable of reaching his or her fullest potential. This approach is not keen on saying that the person is never going to go past the point where he or she is at the present time.

Goal Is to Observe the Self

Something might sound a little bit off to you. Here we have a patient, who presumably has some sort of issue, and this individual is expected to act as an authority? You are right to see an inadequacy, which is why the theory in and of itself has provided for this inevitable questioning.

The theory itself notes that sometimes there simply will not be favorable conditions for the patient to really maximize on his or her potential. Furthermore, when a person is constantly in adverse conditions, he or she might not be able to make the same sense out of the individual experiences.

Therefore, part of the goal of such a program is to get the individual to a place where he or she can accurately observe the self. Of course, getting to this point might require other types of therapy or other approaches at first. Remember, a person centered approach is not the only way to go about counseling. There are other methods, and we are just exploring one here today.

Who Benefits from a Person Centered Approach

Clearly, as we have explained in the previous section, a person centered approach is not suitable for everyone. Individuals who would best benefit from such a program are those who are really able to value their own personal responsibility and who have a desire to explore themselves and express those feelings.

Of course, in every situation, the counselor is going to be the person who makes this assessment after talking with the patient and really getting a sense of what type of program would be most beneficial for the individual.