Treatment Modalities

Desire for personal growth

Rather than viewing people as inherently flawed, with problematic behaviors and thoughts that require treatment, person-centered therapy or client-centered therapy identifies that each person has the capacity and desire for personal growth and change.

Person-centered therapy was developed by Carl Rogers in the 1940s. This type of therapy diverged from the traditional model of the therapist as expert and moved instead toward a nondirective, empathic approach that empowers and motivates the client in the therapeutic process. The therapy is based on Rogers’s belief that every human being strives for and has the capacity to fulfill his or her own potential. Person-centered therapy, also known as Rogerian therapy, has had a tremendous impact on the field of psychotherapy and many other disciplines. The person-centered therapist learns to recognize and trust human potential, providing clients with empathy and unconditional positive regard to help facilitate change. The therapist avoids directing the course of therapy by following the client’s lead whenever possible. Instead, the therapist offers support, guidance, and structure so that the client can discover personalized solutions within themselves.

Randomized controlled trials of person-centered treatments that promote well-being have lower drop-out, relapse, and recurrence rates than other treatment approaches. For therapeutics to be effectively person-centered, it must involve an awareness and respect for the whole person, whose health is certainly more than her or his symptoms of illness and past medical history.

The unique experiences, goals, and values of each person are assessed and treated in a person-centered therapeutic alliance, which optimally seeks to promote complete physical, mental, social, cultural, and spiritual well-being. Person-centered therapeutics addresses the needs of the person (of the totality of the person’s health, both ill and positive aspects), and are engaged by the person, for the person (assisting the fulfillment of the person’s health aspirations and life project), and with the person (in a respectful and empowering relationship with the person who consults). Essentially, person-centered therapeutics is a practical application of the science of well-being to health care and health promotion.

Cloninger, C. R., & Cloninger, K. M. (2011). Person-centered Therapeutics. International Journal of Person Centered Medicine, 1(1), 43–52. https://doi.org/10.5750/ijpcm.v1i1.21

Good Therapy. (2018, January 17). Person-centered Therapy (Rogerian Theory).
https://www.goodtherapy.org/learn-about-therapy/types/person-centered